DOCTOR SAX

Real Name: Jack Dulouz

Identity/Class: Human, technology user

Occupation: Licensed hero; former professional criminal, musician

Group Membership: Formerly inactive Shadow Initiative member, partner of Johnny Guitar

Affiliations: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Blob, Pyro), Circus of Crime (Clown (Eliot Franklin), Great Gambonnos), Constrictor, Death-Throws (Knickknack, Ringleader), Johnny Guitar, Norman Osborn, Physique, Sinister Six (Electro (Max Dillon), Sandman, Vulture (Adrian Toomes)), Taskmaster, Techmaster, Trapster;
    formerly Beefer, Hunch, Marx

Enemies: Beefer, Dazzler, Hunch, Marx, Justin and Dora Panasci

Known Relatives: Unidentified wife & three children

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Clack, Mississippi

First Appearance: Dazzler#20 (October, 1982)

 

 

Powers/Abilities: Not so surprisingly, he was a talented musician, specializing in the saxophone. He used a specially designed saxophone that could go beyond the blues, causing desperation, insanity, and/or severe, potentially suicidal depression
    He is blind, though he at least previously had a special visor which allowed him to see shapes and movement and to determine general location of nearby objects (allegedly similar to radar), though not color or details.
    He is also a relatively experienced safe cracker.

 

 

 

History:

(Avengers: The Initiative#27 (fb)) - Johnny Logan and Jack Dulouz met in high school in Clack, Mississippi and formed a band together. They both got their girlfriends pregnant and had to go out and find real jobs, but they wanted to focus on their music and so formed a traveling band, getting some notoriety, but no money.  Johnny and Jack started committing small crimes.

(Dazzler#20 (fb)) - Jack Dulouz and Johnny Logan, a.k.a. Dr. Sax and Johnny Guitar, were the saxophonist and one of the guitarists in a rock band alongside drummer Beefer, and other guitarists Hunch (bass?) and Marx, the latter three just starting their music careers.

(Dazzler#20 (fb)) - After the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan show during their midwest tour, Beefer, Hunch, and Marx walked in on Sax and Guitar robbing their manager Mr. Holman. Sax grabbed an acetylene torch and Johnny picked up a crowbar, intending to prevent their fellow band members from interfering with their plans. Sax nearly set Beefer's face on fire with the torch, but Hunch managed to kick his arm away, and the torch ended up hitting Sax's face instead; his eyes were badly burnt, permanently blinding him. Johnny was captured as well, and they were both turned over to the police.

(Avengers: The Initiative#27 (fb)/Dazzler#20 (fb) - BTS) - In prison, they met the Trapster, who regaled them with tales of his life as a super-villain. After their release, they visited the Techmaster, who gave Doc glasses that enabled him to see shadows and shapes, and gave them both weaponized instruments. They christened themselves Johnny Guitar and Doctor Sax.

 

(Dazzler#20 (fb) - BTS) - After Sax and Guitar were released from prison, they went to the Techmaster, who outfitted them with some special hardware. Sax received a saxophone able to affect emotions as well as visor to partially restore his sight, while Johnny's guitar was granted destructive powers. They used their new equipment to pull a few very rewarding jobs.

(Dazzler#20) - Seeking vengeance, Sax and Guitar tracked down their former band members, confronting them all (as well as Hunch's wife, Dora, and toddler son, Justin) at Hunch's loft. Johnny Guitar blew their door to pieces and destroyed some of their belongings, after which Sax played an eerie wail that plunged the listeners into the depths of madness. When Johnny planted a big kiss on Dora, Hunch tried to stop him, but Sax tossed him across the room.
    Dazzler had been running late getting to Hunch's loft and she arrived after Sax and Guitar, but due to a combination fear of the two and her recent vow to never use her powers again, she stood by and watched in secret as the two tied up the adults. However, when Sax began torturing Justin, Dazzler could wait no longer. She skated in and grabbed Justin, intending to take him to safety, but Johnny let loose with a cord riff that shattered her skates, causing her to fall on her butt, as well as her radio. However, the next time Johnny assaulted her, she transformed the noise from his guitar into a dazzling blast that incapacitated him. Sax turned his maddening blues on her, but she managed to rally against the madness and disintegrate his saxophone. Sax, bigger and stronger than Dazzler, advanced on her; she turned on the blender, but she was still too shaken from the intensity of Sax and Guitar's attacks, and she was afraid that she might not be able to control the aim or intensity of another blast, which might end up being fatal. Thinking quickly, as Sax grabbed her wrist Dazzler hurled a pot of cold coffee into his face, shorting out his visor. Sax continued to swing blindly, hoping to catch her with a lucky shot, but Dazzler's dancing skills enabled her to dodge his blows and then drop kick him, knocking him out.

