Book Report

DOGMAN UNLEASHED

Introduction: This book report is based upon DOGMAN UNLEASHED, a book by Dav Pilkey, which is the sequel from a previous one called DOGMAN. This comic book is about DogMan, who was created by a bomb that left a dog officer without a body and a human officer without a head, so a brilliant doctor got the idea of joining the two parts left and created DogMan, the best police officer alive. This title also refers to the story when it says “unleashed” because only one action in the story, unleashes a series of disastrous events. 

Conflict: 

It was the Boss' birthday and all the officer body decided to

give him two gifts; some brain pills to make him have a better memory and a fish for him to have a pet. DogMan was in charge of buying the fish, but unfortunately, he didn't have money to pay for the fish so the storeman gave him an evil fish without knowing the consequences it would unleash. When the Boss received his fish, he named him Flippy and immediately put it in his office. He left the brain pills on a shelf beside the fish, shot the door strongly and left the room. This made the pills fall in the fishbowl and that's how the fish became smart and got telekinetic powers.

Climax:

Flippy was a fish with a dark soul and mind powers; he liked to steal and bully other fish. So, he began to steal several little plastic chests thinking that inside of them he would find gold to buy the biggest castle in the city. When he got a big amount of them, he tried to trade all of them for the castle he wanted, but he realized this little chests weren't full of gold as he expected, but just plastic. So he got mad and threw away the store man with his telekinetic abilities. 

Meanwhile, Petey the cat (he was a thief, but DogMan trapped him) thought that this new thief was copying him so he tried to escape from jail by making a Flat Petey, a copy of him with paper, to make believe the police that he was dead. After he escaped, the officer thought that Petey was dead and that something had fallen over him. The officer called an ambulance and brought him to Doctor Witch who sprayed on Flat Petey a "reviving spray" that gave him life, but also made him evil. Doctor Witch also tried to spray on Petey the “Obey spray”, but he was faster and sprayed it on the doctor first and converted him into his henchman.

At the same time, the real Petey decided to make the "Treasure Tank 2000", a machine that would help him go through the city recollecting treasures and also using the "Love Spray” (a tool that his henchman gave to him) to make everybody fall in love with him and give him all their treasures; but then he realized that all of that people that loved him were following him and he got afraid. DogMan got into the scene, stopped Petey by throwing him out of the Treasure Tank and took control of it, now Petey was on the floor and all the crowd was chasing him, so he ran into his cell again. 

Flat Petey saw all of this and made a plan. He went to the museum and gave life to a T-rex skeleton with the "Living spray" and then made him his servant with the "Obey spray"; he gave the dinosaur instructions to attack DogMan while he was taking the tank. Everyone thought this was DogMan's end, but then Zuzu, a normal dog, made him realize that the dinosaur was made of bones, so DogMan began to lick the T-rex by instinct and this undid the effects of the "Obey spray" and they became friends. 

Soon, Flippy got into scene to steal the tank from Flat Petey and his henchman and began to throw things at the "Tank Treasure 2000" with his telekinetic abilities. Zuzu developed a plan and unmasked him, so he had to explain everything that had happened with him, but while he was doing his monologue, Flat Petey was running to a big mountain to escape.

Resolution:

Flippy wasn't going to let Flat Petey escape with that big chest full of treasures, so he ran to the same mountain without knowing the temperature up there. When he got to the top of the mountain, he froze; but with the last pinch of power left in his body, he fastly read a book and he discovered how he could live forever. Therefore, he concentrated as much as he could and made himself a ball of pure energy, but when DogMan saw this ball, he trapped it and began to chew it until it disappeared. 

Now, Flat Petey thought he had won the battle because paper doesn't freeze and he was made of paper; but living things do. This meant that everyone else was going to get frozen, but DogMan had a different idea. He licked Flat Petey because wet paper does freeze and when it happened, they got over him and drove all the way down the mountain, as if he was a sled. Everyone thanked DogMan for saving their lives and the Boss said it was the best birthday of his life.

I think this is a great book for people who like comics and superhero stories. It is true that is not the best book if you are trying to learn new vocabulary or if you want a book that will take your breath away with a great load of connection to the world, context and/or analysis, but it will not disappoint you. It wasn't created for grown up people but despite all, it is still quite an interesting book to read and I recommend it to anyone that wants to laugh a little bit… "Which doctor should we take him to?" "Huh?" "I said, which doctor should we take him to?" "Witch what?" "Which doctor!" "Ok --- if you insist, let’s go to the Witch doctor".

By Juan Sebastián Mengual, Step 8 Yellow.