Vigilante Drug Wars: Dawn of Justice III

19 responses to “Vigilante Drug Wars: Dawn of Justice III”

Hitokiri Akins on April 19, 2017 at 11:19 AM

So, the vigilante has a soft spot for kids, huh? Common thing in media, honestly. A way to show that a villain is all bad, a way to show an anti-hero that they’ve got a good heart despite not following the rules, and shows that someone that looks monstrous has a heart of gold.
Hitokiri Akins on April 19, 2017 at 11:30 AM

That a villain ISN’T all bad. Way to proofread, self!
Black Rose on April 19, 2017 at 12:41 PM

What will he do next?
David Johnston on April 19, 2017 at 3:35 PM

In these stories they generally start to move up the food chain, trying to hit larger shipments and higher ranking members of the syndicates.
Pygmy D. H. on April 19, 2017 at 7:34 PM

I never thought the vigilante was bad at all, just doing rogue crime fighting instead of reporting to the agency, which is yes bad but not that HE is bad kind of thing. He is good, he is just off the books, which is bad. (hopefully with enough reiteration that makes sense).

I also don’t know if he’ll get big or not. I think that he’s likely keeping it small on purpose, because he knows he’s not reporting to the agency. I also wonder if it could be his powers are limited; he may think that he can’t do enough good to be a hero or a side kick, and so he HAS to keep it small. Maybe along those same lines he isn’t reporting because he somehow feels he’s not capable enough to need to report.

I may just be projecting with that last one though. I have myself and have seen plenty of others who have self-doubt issues, and those can be very hard to overcome even with plenty of evidence to support that self worth is nothing to question. Still, if he’s a loner, if he has a lack of friends or family (which so many of these Batman-like figures do), it’s possible he has the same problems I have.
CheshireMadcat on April 20, 2017 at 12:59 AM

My thought is that he is “unattractive” in some way and knows what they will do with him if he joins the Agency. (Could be that his power is “Dark” and is the issue) so he works off the books because he knows he can do the best good that way. Otherwise he might be stuck with some useless hero that spends more time grooming than fighting crime.
The Wyrm Ouroboros on April 20, 2017 at 4:32 AM

Or perhaps that he used to be a sidekick and has (comparatively recently) gained an amplification of his powers … on the other hand, the Agency DOES tend to assign its ‘hero/sidekick’ label less by power and use and more in regards to appearance – and the Dark certainly has the ‘hero’ body.

So I’d probably bet on the fact that his power signature is dark.

(Man, the Agency really, really has their heads up their butts.)
Katy on April 20, 2017 at 8:15 AM

Still a better person than Shiver. But Shiver set that bar really low so that isn’t hard to clear.
I like the sigh in the last panel. It says so much to me about him.
Kaian on April 20, 2017 at 9:35 AM

Might not be his power. In an alt time line we saw that his power belonged to Val.
CheshireMadcat on April 21, 2017 at 7:14 PM

Most likely isn’t his body. Could be that he can’t grow hair, or has a scar that throws things off. I also agree that he could be a sidekick that had a power boost or just got tired of sitting on the sidelines.
Twitch on April 21, 2017 at 8:11 PM

Lots of theories about the Vigilant’s motives.
Could just be a simple case of Chaotic Good plus being able to have a REAL secret identity.

Anyone with a basic forensics kit could ID heroes like Illumina, Val, etc and link them to crime scenes if they tried to go ‘off the res.’ Identifying people is generally a matter of having a non-containment evidence and resources to follow through.
Mischa Avros on April 23, 2017 at 1:44 AM

Given that we’ve seen the Vigilante put an angry homicidal Dion in his place like it ain’t no thang, I’m guessing his issue isn’t thinking that he’s not strong enough. I’d peg him for a practical, down to earth guy who doesn’t like how the system is run, but knows that the people in it are good people who do good, so he’s not going to get in their face about it. Rather than try to tear the system down, he’s just going to do his thing and let them do theirs. Furthermore, I don’t see him not caring for rules, so much as he doesn’t care for the archetypes and cliches that dominate agency culture and policy. I’d peg him as the sort who doesn’t want to be called a hero; just someone doing the right thing who happens to also have super powers.
Mujaki on April 23, 2017 at 3:17 AM

*Looks at the title*
Wait, wait… “Vigilante Drug Wars: Dawn of Justice III”??
What happened to II?
Hitokiri Akins on April 23, 2017 at 9:59 AM

Part 2 was the one that was not numbered, Mujaki. 🙂
Mischa Avros on April 23, 2017 at 11:50 AM

In fact, now that I think about it, rather than see himself as some sort of pariah, I bet the Vigilante sees himself as the Only Sane Man. And I’m not sure he’s wrong about that.
Mischa Avros on April 23, 2017 at 11:59 AM

@ Greywolf1963

A tragic accident… Val discovered her powers when she was hit by a car when she was a kid. What if the Vigilante was the driver? In the alternate universe, her swerved to miss her, and fatally crashed himself, and when she tried to see if he was okay, he gave her his powers as a last dying act.
Mischa Avros on April 23, 2017 at 12:03 PM

This might also suggest that there is something about the powers themselves that compels you to work outside the agency, since the Light and Dark got rid of the agencies in their universe.

or I might be reading too much into it.
The passing critic on April 24, 2017 at 1:39 PM

Got to admit the Vigilante really is embarrassing the heros agency a bit here,Not only is he being especially effective by aiming at things that the heros likely usually dont bother with but hes also showing himself to be especially moral and restrained.

As much as I nark about the heros agency I am wondering why he never signed up,Maybe the agencys required by law to be more reactive and are supposed to leave less blatant crimes like this to the cops?
Mischa Avros on August 24, 2017 at 7:23 PM

Also, let us not forget that the Vigilante DOES apparently have hair, since Sidekick Girl found some of it in an earlier arc, it was long and blonde, which led us to suspect he was Declan, and led SG to contest that bald detective’s remark that the Vigilante was probably blonde as well.