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Vigilante #5

Vigilante #5

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 28, 2005

Cover date: February 2006

Writer: Bruce Jones
Penciller: Ben Oliver
Inker: Ben Oliver

"Majority of One"

Neal Bailey Reviewed by: Neal Bailey

Click to enlarge


Edward Culkins has his goon Kort dangle Vigilante from the end of the balcony, trying to find out his secret identity. Vigilante spits on him, then attacks, knocking himself and Kort from the balcony and down. Vigilante attempts to grab at a pole and Kort knocks them both down, snapping the pole.

They land in a car, which flips. Later, the police arrive, along with the photographer who buys his way into scenes. Vigilante creeps off into the sewer.

Powell talks with Rene on the phone. Rene tells him that she loves him. Vigilante appears.

Vigilante punches Powell, angry that he didn't tell him about the bodyguard. Powell tells him that he didn't know. Vigilante agrees to hypnosis again to be better prepared to face his enemy again.

Vigilante finds himself again in the woods, being chased by the killer.

As they proceed, Rene comes to the office, just getting in before they lock up.

Vigilante hides from Culkins once more, finds his brother dead, and retreats to a barn. He defends himself with a "V" iron, branding Culkins and running away.

Rene comes to the office, shocked to realize that Vigilante is Powell...Powell is talking to himself.

2Story - 2: This is still an underwhelming series for the most part. There is a lot of character, something that I usually really enjoy, but everything that every character does is kind of forced and a bit obvious, from Vigilante spitting into the guy's face, to surviving the incredible fall, to Powell being Vigilante, even. I knew it had to be either the cop or the photographer or the shrink. I am a bit confused as to how Vigilante showed up when they were alone, but I guess this is going to be one of those chalk it up to Tyler Durden affairs.

The plot is still hyper-derivative in a lot of ways, and the characters are still hard to be sympathetic to. I think the finale will have a lot of work to do in order to turn this around.

I'm still perplexed as to how this gets rated for a six issue series while good books are cancelled on a constant basis.

2Art - 2: As I've said before, this is good art by a good artist, but the work is still at its best when they are doing action scenes as opposed to simple character interaction. I think an artist this good at action being put on a very static project is a tragedy...and also, out of place in a lot of ways. It hurts the piece a bit.

1Cover Art - 1: Often, the grim aspects of these covers have at very least been intrigueing, but in this case, the distortion makes it look worse instead of cooler, it's so dark that you can't make out what's going on at all, and just generally, it looks pretty amateur Photoshop in nature.

Mild Mannered Reviews

2006

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2006

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