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

by Bradley Mengel

  • Mission Impossible (1966): Another spy television series where the Impossible Missions Force create an elaborate con or sting to obtain vital intelligence from enemy agents. One of the longest running spy series ever, the series was revived in 1988 for another television series with a new team from the IMF. In 1996, the series made the transition to the big screen for three movies starring Tom Cruise.

  • Callan (1967): David Callan works for the Section, a security department that monitors and eliminates traitors and other threats to security. Callan is the best operative but he is plagued by his conscience; he needs to know what his targets have done before he can eliminate them. Callan ran for four seasons and one 1981 television movie. Series creator James Mitchell wrote several novelizations. Star Edward Woodward played a similar character, Robert McCall, in The Equalizer (1985-1989).

  3. Modern Pulp

  Pulp Heroes from the 1930s and '40s were a major influence on the serial vigilantes of the '70s and '80s. The reprinting of pulp heroes like Doc Savage, the Shadow and The Avenger showed publishers the viability of series fiction. With this success of these reprints, all new adventures were written for these characters. Walter Gibson penned the Return of the Shadow before Dennis Lynds wrote several new Shadow adventures under the Maxwell Grant name. Pulp historians Ron Goulart and Will Murray wrote new adventures of the Avenger and Doc Savage respectively, under the Kenneth Robeson house name when the publishers ran out of stories to reprint.

  Just as new adventures were written for pulp heroes, authors were creating new pulp heroes with adventures set in the pulp era of the '30s and '40s. These new characters appeared side by side with the serial vigilantes and offer a subset of the serial vigilante. Modern pulp characters can be seen in many different formats, including novels, film, television and comics.

  • Company Z: Western author J.T. Edson created this series about an unofficial company of Texas Rangers set in the 1920s and '30s, in homage to the works of Edgar Wallace. Company Z is unfettered by the rules that regulate the Texas Rangers and is able to tackle the crimes and criminals that fall through the cracks. In three of the books in this series, Company Z works with Edgar Wallace's Mr. J.G. Reeder to stop criminal genius Mad Jack Flack.

  • Agent 13/13 Assassin: A companion piece to Orion, this series was created by Flinte Dille and David Marconi for the Secret Agent S.I. role-playing game as the basis of pulp style adventures in the 1930s. A young, talented child was kidnapped in 1907 by the Brotherhood, an organization that has existed from the dawn of civilization for the betterment of mankind. That was until Itsu, the Hand Sinster, seized power and is trying to take over the world. The child, known as Agent 13, was trained in disguise and other espionage arts, rebelled against the Brotherhood and fights to prevent them from taking over the world. The comic books series 13 Assassin brings Agent 13 to the modern age, still fighting Itsu and the Brotherhood.

  • Doc Sidhe: Starting in the modern world, Olympic kick boxer Harris Greene is transported into a parallel reality, where elves and fairies exist in a parallel 1930s. Zeppelins fly overhead and the greatest hero is Doc Sidhe, the elfin version of Doc Savage, and his team of adventurers.

  • Night Raven: The Night Ravens true identity is never revealed in these stories written for Marvel UK, as the cloaked vigilante dispenses justice on the mean streets of Canada. While many of the character's exploits were told in comic format, text stories appeared as back-up features in many titles accompanied by illustrations deliberately invoking the pulp novels that inspired it. Night Raven's equipment and headquarters were later discovered by the superhero Nocturne. The series makes both Night Raven and Nocturne British, contradicting the earlier stories.

  • The Masked Avenger: The series is set in 1930s New York and written by pulp historian Tom Johnson. The Masked Avenger is a mystery man fighting evil. He faces criminal masterminds like the Centipede.

  • The Rook: Max Davies is a young man driven by visions of crimes yet to be. Emotionally scarred by witnessing the brutal murder of his father, Davies trained in every martial art and scientific discipline, becoming a scourge on evil. Set in 1930s Atlanta, the Rook battles supernaturally empowered villains. First published in 2006, the Rook series consists of two novels and several short stories and the Rook has met many original pulp heroes such as the Black Bat and Ascot Keane.

