Mad Dog (DC Comics)

The Mad Dog is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe, associated with the Batman mythos, created by writer Andersen Gabrych and artist Ale Garza. He first appeared as an enemy of Cassandra Cain (then Batgirl) in Batgirl #67 (October 2005).

Fictional character biography[]

David Cain, one of the world's premier assassins, was by the nature of his profession a very lonely man, and began thinking about what he would leave behind when he died. He wished for a "perfect child" - specifically a "perfect artisan of his craft".

Cain, was at this time, a member of Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins. Ra's had created the League to be "The fang that protects his head", but he had grown tired of the uncertain loyalties of its members. When he learned of the theories Cain was developing to train a perfect killer, Ra's was intrigued, and supplied Cain with infant test subjects in the hopes of creating a new generation of assassins. This experiment proved disastrous; those infants that survived eventually turned on one another until only one boy remained. Ra's ordered one of his "Ubu" guards to kill the boy "like a mad dog". The guard, however, took pity on the abused child, and secretly set him free in the woods instead. Cain and Ra's al Ghul did not know that the boy still lived, and Cain began a new experiment, raising his own daughter, Cassandra, to replace his earlier failures.

Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Nyssa Raatko, did know that "The Mad Dog" had survived. Years later, after Ra's' death, she sought out The Mad Dog and made him a member of her new League of Assassins. She took him on as a protégé, telling him everything about the experiments, and about who he was intended to be.

Cassandra gathered evidence indicating that Lady Shiva was her mother, and sought out Shiva to confirm this. At the time Shiva was the sensei of Nyssa's new League. When Batgirl arrived she played a key role in the rebirth of Mr. Freeze's wife Nora Fries as the monstrous Lazara, and several League members died in the resulting chaos. Due to the conflict between their loyalty to Shiva and Nyssa and their near-worship of Batgirl as "The One Who is All" the League split at that point, with several members pledging themselves to Cassandra. Several more members of the League (including all the defectors except one) died when The Mad Dog went on a killing spree. The Mad Dog was successful in killing Batgirl (who gave her life to protect the last of the defected assassins), although she was able to knock him unconscious before perishing. Cassandra was quickly restored to life in a Lazarus Pit by Shiva. The Mad Dog's fate is unknown.

Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins[]

A serial killer named Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins was created in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1 and featured in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Batman reads about him in Amadeus Arkham's diaries.

From an early age, Martin Hawkins is beaten and sexually abused by his father. He grows up to become a disturbed man who cuts himself in order to feel something. One day, as he is driven further into insanity, he claims to see visions of the Virgin Mary, who tells him to go out and kill women, destroying their faces and sexual organs in order to "stop the dirty sluts from spreading their disease".

He kills many women before he is finally caught and sentenced to stay in the State Psychiatric Hospital in Metropolis. Once there, he is treated by Amadeus Arkham.

When Amadeus Arkham goes back to Gotham City and set up Arkham Asylum, he went back home on April 1 to find that Martin Hawkins had broken into his house, dismembered his wife Constance, and had raped his daughter before decapitating her and putting her head in a dollhouse. This is one of the factors which eventually drives Amadeus Arkham insane.

Hawkins is quickly captured again and sentenced to Arkham Asylum, becoming one of its first patients, under the treatment of Amadeus Arkham himself. During their sessions, he matter-of-factly calls Arkham's daughter a slut and describes the rapes and murders in graphic detail. Dr. Arkham appears to take this all in his stride, and perseveres, earning praise from his colleagues for his dedication to mental health and rehabilitation.

On the anniversary of the murder, Amadeus straps Hawkins to a shock therapy table and electrocutes him, getting revenge for the deaths of his wife and daughter. Hawkins' death is treated as an accident.

In other media[]

• In The New Batman Adventures, the episode "Holiday Knights" began the second story with Harvey Bullock on a stake-out posing as a Santa Claus at the mall to identify a shoplifter, who turned out to be Clayface. A girl named Mary McSweeney asks him for her father to be home on Christmas Eve. Bullock finds out at her father was Mike McSweeney, who happened to be known as Mad Dog. He reveals to Renee Montoya that he sent Mary's father to jail months ago and sugarcoats the problem by explaining to Mary that sometimes not even Santa Claus can make every wish come true. However, he puts the smile back on her face by giving her $20 to buy presents. When she asks if she can buy her daddy one he approves, as long as it's not a hack saw.
• Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins is mentioned in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Batman finds several tablets called the "Chronicles of Arkham" which tells the history of the Asylum (narrated by the "spirit" of its founder Amadeus Arkham) and how his wife and child were murdered by Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins. Also, a bench (dedicated to Amadeus' family) in the flooded corridors of the Botanical Gardens has Mad Dog's named etched over the inscription plate, and is the answer to one of The Riddler's riddles. The memorial statue of Amadeus' wife overlooking the bench has been vandalised, with its head by its feet - a twisted homage to Mad Dog's murder of Amadeus' young daughter. The Chronicles of Arkham describe an incident when Mad Dog, about to be released into the public once again, uses the pen he is given to sign his release form to kill Amadeus's secretary, after which he is beaten by the guards. Amadeus later states he was killed in an 'accident' (exactly what happened is never made clear), which is the public retelling of his death.