“I am created Shiva the Destroyer; Death, the shatterer of worlds! The dead night tiger made whole by the master of Sinanju. WHO IS THIS DOGMEAT THAT CHALLENGES ME?!”
I know what you mean-there is a crapton of supernatural in that series.
What about Simon Templar, aka The Saint? No super or supernatural powers, has a “legitimate” source of income (takes it from those he thinks has too much of it for their own good), and he truly enjoys what he does.
Yep. This right here. If your prints aren’t on file, you don’t even need to pick up the shell casings. Waste the Scum At Will.
In comic books, Wild Dog (DC Comics, mid-80s, Action Comics Weekly) gets realism points for two reasons. Like a real-life vigilante, he is limited to weapons you can buy at Wal-Mart and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Also, like real-life vigilantes, he had a fairly short career.
We should consider Assan Diop, from Netflix’s recent LUPIN series. I thought it was a little convenient that he got two confessions out of his enemies due to torture, recorded them, and they stuck. Maybe that’s how Arsene Lupin did it in the novels, I don’t know, but it just doesn’t add up to the conventions of vigilante fiction as I understand them. Since the cops knew where his family lived and where his base of operations was a month before is big move, one wonders why they didn’t nab him a lot earlier.
While he’s more skin to Batman than other suggestions, I think Grendel, more the first two incarnations, fits to a degree. The first is more criminal than vigilante, but does mostly target organized crime, and while rich is not armed like Batman. Though the skills, strength and reflexes likely are far beyond what a human can do. (But then again his nemesis is a werewolf cop, so…)
The second instance of Grendel, had no superhuman, supernatural or great source of wealth to use that I recall. Unless the spirit of the first was possessing/helping. Of course her foe is an ancient vampire.
I doubt that either was meant to be totally realistic, even if they mostly are
Other than Zorro (which was my first take), I could make a case for the (graphic novel version) of V, from V from Vendetta. There is no indication of supernatural powers, although he is athletic, a skilled hand to hand combatant, a good chemist, as well as (probably) computer programmer. He has the advantage that he rarely fights directly, and those he does normally don’t have firearms. He had some degree of plot armour, but in at least one case, said armor was explicitly explained ‘in story’ ( someone gets the drop on him with a revolver that turns out to be unloaded ).
He meticulously plans for years, is funded largely with stolen wealth, and his preternatural intelligence on enemy movement and activities are well explained in-world with realistic reasons (avoiding spoilers of course). And when he is shot, he dies. Maybe (based on the visible blood loss) a lot later than he should, but still dead. Admittedly, his active career is short (as you would expect it to be for any sort of plausible vigilante), and dependent upon others for it’s ultimate success.
Of course, describing V as a vigilante or a hero is a stretch, but probably within the bounds of the topic.
Im going off the movie but his final battle he really should have died a hell of a lot sooner realistically.
Suffice to say, that sequence does not happen in the original. Spoilers follow
Summary
V is caught (possibly/probably intentionally) by the detective character, who shoots at V wildly with a revolver while V injures him with a thrown knife. V indicates he is an idea and bulletproof after taking the revolver away, and leaves the detective injured but alive. The detective quickly realizes there is a ton of blood and assumes correctly (although off on the time) that V will die from the wounds. So V is killed by a single revolver’s worth of bullets fired wildly albeit near point blank range.
On the topic of Alan Moore, how about Rorschach? He’s essentially just a guy with a knack for self-preservation and a talent for improvising weapons out of his environment, and with his mask off he blends right in with the kind of people who most folk just go out of their way to ignore.
Good choice, and he’s damn handsome!
It might stretch the definition of “vigilante”, but how about Omar from The Wire? He does more to disrupt drug dealer’s operations than most cops ever do, so he’s sort of vigilante-like. And there are several times he actually helps the police out.
He succeeds largely through careful planning, and a willingness to bail on a plan if things start to go poorly, rather than try to force a bad plan to work. He just uses regular guns and body armor, but rarely needs to actually shoot because he’s usually got the drop on the other guys.
The closest thing he does to “superhuman” is his “That’s some Spider-man shit, there” jump off a balcony, but even there, that was based on something an actual person did once to escape an ambush.
Before actor Edward Woodward made The Equaliser TV series in the US (1980s) he starred in a British TV series called Callan (1970s). His job was to deal with people who the Government decided needed dealing with.
His character worked pretty much alone and was a sort of quasi-independent freelancer working for a vague ‘off the books’ British Government Agency. Unlike the much flashier James Bond or Equaliser or the characters in films such as Taken or John Wick he was mundane, down trodden, down to earth and just doing his job well but with a sense of being resigned to it type - he lacked the abilities to do anything else.
Lacking gadgets, resources, support and any special powers it would not represent a stretch to continue as a vigilante.
TCMF-2L
At that, JON SABLE: FREELANCE pretty much showcases a source of income right there in the title, since he openly advertises about being a bounty hunter who’ll do bodyguard-for-hire work; he keeps quiet about routinely handing money over to a records clerk at the police department, which helps explain why he (a) doesn’t hit dead ends when other folks out to do private-eye stuff would, as well as why he (b) keeps succeeding when the cops don’t yet have enough evidence to get a warrant.
Note that he made his public debut by wearing a mask, but making absolutely no secret of his identity, when explaining to the press that, oh, yes, he’s enthusiastically collecting the reward for having tracked down an escaped criminal. Hey, was it the kind of reward that police officers aren’t eligible to collect? Well, gosh; I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
Except that, without any other superpowers, being present at a disproportionately large number of crime scenes is dangerous. Even without, say, some crime boss tying up loose ends by silencing the witnesses, there’s still too much chance of a stray bullet, or a falling bit of rubble, or whatever.
I should mention the Red Bee. He showed up with no powers, a fancy gun and a pet bee named Michael. He lasted two years. When he came out of retirement, it was just so DC could kill him off, which seems very plausible to me.
Madame P. suggests Kick Ass, Hit-Girl, or, even better, Big Daddy, who also died early in the movie. (We’ve only seen the first movie.)
Yes. Finger was a year and a half older than Kane, so they’d have the same influences. Since Kane’s idea for Batman originally had a domino mask like Jimmy Dale (aaka "The Grey Seal’), he’s more likely to be cribbing from it, though. Still, it could have influenced both.
I considered Rorschach as well, but considering he was an active (and incredibly violent) vigilante for approximately 2 decades without major injuries (even after fighting a dozen heavily armed riot cops) as a hand-to-hand fighter and no body-armor or equipment put me in ‘near batman levels of plot armor’. Sure, his power level is within the realm, but if the Punisher is out, Rorschach would also have to be.
How about Paladin from Have gun - Will travel? It doesn’t seem like he would have or need any superpowers at all.
The most plausible fictional vigilante hero of all time is Scott McCloud’s Zot! From another, somewhat kinder, universe he flies around crime-ridden New York City and finds… nothing much. Once he hears a cry for help, but is unable to locate it. Finally he gets beat up, as others (some who appear oddly familiar) look on.
