Rogues Gallery 3: Vigilante
Vigilante’s Rogue’s Gallery is a bit of a challenge as he
didn’t have much of one in the comics. On the plus side this lets me tailor his
rogues to match the new version of him, on the negative side there’s a little
less connectivity. Still, I can rescue some of his old rogues thanks to the
wonders of Wikipedia. (I also think that during his WWII adventures he
absolutely need to have a sidekick in Stuff, the Chinatown Kid, who passed away
a political leader of the Chinese community before the age of heroes.
The Dummy
This diminutive desperado has somehow acquired a copy of MacTaggart’s
uncle’s notebooks, giving him access to the same genius that powered Adam’s resurrection
and all of his electromagnetic gear. This makes the Dummy very dangerous indeed.
Unfortunately shortly after their first encounter (when he was still an
ordinary weapons manufacturer working for criminals) his attempt at self-healing
went gloriously awry, reducing him in stature but increasing his density to
that of hardwood, making him a human ventriloquist’s dummy. In this form he
manages a small stable of criminals who use his advanced technology for crime. He’s
doubly dangerous since he’s slightly more technogically adept than Adam, making
him better able to adopt his uncle’s technologies.
The Rattler
Another western themed villain, the Rattler is Vigilante’s
opposite number when it comes to cowboy skills, and has a definite edge over Adam
in those skills. He’s a killer for hire, travelling across the west, and his
trademark is using rubber bullets laced containing slivers of concentrated rattlesnake
venom. While Vigilante has never been able to best him in a gunflight Adam’s technological
and physical advantaged let him carry the day. Someday the Dummy and the
Rattler will team up and that will be a dark day for the defender of liberty.
The Rainbow Man
This classic costumed villain operates across the American
west pulling color themed crimes. He carries with him light and gas based
devices, with the Red, Orange and Yellow pistol generating flames, lasers or
blinding flashes while the Green, Blue, Indigo and Purple gasses change
depending on the crime, but always tying to some common phrase or idiom (such
as hallucinogenic purple haze, depression generating Blues, or something that
generates a marijuana –fueled introspection called Mood Indigo). Like all obsessed
theme villains he’s kind of a goober but surprisingly effective.
Dead Man’s Hand
This group of 5 card themed villains as existed in some configuration
since the fateful day when Wild Bill Hickock was shot by Jack McCall on August
2nd, 1876. Hickock’s hand at the time was the ace of diamonds with a
heel mark on it; the ace of clubs; the two black eights, clubs and spades, and
the queen of hearts with a small drop of Hickock's blood on it – that drop
of blood completed a dark ritual, binding spirits of lawlessness to those hands
and humanity. Since then the Dead Man’s Hand has always reconfigured itself
whenever the Vigilante has taken it apart, be it a gang of desperados, a
motorcycle club, a group of dandified assassins or a dark riverboat magician
who was enslaving peoples souls for gambling debts. In this case it is a quintet
of actual super-villains, with the ace of clubs having a high tech energy-projecting
staff, the ace of diamond having a flying ‘ace’ board that contains a variety of
weapons (and acts as the teams transport), the eight of clubs being a martial
artist able to make duplicates of himself, the eight of spades able to create
and throw spades of pure solid darkness and the queen of hearts with mind and
emotion control powers. This is a villain set that will definitely require the
JAA’s help to permanently take down. (this is obviously the Earth 10 version of
the Royal Flush Gang, but I like mine better).
Zalozhniy
Pitor Ivanovitch was born on February 2nd 1918,
a day that never existed with the adoption of the Georgian calendar, this child
of the Revolution was blessed by a kindly old grandmother in a forest hut who
swore he would be on Earth for his 100th birthday. Fleeing the chaos
in Mother Russia to the United States, where at the age of 18 he was unceremoniously
killed in some mob violence and dropped in an unmarked grave. But as a member of
the unhallowed dead he rose and has stalked the earth ever since, waiting for
his 100th birthday and the end of his time. During that century he
has raised up mob after mob to tear down society. He can be incredibly
persuasive in leading mobs of the downtrodden. His undifferentiated anger
sometimes leads him to embrace white supremacy, other times mobs of the
homeless, or the mad. His only constants are directing the anger of the mob
against civilization and the inability to die.
The Chainman
A recent edition to the Vigilante’s super-powered rogues’
gallery, the Chainman has constructed technology to the point of magic (perhaps
under Brainiac’s influence?) incorporated into collars and chains and manacles
that force those wearing them to operate under Asimov’s laws. High tech
slavery, with no risk of revolt. Already too much of the world’s slave trade is
under his control, and he is extending it, bit by bit into the United States.
He will find that attracting the attention of the defender of liberty will have
been his greatest mistake.
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