Yeah, nice Fay Wray, Kara.

Not to tell you your business, scientists, but if mysterious strangers show up in the middle of the night to "help" you with the giant-ass robot you built for peaceful purposes, they probably don't have the best of intentions. From 1972, Adventure Comics #422, "Pawn of Peace!" Written by Steve Skeates, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Bob Oksner.

Aliens disguise themselves as humans, to hoodwink a scientist that built a rather large and ominious peacekeeping robot: the damn thing didn't work, so I wonder how much the aliens had to do for it: it might just be an art piece for all we know. The aliens seem like they've got a plan but are also really enjoying their dickery; meanwhile, Supergirl is just trying to get to work on time, man. She was already late because she...sigh...stopped to look at a dress; and the robot seems to do a lot of damage, but Kara still worried she won't get to punch in before lunch. Priorities, Kara!

The robot gives her a bit of hassle, and she's grabbed for a bit: the Air Force shoots a few missiles at it, figuring they couldn't hurt Supergirl anyway, even if she was stuck. The scientist tries to make up for being duped by dropping from a helicopter onto the robot to disable its computer; which was pretty daring, except he's squashed like a bug. Supergirl figures out how to disrupt its circuitry with her x-ray vision and disables it; then after a couple pictures zips into the office, where she has to give a sick excuse that even her cousin wouldn't have been able to sell; while elsewhere the aliens disguise themselves again, to help a Russian scientist with his non-functional peacekeeping robot...I don't know if they returned, but honestly I kinda doubt it.

Also this issue: a Vigilante story, "Rodeo of Death!" Written by Bill Meredith, art by Gray Morrow. A publicity tour for some black cowboys is plagued by racist attacks; Vigilante helps stop the masked creeps, but not without cost. Read more!

40% of this comic is probably respectfully staring at Wonder Woman; which sounds reasonable enough.

From 2006, Justice League Unlimited #19, "The Justice Rangers Ride Again" Written by Adam Beechen, pencils by Gordon Purcell, inks by Bob Petrecca.

In the Justice League's trophy room, Vigilante accidentally breaks the Time Commander's hourglass, sending him, Wonder Woman, and Elongated Man back to the old west. There they find the usual crew--Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, and El Diablo--defending a young card sharp from a posse of cowboys with ray guns. Bat had conned his pals into pursuing the sharp, since he had cheated him out of his daddy's lucky rabbit foot; but the cowboys had been after Jud Saunders to try and erase his descendant Greg from the timeline. Wonder Woman realizes the shattered hourglass had taken them to when a version of it had been in use, and they should be able to find the Time Commander, get the hourglass, and get home.

This was more cartoony than Purcell's usual style, but he nails the animated look quite well. I feel like I've seen other stories from Beechen with Elongated Man; I wonder if he was a favorite. Read more!

Look, I've already posted all my Peacemaker comics, so...

Technically, that may be a lie; I did buy Garth Ennis's stab at it last week, along with duplicate quarter-bin copies of Peacemaker's demise in Eclipso. But today, some quarter-bin Vigilante, because who saw that coming? From 1985, Vigilante #16, "Under the Sidewalks of New York" Written by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Alex Saviuk, inks by Rick Magyar.

Vigilante may be about to hang it up--or so he thinks. Adrian Chase planned on giving up his alter-ego after he's sworn in as a judge, and while he's still doing a bit of leg-work searching for the Electrocutioner, he feels like he's just killing time. But when his friend Marcia is assaulted by a band of subway pirates, then it's personal again, and Vigilante is back on the case.

I hadn't read a ton of this, so was surprised at the lack of gunplay in this issue: only one of the subway pirates is killed, the one that attacked Marcia, in a crash. The rest are just beat down. I know Chase would try repeatedly to give up Vigilante, but just couldn't quit, until the end. The next issue box teases something more people have probably read: a two-parter written by Alan Moore! 

Also, I haven't seen the Peacemaker show yet, and don't really know anything about the Vigilante on it. Which is almost fitting, since I do remember him showing up on Arrow, and they somehow botched it? On that show, there was a fake-out in there somewhere, with Adrian Chase taking the role of Prometheus. Sure, why not.

