Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction. An Encyclopedia from Able Team to Z-Comm

by Bradley Mengel

  8. Body Count, 176 pages, 1977

  9. Battle Pay, 188 pages, 1978

  10. Yellow Rain, 224 pages, 1984

  11. Green Hell, 222 pages, 1984

  12. Mow, 223 pages, 1984

  13. Kalahari, 220 pages, 1984

  14. Golden Triangle, 224 pages, 1984

  15. Death Squad, 223 pages, 1985

  16. Bloodbath, 221 pages, 1985

  17. Somali Smashout, 221 pages, 1985

  18. Blood Island, 223 pages, 1985

  The Soldiers of Barrabas (SOB)

  Thirty-three books by Jack Hild

  The Soldiers of Barrabas are also known as Eagle Squad and are the unofficial force used when conventional armed forces can't be used; as the promotional material says, "they do what the marines wish they could." The team was put together by Walker Jessup, known in Washington as "the Fixer," and he gives the team their assignments. This group of mercenaries is headed by Niles Barrabas, the last man out of Vietnam. The team changes as members die and are replaced by others, but include:

  • William Starfoot II (Billy Two): a full-blooded Osage Indian

  • Alex Ninos: an expert sailor

  • Liam O'Toole: former IRA soldier (a fact that forms the basis of #13: No Sanctuary)

  • Geoff Bishop: a Canadian pilot

  • Lee Hatton: doctor and the only woman on the team

  • Nate Beck: electronics wiz

  The team takes on missions like rescuing world leaders from kidnapping and assassination, fighting Soviet forces, preventing coups, stopping neo-Nazis and other terrorist groups, and facing enemies from various team members' pasts who seek revenge.

  Behind the Scenes

  Gold Eagle tells us that they have never met Jack Hild, a US citizen residing outside the United States, contacting him only through a European attorney-agent. Hild has offered to leave money in his will to various brothels around the world to build memorial wings.

  In truth, Jack Hild does not exist but is a house name used by Alan Bomack, Robin Hardy, Jack Canon, Alan Philipson, Jack Garside, John Preston, Joe Roberts, Rich Rainey, Roland Green.

  Rich Rainey, under his full name Richard Rainey, has written several nonfiction works on the occult and the horror genre. Rainey wrote the Protector series and has also produced several books in the Executioner franchise and contributed the final book in the post-apocalyptic Warlord series as Jason Frost.

  John Preston was an openly gay author. Many of his works were about the gay experience and gay erotica. Under the name Preston McAdams he wrote the Shield series. Under his own name, he wrote the Mission of Alex Kane about a gay action hero, combining both genres that he worked in.

  Alan Bomack (a near anagram of Mack Bolan) is a pseudonym used by the writer of several of the Executioner books.

  The Books

  All books were published by Gold Eagle:

