Greg Saunders
Greg Saunders is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Pre-Crisis
Greg Sanders was a male human born in Wyoming where he was said to be the son of fearless county sheriff and had inherited qualities from his sterling grandfather. Years ago, his father had been killed by stage coach bandits which led to Greg taking up the mantle as the masked Vigilante. (Action Comics v1 #42)
The Vigilante stood watch by the state prison to see Killer Kelley finally face justice for his past crimes. Saunders was present at the execution to see the ruthless desperado face his end. Kelley was then seemingly killed when he went through the electric chair and his remains were said to had been cremated though the villain vowed revenge against the Vigilante from beyond the grave. Afterwards, Kelley seemingly returned from the grave with Saunders deciding to stake out the Van Ardsley Ball as he believed it was a target for criminals. The people at the party believed initially that he was simply one of the many guests in costume. It was then that Kelley struck the ball where he mistakenly believed Vigilante to be someone in a costume and was shocked when the hero attacked the criminals. Though his henchmen were defeated, Kelley managed to take Betty Stuart as a hostage and used her to allow him to get away from the scene. However, the Vigilante pursued the criminal by commandeering a taxi but he was knocked out by the villain after catching up with him. Kelley then revealed that the prison doctor had aided in his escape by lowering the voltage in the chair and making him appear deceased so that he could escape. The criminal then intended to gas the Vigilante but the hero managed to escape when one of the henchmen believed the hero was dead. He then pursued Kelley and managed to use his lariat to send the villain along with his compatriots out a window to be trapped on some telephone lines. (Action Comics v1 #42)
When criminal mastermind the Hand learned he was dying he broke out a number of criminals, and planned a once in a lifetime crime for each of them, but warned them they'd be opposed by their arch0-enemies, who he'd taunted to top them in the morning's paper. Green Arrow and Speedy, Crimson Avenger, Shining Knight, Vigilante, Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy all responded, taking the Hand's threat seriously. The heroes met in the Gotham City auditorium, where the Han broadcast a video informing them where their arch-enemies would be committing crimes. The mysterymen decided to take care of their own, and report to each other in a week on their progress. The Hand gave Dummy a plan that involved kidnapping Hollywood stars, replacing them with stone sculptures, and claiming to having used a ray that turned them to stone, demanding a ransom to turn them back to normal. The Hand tipped off Vigilante to the scheme, and the mysteryman arrived in L.A. being courted by Hollywood, even though he was satisfied being a radio personality. Vigilante uncovered the ruse, and the Dummy animated himself, and hid behind sculptures of future kidnapping victims. He engaged in a firefight with Vigilante, but the hero shot the sculptures, which toppled on top of his enemy, rendering him helpless. The rest of the villains failed, and the Hand decided to destroy the heroes himself to preserve his legacy. He contacted them via video, and gave them the address of his hideout, daring them to defeat him. Just then he got a call from his doctor that a new surgery could cure him. He realized he'd acted rashly, but his pride demanded he destroy his foes. The mysterymen made their way through all his booby-traps until they penetrated his sanctum. He aimed an electric beam at them, but Vigilante shot it down, electrifying him. The heroes realized the good they did teaming up, and decided to form the Seven Soldiers of Victory. (Leading Comics v1 #1)
Sylvester Pemberton's father brought him to a bank to learnt about finance, even though he protested that it was interrupting his anthropology studies. Criminals Captain Bigg, Brain, Falseface, Hopper and Rattler posed as city workers, and broke a water main. The hydraulic pressure wrecked the bank's wall, and they robbed it, affording their escape by changing clothes and impersonating police officers. Sylvester told Pat that there had to be some mastermind behind such a crime, and team-up of notorious criminals, so they resolved to call a meeting of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The Soldiers followed a trail of gunpowder the criminals' truck left behind, and it led to a train station. They discovered film reels from the crooks mastermind, the Black Star, who directed them to split up for his planned crime wave. The Soldiers split up to the locations the villains were headed. The Rattler was sent after a rare stamp owned by three men in Big City. He killed two of them, and his torture techniques forced them to reveal that Mr. Wilkins, who had physical possession of the stamp, was staying at the Sixty Kiddie Club, where seniors got to relive their formative years. Rattler disguised himself as a senior, and booked himself in. He had his gang of