Hounds (comics)

Hounds
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981)
Created by	Chris Claremont John Byrne John Romita Jr.
In-story information
Type of organization	Enforcers
Leader(s)	Ahab
Agent(s)	Rachel Summers Franklin Richards Cyclops Invisible Woman Sabretooth Hound Stone

Hounds are the name given to several groups of mutant characters from Marvel Comics. This term usually refers to those who track or hunt down mutants while serving a higher authority.

History

Days of Future Past

The Hounds were first introduced in in Uncanny X-Men, from the Days of Future Past dystopian timeline, as part of the backstory of Rachel Summers. These brainwashed mutant hunters were created and commanded by the cyborg Ahab, who used them to hunt down and imprison mutants in concentration camps. Rachel was forced to become one of these Hounds while still an adolescent, which scarred and haunted her for years afterward. Eventually she broke her conditioning and rebelled, and was sent to the camps herself as punishment.

Shadow King's Hounds

Shadow King is later seen to use mind-controlled humans called Hounds to track Storm, who had been transformed into a child by the villainous Nanny. These Hounds were reduced to a nearly mindless, animalistic state by the Shadow King apparently for his own amusement.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse reality, the Hounds are mutants used to hunt down and imprison mutants and humans in concentration camps or simply to kill their targets. Sabretooth was used as the leading Hound to the Horsemen until his defection. Wild Child was too ferocious that he was kept a prisoner until Sabretooth rescued him. Caliban was used as the prime hound to the Bounty Hunters. Wolverine was a mutant altered by the Beast who served Holocaust as his leading hunter after the defection of Sabretooth.

In other media

Television

• In the X-Men episode "The Fifth Horseman," it showed a foursome of mutants serving Apocalypse who were called Hounds (rather than Horsemen despite the title of the episode). Their costumes were based on those of the Days of Future Past Hounds. Three of them were unnamed, but the fourth was Caliban of the Morlocks (who in the comics was one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse).

External links

• Hounds (Earth-811) at Marvel Wiki