Fictional Character Biography
Rex is a white German Shepherd Dog who spent his early years in the U.S. Army's K-9 Corps, alongside his brother, Pooch. Early in his training it became apparent that Rex had great potential, which resulted in Dr. Anabolus selecting him as a test subject for a super-soldier serum. After receiving an injection of the serum, Rex found himself endowed with great strength, speed, stamina, and intelligence. Dr. Anabolus was killed by a Nazi spy soon after, and as Anabolus left no records, this led to Rex being the only dog of his kind. Rex served during World War II, acting during the Italian campaign and earning an unspecified medal for saving his handler Lieutenant Dennis from a German patrol, and later receiving a Silver Star for saving POWs. He and then Captain, later Major, Dennis followed this by serving in the Pacific campaign against Japan, then later in Korea.
After his army career, Rex was adopted by Major Dennis and his family. Not long after moving into his new home, Rex began a new career as a crime solver when Major Dennis' son Phillip was accused of murder and, when the police were unable to solve the crime, Rex succeeded in finding all the requisite clues to clear Phillip's name. Soon after, he was made an honorary Forest Ranger and became a Hollywood stunt dog. In most of his subsequent adventures he would be seen accompanying Phillip's younger brother, Danny.
Over the next few years, as well as solving a never-ending series of burglaries, robberies, murders and other crimes, becoming a film star and a circus actor, and daring natural disasters such as forest fires and thick snow, Rex also managed to survive attacks from lions, wolves, bears, panthers, and even octopi (twice). He could ride a horse, or bull, - and proved an expert bullfighter. He often operated small appliances such as cameras, or swung on ropes or vines to save people. Many of Rex's adventures took place in the American Midwest, but a number happened in Europe, Asia and especially Africa (largely as a result of Major Dennis being involved in various archaeological expeditions). Rex added to his military medals when he was decorated for bravery by the French Foreign Legion in North Africa, after one of several adventures with them, and added further to his awards when he became an honorary Native American Indian Chief, and an Honorary Fire Chief.
Occasionally Rex was forced to perform heroic acts in stranger circumstances. Wearing very cool protective shades he once witnessed a nuclear explosion, then fought the Tyrannosaurus Rex and pterodactyl that appeared from an underground world as a result of the seismic shift, and fought frozen mammoths on several occasions. In Australia he met an alien, Xstar, and helped him recapture an escaped creature - and met Xstar again soon after to solve an outer space crime, becoming 'Wonder Dog of Earth' in the process. While staying with a scientist friend of the family, John Rayburn, who created a formula to shrink living beings to microscopic size, they had a number of adventures either at a much-reduced size, in a sub-atomic world - pre-empting Ray Palmer, The Atom by over a year - and, by using the formula in reverse, in a giant-sized 'super-atomic world'.
Around this time, Rex was involved in thwarting an attempted invasion of Earth by Martians with the future founder members of the Justice League of America: The Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Green Lantern, among others. After this, he and Danny Dennis became a circus act for many years, where Detective Chimp came to see them and got involved in an adventure with a now obviously ageing Rex. Taken to the Caribbean, Rex and Detective Chimp accidentally drank from the lost Fountain of Youth and were both rejuvenated. Some years later, Lt. Colonel Daniel Dennis and Rex became part of a U.S. moonlanding team, Rex becoming 'America's first Wonder Dog on The Moon' in the process.
By 1991, it became clear that more than a new lease of life had happened to Rex. While saving the world from Gorilla Grodd, 'the dog at the heart of the world, the dog for whom the universe has waited' (as he now described himself) confidently communicated with the newly sentient animals of Central City, and persuaded them to fight against Grodd. No reason was given for this new ability, but shortly afterwards Rex joined 'The Bureau of Amplified Animals', an organisation of animals with abnormally high intellect run by Detective Chimp to help mankind, and was instrumental in defeating Grodd again; also revealing that he can speak, and possesses 'the knowledge of force of mind, and how to use it' . Detective Chimp later explained that both his and Rex's new powers were another effect of drinking from the Fountain of Youth.
Read more about this topic: Rex The Wonder Dog
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