The Vigilante: Southland

This week sees the release of DC Comics' new revival of the classic Vigilante character in Vigilante: Southland by Gary Phillips, Elena Casagrande, Giulia Brusco and Todd Klein, which takes the concept and transports it modern day Los Angeles for a tale of crime, corruption and community tension. ComicsAlliance caught up with Phillips to talk about what separates the new Vigilante from the rest of the DC Universe, and constructing a socially relevant superhero story.

While DC Comics has been killing it in a number of areas since the launch of its Rebirth initiative, one area that perhaps hasn't been getting enough attention is the amazing variant covers the publisher is putting out. From Tim Sale providing monthly covers on Batman to Jenny Frisson's upcoming work on Wonder Woman, DC has been going all out with some beautiful variants. The publisher has provided ComicsAlliance with an exclusive first look at the Action Comics cover for late-October and variants for Action Comics, Detective Comics, The Vigilante: Southland and Batman Beyond.

The codename "Vigilante" has been around for 75 years at DC Comics. Originally appearing in 1941's Action Comics #42 as the nom de guerre of country singing motorcycle cowboy Greg Saunders, it's been handed down through the ages to a handful of other heroes who operate outside the law, and now, a new hero is stepping into the costume for a story that DC promises will tackle "gun violence, class struggle and Black Lives Matter." The character is Donny Fairchild, and in October, he'll be appearing in The Vigilante: Southland, a six-issue miniseries from writer Gary Phillips and artists Elena Casagrande and Giulia Brusco, with covers by Mitch Gerads.