  1. The Barrabas Run, 221 pages, 1983 (Jack Canon, Robin Hardy & Alan Bomack)

  2. The Plains of Fire, 221 pages, 1984 (Philipson)

  3. Butchers of Eden, 219 pages, 1984 (Alan Philipson)

  4. Show No Mercy, 219 pages, 1985 (Robin Hardy)

  5. Gulag War, 218 pages, 1985 (Philipson)

  6. Red Hammer Down, 218 pages, 1985 (Alan Philipson)

  7. River of Flesh, 222 pages, 1985 (Hardy)

  8. Eye of the Fire, 222 pages, 1985 (Hardy)

  9. Some Choose Hell, 220 pages, 1985 (Robin Hardy)

  10. Vultures of the Horn, 216 pages, 1986 (Alan Philipson)

  11. Agile Retrieval, 221pages, 1986 (Robin Hardy)

  12. Jihad, 219 pages, 1986 (Philipson)

  13. No Sanctuary, 218 pages, 1986 (Hardy)

  14. Red Vengeance, 220 pages, 1986 (Hardy)

  15. Death Deal, 219 pages, 1986 (Hardy)

  16. Firestorm USA, 219 pages, 1987 (Robin Hardy)

  17. Point Blank, 219 pages, 1987 (Hardy)

  18. Sakhalin Breakout, 220 pages, 1987 (Jack Garside)

  19. Skyjack, 218 pages, 1987 (Hardy)

  20. Alaska Deception, 221 pages, 1987 (Garside)

  21. No Safe Place, 218 pages, 1987 (Hardy)

  22. Kremlin Devils, 220 pages, 1988 (Hardy)

  23. Pacific Payload, 219 pages, 1988 (John Preston)

  24. The Barrabas Creed, 219 pages, 1988 (Preston)

  25. The Barrabas Raid, 220 pages, 1988 (Preston)

  26. The Barrabas Edge, 220 pages, 1988 (Joe Roberts [Robert Randisi])

  27. The Barrabas Fix, 221 pages, 1988 (William Baetz)

  28. The Barrabas Fallout, 220 pages, 1989 (Jon Mandeville)

  29. The Barrabas Hit, 218 pages, 1989 (Roberts)

  30. The Barrabas Heist, 221pages, 1989 (Roland Green)

  31. The Barrabas Thrust, 220 pages, 1989 (Rich Rainey)

  32. The Barrabas Fire, 219 pages, 1989 (Rich Rainey)

  33. The Barrabas Kill, 219 pages, 1989 (Baetz)

  Super Soldiers of Barrabas:

  1. The Barrabas Strike, 349 pages, 1988 (Philipson)

  2. The Barrabas Sting, 349 pages, 1988 (Philipson)

  3. The Barrabas Blitz, 347 pages, 1989 (Rainey)

  4. The Barrabas War, 346 pages, 1989 (Roland Green)

  5. The Barrabas Sweep, 347 pages, 1990 (Rich Rainey)

  Related Material

  Niles Barrabas makes a cameo appearance in the Vietnam War tale "Incident at Hoi Binh" from the Executioner #63 The New War Book (1984). Barrabas is accused of a massacre but Mack Bolan clears his name.

  The Specialist (Jack Sullivan)

  Eleven books by John Cutter (John Shirley)

  Jack Sullivan is a mercenary with a talent for revenge. Prior to his first adventure, he had left the mercenary game for love. His marriage was cut short when his wife was killed violently in an explosion, leaving Sullivan a broken man with grey hair at the temples. At the time of his first adventure, he has been bumming around Europe living on his savings for three and a half years.

  Jack Sullivan is no kill-crazy mercenary who will work for anyone; he works for a cause and for the right side, this having been instilled in him by his father. And it is the case of Julia Penn, a woman tortured and traumatized by African dictator Magg Ottoowa, that brings Sullivan out of his retirement. Sullivan is for hire to gain revenge for anyone who has been wronged, tackling dictators, pedophiles, drug lords, and others who prey on the weak.

  Behind the Scenes

  John Cutter is the pseudonym for John Shirley. Shirley was born in 1953 and is a member of the cyberpunk science fiction writer's movement. He is also a musician and has been in a number of bands.

  Under the pseudonym D. B. Drumm, he wrote the post-apocalyptic Traveler series. Under his own name he has written numerous novels, songs and screenplays, including The Crow.

  The Books

  All books were published by Signet Books:

  1. A Talent for Revenge, 186 pages, 1984

  2. Manhattan Revenge, l89 pages, 1984

  3. Sullivan's Revenge, 190 pages, 1984

  4. Psycho Soldier, 190 pages, 1984

  5. Maltese Vengeance, 190 pages, 1984

  6. Big One, 190 pages, 1984

  7. Vendetta, 191 pages, 1985

  8. One Man Army, 191 pages, 1985

  9. Vengeance Mountain, 190 pages, 1985

  10. Beirut Retaliation, 189 pages, 1985

  11. American Retaliation, 190 pages, 1985

  The Movie

  The 1994 movie The Specialist was suggested by the novel series by John Shirley, revealing that John Cutter was a pseudonym. The movie starred Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Rod Steiger, Eric Roberts and James Woods and was directed by Luis Llosa.

  Ray Quick was an explosives expert for the CIA who quits when one of his bombs kills the daughter of a drug dealer. Quick has become a mercenary and eventually is hired by May Munro to help her gain revenge against the Leon crime family, who were responsible for the death of her parents. Quick aids Munro and brings him against an old foe from his CIA days.

