Consume All Media! The Vigilante: "Chapter Fifteen: The Secret of the Skyroom"

Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So they made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now they're watching them all. Previously, Joe watched the fourteenth chapter of The Vigilante. This time, they vigilantly conclude with the fifteenth.

The Vigilante: “Chapter Fifteen: The Secret of the Skyroom” - 17:04

I fully expected Greg to just walk out of the explosion complaining how his suit got all dirty. But they do the retcon thing and he gets out of the car before it explodes.

But now Greg can’t follow the henchmen. Greg blames himself for leaving his car and frankly, he should. All of the bad guys are loose now solely because Greg told the police to let the raid happen and then he got nosey which led to him being spotted. It’s not great, Greg!

Riley, Tex, Pierce, Betty, and Greg all meet up at the cafe after getting a note from The Vigilante. (I wonder if Greg actually sent himself a note. That nerd probably did.)

The Prince also got a note, but is intercepted before he can get to the table. A waiter informs him that he has a phone call. When he goes to see who it is, he is let into a secret room where he is told to wait for X1.

Greg follows to check on the Prince, but only finds an empty phone booth.

X1 enters the secret room bedecked in a dark cloak.

X1 says he has 80 pearls and he wants the Prince’s remaining 20. The Prince refuses, so X1 prepares to shoot him.

However, The Vigilante walks in with a gun of his own. X1 silently triggers a signal with his foot, alerting two nearby henchmen.

The Prince gathers all of the pearls together, but says he no longer wants them. So he sets them on fire.

X1 is furious and takes off as his henchmen enter and fight the Vigilante.

The Vigilante manages to get away, jump on his motorcycle, and follow the fleeing X1.

The henchmen briefly overtake the Prince, but Riley comes in and arrests them.

The Vigilante goes to Pierce’s house, who tries to act innocent, but is revealed to be X1.

This makes sense and also doesn’t make any sense at all.

First off, Pierce was at the dinner with everyone and we never saw him leave. Which can work, but is incredibly suspicious. Even more suspicious if Greg just saw him at a dinner and now he’s at home. But also?

We saw Pierce talking to X1! It’s possible he had someone else pretending to be him, but for what reason? These are all bad guys! He has no reason to steer suspicion away from himself. The good guys don’t even know about X1 until this very chapter!

But also it had to be Pierce, because the only other option was the Prince and he spilled the beans about everything at the beginning of this chapter.

Anyway, one of the Prince’s servants comes in and shoots Pierce. So Greg did… nothing. Good job, Greg.

Greg returns to dinner. Everyone discusses what happened and then goes home.

Greg reports in to the government and is itching for a new mission, but he is told he has to stay and finish the film. Acting is not Greg’s real passion, so he’s somewhat annoyed by this.

In the final shot of the serial, Greg and Stuff ride off into the distance on a motorcycle, further cementing in my mind that they are in a poly relationship with Betty.

Should you watch it, though? Everything is tied up and resolved, but it’s somewhat of a mess and a little underwhelming. Then after everything is resolved, it drags along overexplaining what we just saw, then adding a couple of unnecessary scenes besides.

So while the ending might have fizzled out, the serial on a whole is fun and exciting. The cast works well together and smooths over any of the weaker bits of writing. There’s wonderful stunts, decent comedy, and likable characters. Even if it might not be one of the more superheroic comic book serials (though Greg seems to be a god of some sort), it’s still a delight to watch!

And that’s it for 1947! There was a singing cowboy, five beautiful white horses, and a guy in a gorilla suit.

Tune in next time for the return of Superman! (Available on Amazon)

A version of this article was previously published on The Dipp.

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