Dingo

Dingo Pre-Upgrade

Dingo was a former mercenary and member of the Pack. He later became a member of the Redemption Squad. His real name is Harry Monmouth.

History

Young Harry Monmouth

Dingo was born on March 29th, 1960 as Harry Monmouth to Mariah Monmouth. [1] As a young boy, he came home from school one day to discover that his free-spirited mother was gone. He was greeted by John Oldcastle at his home, who informed Harry that Mariah had run off again, when in fact he had murdered her. Oldcastle raised Harry and taught him to be a thief. Harry was part of Oldcastle's gang, working over the years with Oldcastle and his accomplice, Pistol. ("Strangled") Eventually, Harry moved on and became a mercenary.

The Pack

Dingo Post-Upgrade

Taking the name Dingo, Harry joined the Pack when Xanatos first set it up. Like its other members, he appreciated the fame and wealth that they received, but longed for some real adventure, and so joined the rest of the Pack in hunting down the gargoyles shortly after they first appeared in New York. ("The Thrill of the Hunt") They were defeated, however, and he temporarily fled to Europe afterwards.

Dingo returned to New York, however, and helped Coyote 1.0 break Jackal, Hyena, and Wolf out of prison on Rikers Island. They fought the gargoyles afterwards, but were once again defeated. ("Leader of the Pack") The Pack turned to crime in the period following, robbing banks, which increasingly came to disgust Dingo. When Xanatos offered to upgrade the Pack, Dingo alone refused to give up his humanity, opting merely for a high-tech suit of battle armor. Indeed, he was appalled by the way that Jackal, Hyena, and Wolf eagerly renounced their humanity to become a pair of cyborgs and a wolf-man. ("Upgrade") After the upgraded Pack's defeat, he parted ways with them permanently, and went back to Australia.

While in Australia, he accepted a job from Fox, keeping people away from the area where she and Anastasia Renard were testing the Matrix. However, his real interest in returning to Australia was to undergo some change for the better and break with his old disreputable past as part of the Pack. He consulted a local shaman at Uluru who gave him some helpful advice about going on Walkabout. When the Matrix began to run amok, Dingo joined forces with Goliath and his companions in battling it and finally entered the Dreamtime with Goliath to reason with the artificial intelligence. Dingo finally convinced the Matrix to stop reformatting the world in its quest for order, by pointing out to it that there was "another kind of order: law and order". The Matrix, intrigued, decided to join forces with Dingo to find out more about "law and order". Dingo and Matrix then went off to serve as a sort of Australian crime-fighting team, fulfilling Dingo's desire to become a real hero like the character he had played on the Pack TV show. ("Walkabout")

Redemption Squad

Dingo and Matrix in the Redemption Squad. Drawn by Karine Charlebois

Dingo and Matrix did indeed go on to become an effective force as a local "super-hero team" for Australia, defeating local villains such as Tazmanian Tiger, but they came to the attention of the Director. Hunter tracked them down at the Director's instruction to recruit Dingo and Matrix into the Redemption Squad. Dingo and Matrix became part of the Redemption Squad, though Dingo had his reservations. ("Strangers") Together, they traveled to Tokyo to recruit the gargoyle Yama, and then on to the Redemption Squad's headquarters in Paris to train, and eventually New York, where Dingo was still a wanted fugitive. In New York, the team spent a day in the Casablanca Hotel before attempting to investigate Anton Sevarius's actions in the Labyrinth. While Hunter was out during the day, Dingo became bored. Leaving a note for Yama, he and Matrix ventured into the Labyrinth alone. ("The Lost"; "Estranged") They soon became lost. However, they managed to find Sevarius' lab just in time to prevent him from using mutagenic formulae on Hunter and Yama, who had come into the sewers looking for Dingo. However, instead of taking Sevarius into custody, they left to prevent Sevarius' associate Fang from releasing a mutagenic carrier virus over Times Square. Matrix succeeded in destroying the virus, but only by separating from Dingo and allowing him to fall. Dingo was saved at the last moment by Hunter. ("Louse")

