DCU Comic Book Reviews

VIGILANTE #4

May 2009

Written by Marv Wolfman

Pencils by Rick Leonardi

Inks by John Stanisci

Cover by Walt Simonson

Synopsis

At Titans Compound, Vigilante searches for clues to the whereabouts of Joe Wilson (aka Jericho).  Meanwhile, the FBI searches for Vigilante.  At the same time, an undercover agent infiltrates Tobias Whale’s gang.  Elsewhere, gang leaders are hoping Whale and the Vigilante kill each other, leaving the city for themselves once more.  Meanwhile, Vigilante’s search is interrupted by Donna Troy.  Vigilante tells her he is working for the FBI.  When she reaches for the phone to check, he runs away.  Donna follows, but encounters the FBI, who deny hiring Vigilante.  As Donna talks to them, Vigilante hijacks the helicopter and gets away.  Vigilante flies the copter to a nearby park.  There, he encounters Cyborg.  Vigilante realizes that Jericho has taken over Cyborg.  The two fight.  Eventually Cyborg gets the upper hand and is about to kill Vigilante when the FBI arrive.  Cyborg runs away.  The FBI then point their guns on Vigilante. [Continued in Titans, issue #12] 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

In terms of the craft of creating this comic book and in particular this issue, I think I have to give Wolfman and Leonardi their due.  This is a tense story with the beats hitting all the right spots that leads to the final conflict.  The plot is taut, hanging by a thread as the pieces of the puzzle slowing coming into focus at the right time.  Despite the terrific craft to the story, I am still having a tough time getting emotionally vested in the characters or the events.  As I have said in previous reviews, the character of Vigilante (or Dorian) is so ill-defined that I don’t have any vested interest in what happens to him.  To further add to this, Vigilante’s hunt for Jericho doesn’t seem to be related to his mysterious past, or if it is, hasn’t been explained well enough.  Cyborg’s little speech to Vigilante about running to Europe and Vigilante’s internal monologue about wanting to live could’ve had an emotional impact, except that I don’t know what the hell they are talking about.  It doesn’t have to be specific, but I need a reference back to something.  And that is the problem with the book so far.  As well-craft as it is, I just can’t connect to it. 

In some ways, the Vigilante is supposed to be like Wolverine, a character with a mysterious, yet troubled past, who is violent in his approach to the bad guys.  The difference, I think, is that Wolverine for a number of years was a supporting character (as part of the X-Men).  He was not the lead and not required to carry the story, so therefore writers could keep the air of mystery knowing that it wasn’t important to the story.  Hell, it took 8 years before Frank Miller’s seminal mini-series revealed a little bit of Wolverine’s past.  The track for Wolverine is completely opposite of Vigilante, who has been thrust into the title role right from the get-go (less than 1 year after appearing here in Nightwing).  In a comic book in which the Vigilante is the title character, the mysterious past is actually working against the book. 

 

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