Before we get to Vigilante, let’s talk a little about Frank Castle. Originally introduced in Marvel comics as a villain opposite Spider-Man, Castle (better known as the Punisher) was quickly repositioned as an antihero. He’s the guy who will do what the other costumed heroes won’t — which is to say he’ll shoot and kill criminals instead of webbing them up for the cops to find. Also, he has a bad attitude and a skull on his chest, which is “cool” in a sort of… low-brow, lizard brain kind of way.

The thing is, the Punisher is supposed to be bad. In my opinion, and this is my newsletter so that’s what you’re going to get, the best (or maybe the only good) Punisher stories are the ones that underline this. To me, it’s weird and gross when a comic is about the Punisher shooting a criminal and the ultimate message is “it’s good that he did that.” Put simply: I don’t really like the Punisher.

Vigilante (at least the Wolfman/Pérez version we’re talking about here) is sort of DC’s take on the Punisher: He was wronged by the justice system and now spends his days wearing a superhero outfit and executing criminals who get off on technicalities.

[Sidenote: As is the case with most Wolfman/Pérez creations, Vigilante has an extremely rad costume.]

Unlike the Punisher, though, who understands what he’s doing and at least seems vaguely aware that it’s “wrong” to murder criminals, Vigilante is fully unwell. It’s not necessarily “what would it be like if a dude like this really existed,” but it gets really dark. I’ll leave it at that and let you look it up if you want.

What I want to highlight is this three-panel sequence from artist Keith Pollard that I think is just a brilliant expression of what’s special about comic book storytelling. Here’s the setup: Vigilante is confronting a criminal guy who says that he’s untouchable because he owns all the judges in the city. He draws a gun to try and shoot Vigilante, and then this happens over the course of three distinct panels:

(Sam Note: The original version of this essay featured the images I’m talking about here, but I deleted them from the post as an inventive to sign up for the newsletter version!)

I think the idea is that it’s supposed to depict him quick-drawing and shooting the bad guy before he can react, but the separation of the panels makes it read almost like

line breaks

in

poetry.

See how you slowed down right there? That’s what these panels do. It slows down the pace of the story, which makes it clear that Vigilante isn’t just reacting. He’s calculating his next move and executing it methodically. He sees the guy draw his gun. Pause. He draws his own gun. Pause. He fires.

It’s not a badass action hero move, it’s a killer killing. It’s cold and unsettling, and that’s because it capitalizes on the way stories are told in comic books. Isn’t that neat? Comics are cool!

I think my subscription for the unnamed corporate comic book app that I’ve been using runs out next week, so we’ll either do one last hurrah on there or start digging into my own library. And that likely means one of three things: Deathstroke, Daredevil, or The Transformers. I don’t know about you, but I like all of those things!

Or you could always use my famous Search Term Suggester and give me a suggestion of a thing to read!