Dutchman (Griffin foe; War Man character; Epic)

dutchman-warman1-upper DUTCHMAN

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human, conventional weapons-user;
presumably a citizen of the Netherlands;
active circa 1993 A.D. (and likely 30-40 years before that)

Occupation: Mercenary

Group Membership: Led an unidentified group of mercenaries

Affiliations: Tio Jo, Lopu and the Joachim Cartel;
presumably many others

Enemies: Babe, Griffin, Cal Sellinger, Alfredo Valtares, unidentified Brazilian tribe;
presumably many others

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
presumably perished somewhere in South America (see comments);
presumably from the Netherlands originally dutchman-warman1-face

First Appearance: War Man#1 (November, 1993)

Powers/Abilities: The Dutchman was a skilled tracker and armed and unarmed combatant.

He carried a variety of firearms as a well as a straight razor, which he used for throat-slitting at close range.

He had no problem with threatening and killing innocents to achieve his goals.

He had no tolerance for smoking amongst his people, as he considered it to be disgusting, and he did not drink coffee. dutchman-warman2-face-woglasses

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6')
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 200 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Light blond

History:
(War Man#1 - BTS) - The Dutchman had a reputation as being successful in terminating targets.

(War Man#1 - BTS) <Tuesday, 11:04 AM> - American arms merchant Griffin sold weapons to an unidentified group in Lima, Peru.

(War Man#1 - BTS) <Tuesday, 11:33 PM> - Peruvian Minister of Justice Alfredo Valtares, who would be traveling to an an international conference in the USA on strategies to combat the drug trade, denounced the Joachim Cartel as potentially taking over all of South America if they were allowed to do so. He insisted that a union against them could wrest their stranglehold from Peru.

    Tio Jo instructed his agent Lopu to find someone they could manipulate to learn Valtares' flight plans so they could kill him before he reached the USA.

(War Man#1 - BTS) <Wednesday, 8:20 AM> - Taking hostage the family of an unidentified man, they forced him to reveal that Valtares was traveling inconspicuously on a commercial flight, which happened to be the same plane upon which Griffin was traveling.

(War Man#1 - BTS) <Thursday, 2:20 AM> - A little under two hours after the flight took off for Sao Paulo, Brazil, an explosive device (or perhaps a weapons fire) crippled its left engine and wing. The plane crashed into water in the vicinity of Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil, and Griffin helped the surviving passengers to escape and make camp.

    As Griffin and Eagle Scout naturalist Cal Sellinger prepared to head out to seek help, Valtares introduced himself, explaining that the explosion was likely an effort to kill him. Appreciating that the killers would have a better idea of their location than any search parties, Griffin took Valtares with them.

    Seeing photographs of the crash site and evidence of survivors, Tio Jo instructed his people to send for the Dutchman, which he considered that he should have done in the first place.

(War Man#1) <Friday, 12:03 PM> The Dutchman met with Tio Jo, who offered him two million in cash to confirm Valtares' death one way or the other. With Lupo providing maps and transportation, Tio Jo instructed the Dutchman that he would leave that night.

(War Man#1) <Saturday, 1:03 AM> - The Dutchman and his men parachuted into the vicinity of the plane crash. dutchman-warman2-shootchief

(War Man#2) - The Dutchman questioned one of the survivors at the crash site. After learning that Valtares was among the three men who had departed, heading toward the Jurua river, the Dutchman slit the throat of the information provider and then had his men execute the rest. He then instructed them to put the bodies in the plane's wreckage and to set it afire.

(War Man#2 - BTS) <Saturday, shortly before 2:14 AM> - Having seen and heard evidence of the plane exploding, Griffin advised Sellinger and Valtares to put out their fire and haul ass out of there.

(War Man#2 - BTS) <Saturday, 7:37 PM> - After learning the exhausted and ill Valtares had dropped his bag, Griffin sent him and Sellinger north, telling them he would "be along."

(War Man#2) <Sunday, shortly after 1:13 AM> - The Dutchman found Valtares' bag and followed the trail he had left behind.

(War Man#2) <Sunday, shortly after 7:01 AM> - One of the Dutchman's men was killed via tripwire explosive while a second, Felipe, was injured by a series of spikes Griffin had placed. Advising caution to his three remaining men, Griffin slew the injured Felipe to silence him.

(War Man#2 - BTS) <Sunday, 1:06 PM> - Valtares and Sellinger were captured by a local tribe.

