These creatures aren't malevolent, just misunderstood... all because of a horrid slimeball who taught them violence.
| “ | Moon Knight: I have to know... what is it you hoped to accomplish? Training dogs to track expensive clothing... to target the wealth... beating them... teaching them to be vicious. Dog Trainer: Whu- What makes those rich scum so special? What makes them so much better than me? Gonna knock them off their high horses. Moon Knight: It's not your job to teach anyone. The mighty fall... or they don't... as fate dictates. |
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| ~ The Fist of Khonshu knows how to call out a major slimeball whose only purpose in life is little to no value, even when rightfully so. |
Once again back with another Moon Knight candidate and this one is a really, really weak keeper in his case. Stemming from the seventh volume of the comic book's run in the year 2014, there have been several criminals let loose and other haunting entities, one which ate children at its meal time. This candidate, on the other hand, is one I am trying to challenge myself into explaining why he'd qualify because here's the thing... he's slightly close to sounding a bit below passing the baseline. But in case of a previous Moon Knight candidate I did awhile back, this should be no problem for me.
To keep thing short, like who I mentioned above, he also came from only one chapter of a comic book. This talks about a certain Dog Trainer. Yeah, another absolute nobody. But after quick-minute consideration, this is... another personal case for me.
What's the Work?[]
Moon Knight is one of Marvel's most underappreciated comic books ever written and basically the Batman of the franchise. Likewise, our hero is a lunar-themed superhero with a Dissociative Personality Disorder with three identities out there fighting criminals and tons of evil baddies under the name and oath of Khonshu.
Focusing on Volume 7, Moon Knight currently works with NYPD officers in search of once again hunting down small-time to big-shot criminals and going up against supernatural beings that waltz within the streets of New York and elsewhere, all under Khonshu's word and favors to his titular fist.
Who is He? What has He Done?[]
The unnamed Dog Trainer is an auto repair shop owner, as well as an abusive dog tamer who trained his batch of dogs into becoming vicious attack dogs that are sicced upon maiming and killing wealthy socialites.
Having likely abducted street dogs that are depicted as followers of Anubis via his presence, the trainer harshly tamed them in any form of abuse to shape them into his perfect attack dogs that are trained to sic the rich, a scheme that sees them "knocked off their high horses" out of petty hatred of having more than enough compared to him. On a nightly basis, the trainer who unleash his dogs into attacking unsuspecting socialites that sees them maimed to death and their belongings ripped off of them, later collected by him to likely make bucks out of it or kept for souvenir. However, so much as any dog that didn't bring anything back, he would "teach them a lesson" by brutally killing them - especially for petty reasons like getting a headache from their constant barking.
On one night, his dogs began attacking another wealthy person until Moon Knight stopped them but the person ended up dead nonetheless. Bringing the corpse back to NYPD officer Flint, they examine it before Moon Knight revealed his attention to these attacks were called upon by Khonshu and Anubis - the latter most entirely due to his appearance being related to dogs - which meant trouble. One lovely evening in a restaurant full of dining patrons, the trainer's dogs were unleashed again and already wasted no time maiming the kitchen staff to death, then proceed to attack and maim the dining patrons until Moon Knight came around to fend them off. Finding himself brutally maimed and almost at a disadvantage with their numbers, he manages to scare them before putting a tracker on one of them.
Retracing their location to an nearby auto repair shop, he spotted the dog with his tracker impaled with it by its eye, deducing its death to be punishment for failure and later discovers a shed full of caged dogs with wounds and a ton of whimpering, as well as discovering numerous pieces of cloth and goods belonging to past victims of the nightly dog attacks. Enraged, Moon Knight waited till the trainer came home and immediately ambushed him, which the trainer tries to justify his actions stemming from how good rich people have it when questioned by Moon Knight. Unfortunately, he retorts his reasons and freed his dogs to let them maim him to death as revenge for viciously abusing them, giving said dogs the golden opportunity to bite back against their abuser.
