The Vigilante made his first appearance in Action Comics #42 (November, 1941), joining the already popular line-up of Superman, Zatara, Mr. America (a.k.a The Americommando) and Congo Bill. His strip appeared as a feature of the magazine until issue #198 (November, 1954) making him one of the longest lasting features in that classic comic book. Unfortunately, it was tough to beat Superman in terms of popularity, and the Vigilante was featured on the cover of the book only once (Action Comics #52), but did manage to get one solo cover to himself, on a souvenir edition of the series to commemorate his 1947 movie serial.

The origin of the Vigilante was fairly straightforward, as was typical of 1940's mystery men. Greg Saunders' grandfather was an Indian fighter, and his father was a sheriff in Wyoming. As a young man, he moved east to New York City and became a country singer, radio's "Prairie Troubadour". Greg returned to his home after his father was killed, bringing to justice the gang of bandits that had killed the sheriff during a stagecoach hold-up, afterwards devoting his life to battling criminals in the same manner, taking the Western-themed identity of the Vigilante. (One slight revision to this came a few months later, when it was explained that the stagecoach was used to transport gold from a mine, and that the bandits were actually Easterners, since the idea of a stagecoach heist in modern times was a little absurd.)

For the most part, the Vigilante's solo adventures were pretty down-to-earth. He was an excellent brawler, trick shooter, sharpshooter, horseman and motorcycle rider, and an expert with the lariat, all skills that put him to great advantage over his adversaries in his entertaining, but often-mundane adventures, which centered primarily in New York City. He fought few, if any, foes that could be considered "super-villains". His arch-foe, if he could be considered that, was the Dummy, a brilliant weapons inventor and professional killer who resembled a ventriloquist's dummy in both size and facial features. He also encountered The Rainbow Man and The Rattler on several occasions, as well as The Fiddler and The Shade, though the latter two villains are not the same foes that battled the Golden Age Flash.

The Vigilante also fell prey to the "sidekick-syndrome" that beset many heroes of the era, acquiring a young lad to aid him in his crime fighting. Stuff, the Chinatown Kid, was introduced in Action Comics #45. Stuff was the grandson of Lin Chou, leader of the White Lotus tong in New York's Chinatown. He assisted the Vigilante when a Japanese spy known as the Head framed his grandfather for provoking a Tong war. Stuff (or his son Stuff, Jr., depending on which continuity you consider) worked with the Vigilante until his apparent retirement.

Continuity problems abounded with The Vigilante's sidekick for a few years. Stuff was first shown, as a young adult, to have been murdered by the Dummy in the pages of World's Finest Comics. His own son, Stuff Jr., helped the Vigilante bring the killer to justice. James Robinson's mini-series, Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice, has Stuff being killed either again by the Dummy or on the orders (or perhaps by the hand) of mobster Bugsy Siegel. Stuff was also an active member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, though the Stuff in the SSOV has been revealed to be the original Stuff's brother (in Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. #9), who is apparently using the same nickname. After the events of the team's final case, Stuff (whose given name is Victor Leong) is now the president of Greg Sander's business operations, including the "Greg Saunders' Round-Up" restaurant chain.

The Vigilante was also assisted (or did the assisting of, as was quite often the case) Billy Gunn, an old man who is referred to as the gunslinger's mentor in current continuity. Billy also appeared with Vig in several early Law's Legionnaires adventures in Leading Comics (though Stuff, his regular partner in his own strip at the time, never did).

The Vigilante worked with several groups of costumed super-heroes. Like most forties' mystery men, he was (retroactively) a member of the wartime conglomeration of super-heroes known as the All-Star Squadron. He was a founding member of the Law's Legionnaires, more popularly known today as The Seven Soldiers of Victory. He originally joined the Shining Knight, the Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy, The Crimson Avenger (and his sidekick Wing), and the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy to battle the menace of The Hand. They also faced such villains as Black Star, Dr. Doome, and (in adventure that was scripted but not published until the seventies) Willy Wisher.

It was revealed in Justice League of America #100-102 how, on their last case, the Seven Soldiers of Victory defeated the powerful Nebula Man. It was at the cost of Wing's life and the rest of the team being thrown into the time stream. Twenty years later, it took the combined forces of the Justice League and Justice Society to reunite the team so that they could remake their powerful Nebula Rod weapon to stop the Iron Hand's (their former foe the Hand) attempt to destroy Earth-Two.