  The
Specialists

  Three books by Chet Cunningham

  When multimillionaire industrialist J. August Marshall retired after a decade as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, he implemented a plan to form his own strike force. Marshall handpicked the best of the best for his covert strike team, free from the restrictions and the political games that marked his time in the CIA.

  After a year of screening Marshall formed his team:

  • Wade Thorne: team leader, ex-CIA team leader, expert fighter and pilot

  • Katherine "Kat" Killinger: this Hawaiian beauty is second in command, a former lawyer, FBI field agent and triathlete

  • Ichi Yamagata: Japanese American martial arts master and master gunsmith, the team's weapons master.

  • Roger Johnson: former Navy SEAL and demolitions expert.

  • Hershel Levine: Mossad agent and computer expert.

  • Duncan Bancroft: MI6 agent and intelligence expert, able to procure weapons anywhere in the world, thanks to his contacts.

  The team can travel anywhere with access to the resources of Marshall, tackling everything from Nazi conspiracies, hijacked ocean liners, biological weapons threats, stolen nuclear devices and terrorist attacks. The team often splits into smaller teams in the initial investigation of the suspected threat, working capably alone or all together.

  Behind the Scenes

  The series was written by Chet Cunningham who lives in San Diego. Cunningham has also written numerous western novels both under his own name and pseudonyms. A veteran of the Korean War, Cunningham has written several volumes of military history. Cunningham is also the author of the Avenger series and was one of the two men behind the Lionel Derrick pseudonym for the Penetrator. Cunningham has also written several Executioner and SuperBolan (see Executioner) novels

  The Books

  All books were published by Bantam Books:

  1. Plunder, 294 pages, 1999

  2. Deadly Strike, 304 pages, 2001

  3. Nuke Down, 368 pages, 2001

  Spider (Richard Wentworth)

  Four books by Grant Stockbridge

  Back in 1933, to capitalize on the success of the Shadow, Popular Publications created their own pulp hero, the Spider. The original pulp series ran for 118 issues and featured amateur criminologist, Great War veteran and wealthy man about town, Richard Wentworth, fighting crime under the alias of the Spider in the disguise of hunchback, fangs and fright wig. Wentworth was assisted by his fiancee Nita Van Sloan, his servant Ram Singh and old World War I Army buddy Ronald Jackson. The Spider and his team fought some of the bloodiest and strangest of adversaries and foes in the pulps. The Spider was quite successful, even gaining two movie serials.

  Move forward to 1975 and to capitalize on the success of the Executioner, Pocket Books reprinted four of the Spider pulps but, unlike other pulp reprints, these updated the character to make him more like the current crop of serial vigilantes. Richard Wentworth was still a wealthy, amateur criminologist but he had served in Korea. The Spider had become Spider; no longer wearing his elaborate fangs and disguise Spider, he wore turtleneck sweaters (white on American covers, black on the British editions) but was still assisted by his loyal followers.

  Product and brand names were updated and the World Trade Center, opened in 1973, replaced the Empire State Building in The City Destroyer. Much of Ram Singh's flowery speech was also removed.

  Spider faced villains who controlled vampire bats, rampaging cavemen, a weapon that weakens steel and a cult that could produce murderous rampages in anyone.

  The Books

  All four novels were published by Pocket Books of Canada in North America and by Mews Books in the United Kingdom:

  1. Death Reign of the Vampire King, 128 pages, 1975 (originally the Spider #26 1935)

  2. Hordes of the Red Butcher, 144 pages, 1975 (originally the Spider #21, 1935)

  3. The City Destroyer, 143 pages, 1975 (originally the Spider #16, 1935)

  4. Death and the Spider, 126 pages, 1975 (originally the Spider #100, 1942)

  The Comics

  In 1990, writer Tim Truman offered a similar updating of the Spider published by Eclipse Comics. Truman re-imagined the character in the '90s — not the 1990s as we knew it, but rather 1990s that a 1930s pulp writer may have imagined, with a 1985 war in India allowing Richard Wentworth to meet Ram Singh. The first three-issue mini-series adapted the pulp Corpse Cargo and the second adapted Death Reign of the Vampire King,

  1. The Spider, 1990 (3 issues) (each issue, 42 pages)

  2. Reign of the Vampire King, 1992 (3 issues) (each issue, 42 pages)

  Springblade

  Nine books by Greg Walker

  After three tours of duty in Special Forces, Bo Thornton retired to San Diego to run the Heavy Hook Dive Shop with his old buddy, Frank Hartung, a veteran of both Korea and Vietnam. Thornton converted the shop's loft to an R-and-R center nicknamed "the Locker" where many of the Special Forces, SEALs and other naval personnel in the city came to hang out.

