DCU Comic Book Reviews

VIGILANTE #3

April 2009

Written by Marv Wolfman

Pencils by Rick Leonardi

Inks by John Stanisci

Cover by Walt Simonson

Synopsis

The Vigilante is looking for Jericho.  Nightwing knows where Jericho is looking, but is searching for the mob bosses who were working with Jericho in the Election bombings.  Nightwing is talking to an accountant of the mob, but is not getting anywhere.  Vigilante shoots the accountant, hoping the injury will get the guy to talk.  However, Nightwing decides to attack Vigilante, who is able to get away.  Elsewhere, Vigilante encounters an FBI agent who wants him to work for them.  Vigilante declines.  Afterwards, Vigilante tells J.J. they will need to leave sooner than they thought.  J.J. then tells Vigilante of a serial killer.  Later, Vigilante is talking to some local thugs, when he decides to set a trap for Nightwing with the help of another thug.  Nightwing shows up, but attacks Vigilante.  However, Vigilante convinces Nightwing to lead him to Jericho.  Nightwing agrees.  As Nightwing takes Vigilante there, the thug is killed by the serial killer, who decides to stay in New York Citybecause the Vigilante intrigues him. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Wolfman needs to delve into Dorian’s past, and soon, or I think he is running the danger of no one really caring and the book losing what little readers it already is.  The big part of the problem is that we haven’t been given any hints as to what Dorian is trying to atone for.  I mean, if he talked about “Kelly’s” death (for instance) we can at least speculate:  wife, girlfriend, daughter, son, innocent bystander.  All we know is that he is after the mob.  If we had some hint as to why, we can then at least understand his motivations.  Did he work for the mob?  Was his family killed because of the mob?  Anything would be helpful.  But we don’t even get that.  All we have is a cipher, an unknown who is tracking down a bomber for an event that didn’t even happen in this book, which is doubly bad since we can’t even use that as a hook to get into the story.  Essentially, what reason do we have to root for the character or to sympathize with the character or his goals?  Wolfman is writing a type of noir detective story with heroes.  And while the style works, the substance is just not there.  I kinda like this issue; the central mystery is interesting and I like how Vigilante is straddling the line between hero and villain.  But without some emotional investment, it is just an exercise in style. 

Origins & Omens

Written by Marv Wolfman

Art by Rick Leonardi and John Stanisci

Commentary

If there was ever a chance to do a true origin, this would’ve been it.  But I understand that Wolfman is slowly revealing Dorian’s backstory, so I am not surprised there was no origin.  The story here is interesting but ultimately pointless.  And the omen part of the story also seems a little pointless since the upcoming feature tells us Wonder Girl and Cyborg will be in next month’s issue, so yeah, I guess what we see in the omen picture will come to pass.  And soon.

 

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