(War Man#2 - BTS) <Sunday, 6:58 PM> - Locating Valtares and Sellinger in the tribal village, Griffin used limited communication and trading of supplies to earn their freedom; notably, he had to trade a flashlight to get Sellinger's glasses back.

Griffin further arranged for the chief's son to lead them to the river.

(War Man#2) <Sunday, 8:03 PM> - The Dutchman and his men encountered the villagers. Although the chief denied to his translator that any white men had come through there recently, the Dutchman discovered the flashlight in one of the boys' hands (likely the chief's younger son?) and shot the chief in the head.

With the threat of his showing the tribe "much death magic" if they did not tell him where were the white men, the Dutchman learned the direction in which they had headed.

(War Man#2 - BTS) - Hearing the sound of gunfire, Griffin realized that the men tracking them had reached the village. With Valtares collapsed, Griffin carried him and urged Sellinger and their guide to rush to reach the river before their pursuers. dutchman-warman2-shot

(War Man#2) - Shortly after they reached the river, however, the Dutchmen and his men shot the guide and wounded Sellinger. Griffin slew another of the Dutchman's men and used covering fire to hold them off while he pushed a log carrying Valtares and Sellinger across the river. However, the delirious Valtares sat up in an effort to escape and was slain by the Dutchman or one of his men.

(War Man#2) <Monday, 6:10 AM> As the sun came up, the Dutchman instructed his man to fire around the floating log to see if they were awake, but Griffin slew the shooter.

    Griffin's partner and lover, Babe, then arrived with a water landing plane and laid down covering fire to Griffin and Sellinger could reach her.

    The Dutchman wounded Babe, but Griffin dropped the Dutchman with a series of hits from his automatic rifle.

(War Man#2) <Monday, 9:56 PM> - As the wounded Dutchman struggled to move, he was located by the local tribe, who held the flashlight. He soon shouted in agony.

Comments: Created by Chuck Dixon and Juan Zanotto under the Heavy Hitters sub-category of the creator-owned Epic Comics.

This story involved a small number of people in South America in 1993. While creator-owned series are not automatically part Reality-616, I don't see anything that would interfere with this story having taken place at the time of its publication, which at the time of this profile's publication (2026), is about 18 years before the Fantastic Four's rocket launch circa FF#1.

Not too many people got real names in this series. The main character got the name Griffin, while his partner/girlfriend, who figured prominently in the series, was only known as Babe.

The Dutchman still had three men with him when he reached the village. We clearly see two of them getting shot, and perhaps the other was shot alongside the first, but it's not clear. When Babe arrived, it was just the Dutchman left.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Dutchman should be distinguished from:

FLYING DUTCHMAN’s GHOST (Capt. Joost van Straaten) - Legion of the Unliving, former sea captain of centuries past, forced crew into storm which killed them all, doomed to sail the oceans as a ghost for eternity, retrieved and empowered further by Mephisto to use as weapon against Silver Surfer--Silver Surfer I#8
DUTCH - dog, pet of Jerry Donder, possibly slain by Sweeney Conway circa 1975--Vampire Tales I#10/4
DUTCH OVEN ( ) - unsuccessfully sought membership in the West Coast Avengers--West Coast Avengers III#1
GHOST (Werner Amadeus van Luckner/Baron van Luckner) - in the latter half of the 19^th century, he and his valet, Gustaaf Havel, found Coronado's map in a Dutch monastery and came looking for gold in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. After they found it in Dead Horse Mesa, Havel shot van Luckner and left him for dead, impersonating him and seeking to claim the mine. Surviving, van Luckner lost his memories and his gaunt, ghastly presence scared even the local Apache, who then avoided the Mesa--Marshal Blueberry: The Lost Dutchman's Mine
other Dutchmen or Dutch mercenaries, etc.

images: (without ads)
War Man#1, pg. 24, panel 2 (upper);
          panel 4 (face);
    #2, pg. 21, panel 5 (face without glasses);
        pg. 22, panel 2 (shooting tribal leader);
       pg. 28 panel 1-4 (shot)

Appearances:
War Man#1 (November, 1993) - Chuck Dixon (writer), Juan Zanotto (artist), Danny Fingeroth and Rob Tokar (editors), Carl Potts (executive editor, Epic Comics)

First posted: 09/11/2026
Last updated: 04/12/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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