  This allowed Thornton to keep up to date with old buddies and with the latest developments in the spec ops world. This put Thornton in an ideal position when an old SEAL buddy turned DEA agent, Calvin Bailey, contacted him with a deal to form and command an elite fighting force to fight the war on drugs, free of the normal rules and regulations. This team would not exist officially and would be assigned their missions by the president and a circle of advisers. All contact for this team would be through Bailey.

  During the planning stages, this team was code named Eagle Flight, but Thornton renamed this force Springblade, after the Soviet-made ballistic knife he used. The team consists of:

  • Bo Thornton: team leader

  • Frank Hartung: mission coordinator and logistics

  • Jason Silver: computer and demolition expert, Vietnam veteran who operates an art gallery in San Diego

  • David Lee: the team's only active member of the military and a paratrooper

  The team is joined after their fourth mission by former Soviet Spetsnaz soldier Peter Chuikov.

  Springblade handles the missions that require an immediate response and cannot be handled through any other means. The team has tackled drug dealers, rogue Green Berets, and renegade Russian forces and fought in the first Gulf War.

  Behind the Scenes

  Greg Walker is a former Special Forces sergeant who operated throughout South and Central America. Currently retired, Walker works with law enforcement in Oregon. Walker is also the author of several books on knife fighting.

  The Books

  The series was published by Charter Books:

  1. Springblade, 170 pages, 1989

  2. Machete, 169 pages, 1990

  3. Stiletto, 167 pages, 1990

  4. Bowie, 197 pages, 1990

  5. Border Massacre, 200 pages, 1990

  6. Battle Zone, 198 pages, 1990

  7. Sentinel, 168 pages, 1991

  8. Betrayal, 199 pages, 1991

  9. Storming Iraq, 170 pages, 1992

  Stark (John Howard Stark)

  Two books by William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone

  John Howard Stark was a former marine who served in Vietnam. After returning to America, Stark became a rancher in the Rio Grande Valley near Del Rio and lived a peaceful life until a Mexican border gang decided that Stark's ranch would make an ideal crossing for bringing drugs into America. Stark refused and in retaliation the gang killed his wife. This caused the Vietnam veteran to reform his old squad and go to war against the gang, taking the battle across the border into Mexico. The fight cost Stark several of his friends but in the end Stark was victorious.

  This action made Stark a minor celebrity and saved him from prosecution, forcing the government to back down. Eventually the media lost interest in Stark and he returned to a peaceful life.

  That was, until the American government, in a political stunt, decided to allow the Mexican government temporary dominion over the Alamo to commemorate the fall
of the Alamo. This move was peacefully protested by veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War with Stark as their leader. A group of Mexican terrorists known as the Reconquistadors took this opportunity to claim the Alamo permanently and Stark and his fellow veterans eventually take a stand in the Alamo as both the American and Mexican governments dither ineffectively in Court.

  Behind the Scenes

  The series was created by William W. Johnstone, author of numerous horror, adventure and western novels. Johnstone was discharged from the French Foreign Legion for being underage, then worked in a carnival, became a deputy sheriff and did a stint in the army. He started writing in 1970 but did not make his first sale until 1979 with The Devil's Kiss. Johnstone died in 2004 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

  The Books

  Both books were published by Kensington Pinnacle:

  1. Vengeance Is Mine, 288 pages, 2005

  2. Remember the Alamo, 320 pages, 2007

  Related Works

  The unnamed female American president seen in these books has a number of similarities to the unnamed female president seen in Johnstone's Invasion USA series, which also deals with the themes of American border security. It is possible that this female president is President Harriet Clayton who appeared in Johnstone's Codename and the one-shot Black Ops: American Jihad.