"Groovy Guy" Russell ("グルーヴィ・ガイ"・ラッセル "Gurūvi Gai" Rasseru), often shortened to Russell (ラッセル Rasseru), was a middle-aged American man who worked for the Florida-based Gerolamo Familia and the crime syndicate that was tracking Jane.
Appearance[]
Russell was an adult Caucasian man with a skinny build, pale skin, and dark shaggy hair with a thick, pointed chin beard. He was quite distinguishable since he dressed like a cowboy: he wore the trademark hat, boots with spurs, a bandolier belt, a brown cowboy vest over a tan shirt, and blue jeans. He also wore aviator shades and carried a Smith & Wesson Model 19 revolver for a weapon.
Personality[]
Russell had an American cowboy accent and spoke confidently. He was prone to anger when people disobeyed him, and he had an obsession with having sexual intercourse with "expensive women."
History[]
Greenback Jane[]
Arriving in Roanapur from Florida, Russell greeted the injured Elvis in a hospital. Elvis demanded that Jane be brought back to him, and the cowboy confidently replied that he would bring Jane back and have Elvis return to Florida in no time to see the Caribbean sunset once again.[1] That night, Russell went to the Yellow Flag to meet the various mercenaries whom he hired, showing the bounty hunters a picture of Jane as well as telling them that she was staying at the Ramsap Inn. He elaborated that the pay was $1,000 per person to capture her, but they despised his bossy attitude, with Shenhua and Quentin the Tiger insulting his cowboy demeanor and demanding to see Lobos. After the bounty hunters got to know one another, they left the bar and told Russell to stay behind.[2]
After the mercenaries initially failed to capture Jane outside the Ramsap Inn, Russell arrived on the scene and berated them for not continuing the pursuit. When Shenhua said that he needed to pay them $30,000 now, the cowboy angrily rejected the bargain, causing her to throw one of her two knives into Russell's car door. The Taiwanese assassin reminded him that he was in Roanapur and not Florida, claiming that he was in over his head. As the bounty hunters left to chase Jane, Shenhua advised Russell to call Lobos since the latter man would agree with their pay request.[3]
While the bounty hunters attacked the Lagoon Company dry dock where Jane took refuge, Russell arrived and was angrily surprised to see Claude burning the dock building. Going to Claude, the cowboy berated him for burning the building since that was not part of the mission, angrily taking Claude's lighter from him. Just after the building collapsed, Dutch and Benny arrived with the Black Lagoon so that Jane and the others could escape on the sea. As the torpedo boat turned around to speed away from the port, a few bounty hunters as well as Russell were able to jump onto the boat as it sped off. On deck, he ordered Claude to fight Jane's protectors outside while he descended below deck.[4]
In the engine room, he began to damage the PT boat's engines in a fit of rage since he could not find Jane. Finding him, Eda mocked him and greeted him with her pistol, starting a shootout. As the bounty hunters outside were forced off the boat or killed, Russell's pistol was shot out of his hand by Eda, who then held him at gunpoint. He stood with his hands up and worried about how he would explain his failure to his boss, but Eda told him that Lobos would take care of Elvis. As he processed her notion that Lobos would kill Elvis, Russell suddenly thought that he previously met her in the United States' District of Columbia while traveling with Don Gerolamo. Eda calmly responded that they had never met and she was just a nun from the Rip-Off Church, adding that she was born in Alabama. As he recollected seeing her in a business dress talking to U.S. Senator Jack Bonham at the Fontainebleau in Washington, D.C., Eda admitted that her real hometown was in Langley, Virginia. Upon hearing this, Russell realized that she was affiliated with the Central Intelligence Agency, causing her to shoot and instantly kill him.[5]
Gore Gore Girl[]
In the spinoff manga Dismemberment Galore! The Gore Gore Girl, Russell had a cameo appearance as an apparition in Eda's hallucination inside the Rip-Off Church chapel. In disbelief at seeing him since she remembered killing him, Eda began to shoot Russell immediately after Sawyer the Cleaner thrust her chainsaw into the cowboy's back. The following morning in the chapel, his cowboy hat laid next to the sleeping Sawyer.[6]
Eda Initial Stage[]
In the spinoff manga Eda Initial Stage, Russell had a cameo appearance inside Club Social in Miami, Florida while Eda and her partner Amber were there.[7]
Trivia[]
- In a popularity contest during the 10th manga collection release, Russell ranked 61st (tying with Ibraha, Richie Leroy, and Bren the Black Death) with 1 vote.[8]
- In a popularity contest during the 12th manga collection release, Russell ranked 53rd (tying with several characters) with 4 votes.[9]
- Russell is only one of three characters, the other two being Eda and Rico, who appear in both official Black Lagoon spinoff series.
References[]
- ↑ Episode 16: Greenback Jane
- ↑ Chapter 39: Greenback Jane Part 2
- ↑ Episode 17: The Roanapur Freakshow Circus
- ↑ Chapter 42: Greenback Jane Part 5
- ↑ Episode 18: Mr. Benny's Good Fortune
- ↑ Gore Gore Girl Chapter 12: The Fog
- ↑ Eda Initial Stage Chapter 04: MIAMI VICE Part 2
- ↑ http://sundaygx.info/blacklagoon_contest/
- ↑ http://sundaygx.info/blacklagoon_contest_12/