Vigilante (DC Extended Universe)

Adrian Chase, also known as Vigilante, is a character in the DC Extended Universe, appearing as one of the two tritagonists (alongside Emilia Harcourt) of Season 1 of the HBO Max TV series Peacemaker.
He is a sadistic crime fighter who eliminates anyone who breaks the law, but acts as a busby when outside of his alter-ego. When his idol Peacemaker returns to Evergreen, Vigilante befriends him while also joining the 11th Street Kids to deal with the Butterflies' invasion of Earth.
He is portrayed by Freddie Stroma.
==Biography==
===Background===
Adrian Chase was born on June 30th, 1991 to unnamed parents, and is the younger brother to Gut Chase. At some point in his adulthood, Adrian decided to become a vigilante under the same name, as he killed anyone who broke the law for severe or small offenses. Due to his actions, Chase caught the authorities attention and was wanted on multiple counts of murder. While secretly fighting against crime, Chase worked as a busboy at Fennel Fields, and would become acquainted with fellow vigilante Peacemaker through his brother. Adrian became a fan of Smith's, and waited for his idol to be released from Belle Reve.
===Peacemaker===
While working at Fennel Fields one night, Chase spotted Peacemaker speaking with a group of people, and became ecstatic to see his idol released from prison. The following day, Adrian went to Peacemaker's trailer and proceeded to stalk him until the latter became aware of his presence. Chase assisted Smith in cleaning his residence and attempted to comfort his idol, as Peacemaker started to question his own ideology after the events of Corto Maltese. Adrian then explained that the two only killed bad people, and they went into the woods to shoot appliances with firearms. When Peacemaker started to work with Task Force X to deal with Project Butterfly, Chase started to stalk them as he didn't trust the others. He was spotted by Leota Adebayo, which led to him having a brief argument with Emilia Harcourt before leaving.
Despite appearing to have left Peacemaker and the team alone, Chase continued to stalk them as they traveled to Royland Goff's residence to kill him and his family. When Smith hesitated to eliminate Goff's children, Vigilante revealed himself and eliminated the wife and children before being attacked by Judomaster. Chase, Smith and Harcourt attempted to defeat Goff's bodyguard, but they were knocked unconscious and taken to the patriarch Royland. Taken to the Goff residence, Vigilante was unmasked and tortured by Royland, as the latter wanted to get information from Peacemaker, whom refused and egged Goff to torture Chase. During his torture, Task Force X arrived and planted explosives, which allowed Vigilante and Peacemaker to escape from their restraints. Smith proceeded to kill Goff, as an alien-like butterfly escaped from his exposed face. Peacemaker captured the butterfly before leaving the residence with Chase and Task Force X, who tasked Smith with keeping an eye on Chase so he wouldn't expose their operation.
Adrian drove Smith to his father's home where the former deduced that Auggie Smith was a racist, noticing a backwards American flag on the residence. Smith then learned from his father's neighbor that Auggie was framed by Task Force X and imprisoned, and Adrian offered to drive Peacemaker to the Evergreen Corrections Center. Encountering Leota at the corrections center, she managed to persuade Chase to kill Auggie as she believed that Smith would never be happy as long as his father was alive. Adrian agreed with Leota's statement, and had himself be arrested by breaking a window and confronting Auggie and the Aryan Empire. After enticing Auggie's followers into attacking him, Chase defeated them and attempted his plan until he was placed in handcuffs while telling Auggie he was a bad dad. This remark made Auggie believe his son was trying to kill him, which made Chase lament on his actions to Harcourt once he was released.
Following the incident, Chase was recruited into the team by Clemson Murn, who revealed to the others that he was butterfly who defected after feeling regret in taking over a human's body. Vigilante and the team were tasked with investigating a bottling plant to find anything on the substance the Butterflies eat, and Chase was partnered with Harcourt while Peacemaker worked with Leota. The two discovered boxes of the Butterflies' food supply and were chased by Butterfly-infected workers, and they came across Charlie the Gorilla. Fighting the gorilla with Peacemaker and Leota, the team were saved by John Economos, who killed Charlie with the chainsaw Chase initially wanted to use. The next day, Adrian arrived at Smith's trailer and attempted to ask questions to the Butterfly (known as "Eek Stack Ik Ik") that he captured, but they were interrupted by the Evergreen Police Department. During their escape from the police, Chase accidently broke the jar containing the Butterfly, which proceeded to enter Detective Sophie Song's body.
Managing to escape by a Butterfly-infected Caspar Locke, Vigilante and Peacemaker were informed by the team that the Butterflies' food supply was made by a cow at the Coverdale Ranch. The two then watched a live-broadcast of Peacemaker being framed by a fake diary that Leota placed in Smith's trailer, but the two decided to work with Economos to reach the ranch. During their drive, they were attacked by Auggie, who had obtained his armor and reassumed his supervillain persona "White Dragon" with his followers, and attempted to kill his son. Vigilante assisted Smith and Economos in fighting White Dragon, and managed to damage Auggie's armor by stabbing gaps within it. Chase and Economos then witnessed Smith kill Auggie, and the former to comfort him by patting him on the back. After taking Eagly to the vet, the group returned to the team as Harcourt was promoted to leader after Murn was killed by Eek Stack Ik Ik.
At Coverdale Ranch, Vigilante assisted his teammates in fighting against the Butterflies as Peacemaker and Leota used his helmets to kill the Butterfly cow. After the battle, Vigilante and others left the ranch and encountered the Justice League, who were called by Amanda Waller to help the 11th Street Kids. Vigilante and Harcourt were then taken to the Mount Rouge Health Center to recover from their injuries, but Chase escaped after seeing Leota reveal the truth of Waller's operations on live television. Once regaining his costume, Vigilante returned to Peacemaker to blow up a car.
==Quotes==
==Gallery==
Peacemaker poster.jpg
Deathstroke Inc. Vol 1 5 Textless Peacemaker variant.jpg
Harley Quinn vol 5 11 textless variant Peacemaker.jpg
Peacemaker-and-Vigilante.jpg
==Trivia==
*He was originally going to be played by Chris Conrad, but he left due to creative differences.
*Despite his clear psychosis, Vigilante is A LOT tamer than someone like Joker. In fact fans have compared Vigilante to Deadpool in terms of his craziness and humor.
*He is against ostentatious equipment, calling his car the Vigilante Mobile without it looking any different than a normal one.
*He can't understand sorrow well; not getting Peacemaker needed a moment to grieve after killing White Dragon.
*His civilian identity and costumed identities were previously used in Arrow for two different characters; Adrian Chase was Prometheus, while Vigilante was Vincent Sorbel.
*Freddie Stroma as Vigilante will be one of the few castings that will remain the same in James Gunn's upcoming DC Universe reboot.
==See Also==
*Vigilante on the Villains Wiki.
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