Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So he made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now he’s watching them all. Previously, Joe watched the horrible Hop Harrigan. This time, he vigilantly views what 1947 has to offer, The Vigilante.

The Vigilante (AKA The Vigilante: Fighting Hero of the West) (May 22nd, 1947)

Released on May 22nd, 1947 by Columbia Pictures, this 15-part movie serial was directed by Wallace Fox and written by Lewis Clay, Arthur Hoerl, and George H. Plympton. Plympton had previously written Hop Harrigan and would go on to write Batman and Robin, Atom Man vs. Superman, and The Miraculous Blackhawk: Freedom’s Champion. Plympton would again team up with Clay and Hoerl to write Superman and Congo Bill.

The serial is based on the DC Comics character The Vigilante created by Mort Weisinger and Mort Meskin. Co-creator of characters like Aquaman and Green Arrow, Weisinger would also go on to edit Superman and Batman comics for DC. This would eventually lead to him being a story editor on the television series The Adventures of Superman. But before all that, there was The Vigilante.

The Vigilante AKA Greg Sanders (later changed to Saunders) was introduced in Action Comics in 1941 and remained a permanent fixture there until 1954. He returned to the comics in the 1970s and has stuck around as a secondary character ever since.