Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction. An Encyclopedia from Able Team to Z-Comm

by Bradley Mengel

  2. Jungle of Steel and Stone, 200 pages, 1988

  Related Works

  Veil appears in the Mongo novel Two Songs This Archangel Sings (Atheneum, 249 pages, 1987). Both Chant and Veil Kendry appear in the Mongo novel Dark Chant in a Crimson Key (Mysterious Press, 217 pages, 1992). Two Veil short stories, "The Lazarus Gate" and "Unmarked Graves," appear in the collection Lone Wolves (Apache Beach, 245 pages, 2003). Both stories had previously published in Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine.

  Vigilante (Joseph Madden)

  Six books by V.J. Santiago

  Joe Madden was a veteran of the Korean War, who on his return to civilian life became an engineer in New York City. Happily married, Madden and his wife, Sara, had a weekly dinner date with Sara's sister and her husband for dinner. One night that Madden was called to an urgent meeting with a difficult client and Sara went to dinner on her own. On her way home Sara was murdered, her face slashed in the attack on the subway.

  Madden did not react well to this and attempted to drink himself into oblivion. One night, while drunk out of his mind, Madden was attacked; the attacker stole his wallet and wedding ring and sliced open his face. It was then that Madden became a vigilante. Initially armed with a kitchen knife, Madden quickly upgraded his armament, taking weapons from the criminals he killed.

  Unaware of his vigilante activities, his firm sends him all over the country troubleshooting major projects for them to help him get over his traumatic experiences. Everywhere he goes, Madden hunts down criminals and kills them. While Madden tackles street-level crime, he is able on occasion able to take down crime bosses. One of Maddens jobs was with a printing company and he was able to get several false identity documents made, which he puts to good use in his war on crime.

  Behind the Scenes

  This series, based on ideas by Lyle Kenyon Engel, was written by Robert Lory under the penname Y J. Santiago. Lory was also the author of the Horrorscopes and Dracula series under his own name as well as the several books in the Expeditor series as Paul Edwards.

  The Books

  The series was published by Pinnacle Books:

  1. New York: An Eye for an Eye, 180 pages, 1975

  2. Los Angeles: Detour to a Funeral, 182 pages, 1975

  3. San Francisco: Kill or Be Killed, 166 pages, 1976

  4. Chicago: Knock, Knock, You're Dead, 184 pages, 1976

  5. Detroit: Dead End Delivery, 179 pages, 1976

  6. Washington: This Gun for Justice, 178 pages, 1978

  Warhawks, Inc.

  Six books by James Keith

  This is about a team of mercenaries that were recruited by Col. Rhodes (he's not given a first name, just called either the Colonel or Rhodes), one of the most renowned mercenaries in the world before an unspecified illness prevented him from participating in field operations. Rhodes rescues a fellow soldier of fortune, Jeff Hawke, from certain death to help him create his own specialized mercenary force. Hawke had been captured by a South American dictator that he'd been fighting against. The dictator had tortured Hawke and was nearly ready to kill the Aussie mercenary. Hawke, who had worked with the Colonel earlier when he used another name, is offered the opportunity to form a specialized team known as Warhawks, Inc.

  The six-man team consists of:

  • Jeff Hawke: Australian team leader

  • Dirk Paulus: South African soldier

  • Mitch Devlin: ex-Marine and surveillance expert, a red-haired, freckled-faced giant

  • Chick Larkin: English explosives expert

  • Pepe Andre: French, the most experienced veteran on the team, and admits it's not his real name

  • Dieter Hinkel: German killer

  The crew is joined by two women:

  • Christina Rhodes: pilot and the Colonel's daughter

  • Hanni Stein: Israeli who joined the team after avenging the death of her parents

  The Warhawks, Inc., team is based out of Rhodes family estate, Palmyra, in Miami, which is a large estate, suitable for jungle training. Rhodes also owns a beach house on the coast of Florida which can be used for beach assault training. Rhodes' conception for the team is an elite strike force that can handle any high-risk assignment, including bodyguarding, bounty hunting, security, surveillance and military operations. Over the course of the series, they act as bodyguards for the son of an African president, storm a hijacked plane, fight a rogue mercenary group, stop a neo-Nazi group, and stop terrorist attacks.

