Yeoman (Wild Cards)

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caption=
comic_color=background:#c0c0c0
character_name=Yeoman
real_name=Daniel Brennan
publisher=George R. R. Martin
debut="Wild Cards (book)" (1988)
creators=John J. Miller
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
status=Retired
alliances=Wraith, Dr. Tachyon, Chrysalis, Fortunato
previous_alliances=
aliases=Cowboy, the Ace of Spades Killer
relatives=deceased wife and unborn son
powers=None, Yeoman is a skilled soldier, martial artist, and zen archer.|

Yeoman (real name Daniel Brennan) is a fictional character in the Wild Cards series of books. He was created by John J. Miller and first appeared in the short story "Comes a Hunter" in the first book of the series. A masked, bow and arrow wielding vigilante, Yeoman was a deadly menace to the criminal element of New York, especially the Immaculate Egrets and their parent organization the Shadow Fists, for several years. An early high point of the vigilante's career, Yeoman helped end the Swarm menace alongside Dr. Tachyon, Fortunato, and the female Ace healer known as Mai.

Daniel Brennan was a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, where he was involved in numerous covert operations. He discovered that there was a high-ranking traitor within the ranks of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam who was selling military secrets to the enemy. After tracing the information back to ARVN General Kien Phuc, Brennan made the mistake of trying to confront the General. Kien framed Brennan for the murder of his superior officer and destroyed the evidence Brennan had collected, leaving him no choice but to desert the army and flee the country.

It is not clear what Brennan did during the following years, but he may have served as a mercenary for a time before meeting a "roshi" named Ishida who helped him learn to discipline his emotions. Brennan spent many years studying the martial arts and became exceptionally skilled in Zen archery. Although he became quite calm and precise in his actions, he never succeeded in finding inner peace.

In the early 1980s Brennan received a letter from one of his former Vietnamese compatriots, telling him that Kien Phuc had been seen in America. Despite being a wanted man, Brennan journeyed to New York City to hunt down Kien and complete his final mission. When he arrived, he found that his friend had been killed by one of the gangs controlled by Kien, who now wore the guise of a legitimate business tycoon. Donning a mask and the name Yeoman, and taking up the longbow, Brennan began to systematically kill Kien's thugs and enforcers, each time leaving behind the same symbol he'd marked his kills with in Vietnam... the Ace of Spades.

In searching for information about Kien, he came in contact with a strange yet fascinating woman: the transparent but mysterious Joker known as Chrysalis. Chrysalis and Brennan would have a torrid on-again off-again affair for several years, before finally separating for good.

Brennan would later become involved with a girl who was Chrysalis' polar opposite; optimistic instead of cynical, open instead of manipulative, and whereas Chrysalis "looked" like a ghost but was actually solid, Wraith looked normal but could turn insubstantial at will.

Yeoman first met Wraith when he learned she had stolen Kien's personal diary, which could give Brennan damning evidence against Kien; perhaps enough to bring him down for good. But after Wraith and Yeoman fought a virtual war against Kien and his minions over possession of the diary, it all turned out to be for nothing; the diary had been written in gold ink, gold being the one thing that Wraith couldn't "ghost", and whatever writing had been in it had been left inside the wall of Kien's office. Brennan, on the verge of exploding at the news, instead burst into a good, long belly laugh; the first he'd had in years.

In time, Brennan lost much of his anger toward Kien and retired to the countryside with Wraith. However, he returned to New York once, when Chrysalis was murdered.

Description

Daniel Brennan is a man of medium height, slim but well-muscled with dark brown hair and eyes and a nondescript face. He has had cosmetic surgery to add epicanthic folds to his eyes in order to infiltrate Kien's mostly-Asian gangs. Between his military experience and his martial arts training, he is a skilled and deadly fighter with bare hands and an assortment of weapons. Though a crack shot, his preferred weapon is either the Japanese longbow or the compound bow, which he used extensively during his time in New York. As Yeoman he wore plain clothes and a hood-like mask.