vigilante

At long last, Arrow finally revealed the face under Prometheus’ hood with Wednesday’s “Fighting Fire With Fire,” in the process casting doubt on who many expected as DC’s Vigilante. That hasn’t stopped fan theories from churning, but it seems producers may have punted the question of Vigilante’s identity to Season 6.

On this week’s episode, “Vigilante,” Team Arrow must contend with a brutal new crimefighter in Star City, while Prometheus plots against Oliver! Gordon Verheul directed the episode from a script by Ben Sokolowski and Emilio Ortega Aldrich.

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.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. This week, we're counting down the rootin'-tootin'est, bronco bustin'est, cattle punchin'est, rough and tumble cowboy heroes in comics.

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.

More and more DC heroes have joined the ranks of Arrow in four seasons, though Season 5 seems to have them coming out of the woodwork. Following yesterday’s addition of Rick Gonzalez’s “Wild Dog,” Arrow Season 5 now adds Josh Segarra in a series regular role as DC’s own … well, “Vigilante.”