  Behind the Scenes

  Cleveland Press is one of Australia's longest running pulp publishers, founded in 1953 and publishing primarily westerns. By 1984 they were seeking to broaden their output, adding the Cougar Book line for romance novels and starting the Warhawks, Inc. series. Both of these ventures were unsuccessful, with the axing of Warhawks, Inc. and the conversion of Cougar to a western reprint line.

  Cleveland approached Keith Hetherington, one of their fastest writers, to create a non-western series for them and he created this soldier-of-fortune series. Hetherington had written westerns under many pseudonyms for Cleveland, including Kirk Hamilton, Brett Waring and Clint McCall. For other publishers, Hetherington turned out thrillers under the name Keith Conway and the boy's adventure novel The Scuba Buccaneers (1966) as James Keith. Hetherington also wrote scripts for the Australian television crime series Homicide, Matlock Police and Division 4 for Crawford Productions from 1970 to 1975.

  The Books

  All books were published by Cleveland Press:

  1. Strike One, 128 pages, 1984

  2. Rogue Mere, 128 pages, 1984

  3. Birds of Prey, 128 pages, 1984

  4. Yesterdays Hero, 128 pages, 1984

  5. Kill Zone, 128 pages, 1984

  6. Shadow Mission, 128 pages, 1984

  Keith Hetherington had written ten books for this series but, due to poor sales, only the first six books were published. The unpublished titles were:

  7. "Passage of Arms"

  8. "Wolves of War"

  9. "Paycheck Soldiers"

  10. "Warheads"

  Related Works

  It is strongly implied that Col. Rhodes could be Allen Faulkner from the Wild Geese, Hawke mentioning that he was unavailable for that mission.

  Wild Geese

  Two books by Daniel Carney

  Col. Allen Faulkner is considered to be one of the greatest mercenary commanders in the world. But his standing took a blow when his last contract was unable to be undertaken as African leader Julian Limbani was captured by a rival force before Faulkner arrived in Africa. After this, Faulkner is unable to get work until he is approached by merchant banker Sir Edward Matheson. Matheson is aware that Limbani is still alive and hires Faulkner to rescue him from the rebel forces. Faulkner is to form a force of fifty men and rescue the former president.

  Faulkner quickly recruits his lieutenants:

  • Rafer Janders: the best planner in the business but got into trouble with the Mafia when he shot the nephew of the London Don after being tricked into carrying drugs

  • Jeremy Chandos: a young, reckless gambler who, after being disinherited by his father, became a mercenary

  • Peter Coetzee: Rhodesian game warden who travelled to London to see the big city; his bush skills make him ideal for the mission

  • Shaun Fynn: pilot for Mad Malloy in Biafra, who joined the mission for a love of adventure

  The officers are joined by the training officer:

  • Sandy Young: sixty-year-old sergeant major responsible for training the fifty men for this mission

  The fifty-man team trains and eventually rescues the president but, due to a heavier military presence guarding Limbani than anticipated, the team is unable to take their plane and is forced to attempt to travel overland with heavy causalities. The second book has Faulkner training another team of mercenaries to rescue Rudolph Hess from Spandau Prison for an American television network.

  Behind the Scenes

  Daniel Carney was born in 1944 as the son of B
ritish diplomat. While educated in England, he grew up in the Far East. In 1963, Carney settled in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and joined the British South Africa Police. He divided his time between writing and defending the country's borders against guerilla attacks and passed away from cancer in 1985.

  The Books

  Both books were published by Corgi Books:

  1. The Wild Geese, 302 pages, 1977 (originally titled "The Thin White Line")

  2. Square Circle, 280 pages, 1982 (also published as The Return of the Wild Geese and The Wild Geese II)

  The Movies

  The Wild Geese was released in 1978 and starred Richard Burton as Col. Allen Faulkner, Roger Moore as Lt. Shawn Fynn (spelling changed from the book), Hardy Kruger as Lt. Pieter Coetze and Richard Harris as Rafe Janders. This all-star production was one of the biggest movies of the year. Producer Euan Lloyd was inspired by the earlier Guns of Navarone. The movie had several differences from the book, with the characters of Shawn Fynn and Jeremy Chandos amalgamated, and characters who died in the book surviving in the movie. In 1984, The Wild Geese II was released. Initially intended to be Col. Allen Faulkner leading a new group of mercenaries to free Rudolph Hess from Spandau Prison, with the death of Richard Burton, his role was recast with Edward Fox as playing Faulkner's brother Alex.