thugs dress up as Native Americans and set fire to the place to force Wilkins to save his stamp, but Vigilante and Billy Gunn interfered, ruining his plan. Vigilante found his gang's hideout, but Rattler got the drop on him with a gun, and tied the heroes up in the desert next to a poisonous snake. Rattler decided to torture Wilkins, and left the heroes to die. They escaped, but Rattler fended them off, knocking ouut Vigilante with a rock before fleeing. Back at the Club, Vigilante caught up with him, seeing through his disguise because his hands were stained red from the rock he used, and took him into custody. Black Star had planned for his henchmen to fail all along, and wasd pleased at Rattler's lack of success. Once Mr. Wilkins produced the stamp the Star snatched it and fled. Wilkins warned that the stamp was the key to a rare radioactive element. The other criminals failed, but Black Star had that planned all along. One Mr. Wilkins knew his secret, and told the assembled Soldiers that he once worked at a chemical firm that discovered a ray that could enlarge any organic life. They decided it was too dangerous to exist, so they hid each of the radium-elements needed to make the beam, and hid them in a useless object. Their clerk Mowse had observed them, and took the identity of the Black Star to reassemble the elements, using his henchmen's crimes as a distraction. Black Star used the ray on himself, and challenged the Soldiers to meet him at his castle. The heroes fought their way past giant birds, rabbits and insects before confronting the villain. Stripesy knocked him cold, and he fell in front of the black light ray, being enlarged until his body crashed through the earth and he was crushed by his own weight. The Seven Soldiers were thrilled by another victory for justice. (Leading Comics v1 #2)
Saunders eventually grew weary of the crime fighting life and he decided to retire. One day, he took a job as a watchman at a factory in New York City. During this time, he came to notice suspicious activity at the plant that involved chemical waste being dumped in the river. This drew the attention of a conspiracy headed by the Doomsters who dispatched automatons disguised as armed men after him. Greg was saved by the timely arrival of the Justice League of America where he revealed his findings to them. They came to determine that extraterrestrial forces were at play here and looked to aid Saunders as he resumed the mantle of the Vigilante. He along with the Atom Ray Palmer, Batman and Black Canary went to the factory to investigate when more automatons disguised as humans were dispatched to eliminate them. The heroes managed to defeat their foes with the Vigilante using their own advanced guns against them. However, the masterminds of the conspiracy caused the alien weapons to emit a gas that knocked out all the heroes who were then captured with the Doomsters intending to drop them into a vat of acid. (Justice League of America v1 #78)
Post-Crisis
He was among the many heroes that were called to help the Justice Society when Eclipso blanketed the world in darkness and alongside Obsidian as well as Mordru they sought to conquer the world. (JSA v1 #49)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
It was shown that he was among the first mystery men where he came to join the Seven Soldiers of Victory who fought many threats in their day. The team suffered a number of tragedies that included the death of Wing with their last mission involving stopping a boat carrying Per Degaton's time machine from crashing into a populated beach. The Crimson Avenger came to pilot the boat to stop it from killing innocent bystanders and seemingly died in the process. (Stargirl Spring Break Special v1 #1)
Years later, the Seven Soldiers remained splintered with Sir Justin spending sometime staying at Saunders place. It was then that they all received a call from the new Crimson Avenger Jill Carlyle who brought the team together. Using her powers, she had the team go back in time to save Lee Travis from his death on the boat where they battled the Clock King who was attempting to take control of the time machine. Despite their efforts, Travis refused to leave his position and instead allowed himself to die as he was destined to do so but told the Seven Soldiers to save Wing who was still alive. Upon being returned to the present, the Seven Soldiers then went about the task of finding Wing. (Stargirl Spring Break Special v1 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In his civilian guise, he was noted for being the Prairie Troubadour by his fans. (Action Comics v1 #43)
As the Vigilante, he was noted for being a heroic champion of law and order. From a young age, he had learnt the laws of the range with him intending to bring justice to those who engaged in corrupt practices. The death of his father resulted in him becoming a nemesis of all crime from border to border. (Action Comics v1 #42)
Publicly, he operated as a famous rodeo star who was known as the prairie troubadour and posed for pictures. He was noted for having a golden voice and his songs of sage brought fame as a prairie troubadour. (Action Comics v1 #42)
