46 pages • 1 hour read
Dog Man Unleashed
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Themes
The Struggle Between Good and Evil
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.
Like many comics, Dog Man Unleashed deals with the question of good and evil and highlights that good will always win out. The author first introduces the thematic struggle between the forces of evil and the forces of good in the Foreword. Harold and George, the in-universe “authors” of the Dog Man series, explain Dog Man’s origins. They set the scene by talking about a world where “evil cats” and “sinister villains” “wreak havoc” but can be vanquished by a heroic police officer—Officer Knight—and a heroic police dog—Greg. Because Dog Man is created from these two heroes, he becomes the ultimate force for good in the world’s battle against evil.
Fittingly, Dog Man is responsible for the defeat of three villains during the story. Petey, Flat Petey, and Flippy all represent the kind of evil that George and Harold warn about in the Foreword. All three are selfish loners who make choices exclusively designed to benefit themselves, without regard for how these choices impact others. Both Petey and Flat Petey are willing to manipulate others—Petey with his Love Ray and Flat Petey with Feeva’s Obey Spray. Flat Petey and Flippy are greedy, battling one another over sole possession of the treasure in Petey’s tank. These two are also willing to physically harm others to get their way. Dog Man’s quest to put an end to the chaos that Petey, Flat Petey, and Flippy unleash—a robbery, a jailbreak, crowds manipulated into adoring Petey and giving up their treasures, and a battle in the streets—is the heart of the novel’s central conflict.
Because the novel is comedic, Dog Man’s path to victory is not a smooth—or even completely logical—one. Dog Man gets distracted from his objective several times by his desire to chase balls, and the animated T. rex almost ends up defeating him. His defeat of Petey is a complete accident, only coming about because Dog Man refuses to let go of the red ball on the Treasure Tank 200’s control arm. Ultimately, however, Dog Man does win because of his determination, his instincts, and his friendships. Unlike the three villains, Dog Man has friends to help him. Zuzu, in particular, is instrumental in Dog Man’s escape from the T. rex and the unmasking of Flippy’s real identity. By contrast, the three villains work at cross purposes, causing constant problems for one another and weakening themselves as Dog Man’s opponents. Dog Man does not give up after the run-in with the animated dinosaur, when Flat Petey absconds with the Treasure Tank 2000 and drives it into the snowy mountains, or even when Flat Petey crushes the Chief’s car and threatens the good guys with freezing to death. He persists in his objective of defeating the villains and returning order to his city. His final victory over Flippy is a result of his natural desire to chase balls, and his rescue of his team from Flat Petey happens after he follows his instinct to lick Flat Petey. The graphic novel ends with all three bad guys neutralized. Petey is back in cat jail, a pair of animated scissors has chased Flat Petey into the sunset, and Flippy has vanished into nothingness. The cooperation, determination, and innate goodness of Dog Man and his team win over evil, restoring order to the city.
The Importance of Creativity and Silliness
Dog Man Unleashed announces very early its intention to promote creative, silly thinking for its own sake. On the final page of the Foreword, George and Harold announce that “Dog Man is Go!” (14). In a metafictional moment, two police officers who are characters in the story somehow hear this announcement and react: “‘Dog Man is Go?’ ‘That don’t make no sense!’ ‘But we like it!’” (14). The story that follows is fun and full of excitement but completely unbound by logic and the rules of ordinary reality.
Dog Man Unleashed’s characters demonstrate the story’s devotion to absurdity and imagination. In reality, dogs, cats, and fish do not move and think like human beings. Pieces of paper, dinosaur skeletons, and scissors are inanimate objects. In Dog Man Unleashed, all are imaginatively anthropomorphized, and many act as main characters. Dog Man, the protagonist, is half human and half dog and a police officer who is constantly covering everyone in slobber, chasing balls, and bowling people over with his canine enthusiasm. The villains’ objectives are comically absurd—a fish trying to steal the resources to purchase a life-size castle, a cat who breaks out of jail to catch someone impersonating him, and an animated paper cut-out determined to steal a tank filled with treasure by besotted townsfolk in love with the jailbreaking cat.
The story’s plot, too, shows an appreciation for imagination and creativity. Many plot developments come about not through planned, logical action but because of coincidence or unintended consequences: Flippy becomes super-intelligent by accident, Flat Petey is animated due to a linguistic mix-up, Dog Man defeats Petey unintentionally, and Flippy almost escapes on the mountain because the body snatching book happens to fall near his bowl. Many plot events are just pure, silly fun: A crowd of townsfolk crying out for kisses and proposing marriage to Petey chases him back to jail, Dog Man turns the T. rex from adversary to ally by tickling it with repeated licking, and improbable items like Living Spray, Obey Spray, and the Love Ray are used to create surprising and amusing outcomes. The Chief sums up the story’s absurd and comical plot in the epilogue when he comments to Dog Man that “[n]obody learned anything…there was no atonement…no rebirth…no revelations…and not a ounce of character development or personal growth. It was all just a buncha mindless action and dumb luck!” (187). This is not meant as a criticism; the Chief explains that this makes this birthday the best one ever. Dog Man Unleashed sees the fun—and the value—of silliness.
The Power of Friendship and Loyalty
Throughout the story, friendship and loyalty are held up as important values. The “good” characters in the book are loyal friends, while the story’s villains are not. Although the other police officers sometimes become frustrated with Dog Man’s canine qualities, they do not exclude him, and the Chief openly recognizes Dog Man as his best officer. The team of police officers loyally accepts one another’s flaws—they all know that the Chief can be forgetful, for example, but their main reaction to this is not criticism but a desire to help him by getting him the Brain Dots. They also show genuine concern for one another, as when they plan a party for the Chief’s birthday and worry that the Chief is lonely and decide to get him a fish.
Many of Dog Man’s successes in the novel stem from his capacity for friendship and loyalty. Dog Man combines Officer Knight’s “pure heart” and Greg the Dog’s “loyal brain.” Like the rest of his team, he jumps into action to make the Chief’s birthday a happy one. He responds with enthusiasm to other officers’ exhortations, getting increasingly eager to be helpful when they ask him things like, “Who wants to buy a fish?” (21), and, “Who’s gonna catch the bad guys?” (58). Dog Man’s capacity for friendship leads to his having a solid team around him who can help him out at critical moments in the story’s action. It leads to him befriending Sarah and Zuzu, for instance. Sarah later offers him a clue about the identity of the pet store robber, and Zuzu helps him defeat the T. rex and unmasks Flippy’s real identity.
In sharp contrast, the story’s villains show no ability to make real friends and display no loyalty to others. Flippy, Flat Petey, and Petey each act in their own interests and disregard the impact their actions might have on others—in fact, they sometimes seem pleased when they cause harm to the people around them. Flippy works alone throughout the story. When he is freezing on the mountain, he is isolated in his bowl and has no one to help him. Petey uses his Love Ray to manipulate the people around him and take advantage of their feelings. This artificially generated love boomerangs back on him when the crowd chases him back to cat jail. Flat Petey does, on the surface, seem to have an accomplice, but he has only secured Feeva’s assistance through the Obey Spray, not through genuine friendship; as soon as he thinks he no longer needs Feeva, Flat Petey betrays Feeva. This leads to Flat Petey’s ultimate comeuppance when Feeva enchants the scissors that chase Flat Petey into the sunset and out of the narrative. At the end of the story, those who have failed to show friendship and loyalty are all defeated, and Dog Man and the Chief share a walk home and a pleasant chat about the day’s events, cementing the strength of their bond.
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