Wild Dog (comics)
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Wild Dog is a fictional vigilante published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Wild Dog #1 (September 1987), and was created by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.
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[edit] Publication history
Wild Dog first appeared in a four issue miniseries, Issue #1 cover dated September 1987. The series is credited to Max Collins, Terry Beatty and Dick Giordano. After the mini series, the character appeared in a strip in Action Comics Weekly, starting with #601 in May of 1988. This strip lasted until issue #640 (March, 1989).
[edit] Fictional character biography
Wild Dog was an auto mechanic named Jack Wheeler from the Quad Cities dedicated to fighting terrorism and urban crime. His actions in the beginning were mainly directed against domestic American terrorists led by the "Committee for Social Change". Unlike traditional silver-age superheroes who maintained strict codes against killing their foes, Wild Dog was quite willing to use deadly force.
Armed with a Jatimatic GG-95 SMG PDW and a pair of electrified "shock gloves", his costume consisted of camouflage pants, a college football jersey emblazoned with a snarling dog (hiding protective body armor) and a hockey mask (reminiscent of Jason Voorhees) to conceal his identity.
The series was an attempt to bring a very down-to-earth style vigilante into DC's stable of characters, one that didn't wear superhero styled spandex or battle high-tech international mercenaries, a street level adventurer in a small town. Whether because he was a poor fit for the four-color nature of the wider DC universe, or because he suffered from unfair comparisons to Marvel Comic's Punisher, the character was not a success and soon faded into obscurity. He is sometimes considered a precursor to several of DC's later, more successful takes on urban vigilante characters, such as Hitman, which emerged nearly a decade later.
[edit] Infinite Crisis
Wild Dog was recently seen, alongside the current Vigilante and the current Crimson Avenger, on a rooftop in the great Battle of Metropolis, raining bullets down on the Trigger Twins and other villains in Infinite Crisis #7.
[edit] Trivia
- A possible sidelong reference to Wild Dog was the character "Watchdog" from the short piece 'History Lesson' (Detective Comics #758), in which Gotham Police Chief Michael Akins discusses the limitations of such a character, as a way of explaining his antipathy towards Batman.
