Marv Wolfman Reinvents 'Vigilante' Once Again

The prolific writer of such classic series as Teen Titans and Tomb of Dracula returns to DC's Vigilante 25 years after his first revamp.
Apparently, the Jones version didn't take, because an even newer one was introduced recently in the pages of Nightwing #133, written by--of all people--Marv Wolfman.

In 1983, the legendary team of Wolfman and George Perez re-imagined the classic Western version in New Teen Titans Annual #2.

His identity that time was Adrian Chase, a New York district attorney whose family was killed by mobsters. This caused Chase to seek justice in his own way as the Vigilante. This version obviously was an amalgamation of Marvel's famed vigilantes (lower-case 'v') Daredevil and The Punisher.

After his initial appearance, Chase gained his own series, first written by Wolfman, then Alan Moore and, finally, Paul Kupperberg. The initially non-lethal Vigilante became, in Kupperberg's hands, a mass-murderer who, in the final issue of his series (#50), committed suicide.

So, now Wolfman is at it again. As announced at Baltimore Comic-Con, the co-creator of Marvel's Blade is moving his new Vigilante from Nightwing into his own series.

Wolfman stated in an interview with CBR's Jeffrey Renaud that this Vigilante is not Adrian Chase re-animated.

"No, this Vigilante is not Adrian. I never intended him to be Adrian and I wouldn't have done it if he were," said Wolfman. "When you honestly say a character is dead they need to remain dead and Adrian is dead."

Wolfman speaks from experience, as he's been forced to watch many of the DC characters he killed off in 1985's famous Crisis on Infinite Earths come back to life or be reimagined.

The new Vigilante is a do-gooder who occasionally bends the rules in the name of justice, the writer said. And he'll stick to organized crime; no world-threatening super-villains for this fella.

"We're also approaching organized crime very differently than DC usually does. It's tougher, dirtier and a bit more real even as we add in our meta mobs."

Wolfman explained that the Nightwing creative team kept Vigilante a mystery in that book so that his background could be explored in his own series. "But even now we still won't learn a lot about him, at least not for a few issues. You'll see what I mean when you see the first issue."


[Thanks to Wikipedia for the background info.]
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PAnthony
9/16/2007
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