Wild Dog (character)

Wild Dog #1 by Terry Beatty.

Wild Dog first appeared in a four issue mini-series (issue #1, cover date September 1987). The series is credited to Max Allan Collins, Terry Beatty and Dick Giordano. Shortly thereafter, the character appeared in Action Comics Weekly. Normally a Superman title, at the time Action Comics was going through an incarnation as a high-page-count weekly anthology title with serialized episodes of various characters' ongoing stories appearing in each issue. There were three major Wild Dog story arcs in Action Comics Weekly; after the third, the character appeared in a one-shot Wild Dog Special. Wild Dog's final appearance in Action Comics Weekly was issue #641 (cover date March 7, 1989). The last issue of Action Comics Weekly was #642, after which the book went back to its standard format of monthly Superman stories.

Jack Wheeler would return as a supporting character in Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye, a 2016 Young Animal series written by Gerard Way and Jon Rivera.[1]

Jack Wheeler went to college on a football scholarship. He dropped out due to an injury and enlisted in the Marines to complete his education. He quit that after most of his squad was killed by a terrorist bomb. He returned to the Quad Cities and began taking night classes. He started dating a fellow student named Claire and fell in love with her. His new girlfriend soon began experiencing "accidents" and was ultimately shot dead in front of Jack while the pair were on a date. Afterwards, it was revealed she was secretly the daughter of a Chicago crime boss who had left her family to start a new life for herself.

Claire's will named Jack as her sole beneficiary and made him a considerably wealthy man. Furious over all the deaths he'd witnessed, but unsure of how to proceed, Jack took the somewhat-facetious advice of a friend to "use the money to fight the mob". He opened up his own car mechanic/body shop as a public identity, then secretly tracked down the rival gang members who ordered the hit. He created a costume of camouflage pants, combat boots, a local college football jersey emblazoned with a snarling red dog (hiding his protective body armor), and a hockey goaltender mask to conceal his identity. Armed with a Jatimatic GG-95 PDW and a pair of electrified "shock gloves", he killed the gang leaders and the hitman who had killed Claire.[2]

In the first issue of his limited series, he barges in on a hostage situation and kills all the criminals. He successfully rescues an endangered TV news reporter and is named "Wild Dog" after the SWAT captain orders his men to shoot the vigilante "like a wild dog in the street".[3] His actions in the beginning are mainly directed against domestic American terrorists led by the "Committee for Social Change". He faces other threats, like a social group, the National Legion for Morality, willing to use arson to destroy pornographic material.[4]

Wild Dog changes opponents when he becomes a small part of the effort to resist an earth-wide alien invasion.[5] Later, the alien Lobo is sent to New York to kill the comic book editor Mike Carlin. Wild Dog is one of many recruited to stop Lobo. This group includes Black Condor, El Diablo, Garryn Bek, Human Flea, Strata, Velvet Tiger, and Wotan.[6]

An original incarnation of Wild Dog appears in Arrow, portrayed by Rick Gonzalez.[9] Introduced in the fifth season, this version is Rene Ramirez, a former Navy SEAL who saw his drug-addicted wife Laura shot dead in their home by her dealer and, in turn, lost his daughter Zoe to Child Protective Services due to his depression over Laura's death. Inspired to become a vigilante after witnessing a fight between the Green Arrow and Damien Darhk, Rene's reckless actions leads to friction with the former, who eventually becomes convinced to train Rene and bring him into Team Arrow. In the sixth season, FBI Agent Samanda Watson confronts Rene and reveals her knowledge of his vigilante persona, threatening to take away his family if he does not testify against the Green Arrow. After being cast out from Team Arrow, Rene joins Dinah Drake and Curtis Holt in forming their own group and later helps Watson defeat Ricardo Diaz. In the seventh season, Rene retires the Wild Dog identity after being granted police immunity and begins running a boxing club in the Glades. In the eighth season, Rene succeeds Quentin Lance as Mayor of Star City.

• Additionally, Gonzalez portrays a villainous Earth-2 incarnation of Rene in the eighth season episode "Starling City" as the head of security for his Earth's version of Malcolm Merlyn who is secretly aligned with Tommy Merlyn.

• Wild Dog at the DC Database
• Wild Dog at the DCU Guide