  • Indiana Jones: The most successful of the modern pulp characters, archaeologist Indiana Jones travels the globe searching for artifacts and treasures. The star of four movies, a television series, comic books and several series of novels, Indy's creators George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg were inspired by the serial and pulp heroes of the '30s and '40s.

  • Twilight Avenger: Reece Chambers is the star player for Randolph College Tornados and an honor student in science. When his fiancee Dolores Herth is brutally run down and in a coma, Chambers and Dolores' father, Dr. Milton Herth, developed a number of scientific weapons and a costume to fight the man responsible, the masked criminal only known as the Centipede.

  • The Gloom: Armed with supernatural guns that only shoot evil, millionaire Carson Kane fights crime as mystery man the Gloom. The Gloom teams up with fellow adventurer Doc Adventure and the sultry reporter Vixen La Fox to battle Nazis in 1940s New York.

  • The Rocketeer: Dave Stephens tribute to the Rocketman serials from the '40s, this comic series focused on the adventures of pilot Cliff Secord who discovered a rocket pack created by an unnamed Doc Savage and encounters the Shadow.

  • Planetary: Warren Ellis' comic book series about a group of mystery archaeologists has as a group of pulp-analogues Doc Brass (Doc Savage), Hark (Fu Manchu), the Jungle Lord (Tarzan), the Millionaire Vigilante (a mix of the Shadow, the Spider and the Green Hornet), Jimmy (Jimmy Christopher Operator #5), the Aviator (G-8) and Edison (Tom Swift).

  • The Prowler: This series of comic mini-series and a one shots has a mixture of stories from the 1930s and the present. The 1930s tales show the adventures of Leo Kragg, a Hollywood executive who adopts the costumed identity of the Prowler to fight gangsters, mad scientists and zombie masters. The tales in the present have Kragg coming out of retirement to train a new Prowler, Scott Kida, and fight terrorists and child pornographers. The 1930s exploits include "reprints" of a 1942 Sunday newspaper strip, records of Prowler novelty music, various items of Prowler memorabilia such as ads for war bonds, 1944 animated Prowler cartoons and stills from the Prowler serial.

  • Athena Voltaire: The adventures of a 1930s barnstorming pilot and adventuress. Athena is the daughter of World War I French flying ace Tristam Voltaire and Countess Anezka Sikorsky and raised on a ranch in Arizona. Fighting Nazis and hunting treasures around the world, Voltaire is in high demand from fellow adventurers and allied governments.

  • Doc Dare: During World War II, Doctor Joanna Dare was working with the United States military researching the Gladiator serum used by Abednego Danner to create an army of super soldiers. Her research was interrupted by Nazi saboteurs and Joanna was forced to drink the serum. Whenever she orgasms the serum gives her heightened strength and speed to fight Nazis and Japanese threats.

  • Captain Gravity: The Captain Gravity serials are the hottest properties in Hollywood and feature a flying hero. During a location shoot in Mexico for the latest Captain Gravity serial, Nazi agents take over the shoot and hold the film crew hostage. Joshua Jones, an African American working behind the scenes, discovers the mysterious element 115 which allows him to control gravity. Donning the Captain Gravity costume, Jones frees the crew from the Nazis and begins a heroic career as Captain Gravity.

  4. Missing the Mark: Singletons, Police, Private Eyes, Criminals and Other Oddities

  With the success of Don Pendleton's Executioner, many similar series were produced. However, other types of fiction tried to copy this success so we began to see characters and series that were not strictly serial vigilantes but utilized many of the themes and motifs of the serial vigilante. In many cases, they adopte
d the conventions of the serial vigilante, such as the numbering of the series, and were published alongside serial vigilante series, such as Warner Books' Men of Action series, which published the Dirty Harry original novels alongside serial vigilante series such as Ninja Master and S-Com. This section will examine a sample of some of the various series that for many reasons did not meet the criteria for the serial vigilantes. This listing is not exhaustive and does not examine the western and the science fiction post-apocalyptic series.

  Singletons

  By its very nature a series requires more than one book, comic or movie. For a number of reasons these serial vigilantes never went beyond a single exploit.

  • Fire Force One, No Sanctuary, by Jim Bowser (1987): After a terrorist attack by PLO splinter group, the Shield of Allah, which killed over 100 Marines, one of those Marines reacted. He was the son of Ret. General Headley DeFarge, multimillionaire owner of the DeFarge Foundation. The general hires a team of veterans from his time in Vietnam. Known as Fire Force One, they fight terrorism around the world.