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This book really captures DC at the time: some cool moments, honoring some of its history, crapping on other parts...

It reminded me of Countdown to Infinite Crisis, really; although since I'm not as attached to some of these characters I'm probably not going to be as hard on it. From 2008, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #1, "From a Cub to a Wolf" Written by James Robinson, pencils by Jesus Merino, Leno Carvalho, and Steve Scott, inks by Jesus Merino, Nelson Pereira, and Kevin Stokes.

Jimmy Olsen feels there's something missing in his life, drifting away from his old friends and his hookup girl, wanting more from work than struggling to keep Perry White's coffee warm. Also, at a recent fight between Superman and Atlas, he had caught a couple photos of something: a floating man, who he recognized from the funeral for a woman killed by the mob. Clark Kent encourages him to take some time off to pursue the story, with Perry grudgingly giving him two weeks.

From there, Jimmy pulls on string after string, pretty quickly getting a secret file, witnessing a murder, and getting chased by the psychic-powered Codename: Assassin! If you recognize that one, it's a deep cut: he only appeared once before, in 1st Issue Special #11 back in 1976! That's given a two-page recap, in somewhat loving detail. Despite having flight and some heavy-duty guns, C:A is troubled that he isn't able to read Jimmy's mind, which keeps him one step ahead. The file also has a link most everyone else would not have seen but that Jimmy recognizes, to Cadmus, which he remembers "even at my young age now seems like a fairy tale from long ago." He suspects the worst, then confirms his fears: the original Newsboy Legionnaires had all been killed.

Returning to Cadmus, he finds the vast facility cleaned out, with the exception of Dubbilex, who reveals another piece: the man who would later become Codename: Assassin had been Cadmus's head of security once, but was let go after killing Jim Harper, the original Guardian, in front of his own clone. Every time Jimmy had seen Guardian, that had been a clone, or possibly a clone of a clone: Harper's DNA had been special, suited for cloning. Dubbilex tells Jimmy all this before revealing he was bleeding out, already killed by Codename: Assassin.

Jimmy follows a final clue, to Warpath, Arizona; a border town that used to be the first stop for troublemakers or super-villains headed north, but had recently picked up some law. After a rather daring escape from Codename, Jimmy meets one of the men that cleaned up Warpath: Sheriff Greg Saunders, aka the original Vigilante! Who apparently works doubles, days as the sheriff, nights as the Vigilante, although sadly out of costume. He seems to pick up a hat mid-fight though, while punching up a ton of low-rent no-name super-villains with his pal, the Guardian! Or a Guardian, I guess; who similarly seems to grow a big-ass mustache overnight! This motorhome Jim Harper has a young daughter and a bit of distrust for Jimmy, but he has a story for him, that sends Jimmy racing back to Metropolis, to save Superman!

With the exception of a couple art hiccups, and an recruitment insert for the Navy, I should be more up on this one. But. I don't get how this could be virtually reverent of a one-shot wonder, while killing off multiple Jack Kirby creations, many of them off-panel? I did look up to confirm, this was Dubbilex's last appearance, at least pre-New 52. Also, the cover says "One-shot" and this wasn't, it's continued in Superman: New Krypton Special #1, and another Jimmy Olsen special, then more issues! Good effort in getting me to read that one, but no thanks: I'm pretty sure it ended with everyone involved who wasn't a regular character killed off or written out forever.

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"The End" Week: Vigilante #50!

I knew where this was going ahead of time, and had been looking for it for quite a while. Now I think I've found it three times this year...from 1988, Vigilante #50, "A Life!" Written by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Steve Erwin, inks by Jack Torrance.

I also don't have cause to do this often, but this one's going after the break: WARNING: Suicide.

This version of the Vigilante is probably the closest DC would ever come to a Punisher-style character, even to this day: gangsters had attempted to bomb District Attorney Adrian Chase, but only got his wife and kids, leaving him to take up guns and a mask. It hadn't gone especially well for him: recently, he had abandoned the so-called 'homeless avenger' to get beat to death by a mob. That was after beating up his girlfriend/fellow vigilante Black Thorn to keep her from killing said homeless avenger. Thorn's ready to get back at him, but Adrian slaps her down and heads out. (Black Thorn is supposed to be a hardened crimefighter herself, but in a bathrobe and sporting a black eye, it makes Adrian look really bad.)