Saunders father was a fearless county sheriff whilst his grandfather was noted for being an Indian fighter as well as a stalwart frontiersman. The death of his father saw him continuing the family tradition and used his heritage to become the Vigilante. (Action Comics v1 #42)
He was friends with Betty Stuart who was a blue singer by his workplace. She believed that he was not a real cowboy and was unaware of his double life as the Vigilante. Betty had said that she could really care for him had he been a real cowboy hero but thought he was simply an actor who had never even left the state. (Action Comics v1 #42)
He had a nephew by the name of Michael Carter where he developed private reasons to becoming a crime fighting vigilante. His uncle Greg Saunders was responsible for training him with Carter becoming skilled in the use of a wooden stave. It was noted that he was well trained with reflexes as sharp as Batman. He came to be a masked superhero with the newspapers naming him the Swashbuckler who operated as the guardian of Houston. Despite being a hero, the police were said to had not trusted him (Detective Comics v1 #493)
Powers and abilities
He was noted for his dynamite fists that could be used to knock a person out with a punch. Ultimately, Saunders used his wits and weapon in order to battle his foes. (Action Comics v1 #43)
Saunders used a twirling lariat in battle and was lightning quick in its use against targets. (Action Comics v1 #42)
He was armed with a weapon of the range with this being a smoking six-gun. (Action Comics v1 #42)
Notes
- The Greg Saunders Vigilante was created by Mort Weisinger and Mort Meskin where he made his firs appearance in Action Comics v1 #42 (November, 1941).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In Justice League Unlimited, the Greg Saunders Vigilante appeared in the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe where he was voiced by initially by actor Nathan Fillion and an uncredited Michael Rosenbaum. During the Thanagarian invasion, Vigilante fought against the hawkmen, but was ultimately captured. Afterwards, he joined the expanded Justice League. Vigilante became good friends with Shining Knight, and his marksmanship was quite useful on several missions. He took part in the fight against Mordru, the alien nanotechnologic invasion, and intercepted Task Force X when they were trying to steal the Annihilator. Despite being a skillful gunman and fighter, Vigilante was knocked out by Rick Flagg, Jr. in hand-to-hand combat. Vigilante was also part of the team ambushed by the group of vengeful Thanagarian warriors. He harbored some resentment towards Shayera Hol, who had been a double agent and, as a result of her betrayal, had caused him to become a prisoner of war. He recounted how he was incarcerated in a small confinement and humiliated by the Thanagarians. Nevertheless, Vigilante worked through his feelings and remained loyal to Shayera, in spite of not always seeing eye to eye with her. Even though he has no special powers, Vigilante's cunning dexterity allowed him to turn the tables on a hawkman, and hijack Paran Dul's ship. He single-handedly saved Vixen from certain death, by catching her in free fall. Vigilante later attended a parade in Metropolis in Superman's place, together with Green Arrow, Stargirl, S.T.R.I.P.E., and Shining Knight. There, he displayed his love of theatrics and crowd pleasing. When a mutated General Eiling attacked the heroes, Vigilante tried his best to fight him off ― he shot the beast, and even rammed an exploding motorcycle into him. However, his efforts were useless in face of the mutated Eiling, who easily disposed of Vigilante. When Darkseid was unwittingly resurrected by Luthor and subsequently invaded Earth, Vigilante teamed up with Wonder Woman, Shining Knight and Star Sapphire to fight the Apokoliptian forces at the Great Wall of China, where they were soon joined by J'onn J'onzz.
Films
- In The Vigilante, the Greg Sanders Vigilante appeared in the 1947 live-action Columbia Pictures serial where he was portrayed by actor Ralph Byrd. Greg Sanders was a a masked government agent known as the Vigilante where he had civilian guise as an actor with him filming a western on George Pierce's ranch. He was assigned to investigate the case of the 100 Tears of Blood, a cursed string of rare blood-red pearls sought by a gang led by the unknown X-1 that may have been smuggled into the country. Pierce is a wealthy rancher and nightclub owner. When Prince Hamil arrives at the ranch, he gives a horse each to Sanders, Pierce, Captain Reilly, Tex Collier, and Betty Winslow. But an outlaw gang soon attacks, attempting to steal all five horses. It turns out that each horse has twenty of the pearls hidden in their shoes (five in each) in secret compartments. Edging closer, Sanders learns that Prince Hamil's servant stole the diamonds from his master and smuggled them in on the horses with the intention of passing them on to X-1.
Appearances
- Action Comics v1: (1941)
- Justice League of America v1:
- JSA v1:
- Stargirl Spring Break Special v1: (2021)
External Links
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