ACW #601 – Wild Dog

Action Comics Weekly #601 – Wild Dog
“Moral Stand, Chapter One: Point of Order”
Writer/Co-Creator – Max Collins
Pencils/Co-Creator – Terry Beatty
Inks – John Nyberg
Colors – Michele Wolfman
Letters – Gaspar
Editor – Mike Gold

Welcome to Day Two of #ActionComicsDaily… we’re just rollin’ along now, ain’t we?


Today we’re going to start the first of three Wild Dog features.  This one will run from #601-609.  Now, we’ve discussed this fella several times before, covering both his four-part miniseries (1987) as well as his 1989 one-shot… these ACW chapters will bridge the gap between the two.


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We open during a Davenport City Council meeting where a member of the Committee For Social Change has taken over the proceedings.  He is demanding Wild Dog be handed over to him for his crimes against their organization… otherwise, he’s going to start putting holes in members of the board.  The Quad-Cities Police Force already has the place surrounded.

Back inside the C.S.C. spokesman continues ranting… and gives Wild Dog thirty-minutes to appear, otherwise innocent blood is going to be on his hands.  Reporter, Susan King (who we met during the mini) is on-hand to cover the meeting… and isn’t quite sure how they’re going to get out of this one.

Well, it just so happens that at that very moment a maintenance man enters City Hall.  After bumping into a Civil Servant, he ducks away in a closet, where we learn that he is, in fact, Wild Dog!

Meanwhile the Police put their heads together over how to handle this present crisis.  Lieutenant Flint (at least I think that’s who this is) suggests maybe they just dress a dude up like Wild Dog… after all, his costume is pretty easy to replicate.  Well, he’s not wrong!

The point is, however… moot.  Wild Dog’s already locked and loaded as he approaches the Chambers… and proceeds to blow the C.S.C goons away!  It’s been a little while since I’ve read a Wild Dog story, so it’s a little shocking just how violent this fella gets!

We wrap up this chapter with Quad-Cities’ Finest rushing into the Chambers to discover the wake of Wild Dog’s latest endeavor… however, the man himself is nowhere to be found!

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Wild Dog is… a lot of fun.


We’ve talked in the past about how he might be dismissed as a “funny, ha-ha” type of character… I’d almost put money on him being a Wizard Magazine “Mort of the Month” at some point in time.  Maybe at some point I’ll do a thorough scan of my Wizard Mags and try and confirm that.  With that said though, I quite enjoyed this.


It’s a bit of a palette cleanser after the Green Lantern chapter… and I feel like the anthology format might just be the “right” format for this character.


Let’s do the context thing.  We discussed Wild Dog’s four-issue mini wayyy back in the long ago… If you’d like to be brought up to speed, click’a da pica’s.

 It’s a rather underrated little story… which I enjoy unironically.  I feel like he gets written off as a “so bad it’s good” character too often… though, I might just be projecting.  It’s really a lot of fun though… especially in that we readers don’t actually find out who Wild Dog even is until the last issue!


Okay, so… this story.  We’re (re)introduced to the threat of the “So-Called” Committee for Social Change, who is very much at odds with our lead character.  Thorn-in-the-side reporter, Susan King gets some panel time, as does the Quad Cities P.D.  We’re laying a foundation here, which is all one can hope for from an introductory chapter.  Gotta assume some of the folks reading this issue of Action Comics Weekly at the time might not have checked out the prior miniseries… so, this serves to get everyone up to speed.


Thoroughly enjoyable in an action-movie sort of way (which isn’t a bad thing!)… and as said, a decent palette-cleanser after the much “heavier” Green Lantern chapter.


Tomorrow: Secret Six!