Wolverine (2nd series) #47

Issue Date: 
October 1991
Story Title: 
Dog Day
Staff: 

Larry Hama (script), Gerald DeCaire (pencils), Don Hudson (inks), Pat Brosseau (lettering), Glynis Oliver (coloring), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Brief Description: 

In Westchester County, a deranged drugged-out kid named Tracy is caught by his mom in her house stealing from her. Tracy proceeds to beat her up and steal her gun along with her car. Later on, at a convenience store, he robs it and kills the owner and one of his employees. From there, he attempts to run down two kids crossing the street. In another part of town, Wolverine watches a female cop kill a dog that has gone out of control. He remembers back to when he and Silver Fox had a dog that went rabid. Silver Fox told him that he needed to shoot the dog but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. In the present, Wolverine and Tracy eventually meet up. Tracy panics from his delusions and attempts to kill Wolverine with his car, however Wolverine is able to survive and faces Tracy. Before he is able to take him out, the cops shoot and kill Tracy. As Tracy falls, Wolverine remembers that, even though he wasn’t able to kill his dog, Silver Fox was.

Full Summary: 

As a plain-clothes Wolverine is unhooking the chain around his motorcycle, a female cop says to him that she takes it he is the owner of this motorcycle? Wolverine replies that he has the registration in his pocket, “darlin’.” The cop tells him she’s not his darling, “bub.” Wolverine laughs and says bub; that’s good. He says to her that she doesn’t think he’s ripping off this scoot, does she?

The cop replies that she doesn’t, but she is curious about why it’s been sitting there chained up for weeks. Parking down there at the World Trade Center is at a premium. She was going to have it carted off and impounded but she ran a check on the tag first. It raised a flag in the computer and brought down all sorts of federal security types on her case. Suit and haircut types with S.H.I.E.L.D. I.D. cards and a mouth full of “need to know.” They said they would appreciate discretion but legally it was her call. She figured she’d wait and see just what Mister N.F.N. Logan looked like and hear what kind of tall tale he can spin as she writes him up.

Wolverine replies that he wouldn’t presume to pull the ol’ flim-flam on her. He could tell her all about getting’ flushed through the sewer system, throwin’ down on a psycho-killer in the park, messin’ with an Indian forest spirit in Times Square, and dukin’ it out with a guy who thinks he’s his father and a gal who wants his bones. But why should he hassle a nice person who’s just trying to do her job? He then tells her to just write up that ticket and he’ll be on his way. The cop takes a long look at him and then rips up the ticket. As she leaves him, she tells him to watch where he parks next time, Mr. Logan.

In Westchester County, one town over from Salem Center, a lady returns home with groceries. When she enters the room she is in shock to find Tracy. She asks him what he’s doing there. They have a court-order. Tracy asks her whatdayamean we, mom? Dad’s been pushing up daisies for six months. His mom tells him that it was him who killed him. His heart couldn’t take the strain. She told him after he dropped out of the voluntary programs that there was just no dealing with him any longer, but he wouldn’t give up on him. Tracy replies that he was a chump and a sucker, just like she is.

He then asks if she has anything around there worth anything besides this cheap junk? His mom tells him to get out of there; he’s not stealing anything else from her to buy drugs with. As she runs towards her bedroom, she says that he’s not her darling little Tracy-kins any longer. He’s like the undead, come back to feast on the living. Tracy follows her and tells her that it sounds like she’s still reading that Stephen King trash. He adds that she’s just bugged because he’s not a chump and he’s not interested in living a stupid boring chump life and…

He stops his thought when he notices that his mom is pointing a gun towards him. He asks her where she got that. He could get three or four yards for that on the street. His mom orders him to stay away from her; she means it. Tracy ignores her and begins to move towards her. He tells her to hand it over. She’s not shooting him and she knows it. The mom replies back that she will so, she will wound him. Tracy gets closer and tells her that it will nevah happen momsy and to give the gun over to Tracy-kins.

