Howard the Duck Turns 50

Out of all of the superheroes in the Marvel Comic Universe, there is one who stands tall on his own two webbed feet and turns 50 this year and this character’s name is Howard the Duck.

Howard the Duck was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik and made his Marvel Comic first appearance in the pages of Adventure into Fear issue 19 in December of 1973. The issue was mostly continuing the main story of Man-Thing and in a few panels we see Howard in a suit and cigar in the bill, makes a few wisecrake remarks and the rest is history. Originally he was just a filler character for just two issues but he became popular and in 1975 he was back in Giant-Size Man-Thing issue 4 and five and fighting the likes of Garko the Man-Frog and Bessie the Hellcow.

In 1976 Marvel Comics gave Howard his first solo run and that lasted for 10 years with a total of 33 issues, it was enough to make him a pop culture icon in his own right. He did have a second solo run from 1979 to 1981 but lasted only 9 issues and the less we talk about the film the better. We wouldn’t see him again until 2002 with 6 issues under the MAX comics series and if you know about the Max series they were not for everyone and the same can be said for the 4 issue mini series from 2007-2008 as well.

In 2015 Howard came back in full force with a fantastic run from 2015-2016 and this was by far one of the best runs in the character’s 50-year span in comics. Howard has this everman or everduck look on life, speaking his mind and if needed can take a hit to the bill as much as giving a hit back when it is needed is what made him such a joy to read over the years.

Howard the Duck is a character that Marvel at times brings into the fold but with little to no fanfare and the people oddly enough love him for that. He may not be the hero the Marvel Comic Universe wants, but he is the hero it needs, and with the misses when it comes to other media AKA the MCU, it’s a damn shame they didn’t know what to do with him. Let’s hope we get that TV series we were promised so many years ago.