Mad-Dog!

I suppose if you're going to name your super-hero self after a cheap and fruity wine beverage, you ought not to be surprised if your costume also looks cheap and fruity, as if you've just staggered out of "your" alleyway after a long drunken night of homelessness:

Mad-Dog

Perhaps Marvel intended this character as a "What If Batman Became a Wino" sort of thing, but I can't imagine Bruce Wayne sporting a nifty pencil-thin mustache like that no matter how debased he became. Or maybe this is actually Bruce and Selina "Catwoman" Kyle's love-child, I don't know.

Whatever the case may be, you'd have to be pretty hopped up on MD 20/20 to combine black thigh-boots with a plunging, chest-hair-exposing collar like that. The creepy demon face logo and angry manicured nails complete the image of the angry wino looking to get back a little of what's his. Or at least another bottle of cheap hooch, whichever's easiest.

(Mad-dog character and image ©1985, Marvel Comics Group, "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe"™, Vol. 2, No. 7.)

4 Responses to Mad-Dog!

  1. K64 says:

    Awww… give the guy a break. He *is* mad, after all… Plus, I was under the impression that his boots were of normal length, and his tights had the matching black to extend the line. With a few modifications, this could be a decent costume.

  2. Jeff Hebert says:

    Could be, this is the only drawing of the guy I’ve seen. Either way, though, they come off looking like thigh boots, which are hardly ever a good way to go for the discriminating super adventurer.

    I also love the way his hands are posed here. At my old school our mascot was the Tigers, and we had a cheer we would deliver in a dead monotone: “Gee Are Are, Gee Are Are, grrrrrr.” This totally reminds me of that.

  3. Holly says:

    Well, the poor guy was married to Hellcat — I imagine Patsy Walker in her Marvel teen-queen days was enough to drive poor Buzz Baxter around the bend

  4. jeff47 says:

    Perhaps Marvel intended this character as a