Chapter Thirty-Four: (Chapter Title Redacted for Copyright Reasons)

Chapter Thirty Four

(Chapter Title Redacted for Copyright Reasons)

I haven’t talked about Zorro much, and there’s a couple of reasons for that, honestly.  One is copyright issues.  Even though the literary character of Zorro is now technically in the public domain, the owner of the character has somehow successfully sued anyone who would use the character in any form whatsoever.  So, the fact that our Zorro was a vigilante based on some pulp fiction character with tricky copyright issues, has made me, a noted supervillain hesitant to mention him.  Heck, I heard a story once from the Golden Speedster when he had me locked up in his little private prison in Dwarf Star Labs, that the copyright holders of the literary Zorro actually tried to sue the vigilante of the same name, because he had “Substantially copied the image and likeness of beloved literary character.”  The lawsuit went nowhere, of course, because no one knew who the real Zorro was.  But, the dude’s an integral part of the story, so I’ll just take my chances, but will note for the lawyers that this Zorro is a wholly new character who shares only a name, and certain wardrobe choices (that I will not elaborate on to try and keep everybody happy) with the aforementioned beloved literary character, who should by all rights be firmly in the public domain.  There, with all that bullshit out to the way, here we go.

Some early life tragedy must have turned a young man into the obsessed vigilante known as Zorro.  That much seems obvious.  Clearly the guy is rich and obsessed.  He has spent the better part of a decade battling crime in Chicago.  And he does it all without superpowers, which is impressive.  Unless you want to consider his money and willpower superpowers.

Anyway, about halfway through his run as a crimefighter, Prankster killed Zorro’s sidekick, Wonder Boy, and the dude took a dark turn.  You’ll see.

(c) Copyright 2020 by Diana Hignutt