  • Deathwalker, Rites of the Demon, by Roman Castevano (1976): Billed as the first in a new series of non-stop action and unbelievable terror, this was the only exploit of Luke Paine. Paine was a journalist who was captured in the Vietnam War and was rescued through a prisoner exchange. Upon his return to America, he discovered that his girlfriend Donna Donofrio had become involved with strange cult.

  • Jake Speed (1986 movie): Jake is the hero of a series of books written by Reno Melon and published by Gold Eagle with titles such as Race through Hell, Dog Flight, Indochina Zoo and Zambezi Run (this last title recounts the events recorded in the film). To the world at large, Jake is a fictional character and his exploits aren't real, just stories in a book like those of the Destroyer and the Executioner (whose books also appear in the film, implying a similar status, as does a reference to Doc Savage). But when white slavers kidnap Margaret Winston's sister, Margaret soon discovers that Jake and his partner Desmond Floyd are all too real, as is his powerful shotgun the Kid and car H.A.R.V. (Heavily Armored Raiding Vehicle) as he drags her along on his latest adventure. Reno Melon is the pen name the pair uses to record their adventures and the royalties are used to fund their war on crime. Jake Speed (1986) was written by Wayne Crawford and Andy Lane, directed by Andy Lane and starred Wayne Crawford as Jake Speed. The

  novelization of the film was published by Gold Eagle titled Jake Speed and the author was listed as Reno Melon.

  • Black Ops, American Jihad (Art Jenson), by William Johnstone (2006): During a mission in Iraq, Art Jenson, the great-grandson of Smoke Jenson (hero of Johnstone's the Last Mountain Man series), shoots an unarmed insurgent and is crucified by the media, who make it appear that Jenson knew that the insurgent was unarmed. Jenson is court-martialled and sent to j ail. The military decide to form a one-man Black Ops team who tackles the terrorists and criminals that can't be touched by conventional law enforcement. Jenson leaves an ace of spades at all of his kills. Senator Harriet Clayton appears in this book and in Johnstone's Codename series.

  • The Destroyers, by A.W. Miller (1979): Inspector Buddy Wells fought the war on drugs in San Francisco for years. During that fight he was able to rescue Emily Conover, daughter of Michael Conover. Conover was a millionaire land developer and he offered Wells the deal of a lifetime, to take a free hand in the destruction of the heroin pipeline. With Conover's backing, Wells picked five other frustrated lawmen from all over America and together they attacked the Mexican town of Culiacan, which was the main pipeline of heroin into America. The mission caused the deaths of half the team.

  • Kung Fu Master: Richard Dragon #1: Dragons Fist, Award Books, by Jim Dennis (Dennis O'Neil & Jim Berry) (1974): This novel tells the story of Richard Dragon, the son of a diplomat who wandered into a life of crime. Attempting to steal a scroll from a martial arts dojo, he is invited to train at the school and eventually becomes a master of kung fu. Dragon is dragged into the world of crime-fighting when the terrorist known as the Swiss kidnaps Carolyn Woosan, the daughter of his kung fu sensei. No second novel was published but Dennis O'Neil adapted this novel as the first four issues of the comic Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Master. The series ran for a further fourteen issues. After the series finished, O'Neil used Dragon in his run on the Question as a sensei to the title character. Dragon was subsequently revealed to have trained a number of martial artists in the DC universe. Other characters introduced in Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Master have appeared in other DC comic titles, such as Batman, Birds of Prey and Suicide Squad. In 2006, Dennis O'Neil adapted the first year of his Question run into a novel titled Helltown. Richard Dragon appeared in that novel only referred to as Richard.

  Novelizations

  When a television series or movie is successful, there will be a number of spinoffs and tie-ins. One such tie-in is the novelization where the events of a television series or movie are retold in prose form. There were novelizations for Darkman, the A-Team, Knight Rider, Streethawk, the Equalizer, and the Persuaders. In some cases, there were original adventures written for these series.

  • MacGyver on Ice, by Mark Daniel (1987): The only novel based on the MacGyver series serves as a prequel to the television series, explaining how MacGyver became the troubleshooter for the Phoenix Foundation.

