Battle Of The Bulge

Who can eat more food in a single sitting?

Forsythe Pendleton “Jughead” Jones

or

Norville “Shaggy” Rogers?

The Keeper’s money is on Jughead. He doesn’t rely on those so-called “Scooby Snacks” to build up an appetite!

The Abridged Wild Dog

Your friendly neighborhood Fortress Keeper planned to post a fairly detailed account of Wild Dog - the urban vigilante who briefly popped up in Infinite Crisis #7 after years of obscurity.

Just as the last few words were lovingly crafted, however, the Blogger server unceremoniously crashed.

The entire post was instantly sucked into the Web’s version of The Phantom Zone, never to reappear.

So, after spending a good half-hour banging his head against the Fortress’ well-fortified walls, the Keeper is “happy” to present an abridged look at Wild Dog - DC’s answer to the Punisher, minus the latter character’s commercial longevity and (at times) critical acceptance.

In many ways, Wild Dog is the “anti-Punisher.” He doesn’t wear long-johns or battle high-tech super mercenaries.

Wild Dog is the kind of guy who puts on a hockey mask because the visage of Friday The 13th’s Jason is more likely to inspire fear than a fluttering black rodent.

He wears a sports jersey and combat fatigues because such clothing fits comfortably over body armor.

Wild Dog doesn’t own a van filled with fancy gadgets. All of his weapons can be bought over the counter (frighteningly enough).

He has no rogues gallery to speak of, devoting this time instead to street crime, political extremists and the random terrorist. (Long before such tragedies as Oklahoma City and 9-11 were considered possible…)

He is as close to a “realistic” super-hero as you’re going to get in a mainstream comic book.

So of course, Wild Dog’s 1987 mini-series failed miserably.

Created by crime novelist Max Allan Collins and old-school comics illustrator Terry Beatty (the masterminds behind the gloriously hard-boiled and unjustly obscure Ms. Tree), the character wasn’t flashy enough to attract Marvel zombies weaned on The Punisher.

For their part, DC fans found the gun-toting vigilante unsavory. While intriguing, a drawn-out mystery over the character’s identity further kept readers at arm’s length.

Yet - given fans’ latest thirst for “real-life” heroes dealing with “real-life” issues - a terrorist-buster like Wild Dog could find new life.

A team-up with Spy Smasher and the Peacemaker - as perhaps, a more effective “Outsiders” than the current group in place - could even be successful under the right creative hands.

Now, if you’ll excuse the Keeper, it’s time to pull the rest of the hair out of your harried host’s head.

@##$%%&^ Blogger.