VIGILANTE SQUAD

MEMBERSHIP: Elite, the Holy, Mister Payback

PURPOSE: Killing of criminals everywhere

AFFILIATIONS: idolized the Punisher (Castle)

ENEMIES: criminals of all types;
    Punisher (Castle)

BASE of OPERATIONS: the Holy's Church, Spanish Harlem, New York
    (Elite): Riverside Park, the Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York

FIRST APPEARANCE: (as a group) Punisher V#10, 11 (February 2001)
    (Elite):                 Punisher V#5 (August, 2000);
    (Holy):                Punisher V#2 (May, 2000);
    (Mr. Payback):  Punisher V#5 (August, 2000)

HISTORY:
(Punisher V#9) - A news feature covered the actions of the series of killings by Elite, Mr. Payback, and the unidentified axe murderer. All three vigilantes saw the feature and got the same idea--to team up. The Punisher saw the feature as well.

(Punisher V#10) - Mr. Payback drove into the Upper East Side, where he saw Elite killing a pot dealer. Payback introduced himself to Elite and convinced him to consider an alliance, since they both acted in areas where the law was insufficient. They drove towards Spanish Harlem to find the "Axeman," and then to hopefully joing up with the Punisher. They located the Holy as one of his victims tried to flee the Church. Elite killed the man, and then the Holy agreed to join forces with them.

(Punisher V#11) - While they motivations, methods, and targets varied greatly, they managed to agree on two things (as--mostly--articulated by the Holy):
    (1) "We don't go after particular groups of criminals. We don't decide that these people over here are worse than the ones over there, or whatever. We have to confront evil, wherever we find it. Every criminal. Every monster. Every piece of scum. We have to go out and kill them all."
    (2) "We need the Punisher's expertise and weaponry.  He will lead a crusade to cleanse this city of sin. To erase a foulness like unto Sodom and Gomorrah. To enter the temples of the moneylenders, and to cast their riches asunder."

(Punisher V#12) - The Vigilante Squad had argued for weeks on how to set up their rules and best go about their mission. Finally, the Punisher located them at their meeting at the Holy's Church. They asked him to lead them, and he denounced them for taking down at least four innocents in their various missions. They outlined their plans to him and asked if that wasn't exactly what he wanted. He answered, "No" as he unleashed a hail of bullets on the trio.

COMMENTS: Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

The Ennis/Dillon team is the very best to ever touch the Punisher, in his thirty some year history, in my opinion. That being said, I might have preferred to see the team turn on itself. Mr. Payback and Elite were pretty much opposites. One could have killed the other, and then the Holy could have turned on the victor...with Castle coming in to take out the last man standing.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

Elite has no known connection to:

The Holy has no known connection to:

Payback has no known connection to:

ELITE

name unknown

A wealthy YUPpie, he had a wife, son, and daughter, who had no idea what he was doing in his spare time. He targeted anyone he saw as bringing down his neighborhood, around Riverside park. He killed some drug dealers who entered his suburb, and then shot Mr. Fluffikins, a dog that was urinating on the sidewalk. A group of criminals drove into Riverside Park to get vengeance on Elite, who executed each them from the window of his bathroom. When a hot dog vendor moved into Riverside, the Elite dropped a grenade into his cart, blowing it up, so it would not taint his nice neighborhood (the vendor was allowed to flee). Not only did he not want anyone selling hot dogs, he did not even want people who like hot dogs around.

His weapon of choice was a silenced pistol, or a silenced sniper rifle.

--Punisher V#5 (6,7, 9-12

 

 

The HOLY

Father Hector Redondo, referred to as the Axeman in news reports

While receiving confession from a career criminal who did drugs, murdered, and snitched his friends out to the cops, Father Redondo was pushed over the edge when the man asked to have sins absolved so he could go out and commit some more. Enraged, Redondo grabbed an axe, opened the confessional door, and hacked the criminal into pieces. He then collapsed to the floor, begging God for forgiveness, as he'd done it again. He continued in this fashion on several others, as his cleaning lady, Mrs. Pearse was virtually blind, deaf, and anosmic (unable to smell), and she simply wiped up whatever mess was left after he'd disposed of the bodies in garbage bags.
    Still, the Holy--as he now called himself--despaired over the sins he himself was committing, until seeing a newspaper article describing the Punisher, and he realized he was no longer alone. Officers Soap and von Richtofen investigated the deaths, but Redondo simply feigned innocence and then showed him out, while his as yet undiscovered fifth victim was sitting in his confession booth with an axe in his chest.

His weapon of choice was an axe.

--Punisher V#2 (3-5, [6],7, 9-12

MISTER PAYBACK

name unknown

    He saw himself as the vengeance of the common man. He targeted wealthy corporations that he saw as ruining the lives of others. He confronted the Worldwide Investment Corporation, accusing them of destroying the life of hundreds of even thousands of people with the investments for profit, and then he executed their executive board. The CEO and his assistant were absent from that meeting, and while the CEO planned on how they could stop the vigilante before the public began to listen to what he was saying, Mr. Payback blew his helicopter out of the air with a rocket launcher.
    Shortly thereafter he walked up and shot Robert Leonard, chairman of the Wall Street Investors association and co-owner of Metropolitan Trading Incorporated, right in the middle of a television interview. He then voiced his mission publicly and walked off before the police arrived. He was the one that first went about locating the others to form a group.

He was unaware that cleaning lade Maria Lopez had been killed when one of his bullets went through the wall during his assault on WIC, but that was the reason that the Punisher targeted him for death.

His weapon of choice was an automatic weapon.

--Punisher V#5 (6,7, 9-12

Last updated: 09/01/03.

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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