Assistant District Attorney Adrian Chase became sickened by what he saw in a flawed legal system that allowed obviously-guilty murderers and rapists go free on technicalities. One day while trying to get away from it all at a ski resort he saw one of those same obviously-guilty murdering mobsters enjoying the same freedom and luxury he himself was indulging in, and in his indignation he snapped. Luckily wearing a full-body skiing ensemble he felt anonymous and tracked the mobster into the woods as they both skied down the 'black diamond' slope, intercepted him, and beat him savagely with his own ski-pole.
Enervated by a sense of righteousness at serving 'justice', Chase decided to take on his vigilantism full-time as he saw and heard of the obviously-guilty getting away scot-free; as the new Vigilante of New York. Chase flirted with abandoning his Vigilante identity after he savagely beat an ex-convict who turned out to be innocent. Chase was tormented over the justice of his actions and the pain brought to others and the dichotomy between acting as a member of the State and acting on his own righteousness had damaged his fragile psyche beyond repair, causing him to adopt more vicious tactics in his war on crime - and self-harming to compensate.
Eventually, Chase became ever more conflicted over the violence he engaged in and the harm he caused to society at large and those he loved around him. He became increasingly mentally unstable—alternating between bouts of enraged violence, paranoia, and terrible remorse for his actions. His mounting guilt culminated in Chase contemplating the course of his life and ultimately committing suicide.
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The Vigilante here was one of the first customs I did with the relaunched 25th Anniversary GI Joe figures, using a SnakeEyes as the base. I basically added papercraft glove cuffs and added some paint details. Although the early 25A Joes had some characteristics that have been eliminated in what I think is the current state-of-the-18th-art, I'm still pretty pleased with Viggy here. I can see a number of issues that I've generally eliminated in the 12years since, mostly centered around simply having more patience before feeling 'finished'. The various lines of paint can be cleaned up sharper (esp that white V on his forehead) and the papercraft glove cuffs would get another pass with the smoothing file before paint; but I'm gonna keep him.