14 Very Good Comics Dogs for International Dog Day

First Appearance: Batman #92 (June 1955)

I guess Batman saw that Superman had a dog and got jealous, because literally three months later he got one of his own? In that he found a German Shepherd and put a bat mask on him because Bruce Wayne is a ridiculous human being? Technically Ace is the secret identity of Bat-Hound, so apologies to Mr. Hound for spilling his secret. He disappeared in 1964 along with other side characters like Batwoman and Bat-Girl when the Batman comics were revamped, but reappeared in the ’90s and continued to show up sporadically in various incarnations, often in a metatextual context as a “forgotten” or alternate universe character. Most recently, he was reintroduced in Rebirth as an abused guard dog initially belonging to the Joker who Bruce and Alfred rehabilitate. They do not use him to fight crime—Bruce only compounds that sort of abuse with children these days, not dogs—but they do get him a little bat mask as a joke.

First Appearance: Bulletman #10 (December 1942)

I started this list with the two most famous superheroes’ dogs, but they are not the oldest. That honor goes to the obscure Bulletman and Bulletgirl’s even more obscure dog, the creatively named Bulletdog. (Well, technically that honor probably goes to Devil, the Phantom’s dog, but technically The Phantom is a comic strip, not a book, and also Devil is a wolf and not a dog…) Bulletman, AKA Jim Barr, wears a bullet-shaped helmet to fly and fight crime alongside his wife Susan, AKA Bulletgirl. When their dog Slug bites a criminal trying to hurt Susan, Jim decides that Slug deserves a gravity-defying collar and an alias as well. Most superheroes’ dogs are larger breeds, but I love that Slug is clearly a sweet li’l spaniel! That can fly! Comics are so silly.

First Appearance: Green Lantern #30 (February 1948)

Superheroes were big sellers during World War II, but their popularity waned in the postwar years and publishers tried various experiments to bring readers back. In Green Lantern’s case, they gave him a dog. Streak was a German Shepherd whose owner was killed by gangsters; Streak attempted to avenge him and was shot, but was rescued by Green Lantern, who then adopted the ownerless dog. (We will see a very similar origin for Lucky a bit further on.) Streak proved so popular—or, uh, Green Lantern proved so unpopular in those trying postwar times—that out of the remaining eight issues of Green Lantern, three of them featured Streak on the cover, and not Green Lantern himself! He continued to have sporadic solo adventures in Sensation Comics after Green Lantern was canceled and is something of a spiritual predecessor to…

First Appearance: Rex the Wonder Dog #1 (January/February 1952)

Yes, that’s right—three years before Krypto’s debut, there was a super dog with his own book! Rex is basically a canine Captain America—he was part of the Army’s K-9 Corps, where he performed so well that he was given a DC variation on super soldier serum, giving him enhanced strength, speed, and intelligence. After serving in WWII and Korea, he was taken home by an army major and proceeded to split his time between crimefighting and working as a Hollywood stunt dog, obviously. Over the 46 issues of his series he had many truly wild adventures including fighting numerous dinosaurs, befriending aliens, and repeatedly journeying to a subatomic universe. He can ride a horse and a bull and has been decorated by the French Foreign Legion. Unsurprisingly, his appearances in recent decades have been somewhat sporadic, but he’s still around (thanks to once drinking from the Fountain of Youth) and a member of the Bureau of Augmented Animals run by Detective Chimp.

Fun Fact #1: He has a brother named Billy or “Pooch” who fought alongside the Losers in World War II and received the honorary rank of Sergeant.

Fun Fact #2: Literally every sentence one can say about Rex the Wonder Dog is funnier than the one before.

First Appearance: Fantastic Four #45 (December 1965)

Marvel finally makes it onto the board! Lockjaw is an Inhuman, which are basically a mutated parallel evolution to humans, so I don’t know why there’s a dog but I one hundred percent don’t even care because Lockjaw is such. A good. Doggo. He is a giant bulldog who can teleport and also do miscellaneous other things, including eat any scrap metal or robots you don’t particularly feel like dealing with, and he seems to belong collectively to the Inhuman royal family—or let’s face it, they belong to him. He is a member of the Pet Avengers and could theoretically have been the first superhero dog to be seen on live action television if anyone had actually watched Inhumans.

First Appearance: Daredevil #361 (February 1997)

After finding out that his best friend Matt Murdock was really Daredevil, Foggy Nelson thought it would be a good idea to adopt a retired police dog to aid Matt in his crimefighting. Since that makes zero sense and Matt didn’t actually want a dog, Foggy wound up as Deuce’s owner, and the two were extremely devoted to each other, even saving each other from armed thugs, until Foggy got drunk and lost Deuce to Deadpool’s friend Weasel in a poker game. Deuce then belonged to Deadpool’s other friend Blind Al for a while before just sort of disappearing.

Fun Fact: In 1985, Marvel previewed an animated series that was never actually made called Daredevil and Lightning the Super Dog, which was supposedly dropped by ABC because of the concurrent extremely dark and violent Frank Miller run on the comics. Lightning was, like Deuce, a German Shepherd.

First Appearance: Impulse #57 (February 2000)

Dox is a completely normal dog, although he was the only member of Impulse’s supporting cast to recognize that Bart Allen had been replaced with his evil clone, Thaddeus Thawne. (Bart eventually came back.) When Bart briefly got magical powers, he enhanced Dox’s intelligence and gave him the ability to speak; Dox lost the latter when the magic wore off, but seems to have retained the enhanced intelligence. Sadly, he has not been seen in nearly 20 years, but the important thing is that Bart Allen is a perfect boy and deserves a dog. Brian Michael Bendis, are you listening?