(Dazzler#20 - BTS) - Sax and Guitar were taken into police custody.

(Marvel Year-in-Review '92) - Doctor Sax and Johnny Guitar later played at the Springdale, Connecticut branch of the Bar With No Name.

(Avengers: The Initiative#27 (fb)) - Considering themselves bonafide villains now that they'd battled a hero, they quickly tried returning to crime after their release from prison, when Doc got a new saxophone. They tried getting membership in the Sinister Six, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Death-Throws, and the Circus of Crime, but were rejected at every turn. Johnny's wife, Revonda, finally left him, taking his daughter with her, Doc went on disability, and Johnny took a job as a janitor at a casino, though they occasionally played for a gig. When the Trapster ran into Johnny and told him the Initiative was recruiting, Johnny convinced Doc, who was reluctant as he had three kids to support now, to join up. After a period of training, they were assigned to the Shadow Initiative and told they'd be sent in to liberate Prison 42 from alien invaders. Johnny, a bit worried, went to talk to Taskmaster, but overheard him telling Constrictor that the Shadow Initiative were nothing but cannon fodder. After vomiting, Johnny told Doc that everything was cool, but he decided he had to do something to save his friend. Johnny checked in with Trauma about the benefits to his family if he were to die, and learned that Doc would be provided for if he were injured in combat. Johnny feigned fury at Doc and hit his hands with a blast from his guitar, disabling Doc and rendering him unfit for duty. After getting roughed up by Taskmaster, Johnny was thrown back into the line of duty. Physique told the confused Doc that he couldn't fight, and Johnny, unable to explain, left a long letter for his daughter with Doc.

(Avengers: The Initiative#27) - Dr. Sax later returned to his wife and three children. Johnny was the first killed in combat in the Negative Zone.

Comments: Created by Danny Fingeroth, Frank Springer, and Vince Colletta.

I'm surprised they didn't have Johnny play the violin!

   Doctor Sax's name is also the title of a book by the Beat(nik) novelist Jack Kerouac, and it seems that many of the members of his band are in fact psuedonyms Jack used in his semi-autobiographical works. "Marx,' would be Carlo Marx, the name Kerouac gave Allen Ginsberg in the Dharma Bums. Likewise, Hunch is quite close to Herbert Hunke -- Hunke was a con man and writer who, among other things, inadvertantly got GInsberg kicked out of Columbia University by storing stolen goods in the latter's dorm room. And Jack Duluoz, of course, is Keruoac himself, also fromt he Dharma Bums.  
 Thanks to Omar Karindu for the above information concerning the name!

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Sax and Johnny Guitar have no known connection to:

images:
Dazzler#20, p9, panel 4 (Sax full bodies)
        p10, panel 6 (Sax pre-injury)
        p12, panel 8 (Sax in action)
        p14, panel 4 (Sax face)

Appearances:
Dazzler#20 (October, 1982) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Frank Springer (penciler), Vince Colletta (inker), Dennis O'Neil (editor)
Marvel Year-in-Review '92 (1992) - Peter Sanderson
Avengers: The Initiative#27 (October, 2009) - Christos Gage (writer), Rafa Sandoval (penciler), Roger Bonet (inker), Jeannine Schaefer (editor)

First Posted: 04/27/2005
Last updated: 04/27/2005

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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