DC has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive preview of next week’s Vigilante: Southland from writer Gary Phillips with art by Elena Casagrande and a cover from Mitch Gerads.
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The series features Donny Fairchild, the latest character to take on the “Vigilante” name — shared with a character who made his live-action debut on Arrow earlier this week.
“I go back, in terms of my experience with this character, to the days of when it was Greg Saunders, just you know, modern cowboy in the 40’s, riding this motorcycle with a mask and a 6-shooter,” Phillips told ComicBook.com about the series. “In terms of where the story is now or where I take the story, I pull from some of that original stuff, I pull from some of those 80’s early 90’s Vigilante Adrian Chase stuff.”
There’s a lot of history — but not a lot of backstory, as Fairchild’s story is pretty much self-supported, and essentially comes from the same starting point as Chase’s: he’s a guy who has lost everything and is looking for an outlet for his rage and his sense of justice averted.
“Obviously, when you tackle this kind of character, you’re aware of all that and you try to pull from some of that, but also you want to do things that are going to make it unique,” he added. “In this case, he’s set in the Southland of the greater Los Angeles area, the Southeast LA area, parts of town that don’t normally get shown, both on TV and film and certainly not in comics beyond the beaches and what have you. All that comes into play I think when you’re telling the story.”
You can check out the preview pages in the attached gallery, and the solicitation text below.
Donny has lost everything—his girlfriend, his home, and nearly his life—but the men who did this to him have also woken him up. To put it all back together, Donny will need to tear apart the conspiracy that rocked his world. And for that, he’ll need help. Namely, the retired Los Angeles vigilante known as the Eastsider is going to teach Donny a thing or two about putting on a mask and kicking some butt.
Vigilante: Southland #2 is due in stores on Wednesday, November 23. You can pre-order a digital copy on ComiXology now.