Because of the effects of Crisis on Infinite Earths and numerous retroactive continuity changes, the Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy never existed. Wing was finally considered a full member of the team and, at least initially, Billy Gunn was also with the team. Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #9 detailed the events leading up to the Soldiers' last official case, and showed Wing still an unofficial member, but Green Arrow and Speedy had been replaced with Stuff the Chinatown Kid and the costumed archer known as the Spider (who had been featured in adventures published by Quality Comics). Unfortunately, the Spider was actually a criminal posing as a hero, and was working with the Soldiers' archenemy, the Hand. The Spider helped the Hand create the Nebula Man and sabotaged the Soldier's initial attempt at making a Nebula Rod to stop the creature. The Spider killed Vig's pal Billy Gunn, but was rendered unconscious by Wing, who also was able to repair the Rod when he caught up with the rest of the team. Again, the successful attempt to destroy the Nebula Man cost Wing his life, and the Seven Soldiers were again sown to the winds of time. As in Justice League of America #100-102, the JLA and JSA teamed up to retrieve the Soldiers, with Stuff ending up in Ancient Greece (where Speedy was originally sent). It appears that Hawkman, Doctor Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman (Hippolyta), who originally were sent back to retrieve Green Arrow, instead were tasked with gathering the materials for the Nebula Rod, while The Flash, The Red Tornado and Zatanna actually rescued Stuff instead of Green Arrow's partner Speedy (possibly still from the clutches of Circe in ancient Greece).

The Vigilante was the "victim" of one of the major changes in this particular adventure. Where as most of the Seven Soldiers of Victory were stuck in the past for only about a week, the Vigilante was stuck in the Old West for a considerably longer time. Thanks to the inaccurate magic of Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt (who brought Johnny, Green Arrow and Black Canary back in time to get Vig), they did not get to The Vigilante until nearly TWENTY YEARS after he had arrived in the past. Greg Saunders did become one of the actual legendary Old West gunfighters, working with such similar personages as Strong Bow (which throws another continuity problem, as Strong Bow walked the West around the time Columbus discovered America), Madame.44, Nighthawk, Brian Savage (also known as Scalphunter) and Bat Lash. Pat Dugan (Stripesy) recalled, "Greg said it was the best time of his life." He still came out ahead, aging only twenty years over the span of forty years of real time that the Seven Soldiers of Victory were lost in time.

The Vigilante has also worked with Superman (in an adventure which may or may not still be in continuity) and the modern hero known as El Diablo on separate occasions. He also had an adventure with the Justice League of America, but I believe this adventure has been taken out of the current continuity (it has been previously noted as the first appearance of the Earth-1 Vigilante) The late Mark Gruenwald's Justice League Reader noted that the Vigilante was an honorary member of the Justice League of America (like Batgirl, Adam Strange or the Phantom Stranger), because of his assistance during this adventure.

Greg Saunders has a nephew in the Houston area, Michael Carter, who assumes the guise of the costumed hero known as The Swashbuckler to fight crime. This new hero aided the Batman on a single case against the Riddler, and has yet to be seen again (he didn't even rate an entry in DC's Who's Who for some reason). The Vigilante was also once noted as being married, maintaining a home in Beverly Hills with his wife and former leading lady Sally. I'm not sure if this bit of information is still part of current continuity.

The Vigilante was also one of the relatively few DC comic book characters to make the transition to the big screen, in a 15-episode movie serial starring Ralph Byrd, Ramsey Ames and Lyle Talbot.

The Vigilante never had the complexities and angst of many of his modern counterparts, but that simplicity made him a fun character. He was one of the few gun-toting heroes that didn't feel the need for Punisher-style blood baths, preferring to use his weapons to disarm, and only killing if it became absolutely necessary, and actually feeling bad for his vanquished foe if he was forced to do so. A refreshing change of pace from today's breed of hero ... if you can still apply that term to most of them.

El Diablo: "You're bleeding, old-timer. You ought to get that taken care of."
The Vigilante: "Aw, the heck with it. Does a man good to bleed sometimes. Reminds him that he's still alive."

For a list of the appearances of the Vigilante in comics, please use the pull-down menu at the top of the page.

NOTE ON SPELLING: The original spelling of The Vigilante's secret identity was Greg "Sanders". It seems that in current continuity that the spelling has been "retconned" to "Saunders". I have changed all or most of the references in this site to reflect that. That is also the way the name was pronounced in the 1947 Movie Serial.