Wild Dog! The name is enough to make you go: "Huh? Who the hell is Wild Dog?" I will tell you.
Wild Dog is a Midwestern vigilante who combats the surprisingly large number of terrorists that spring up in the Quad Cities. I find this especially noteworthy considering I grew up about a forty-minute drive from said cities.
The Quad Cities -- for those unfamiliar -- are a series of communities that straddle the Mississippi River. On the Iowa side of the river are Bettendorf and Davenport. On the Illinois side, Rock Island and Moline. There are a smattering of additional smaller towns surrounding as well.
One of the most interesting things about Wild Dog is that both the writer and artist of the comic are from that area. Both Max Collins and Terry Beatty are natives of the vast empty plains of the Midwest. Which makes their depiction of masked terrorists slinking through corn fields both terrifying and accurate.
We don't get super-heroes where I'm from. Only big cities get super-heroes. Places like Gotham, Metropolis, and New York. So it was incredibly refreshing to find a story about masked vigilantism set in my old stomping grounds.
Anyway, it's mostly because I get a kick out seeing comic book terrorists seize control of a theater I've actually been to. Also, to see a guy drive a truck into it:
Wild Dog's a guy in a football jersey and a hockey mask who shoots up terrorists. Not your typical DC Comics protagonist. Shouldn't he have a needlessly complicated origin?
Oh wait, he does.
So Wild Dog is Jack Wheeler a former football star who blew out a knee and joined the Marines and was present at the Beirut barracks bombing then went home and worked as a mechanic and then went to night school where he met a girl who turned out to be a Chicago mobster's daughter and she got killed and left him millions which he used to start his own garage and then become Wild Dog!
Oh, and he had a speaking role in Infinite Crisis, too. Seriously.
So prepare yourself for a solid week of mad vigilantism which I swear isn't anything like the Punisher. Because he doesn't wear a hockey mask.
