Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York–based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media. Zorro which is Spanish for "Fox" is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a nobleman and master living in the Spanish colonial era. The character is a dashing black-clad masked outlaw who defends the people of the land against tyrannical officials and other villains. Zorro is much too cunning and foxlike for the bumbling authorities to catch and Zorro delights in publicly humiliating those same foes. Zorro is an agile athlete and acrobat, using his bullwhip as a gymnastic device to swing through gaps between city roofs, and is very capable of landing from great heights and taking a fall. Although Zorro is a master swordsman and marksman he has more than once demonstrated his prowers in unarmed combat against multiple opponents.

The character's central theme is typically a black costume with a flowing Spanish cape, a flat-brimmed black sombrero cordobés, and a black cowl sackcloth mask that covers the top of the head from eye level upwards. In his first appearance, Zorro wears a cloak instead of a cape, and a black cloth veil mask covering his whole face with slits for eyes. His favored weapon is a rapier, which Zorro often uses to leave his signature mark, a Z cut with three quick strokes. His heroic pose consists of rearing on his horse Tornado, sword raised high. Zorro has used his cape as a blind, a trip-mat and a disarming tool. Zorro's boots are also sometimes weighted, as is his hat, which Zorro has thrown, Frisbee-style, as an efficiently substantial warning to enemies. But more often than not, Zorro uses psychological mockery to make his opponents too angry to be coordinated in combat.