Meanwhile, police Captain Hall was still searching the streets for the Vigilante, even though he was reported killed in Gotham. He's got 30 days to find him or give up, but he's not going to have to wait. At a movie, Adrian is plagued by flashbacks, of those who died before and after he began his crusade. He then proceeds to beat the crap out of some punks, which he finds a bit excessive but can't stop himself. Black Thorn meets with Harry Stein (a cop who had been hunting Adrian, but seems to be on his side here) and they both worry about him.

Hitting the streets in costume, Adrian comes across an alarming number of crimes, and shoots them up. A scumbag in an apartment-turned "opium den" takes a potshot at him while he's on the fire escape--not because it was the Vigilante, because there was some nut on his fire escape!--starting a fire fight that ends with multiple goons and junkies killed. Adrian is also having flashbacks to two associates who took the Vigilante mantle when he wasn't using it, one of whom was killed by Peacemaker. The cops have set a trap for Vigilante, who returns fire, not realizing they were cops: he shoots Captain Hall, presumably killing him.

Black Thorn gets a ride from Harry back to her apartment, as upstairs Adrian decides he was the only one that could do this for him, and shoots himself moments before she arrives. At the funeral, Harry gives Thorn the ashes, suggesting "nothing's ever so bad that being dead's gonna make it better--but sometimes it's gonna look that way to some people." Which seems a half-hearted rebuttal: there's no way this one would be told like this today, and it would probably be crammed full of PSA's and warnings if a character even considered it.

The editorial page mentions the Checkmate series, which would feature Harry Stein, Black Thorn, and Peacemaker. A new Vigilante would appear in 1992's Deathstroke the Terminator #10. (Nine out of ten superhero outfits look better on a woman; but this one...maybe without the vest.) Most surprising of all, Vigilante would get a DC Universe Classics action figure in 2009! I paid $6.99 for him, which seems cheap as hell even for then.

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80-Page Thursdays: World's Finest Comics #245!

I always keep an eye out for old World's Finest Comics, since I've been trying to find one I only vaguely remember from when I was like six or so. It was a bigger issue, maybe 80 or 100 pages; and I'm pretty sure it had Vigilante, but I'm not positive. Maybe it was today's issue, maybe not: World's Finest Comics #245, with stories by Bob Haney, Gerry Conway, and Bill Kunkel; art by Curt Swan, Michael Netzer, and Gray Morrow.

The opening story, "Today Mars, Tomorrow the Universe!" touches base with the Martian Manhunter; who visits Hawkman and Hawkwoman, and nearly gets assassinated by a Superman robot with a bomb in it. J'onn has been trying to track down whoever killed R'es Eda on Mars II, and R'es's dying words make it sound like his killer was a member of the Justice League. The Superman robot was sent by N'or Cott, chief of the Martian military; and as Superman and Batman join the investigation, Batman wonders why N'or was trying to kill J'onn instead of bringing him back to Mars II.

Superman and J'onn discover R'es faked his death, to get J'onn out of the way on a wild goose chase, so he could take over. R'es intends to take the Martian army to attack an alien city; but Batman discovers N'or, infected with germs from the city. Honestly, the Martians are like the Kryptonians: every time you meet one not related to J'onn or Superman, they're a total dick.

Next, Green Arrow faces the Man Bear, which reminds me...of a completely inappropriate joke, for some reason.

Black Canary follows up on the same case, namely whoever made that Man Bear thing. Then, a Vigilante story with a surprisingly high body count, and a WWII-era Wonder Woman story.

Darn, that Vigilante one doesn't seem like the one I remember; but I don't think he was in a ton of World's Finest issues.

This issue also comes with a Neal Adams cover, so pretty solid.

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Yeah, I'd like a little warning too:

Another short new one up at Articulated Discussion today! I'd like to do more of these with Frank and Vigilante, it's fun to have them as best buds.

We're going to have more strips up at AD, but we're always going to have the Wednesday strips here, too. Tomorrow, an extra-long look at a great, and possibly forgotten annual. Hope to see you then!
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