With a quick move, Tracy takes the gun out of his mom’s hand, knocking her down. When he looks to see what she has in the gun, he finds big Magnum hollow-points. As his mom kneels on the floor crying, she asks what did she ever do to deserve this? Tracy angrily asks her if she wants to know, does she really want to know? He then proceeds to kick her over and over. As he does, he tells her that it’s because she was a boring, lame chump all her boring lame chump sucker life. All the time, nagging, nagging, nagging. Finish school! Get a hair-cut! Go to church! Get a job! Well, he got himself a job now. It’s a full-time occupation. It’s called getting stupid!

Over near Salem Center, Wolverine hears a gunshot just off the exit ramp. Instinctively, he heads in the direction from which they came. At the location of the gunshot, two cops pointing their guns in the direction of a crazed dog. The police scanner reports that there is a rabid dog at the corner of Elm and Bates. The female cop tells his partner, Jim, not to let the dog get any closer and to just shoot him again and not to miss this time. Jim tells her, Deidre, to take him out, she’s the one who wins all the shooting trophies.

When Wolverine arrives on the scene he notices that the dog is foamin’ at the mouth but he ain’t so far gone that he don’t know what’s comin. Inside, behind all that craziness, there’s somethin’ whimperin’ and waitin’ for the pain to stop. Just then, Deidre unloads four shots, killing the dog. Wolverine indicates to her that the department might call that “excessive force.” Deidre replies that she has two little kids and that she can’t afford to take chances. She asks him if he thinks this is easy. She’s got a dog too. She doesn’t know if she could put down Sandy herself. She asks Wolverine if he knows what she means. She then inquires if he has a dog. Wolverine tells her that he did a long time ago.

Across town, Tracy arrives at a convenience store. When he does, he mentions that momsy won’t be doing any driving until she gets out of intensive care, so he guesses he got him some wheels for a while. He adds that he might as well make this a real “old home week” kind of day. When he enters the store, the owner is shocked to see him there. Tracy mentions to him, Mr. Singh, that he thought he’d come back and see if maybe he got cancer so he can sit around and watch him die. Mr. Singh, enraged, orders him to get out of his store and to never come back. The lady behind the counter tells Tracy that he has some nerve. Mr. Singh gave him a job, even though he knew he was fresh out of a drug rehab program and he still robbed him. She the calls him a degenerate dope fiend. Tracy tells her, Tiffany, to get out of his way.

As he reaches over to take the money out of the register, he tells her that these stinking foreigners come over here, take over everything and think they can get away with paying real Americans coolie wages. Tiffany tells him that he’s just a low-down cracked-up thief. Tracy tells her to shut her ugly face and calls her a skank. He’s just collecting back pay and benefits. At that point, Mr. Singh has seen enough and rushes towards Tracy. As he does, he tells him to put that back and calls him a bummer. Tracy laughs and points out that ol’ Singharoo can’t even get their language straight. When he shoots him in the chest, killing him, he tells him that he shoulda learnt to talk English right but now it’s too late.

Tiffany, in shock asks Tracy if he’s gone nuts, after which Tracy calls her a sniveling little chump. Tiffany then tells him that she didn’t mean to say that. She begs him not to shoot her. She swears she won’t tell. Tracy points out that she was calling him a degenerate and then calls her a skeevy little zit-farm. He the points the gun at her and clicks the barrel. Tiffany yells out noooooo!

As Wolverine rides away from the dead dog, he thinks to himself that they had a dog once. Him and Silver Fox. Inside their cabin, Silver Fox comforted Logan, telling him not to worry: Blue will wander back any time now. Dogs have to go off by themselves once in a while. Sometimes, they need to be wild again. Logan tells her that it’s been a week. Just then, Blue arrives at their door foaming at his mouth. Logan informs Silver Fox that Blue has the hydro-phobia and that he must’ve been bit by a rabid raccoon. Silver Fox grabs their rifle and hands it to Logan. She then tells him that he has to put him down. While Logan points the rifle at Blue, Silver Fox tells him to shoot him.

Over near the convenience store, Tracy is driving erratically in his mother’s car, crashing into parked cars. He yells out in excitement that he’s gonna meet his connection. He’s gonna cop big time quantity and get supremely stupid. As he continues to drink his beer and drive, he exclaims that he’s finally getting over and that chumps had better stay out of his way.