  • The A-Team #6: Operation Desert Sun: The Untold Story, by Charles Heath (1985): This A-Team novel serves as a prequel to the television series describing how the team escaped from military prison and went on the run.

  • Darkman: Following on from the novelization of the first movie, Randall Boyll wrote four original novels featuring Darkman:

  1. The Hangman, 1994

  2. The Price of Fear, 1994

  3. The Gods of Hell, 1994

  4. In the Face of Death, 1995

  The novels have badly scarred research scientist Peyton Westlake using his synthetic skin to fight serial killers, rogue spies and other threats. The novels feature characters and places that originally appeared in Marvel Comics' six-issue mini-series.

  • Tomb Raider: Lara Croft was created for the Tomb Raider computer game; the archaeologist character has been adapted into two films and several comic book series. The character has also been the basis for three original novels:

  1. The Amulet of Power, 2003 (Mike Resnick)

  2. The Lost Cult, 2004 (E.E. Knight)

  3. The Man of Bronze, 2004 (James Alan Gardner)

  • Supernatural: This story is based on the television series where the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, travel America battling demons and other supernatural threats. The novels are :

  1. Nevermore, 2007 (Keith R.A. DeCandido)

  2. Witch's Canyon, 2007 (Jeff Mariotte)

  3. Bone Key, 2008 (Keith R.A. DeCandido)

  • Buckaroo Banzai, Earl Mac Rauch (1984): The novelization of the cult 1984 movie contains so much additional material that it should be considered an expansion. While the movie dealt with Buckaroo's battle with John Whorfin and the Lectroids from the Eight

  Dimension, the novel also recounts Banzai's battle with the arch criminal Hanoi Xan.

  • Burn Notice: The Fix, Tod Goldberg (2008): This book, based on the television series, features disavowed spy Michael Western helping people and trying to discover why a burn notice was issued for him.

  Police

  The serial vigilantes came from the notion that the police were either corrupt or too hampered by the rules imposed on them. In response we saw police officers who openly flouted the rules and were far more effective than their fellow officers.

  • Dirty Harry: This tough cop debuted in 1971 with the film Dirty Harry; since then there have been four movie sequels as well as two video games and novelizations of the first four movies as well as twelve original novels. Despite Dirty Harry's unorthodox approach to crime-fighting, we see his opinion of serial vigilantes play out in the plot of the second movie, Magnum Force (1973), where Harry tackles a team of vigilante cops.
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br />   • The Headhunters, series by John Weisman and Brian Boyer: This series focuses on the tough internal affairs investigators of Detroit PD. Nicknamed the Headhunters, they are the toughest and hardest cops, given access to resources, weapons and methods not available to regular police. They tackle corruption not only of police but of other law enforcement officials, such as judges and district attorneys. This three-book series was published by Pinnacle Books.

  • C.A.T (Crisis Aversion Team), series by Spike Andrews: The Crisis Aversion Team is two super-elite cops, Detectives Vince Santillo and Stewart Wilson, who get the garbage cases that are too tough, too dirty, too touchy for the other police of the New York Police Department. The Crisis Aversion Team was part of Warner Books' Men of Action Books line along with the Dirty Harry original novels.

  • Little Saigon, series by Nicholas Cain: This series of four novels deals with the Vietnam veterans turned police officers who patrol the streets of Little Saigon in California, the largest Vietnamese community in the United States. The Metro Asian Gang (MAG) is headed former military police officer Luke Abel.

  Private Eyes

  The hardboiled private eye was one of the inspirations for the serial vigilantes and, in the wake of the serial vigilantes, several new series featuring tough and hard private eyes appeared.

  • Dakota, series by Gilbert Ralston: This series of five novels features Native American private eye Dakota, who lives on his family compound in Carson Valley, Nevada. Dakota investigates various crimes, including murder, often getting involved in shootouts and fights. This series was published by Pinnacle Books, the original home of the Executioner and the Destroyer.

  • Hardman, series by Ralph Dennis: Jim Hardman, a former Atlanta police officer, and his partner Hump Evans investigate crimes in Atlanta. Tough and uncompromising, the pair appeared in twelve books.