  Related Works

  Carney's book help popularize "wild geese" as a generic term for mercenaries. So, therefore, it is difficult to determine if any use of Wild Geese may be a related work or a merely a use of the generic term. Mike Hoare's memoir Congo Mercenary was re-issued by Corgi books as Mercenary: The Classic True-Life Account of Mercenary Warfare by Mike Hoare, Technical Adviser for the Film The Wild Geese in 1978 with a similar cover to their edition of The Wild Geese. The 1984 Italian movie Geheimcode: Wildganse (Codename: Wild Geese) is a generic use of the term.

  Kouta Hirano's manga Hellsing (1997) features a team of mercenaries called the Wild Geese; their leader Pip Bernadotte is a sixth-generation member of the Wild Geese, suggesting this is a reference to the original Irish Wild Geese rather than to this version. Hirano's earlier hentai (pornographic manga) Coyote, set during World War II, also features a mercenary named Pip Bernadotte who may be the grandfather or father of his namesake in Hellsing.

  In the Warhawks series by James Keith, Australian mercenary Jeff Hawke mentions to Col. Rhodes that he was on the way to the Wild Geese jump when that mission was aborted. While Col. Rhodes could potentially be Col. Allen Faulkner, this is likely a reference to the generic term.

  Marvel Comics' New Universe line of comics featured Mark Hazzard: Merc. One of Hazzard's team is Sgt Major Peel. Peel is introduced in issue #7: Incentives but in #10: Iran Slam, Peel is asked to gather some of the Wild Geese to assist in a rescue mission. This would seem to be a generic reference but in Annual #1: A Matter of Lives and Death, Peel recounts how he came to be a mercenary after the Vietnam War with the group "they called the Wild Geese. Although I always thought that Richard Burton was wrong for the part in the film." This is a clear reference to the Wild Geese film where Richard Burton played Col. Allen Faulkner.

  Z-COMM

  Four books by Kyle Maning

  Z-Comm is another group of mercenaries. The Z-Commandoes are "mean muthas, sick bastards. America's Best."

  The group consists of a group of Vietnam veterans:

  • Logan Cage: team leader

  • Frank "Bear" MacBeth: giant, bald, ex-Special Forces

  • Harry Zabriske: thief and acquisitions specialist

  • Sam Proffit: martial artist and weapons whiz

  • Domino Black: sex appeal

  Oddly, Domino is depicted on the covers as sporting an eye patch, a fact not mentioned in any of the books. Similarly, Bear MacBeth is described as being completely bald in the books but the cover illustrations of the team have all team members with hair.

  When the situation is hopeless, the solution is Z-Comm. When neo-Nazis try to enslave America, Z-Comm goes undercover and stops their plans. Z-Comm has also protected world leaders, tackled terrorist groups, hunted down kiddie porn snuff filmmakers and searched for soldiers listed as missing in action in Vietnam. The team liaison in Washington is Peter Quartermaine, who gets the jobs too dirty for other agencies for this team. Peter Quartermaine was one of the greatest mercenaries the world has ever seen but, after making his fortune, he retired to strategically manage his own mercenary team, Z-Comm.

  Behind the Scenes

  Kyle Maning was the pen name of action adventure author David Alexander. The Richmond Observer called Alexander 'The King of Action-Adventure Fiction" and he is the author of the post-apocalyptic series Phoenix, the near-future Nomad series and several novels based on the adventures of the United States Marine Corps, set in a world where America fights both the war on terror and the Cold War at the same time. Alexander has an interest in the future developments in warfare and has written several books and articles on the future of warfare. He is also the author of several nonfiction works on conspiracies and coverups as well as the history of the Pentagon.

  The Books

  The series was published by Leisure Books:

  1. Swastika, 285 pages, 1988

  2. Killpoint, 273 pages, 1989

  3. MIA, 279 pages, 1989

  4. Blood Storm, 280 pages, 1990

  //Appendices

  1. Crossovers, References and Parodies

  The serial vigilante genre is one that has been influenced by the dime and pulp novels that preceded it. Other scholars such as Jess Nevins (2003) have pointed out that the characters in those stories would often meet, interact and refer to each other. This is certainly true of the serial vigilantes who also make reference to and meet characters from the pulps and earlier.

