As I feared, Joe Kubert killed off the puppy. No last minute retcon. No Zero Hour. No scene of the miraculously uninjured puppy running playfully around the yard as the soldiers of Easy Co. walk over the horizon (think the unlikely and to my mind hastily-added scene from Con Air with the little girl and Steve Buscemi). Puppy-death in the DCU is pretty permanent as far as comic book deaths go. Except for Krypto and he's special. Ten years from now there won't be a big crossover event showing a paw made of stars clutching a galaxy as it remakes the universe.
No. Readers received DC's official verification of Pup's fate in these throw-away panels from Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy #4.
Yet, Pup is not truly gone. Indeed, the soul of Pup lives on as a good luck action figure in the form of a kachina fetish given to Bull by Sure-Shot. So thanks to condescending stereotypes of Native Americans the puppy is still around in spirit to make Bull feel better about war crimes and concentration camps. Then again, if my health and well-being in a combat zone depended on the whims of the Giant Redneck Racist I'd shower him with gifts, too.
Awwwww.I won't spoil the big reveal of this issue, but the fate of the kachina is also telegraphed pretty far in advance this month. Let's see if I'm right about it by the time issue #6 hits the stands. Whatever happens to the doll, you can bet it will be sappy but heartwarming and represent a symbol of hope for the future.
"Ten years from now there won't be a big crossover event showing a paw made of stars clutching a galaxy as it remakes the universe."
ReplyDeleteYou just described the greatest comic book story I could ever hope to read. As the S.C.P.A. is my witness, If ever such a book came to be, I would buy 500 copies to distribute to bewildered passers-by.