Commentary for April 13, 2022:

So, in the original version of this story told in Eon’s Comic #131 and #132, the Echidna Empire raided the weapons cache specifically to steal experimental EMP weapons, rather than just to get their hands on general military supplies. In the 2018 remaster, I added the cruiser, but with little fanfare. It was just kind of there as a background element that wouldn’t be properly explored (or explained) until a later story. This being a complete remake gave me the opportunity to make the cruiser a focal point of the story. It was also pretty fun to design and create this older class of ship in SketchUp, too. The Vigilante class is slightly smaller than the modern Protector class, as well as a lot less streamlined, as it was designed primarily for use in space, not atmosphere; but it is more heavily armed. In any case, we’ll be seeing a lot of this ship soon enough.