Adrian Chase
| Adrian Chase | |
|---|---|
 Adrian Chase as Vigilante as seen on the cover of Vigilante #17. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance |
New Teen Titans #23 (September 1982) New Teen Titans Annual #2 (August 1983; as Vigilante) |
| Created by |
Marv Wolfman George Pérez |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Adrian Chase |
| Team affiliations | Checkmate |
| Notable aliases | Vigilante |
| Abilities |
Brilliant marksman Superb hand-to-hand combatant Brilliant marksman |
Adrian Chase is the second fictional character known as "Vigilante" that appeared in American comic books published by DC Comics. Josh Segarra portrayed Adrian Chase on The CW's live-action TV series Arrow.
Publication history
Created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciler George Pérez, Adrian Chase first appeared in New Teen Titans #23 (September 1982) and as the Vigilante in New Teen Titans Annual #2 (August 1983).
After his initial appearance, the character gained his own ongoing Vigilante series, initially written by Wolfman and later included writers such as Alan Moore and Paul Kupperberg.
Fictional character biography
Adrian Chase was a New York City district attorney unlike his father Charles Chase. He sought justice his own way as the Vigilante after his wife Doris Chase and their children were killed by mobsters.[1] Adrian was initially shown taking pains to make sure he did not kill his enemies (unlike the Punisher) and would regularly use non-lethal weaponry to disable his opponents.
Throughout the Vigilante series, Chase was tormented over the justice of his actions and the pain brought to others. Chase flirted with abandoning his Vigilante identity after he savagely beat an ex-convict who turned out to be innocent. Eventually, Chase did abandon his Vigilante identity, believing that he could be both more effective and happier as a judge. But during his absence, the Vigilante identity was assumed by two of his friends (fellow judge Alan Wells and then bailiff Dave Winston respectively) without his knowledge.
But after Wells killed a police officer and in the wake of Winston's death at Peacemaker's hands, Chase once again assumed the Vigilante role, believing it was the only way to protect his loved ones. However, his experiences with Welles and Winston had damaged his fragile psyche beyond repair, causing him to adopt more vicious tactics in his war on crime. Seeking revenge on Peacemaker, the out of shape Adrian gets beaten in a fight and unmasked on live TV, thereby ending Chase's secret identity and forcing him even further into the Vigilante role.
Eventually, Chase became ever more conflicted over the violence he engaged in and the harm he caused to those around him. He also became increasingly mentally unstable—alternating between bouts of enraged violence, paranoia and terrible remorse for his actions. Near the end, he even resorted to murdering innocent police officers who got in his way. His mounting guilt culminated in Chase contemplating the course of his life and then committing suicide.[2]
Before his death, he frequently battled Cannon and Saber and Electrocutioner.
Adrian makes an appearance in the Day of Judgment limited series, as one of the dead heroes in Purgatory. He and the others run interference, battling the guardians of the realm, so other living heroes can escape with the soul of Hal Jordan. When the crisis concluded with Jordan assuming the Spectre mantle, Jim Corrigan appeared briefly on Earth, stating that the efforts of Chase and other heroes in Purgatory had earned an appeal in the shining city.[3]
It is been revealed recently that Adrian is the brother of Dorian Chase.
Powers and abilities
The Vigilante is a superb hand-to-hand combatant, a brilliant marksman, and a master of the lariat.
In other media
Television
Josh Segarra portrays an adapted depiction of Adrian Chase during season five of The CW's Arrow.[4][5] Similar to his comics counterpart, he is Star City's District Attorney, Doris Chase's husband, and Oliver Queen's ally. But rather than use the Vigilante alias, the character is instead the Earth-1 iteration of "Prometheus". He was born Simon Morrison, the illegitimate son of corrupt pharmaceutical CEO Justin Clayborne. After his father gets killed by Oliver, he trained under Talia al Ghul to acquire similar combat tactics and fighting techniques. His Prometheus alias is a dark-hooded serial killer (otherwise known as the Throwing Star Killer) who wields a sword and a bow but primarily kills using shurikens forged from Oliver's discarded arrows. As Prometheus, Adrian embarks on a crusade to destroy Oliver's reputation as both the Green Arrow and Mayor in City Hall, deals with the other individuals (crime lord Tobias Church and the Vigilante) making attempts on Oliver, plants evidence to frame Quentin Lance for his own murders, convinces Artemis to betray Team Arrow, manipulates Green Arrow into killing police detective Billy Malone (dressed with the Prometheus costume) and leaks his cover up to the press to trigger an impeachment hearing that forces Oliver to publicly disown Green Arrow as a cop killer, forces Black Siren (Earth-2) to impersonate Laurel Lance (Earth-1) to trick Team Arrow, and tricked John Diggle into being detained by the authorities before exonerating the man. At the cost of his wife's life, Chase captures Oliver with Talia's help as both seek revenge on Queen for killing their respective fathers. Adrian proceeds to torture Oliver (physically and psychologically) to confess enjoying killing targets; Oliver's heroic identity and crusade are merely a pretext and subsequently burns off Oliver's Bratva tattoo before setting his nemesis free. Despite using a device from Kord Industries that can blur his face from surveillance cameras when unmasked, his device gets reverse-engineered by Felicity Smoak and Curtis Holt with a stolen device to decrypt his unmasking's surveillance footage, exposing him to the SCPD. Realizing this, Chase kills his two protective custody agents and escapes Star City by car whilst whistling to "A Beautiful Morning". Adrian activates an EMP in Team Arrow's headquarters, allowing him to escape. He later teams up with Derek Sampson to release his father's weaponized tuberculosis on Star City while also trying to destroy Robert Queen's legacy before he's captured by Green Arrow. While in A.R.G.U.S. custody, Chase orders his team to capture Team Arrow and forces Oliver to free him, revealing he captured William Clayton (Oliver's son). Adrian goes to Lian Yu after his team captures Team Arrow, however, Oliver later frees Team Arrow and Samantha Clayton. Incapacitated and unwilling to accept defeat with William's safety, Adrian commits suicide which triggers C4 bombs on the island which presumably kills several people. Adrian returns in season six as a hallucination from Vertigo to deceive Oliver.
The tie-in novel Arrow: Fatal Legacies reveals that Adrian hired criminal Alex Faust to destroy buildings that were close to Oliver. Before his death, he recorded himself in a video which Oliver discovered. The idea of his plan about destroying the buildings was to trigger PTSD for Oliver from Lian Yu's explosion to break psychologically again. Adrian's post-mortem plans were ultimately prevented.
Video games
Adrian Chase will appear as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains, as both Vigilante (comics) and Prometheus (Arrow) as part of the "DC Super Heroes: TV Series DLC Character Pack".
References
- ↑ Vigilante (1983) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived July 19, 2015, at WebCite from the original on July 19, 2015.
- ↑ Vigilante #50 (February 1988)
- ↑ Day of Judgement #5
- ↑ Bryant, Jacob (March 2, 2017). "'Arrow' Finally Reveals Prometheus' Identity (SPOILERS)". Variety. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
- ↑ Mitovich, Matt Webb (March 16, 2017). "Arrow Recap: The Chase Is On, as Prometheus Arc Shifts Into High Gear". TVLine. Retrieved May 19, 2018.