The first in a regular series exploring the great standards of comic book fiction, starting with the vigilante detective.
THE BATMAN - He wasn't the first vigilante detective,
but he's certainly the most famous. In fact, one of his magazines shares
its name with the publisher itself; DETECTIVE COMICS. When he was
young, Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down by a mugger outside a theatre.
It was a defining moment for the boy, not only because it shaped his attitudes
to crime and injustice, but because it made him very, very rich. Batman
is not just a man in a cape and tights, but a man with the means to achieve
his ends. Batman has money. That is where he gets all hiswonderful toys.
It may seem inconguous for a man living in a mansion to wage his war on
the impoverished streets, but it is this combination of glamour and grit
that truly makes the man. He is a playboy by day, an avenger by night.
On top of this, he is also a great detective, and it is this side of the
character that makes Batman work. It is his criminal genius which justifies
his presence on the streets. Batman is not just the best man for the job;he
is the only man.
THE SHADOW - Lamont Cranston was Batman first. Originating as the
mysterious narrator of a 1930s radio show, the Shadow was eventually fleshed
out as another wealthy socialite who donned a mask to fight crime. Though
his mask was just a scarf across his face, his costume no more elaborate
than a hat and overcoat, and his toys just a pair of humble six-shooters,
he is clearly Batman's antecedent. In fact, Cranston bridges the gap between
Batman and his pulp predecessors in the crime noir novels. The Shadow
is one of the grand-daddies of comic book superheroics.
THE SPIRIT - Will Eisner's characteristic take on the Shadow certainly
looked a little less grim, given the cartoon style and lone ranger mask,
but it was no less ingrained in the sort of urban noir that gives the
vigilante character his shape. Based in a graveyard hideout, and doing
battle with duplicitous dames like P'Gell and nefarious villains like
the Octopus, the Spirit clearly stands shoulder to shoulder with Batman,
both as a great character, and as a great detective.
JUDGE DREDD - Dredd is not a true vigilante, because, as he has famously
declared on many occassions, he is the law. However, 2000AD'S
notorious fascist policeman embodiesthe worst excesses of the character
type. He is everything a vigilante could be but worse, because unlike
a true vigilante, he has a badge. All vigilantes have their own moral
code. Dredd's is the darkest and the most brutal. It is also the only
one which will stand up in court.
MOON KNIGHT - A wealthy bachelor sits brooding in his mansion, attended
by a loyal servant. Night is falling, and at night this disturbed, schizophrenic
character dons his mask and cape and rides his high-tech chariot towards
the ill-lit streets, where monstrous horrors lurk, engaging in unmentionable
acts of evil. No, it's not the Dark Knight, but the Moon Knight, one of
Marvel's many attempts to emulate the success of one of DC'smost profitable
licences. Of course, Frenchy is no Alfred, and the helicopter is surely
a lot less practical than the Batmobile, and furthermore, Bruce Wayne
was never a hard bitten mercenary, much less the fist of Khonshu, Egyptian
god of vengeance. Yet the fact remains, Moon Knight does come across as
little more than an anaemic Batman. Then again, even Batman can't match
him for therapy bills.
V - Alan Moore so rarely gets it wrong. The political premise of
the V FOR VENDETTA novel provides us with another crazed masked
vigilante with an Aladdin's cave hideout and a junior sidekick in tow.
A lot of the trademark signs are in place, but V is more like Batman with
the safety off. Perhaps a British Batman in a fascist future London would
indeed have donned a Guy Fawkes mask and fought for anarchy. One cannot
help feeling, though, that a British Bruce Wayne would have ended up on
the other side of the war.
THE SHROUD - A less high profile Marvel take on the character type,
Maximillian Coleridge vowed to wage war with injustice when he witnessed
his parents' murder. Max then went on to spend the de rigeur period
of martial arts training among strange mystic types (cultists rather than
monks, in this instance) and returned to America to fight crime. But Max
did have one original twist to his story. He chose to fight crime from
the inside, by infiltrating the criminal underworld in order to undermine
their operations. The flaw in this curious plan was that this pseudo-Batman
actually had to commit crimes, meaning he was forced to do battle
with Hawkeye and other superheroes, whilst also hooking up with loser
villains like Gravedigger and Gypsy Moth.
GRENDEL
- Taking the outlaw idea embodied by the Shroud to its naturalconclusion,
Matt Wagner's vigilante did not fight crimes for justice, but to remove
the competition. Hunter Rose was trained to the pinnacle of physical ability
and mental acuity just like so many others before him. Yet Hunter did
not use his advantages to become a hero. Though Grendel is clearly a villainous
character, he shares with all other vigilantes an intense faith in his
own personal morality, and that is enough to win over most readers to
his adventures. Everyone loves a good bastard.
PUNISHER - Before Hunter Rose, there was Frank Castle. In the days
before he became a byword for grim n' gritty, the Punisher was a frighteningly
fresh take on the vigilante character, and one which has subsequently
been run into the ground. In fact, the Punisher is remarkably 'back to
basics'. He is the vigilante purely distilled; an angry, violent man with
no faith in the justice system to do what's right. No mask, no car, no
mansion, and not much in the way of great detective wit. Just rage, and
all the normal kit afforded to a guerilla soldier.As a foil and nemesis
to the eternally responsible Spider-Man, the character worked beautifully.
It is only since then that he has proved difficult to handle. Cast as
a hero, Punisher falls flat.
THE MIDNIGHTER - Notso much a new spin on an old archetype as a direct
corollary to DC's great detective, the Midnighter first appeared in the
STORMWATCH story "A Finer World", alongside Apollo, a corollary
to Superman. The Midnighter is really just Batman at his most superhuman,
with his unnatural physical abilities and computer-quick brain. The idea
behind the character is that he is what Batman would be if he really did
intend to go out there and change the world. The Midnighter is truly beyond
Batman. The question then must surely be; what comes beyond the Midnighter?
Next: Beyond Typhoid.
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