  Pulp References

  Of course, the serial vigilantes were directly inspired by the hero pulps that preceded them but this section is not about that but rather where the characters of the hero pulps are directly referenced or appear in the serial vigilante texts themselves. The first reference to pulp heroes in the serial vigilante genre comes, appropriately enough, in the first Executioner novel, War Against the Mafia where two Mafia goons compare Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan, the Executioner to the Phantom and the Shadow. In later adventures Mack compared a villain to Doc Savage and faced K'tulu (Cthulhu). In 1975, Don Pendleton was asked to write an introduction the Ballantine Mystery Classics reprint of Hound of the Baskervilles. In that essay Pendleton opens with a dream where Mack Bolan visits 221B Baker Street and interacts with Sherlock Holmes.

  In the Destroyer #4: Mafia Fix, Remo Williams meets James Bond, Hercule Poirot and Mr. Moto. Bond reappears in Destroyer #8: Summit Chase, Remo goes on to meet in later books Fu Manchu, and a man who may be the Green Hornet's partner Kato (Destroyer #83: Skull Duggery), and Khadhulu/Sa Mangsang (Cthulhu) (Destroyer #77: Coin of the Realm, #100: Last Rites, #139: Dream Thing, #141: Frightening Strikes) and discovers he was buried next to Danny Colt, the Spirit in Wildwood Cemetery (Destroyer #69: Blood Ties). In the same adventure he meets members of the Cranston family (from the Shadow series) and a mercenary named Brock Savage. Destroyer #102: Unite and Conquer has references to the Phantom and Zorro. Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar series and Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth are referenced in Destroyer #136: Unpopular Science and #137: Industrial Evolution when the villain escapes in a mechanical mole into a cavern system deep in the earth.

  Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, encounters a cult that worships Uhluhtc (Cthulhu) in The Lost Cult and makes reference to her ancestor, Roger Croft, serving in the Napoleonic wars with Greystoke, Holmes, Templar, Quatermain, and Bond (implicitly ancestors of Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Simon Templar, Allan Quatermain and James Bond) in The Man of Bronze. In the novelization of the first Tomb Raider movie Lara compares a portrait of her father to Arne Sacknussem. Arne Sacknussemm (note the slightly different spelling) made the original discovery of the path to the Earth's centre during the 16th century in Jules Verne's Journey to th
e Centre of the Earth.

  Mark Hardin, The Penetrator, compares himself or is compared to Superman and Robin Hood in several of his adventures and fights Vlad Dosadan Magarac, a vampiric descendant of Count Dracula in Penetrator #45: Quaking Terror. In several books, Hardin uses the alias of John Savage. Philip Jose Farmer's Greatheart Silver meets a parody version of nearly every hero pulp character in his first story Showdown at Shootout. Similarly, Lin Carter's Prince Zarkon also interacts with more serious versions of these characters at the Cobalt Club from the Shadow series in all but the first of his adventures. Jake Speed, when told that Doc Savage used the type of jeeps that he is forced to use, reminds his assistant that Savage had been retired for years. Tom Brannon from Invasion USA read Doc Savage novels back when he was a boy.

  Less obviously, in The Hitman #2: L.A. Massacre, Dirk Spencer lives up to a reporter's wish for an "old-fashioned vigilante," showing his hero-pulp inspiration even more than his fellow serial vigilantes, being a wealthy playboy turned vigilante. Jesse Mach (Street Hawk), in his first adventure, joked about leaving a silver bullet so they would think he was the great-grandson of the Lone Ranger. The classic detective Ellery Queen is mentioned by the Vigilante (Adrian Chase) in Vigilante #13: Locke Room Murder and Annja Creed of Rogue Angel is a regular reader of Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine as mentioned in Rogue Angel #1: Destiny. In Dexter in the Dark, Dexter is on honeymoon in Paris and considers making a pilgrimage to Rue Morgue, referring to the Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. Mr. Chapel of Vengeance Unlimited stays at motels in the Paladin Motel chain. This is reference to Paladin from Have Gun Will Travel