Wild Dog #1 (1987)

Wild Dog #1 (September, 1987)
“Who is Wild Dog?  Chapter One: We Interrupt This Program…”
Writer – Max Collins
Penciller – Terry Beatty
Inker – Dick Giordano
Letterer – John Workman
Colorist – Michele Wolfman
Editor – Mike Gold
Cover Price: $0.75

Who says the costume doesn’t make the hero?  Does anyone actually say that?  Just sounded like a good way to start this one.  Wild Dog was a character that I became interested in solely due to his interesting laughing-red-dog jersey.  My first encounter with the character was in an issue of Action Comics Weekly that I somehow found myself in possession of in a time well before collecting that series was of any interest to me.  None of the other characters or stories really interested me, though… Wild Dog… that shirt, that mask… as an impressionable preteen, I was interested in this guy.

That interest like many before it and since, was fleeting  I likely forgot about Wild Dog as soon as I put the issue down, and it wouldn’t be until many years later that I would bump back into the character in the quarter-bin of some local bookstore.  Could Wild Dog live up to my childhood expectations?  Well, let’s go back to where his story began and find out…

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We open with a news report hailing from the Quad Cities of Iowa.  Broadcast Journalist Susan King is there to report on the opening of the River City Community Center.  It is a fluff piece which King makes clear once the cameras are off.  She laments the fact that she will never become a news anchor (wresting the position from “that no-talent slut Coleen” no less) doing stories like that.

Once the cameras are back on, King conducts an interview with Mr. Newell of the Committee for Social Change.  During the exchange, Newell detonates a bomb inside the Community Center.  During the fracas, he takes Ms. King and her cameraman hostage and promises an informal press conference.  He takes her to a nearby theater where, with several gun-toting masked men in tow he is revealed to be a “home-grown terrorist”.

At the theater Newell and King restart their interview.  Newell states that society has deteriorated and it is time for a new beginning.  Four men are shown to be watching of listening to this interview, Police Lieutenant Andy Flint, Reporter Lou Godder, Mechanic Jack Wheeler, and Graham Gault.  While the police discuss how to handle the ongoing hostage situation we observe somebody about to don the Wild Dog mask.

The next scene begins with Wild Dog crashing the scene in his red pick-up truck (license plate: ROVER).  He drives straight into the theater and begins blowing away the terrorists.  Wild Dog does not give a damn.  The officers ponder if they just witnessed another terrorist enter the fray while the ‘Dog continues blasting away at the terrorists.  He does not mess around.

Wild Dog launches a wired arrow into the stage where Newell is holding his hostages and zip-lines down from the rafters… blasting all the way.  Newell holds his pistol to Ms. King’s head… to which, Wild Dog simply kicks the gun out of his hand.  Wild Dog still gives nary a damn.

He rescues the hostages and exits the theater where he finds several guns have been drawn on him.  He holds his gun to Ms. King’s head takes her hostage himself.  He loads her into his truck and drives her to the outskirts of town, where he lets her out unharmed.  During this scene an officer inadvertently gives our man his name when he orders his men to “shoot him down like a Wild Dog in the street!”.

Once released, Susan King sees Wild Dog as her ticket to broadcast stardom.  He is the story that will make her career.

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I’ve seen Wild Dog derided as a Punisher clone, and often only mentioned in passing as a punchline.  This comic taken on its own, was pretty fun.  Wild Dog is perhaps a bit too cool under fire, and his arsenal may have been a tad convenient for this mission, but it was mindless street-level action fun.

Wild Dog’s identity is kept secret to even the reader at this point.  We are to believe that one of the four men featured prior to Wild Dog’s appearance is the one under the mask.  I like that they did this.  We have all the same information that Susan King has when all is said and done.

The writing is well done, and the non-evil, non-Wild Dog characters all come across as natural.  We are given a bit of insight as to Ms. King’s personality and professional struggles.  I would imagine we can expect her to become something of an ally/thorn in the side for Wild Dog in issues to come.  The art, while certainly serviceable comes across as somewhat stiff during the action scenes.  Wild Dog’s movements are not smooth, and he sometimes appears as though he were a posed action figure.

This title, along with Vigilante give the reader a pretty decent idea of how DC would do the Punisher.  Worth checking out for the novelty of seeing a very non-DC character in the DC Universe.  This book is not available digitally, and though I could have sworn they announced a collected edition of this mini-series, I cannot seem to locate it online.  This one may be a single-issues only situation, though it definitely won’t break the bank… you’ll likely find the entire 4-issue mini in the cheap-o bins.

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Interesting Ads:

Ads like this are sorely missing from comics today. Guys in their thirties and forties need these, right?

I love these ridiculous ads. Morbid curiosity makes me wish I would have taken advantage of these at the time.

The volume of Doom Patrol that would bring us the excellent Grant Morrison run.

Chips Ahoy cookies taste so much worse when you’re a grown-up.

UPDATE 5/7/2023 – “Remastered” for WordPress!