Heinous Standards[]
Moon Knight deals with street-level criminals and supernatural enemies at best, especially when homed to Earth-616. I'll say it again, within his rogue gallery, there are exceptional contenders outside but this here is one of its weakest ones. However, as far as resources go and the fact that not everytime they can help said individual stand out on certain amount of crimes in their rapsheet, the trainer may have done enough for his tier alone for several reasons I am much obliged to point out.
First off, the Dog Trainer is merely a complete nobody with barely anything to do much for resources besides a dozen pack of dogs, I mean, the dude's basically close to being a hobo who runs a not-so-well financed auto repair shop that one could mistake it for a junkyard, what else is he suppose to do with that? He's got no connections, no wealth, nothing compared to other one-shot baddies like him such as Arthur Harrow whose a merely both a scientist and agent with few access to relocated laboratories and his research. Resources aside, Animal Cruelty isn't usually a major crime that passes the baseline nor in-story wise when it comes to any sort of awareness of sapience to said animals or if there is any sort of personal levity backed up another few more heinous deeds. Though in terms of levity, the chapter makes it clear that Anubis, one of the recurring Gods of this series, deems the abused dogs of the trainer's to be followers to him and they were in need of saving. So there's some levity to the trainer's cruel actions.
This two-paged scene is sadly realistic considering stray or lost dogs out in the real world suffer at the hands of abusive pet owners/trainers/traffickers, and this is only an example of what this could occur.
Speaking of which, what also backs up his treatment of his dogs is how he used them for? His scheme involves killing wealthy bystanders for their belongings in order to make dough and that's not without "making them fell off their high horses", which involves having his "trained" dogs into maiming and killing them alive. Based on the leftover stuff we see from his shed and one of the corpses examined from the beginning, it's likely that a few dozen or several victims have been caught in these nightly attacks with the biggest pusher being the recent attack on a populated restaurant full of wealthy patrons and already likely killing a good portion of the kitchen staff. Mind you, all these attacks aren't much of a pretty sight to look at and it's likely that the trainer will continue having these dogs kill wealthy people if not for Moon Knight tracking him down. There's also the cruel touch of killing any of the dogs as punishment for the smallest of reasons or for simply not bringing back anything to him. Judging from his "learned your lessons" quota once he got back, it is indicated to be a routine he does.
Now, by the Moon Knight series alone, he's done enough for a small-time crook out of all the street/city-level criminals the Fist of Khonshu has to deal with. But in Earth-616 is another issue, besides his resources and screentime, what I can occur to him still barely sticking out is that he's realistic. Don't get me wrong, if we remove the other crimes in his scheme and only focus on the abuse of the dogs, we've got people like him in the real world and abusive dog training is frequently a common problem most prevention programs tried to put a stop to. Even then, the nature of his crimes' brutality through his dogs are more than enough to make up despite his incredibly low-tier use of whatever he has for resources. And believe me, what he does to dogs and what he trained them for does it for me, and I am speaking as an owner of three beloved dogs in my family.
Mitigating Factors[]
The bastard only appeared for like, three-four pages of screentime, near the end of his chapter. However, we're given enough dialogue out of him and the nature of his depraved scheme of nightly dog attacks to know that he is a petty excuse of a slimebag whose ire for rich people had him deluded into thinking they look down on him or something, and the fact that he is a dog tamer who abuses his dogs into becoming his personal weapon - especially for petty reasons like having a headache over their barking. There's also the fact that he responds to being an absolute coward in death.
But to reiterate, his hatred for the commonly wealthy is petty and by all means no excuse for his actions, as the people he's trying to continue killing are mainly innocent at best and as Moon Knight retorted, he had no right to do such things, especially what he did to the dogs he "trained". Nuff said as it is, just another slimebag out for money.
Final Verdict[]
A slightly weak yes but considering what he does to dogs and as an owner of three, it quite saddens me that people like him exist and I'm sure as hell my mother (a massive dog lover herself) would pour her heart for any victimized dogs that suffered from abuse or neglect should she ever read this specific chapter. That aside, your choice, folks.