A few blocks away, two kids are standing at the corner with their bikes and their dog. The boy tells his sister, Megan, that the light is green. That means they can cross. Megan mentions to her brother, Sean, that mom told them to look both ways first even if the light is green. Sean looks to the left and sees nothing while Megan looks to the right and sees nothing. As they cross, Megan tells Sandy, their dog, to come on.

In the car, Tracy points out that he is so lit already that, if his main man got some truly righteous totally face-waster mind altering substances, he’s gonna warp out right through the transporter bay. As he continues to drive erratically, he yells out, “Beam me up, Scotty!” When he reaches the kids crossing the street, Sean tells Megan to run. Megan asks him about her bike. As Tracy barrels down on them, he tells them to forget the bike and think fast kid.

Further up the road, Wolverine is sitting at a light on his motorcycle. When Tracy pulls up next to him, he wonders what is with this guy. Is he a cop? He has that look. That attitude. Like he don’t take no guff. As Tracy begins to sweat, he wonders if the man next to him is checking him out. Does he know? He pulls his gun out of his pocket and wonders why the light doesn’t change. When the light finally turns green, Wolverine pulls out and looks back at Tracy’s car. Tracy wonders what he’s looking at and then realizes. It’s the kid’s bike handle-bars. They’re still stuck on his grill. At that point, he realizes that this man knows. Wolverine pulls in front of him, but Tracy doesn’t care. He runs him down anyway and knocks him off his bike and catapulting him into the air. When Wolverine lands he notices that the punk is stoppin’ and floorin’ it in reverse. Then hit with the car, he instinctively pops his claws and slices part of the car apart.

Eventually, Tracy stops the car and gets out. He asks Wolverine what is he, one of those Halloween slasher guys that keeps popping back to life after they been croaked? He adds that he has something there to put him down for the count. As Tracy begins to shoot at him, Wolverine tells him to put the gun down so they can talk. Tracy says that he won’t talk; he’s the one who’s got the .357 Magnum. Wolverine admits that he’s got a big gun, but he has an adamantium-laced skeleton, the hardest substance on the face o’ the planet.

When Tracy pulls the trigger, he counts to himself two for Singh, one for Tiffany and three just now. He’s out of ammo. Wolverine continues to press forward. As he does, he tells Tracy that he also has his mutant healing factor. When he pops his claws he asks Tracy if he ran down some little kid. Is that how he got them handle-bars on his grill? Mowed down some poor mother’s darlin’ baby and kept right on drivin’ down the road. He then asks where all that crash came from and if he’s been really busy today. In his mind, he thinks back to when he faced Blue and to when Silver Fox told him that he needs to put him down and out of his pain. Wolverine then puts his claws away.

Just then, five shots are pumped into Tracy from behind. Tracy falls down, dead. Wolverine mentions to the cops that arrived on the scene that the gun was empty. The cop, Deidre, asks him how she was supposed to know that. He was pointing the gun right at him; she made the right decision. Wolverine replies that he could have… He is cut off by Deidre, who says that that slime-bucket almost ran down her kids after he blew away two civilians at a convenience store. Her kids, along with their dog, are in the back of the police car, safe.

As Deidre unloads her gun, she laments to Wolverine that it’s been a day. Two mad dogs in one afternoon, ten shots fired. She’s going to be filling out paperwork until… She stops in her tracks and asks Wolverine if he is hurt. He replies that it’s nothing that won’t heal by itself. He then asks her if she remembers him telling her that he had a dog once. As he gets back on his bike, he tells her that his dog came home foamin’ at the mouth. His girl told him to shoot him, but he couldn’t do it so she took the rifle and did it herself.

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine/Logan

Tracy

Tracy’s mom (unnamed)

Mr. Singh

Tiffany

Deidre (policewoman)

Sean and Megan (Deidre’s kids)

Jim (Deidre’s partner)

Meter-maid (unnamed)

Various civilians (unnamed)

In flashbacks:

Logan

Silver Fox

Blue (their dog)

Story Notes: 

Wolverine chained his bike up in front of the World Trade Center back in Wolverine (2nd series) #40.

Some famous Halloween slasher characters are Jason (Friday the 13th), Norman Bates (Psycho), Michael Myers (Halloween), and Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street).

Issue Information: 

This Issue has been reprinted in:

Written By: