Zorro
Zorro (Spanish: [ˈsoro] or [ˈθoro], Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante who defends commoners and indigenous peoples against corrupt and tyrannical officials in Spanish-ruled California (Mexican-ruled in some versions). Zorro is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega (originally Don Diego Vega), a young Californio nobleman.
Zorro debuted in the 1919 novel The Curse of Capistrano, originally meant as a stand-alone story. However, the success of the 1920 film adaptation The Mark of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery, which introduced the popular Zorro costume, convinced McCulley to write more Zorro stories for about four decades; the character was featured in a total of five serialized stories and 57 short stories, the last one appearing in print posthumously in 1959, the year after his death. The Curse of Capistrano eventually sold more than 50 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books of all time. While the rest of McCulley's Zorro stories did not enjoy the same popularity, as most of them were never reprinted until the 21st century, the character also appears in over 40 films and in 10 TV series, the most famous being the Disney production, Zorro, of 1957–1959 starring Guy Williams. Other media featuring Zorro include stories by different authors, audio/radio dramas, comic books and strips, stage productions, and video games.
In the stories, Diego's father is Alejandro de la Vega, the wealthiest landowner in California; his mother is dead. He lives in a vast estate, which contains many secret passages and tunnels leading to a secret cave that serves as headquarters for Zorro's operations. Zorro has a high bounty on his head, but he is too skilled and cunning for the bumbling authorities to catch; he also delights in publicly humiliating them. The townspeople thus started calling him "El Zorro", because of his fox-like cunning and charm. Zorro is an acrobat and an expert in various weapons. Still, the one he employs most frequently is his rapier, which he often uses to carve the initial "Z" on his defeated foes and other objects to "sign his work". To divert suspicion about his identity, Diego hides his fighting abilities while pretending to be a coward and a fop. Zorro is also an accomplished rider, his trusty steed being a black horse named Tornado. His signature all-black hero's attire includes a flowing cape, a wide-brimmed sombrero, fencing gloves, equestrian boots, and a domino mask; it often features a "Z" emblem on the belt or hat.
Being one of the earliest examples of a fictional masked avenger with a double identity, Zorro inspired the creation of several similar characters in pulp magazines and other media and is a precursor of the superheroes of American comic books, with Batman and the Lone Ranger drawing particularly close parallels to the character.
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