Whatever Happened To The Vigilante?!?

You know whom I miss?

The Vigilante--"two-fisted cowboy on a motorcycle!"

It always makes me sad to think that modern comics has no place for this guy. Well, at least modern DC comics!

I mean, holy moly, just look at that!

Greg Sanders was a country singer, son of a murdered Wyoming sheriff who took on the costumed identity to avenge his father.

He debuted in Action Comics back in 1941, for heaven's sakes, which is a pretty fine pedigree, acting as a back-up to Superman stories. His strip ran there for 13 years!!

He was also a founding member of The Seven Soldiers Of Victory, a.k.a. The Law's Legionnaires, essentially DC's second banana JSA.

And come the Silver and Bronze Age...

...he's hanging around with the actual Justice League!!

Now, it turns out that there were Earth-2 AND Earth-1 versions of Vigilante, a la Green Arrow, so yeah, there can be confusion. Perhaps that's why DC changed his name from Greg Sanders to Greg Saunders in the 1990s?

Anyway, it can hardly be more confusing than dealing with the history of the modern Vigilante.

Did you know that eight--yes, EIGHT--different people have held the modern Vigilante identity? [For completists, Adrian Chase, Alan Welles, Dave Winston, Pat Trayce, Adeline Kane, Justin Powell, Dorian Chase, and Donald Fairchild...so far]. I mean, please don't try and tell me today's audiences who be confused by the fact that there used to be two different versions of Sander/Saunders, when for the past 35 years you've passed the modern Vigilante's identity like a bad STD!

Now, maybe the modern guy has made the name too freighted with negative connotations to be a viable identity for our ersatz Western hero. After all, the term "vigilante" often has negative implications, and is usually used to call into question the very raison d'etre of costumed heroes. So, if you're really gun shy about that, DC, just give him a new name.

But if ou think a two-fisted cowboy on a motorcycle can't cut it in a modern super-hero world, allow me to point out the time that HE SAVED SUPERMAN FROM A WEREWOLF:

THAT REALLY HAPPENED!!

And, if you need someone to jump start your faltering DCEU movie-verse, well, someone has already been there:

Looks good to me!!

I mean, geez, look at the guy!! How could you not want to read comics with him starring?

And did I mention--he has a motorcycle?!?

DC Rebirth was supposed to be about legacy, until Geoff Johns decided that no one got to use any of the actual legacy characters until he was done crapping all over them by mixing them in with deconstructionist post-modern anti-superhero comics just to piss off Alan Moore. Two years later and still no JSA, still no Legion Of Super-Heroes...but at least you turned Jor-El into a murderous villain, and Supergirl's father into a murderous villain, and...hey, Rebirth was all a lie!!!!!!!

Sorry, got distracted there. Anyway, if DC is all about legacy, well, here's a legacy character that hasn't been used since 2008. Are you listening, DC?