Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck
	Howard the Duck as depicted on a variant cover of Howard the Duck #1 (November 2015)
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Adventure into Fear #19 (Dec. 1973)
Created by	Steve Gerber (writer); Val Mayerik (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Howard Duckson
Species	Duckworldian
Place of origin	Duckworld
Team affiliations	Circus of Crime; Defenders; All-Night Party; Daydreamers; A.R.M.O.R.; Fearsome Four; Ducky Dozen;
Partnerships	Man-Thing; Beverly Switzler
Notable aliases	Howard the Duck Leonard the Duck; Howard the Human; Iron Duck; Agent Duck; Cynical Duck;
Abilities	Master of Quack-Fu; As Iron Duck:; Armored suit grants:; * Superhuman strength and durability; * Foot-mounted leaping coils; * Chest-mounted searchlight; * Flamethrowers in both arms;

Howard the Duck is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber, based very loosely on his college friend Howard Tockman,^[1] and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (cover-dated Dec. 1973) and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered anthropomorphic animal trapped on a human-dominated Earth. Echoing this, the most common tagline of his comics reads 'Trapped In a World He Never Made!'.

Howard's adventures are generally social satires, while a few are parodies of genre fiction with a metafictional awareness of the medium. The book is existentialist, and its main joke, according to Gerber, is that there is no joke: "... that life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view."^[2] Gloria Katz, producer of the notorious, ill-fated 1986 film adaptation of the comic, expressed a diametrically opposed opinion of the character, "It's a film about a duck from outer space ... It's not supposed to be an existential experience."^[3]

Howard the Duck was portrayed by Ed Gale and voiced by Chip Zien in the critically and commercially unsuccessful 1986 self-titled film. Starting in 2014, the character, voiced by Seth Green, appeared in cameos in several Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, the Disney XD animated series Guardians of the Galaxy (2015–19) and Ultimate Spider-Man (2016; with Kevin Michael Richardson), and the Disney+ series What If...? (2021–present).

^ Lucus, Tim. "Steve Gerber: Gone from a World He Never Made". Tim Lucas / Video WatchBlog. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
^ Cite error: The named reference mediascene was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ McCoy, Paul Brian (March 16, 2010). "F.O.O.M. (Flashbacks of Ol' Marvel) #13: "If It Ain't Funk He Don't Feel It: Howard the Duck (1986)"". Comics Bulletin. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved February 3, 2013.

[1] Lucus, Tim. "Steve Gerber: Gone from a World He Never Made". Tim Lucas / Video WatchBlog. Retrieved 7 May 2024.

[mediascene-2] Cite error: The named reference mediascene was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[3] McCoy, Paul Brian (March 16, 2010). "F.O.O.M. (Flashbacks of Ol' Marvel) #13: "If It Ain't Funk He Don't Feel It: Howard the Duck (1986)"". Comics Bulletin. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved February 3, 2013.

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