Dog Logan

Dog Logan is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the half-brother of Wolverine.

Publication history

Dog Logan first appeared in Origin #1 and was created by Bill Jemas, Paul Jenkins, Joe Quesada, and Andy Kubert.

Fictional character biography

Dog Logan is a servant on the Howlett estate in the late 19th century, located in Alberta, Canada. His father Thomas Logan works as groundskeeper of the Howlett estate. As an adolescent, Dog is the playmate of James Howlett, a sickly boy and the family's youngest son, and Rose, an orphan brought to the estate to look after James. The three children are good friends. At one point, Dog saves James from drowning in a river. However, Dog gets frequent beatings from his abusive alcoholic father for spending time with members of the upper class. Eventually, the abusive treatment causes Dog to behave in abusive and sadistic ways.^[1]

As a young teenager, Dog is cruel, sadistic and brash, going so far as to make unwanted sexual advances toward Rose. James, witnessing and foiling a later attempt by Dog to assault Rose sexually, reports the incident to his father John Howlett, Jr.. In retaliation, Dog kills James's dog, resulting in Dog's and Thomas's expulsion from the estate. Enraged, Thomas returns to the Howlett estate later that night with Dog and tells Elizabeth Howlett, James's mentally disturbed mother, that he was leaving and that he plans to take her with him. Thomas and Dog, however, are soon discovered by John Howlett, Jr. as he comes into the bedroom. The two men quickly engage in a heated verbal exchange that culminates with Thomas shooting John Howlett in the head with the shotgun he was carrying. Just when Thomas pulls the trigger, James walks into the room and witnesses his father's death. The trauma of the event triggers James' mutant powers, particularly his bone claws, and he uses them against Thomas and Dog, resulting in Thomas's death and Dog being slashed severely across his face, leaving three large scars. Elizabeth loses her fragile hold on her sanity and screams insults at James, who runs crying from the room and house with Rose pursuing him. Elizabeth kills herself in front of Dog moments later using Thomas' gun. As the only survivor left at the scene when the police arrived, Dog reports that Rose is responsible.^[2]

Years later, Dog is hired by John Howlett, Sr. (James's grandfather) to track James. Dog accepted, but with the intention of killing James rather than return him to his dying grandfather. Now fully grown, Dog is large and powerfully built with lightly colored hair.^[3]

He eventually tracks James to the mining town where he and Rose have been staying since they ran from the Howlett estate. Dog spends some time in the town, learning James' habits and watches as James and Smitty, the foreman of the camp and James' close friend, participate in a cage fight. James, despite being enraged over Smitty's relationship with Rose, allows Smitty to win the fight. After the fight, Dog suddenly attacks James. During the fight, Dog claims that he is responsible for John Howlett's death (even though Dog's father is actually the one responsible). James manages to defeat Dog and extends his bone claws, preparing to kill him. However, Rose suddenly arrives. As James prepares to strike, Rose runs into his claws and is fatally wounded. Grief-stricken, James runs from the camp and into the forest, leaving Dog behind.^[4]

Modern day

Later in the Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine mini series, Dog encounters Spider-Man travelling through time. Dog enters a mine containing the glowing diamonds responsible for Spider-Man's time travel. The diamonds send him to the present day.^[5]

In the modern era, Dog Logan is seen alive in the Canadian wilderness, obsessed with reading newspaper articles about Wolverine creating his own school.^[6] While in the future (the present) in his cabin, he was greeted by a future version of himself who told him it was time for him to start hunting his brother in the Savage Land, without giving out anything of the outcome of the battle. Through unknown means, he made it to the Savage Land and shot down his brother with a laser pistol while he was jumping around the trees in order to teach Wolverine a lesson.^[7]

He was offered a teaching job at the Hellfire Club's Hellfire Academy where he became the Hellfire Academy's gym teacher.^[8]

Sabretooth connection

In an interview with writer Paul Jenkins,^[9][10] the question of Dog being Sabretooth is brought up. Jenkins responded by saying "Who knows? In my mind, Dog is not intended to be Sabretooth, but he could be. It doesn’t matter. As long as the next writer respects the character and writes a simple story, anything could happen."

In April 2009, Marvel Comics released a one-shot specialty comic entitled X-Men Origins: Sabretooth which was part of a series of origin stories for a number of other X-Men characters. The comic chronicled some of Sabretooth's earliest childhood experiences. Within the comic, it is revealed that Sabretooth's childhood and early life, with the exception of being in an abusive family, differs distinctly from the life of Dog Logan as shown in the Origin mini-series.^[11]

Subsequent appearances in the Wolverine and the X-Men series has made clear that Sabretooth and Dog are separate people.

Powers and abilities

Much about Dog remains unrevealed, due to the few appearances he has made. Dog is tall and powerfully built and demonstrates impressive tracking abilities, though it remains unrevealed precisely how he locates James and Rose. Dog also shows himself to be a formidable combatant during his fight with James. Later in the series, Dog had leaf shaped ears, fangs, and his fingernails resembled claws.

Other versions

• Dog Logan appears in Wolverine Noir as Logan's partner and his alleged brother. This incarnation of the character is portrayed as being mentally handicapped to a degree. He dies during the series' climax after Victor Creed has his men tie him to the train tracks and is struck down by the oncoming train.^[12]
• What if Wolverine was Public Enemy No. 1 posits that after the events of Wolverine: Origin, Dog moved to Chicago where he became a crime lord known as "Scarface", and had Logan's wife and son killed, prompting him to become the Punisher in the 1920s.^[13]
• A future version of Dog appears in Wolverine and the X-Men #26.^[14]

Other media

• In the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character of Dog is combined into Victor Creed, with his backstory and link to young James when he was a child.
• In the video game X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a trivia caption on the loading screens says Victor Creed's nickname as a boy was "Dog" by his father Thomas.

References

External links

• Dog bio from the Appendix to the Marvel Universe