Some time later, the Redemption Squad (including Fang as its fifth member) took a mission to face the Illuminati on Eastcheap Isle. On the way, Dingo expressed dissatisfaction with being sent on another suicide mission and attempted to quit the Squad, leading to Hunter pulling a gun on him. Before the matter could be settled, their helicopter was destroyed by robots from the island. Dingo merged with Matrix to fight them, even rescuing Hunter from one after she was captured. (She claimed to have had everything under control, leading Dingo to comment that she was hard to impress.) The Squad infiltrated the island, where the encountered the gang of Dingo's old mentor John Oldcastle, now calling himself Falstaff. ("Strangers"; "Estranged"; "Strangled") Falstaff invited Dingo and the rest of the Redemption Squad to share dinner with them, then attempted to show them that the Illuminati were really the good guys. To Dingo he explained that he had given up living as a thief so that he could guard the Illuminati's treasure trove. When Falstaff offered to let the Squad join the Illuminati, Dingo opined that Falstaff could have been telling the truth (despite being an unrepentant liar). However, when Yama and Fang revealed that the Illuminati could not be trusted (having inducted the villainous Thailog as a member), Dingo and the rest of the Squad agreed that they would continue with their original mission. Dingo did not wish to destroy the island, because it was full of irreplaceable works of art. Nevertheless, he and the Redemption Squad clashed with Falstaff's gang. Falstaff and his man Pistol submerged Eastcheap (revealed to be a ship and not an island). The Redemption Squad were able to avoid drowning thanks to the Matrix. As they floated away, Dingo and Hunter were seen smiling at each other. ("Losers")

Future

Hunter and Dingo

In time to come, Dingo and Hunter will develop a stormy relationship and become a couple. [2] By 2198, their descendants, the Monmouths, will still be around and at odds with the Castaways. [3][4]

Characteristics

Dingo is a very fit man who along with his prowess in hand to hand combat is also skilled in a variety of weapons. For a time, Dingo utilized a powerful battle armor suit. This suit was eventually "assimilated" by Matrix, but Matrix can form new armor and other forms around Dingo and under Dingo's control by inserting part of his Matrix into Dingo's spine. Naturally, this is unnerving for Dingo, particularly as it can cause him pain when Matrix is damaged. Dingo has continued a relationship with his shaman mentor.

Dingo has a stormy relationship with Hunter. On their first meeting, Hunter blackmailed Dingo and Matrix into joining the Redemption Squad. Hunter and Dingo fought, with Hunter winning by temporarily paralyzing Matrix with an electromagnetic pulse grenade. Although Dingo agreed to join the team, at Matrix's insistence, he has frequently clashed with Hunter over her methods. He has referred to her "evil little mind" and once even threatened to quit the team, leading her to pull a gun on him. However, he has also expressed dissatisfaction that she is difficult to impress, having saved her on two occasions. Fang has also noticed an apparent attraction between them, telling them during one confrontation that they were "steaming up the portholes" of the Redemption. As they floated away following the submersion of the Eastcheap, they were seen smiling at each other.

Appearances

• "The Thrill of the Hunt" (First Appearance)
• "Temptation" (Pack Mentioned Only)
• "Her Brother's Keeper" (Mentioned Only)
• "Reawakening" (Pack Mentioned Only)
• "Leader of the Pack"
• "Upgrade"
• "Grief" (Mentioned Only)
• "Walkabout"
• "Strangers"
• "The Lost"
• "Estranged"
• "Louse"
• "Strangled"
• "Losers"

Real-World Background

Harry Monmouth, Dingo's real name, is a reference to Henry V of England (1413-22), so called because he was born in the town of Monmouth in southern Wales. In Shakespeare's history plays, Henry IV Part One and Henry IV Part Two, Henry, then Prince of Wales as Prince Hal, spends most of his time consorting with Falstaff and his disreputable gang, to the despair of his father, Henry IV. However, after Henry IV dies, Hal, succeeding him to the throne, becomes a responsible king, severs his connections with Falstaff, and (in the succeeding play, Henry V) proceeds to win fame and glory by invading France and defeating the French at the Battle of Agincourt. The significance of this becomes apparent in "Strangled", where Dingo's past connection with Falstaff is revealed.

Production Background

Voice Actor: Jim Cummings