Howard the Duck (Vol. 2)

(Marvel, 2002)
™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Steve Gerber’s cigar-smoking cynic, Howard the Duck, returns to the comic racks in this new series from Marvel’s Max imprint. The less restrictive Max line allows Gerber to refrain from deleting expletives as well as employ more risqué art. Howard is a talking, sentient duck from another dimension who became marooned on this world of hairless apes. He is the ultimate “stranger in a strange land” that his unyielding creator uses to illustrate the hypocrisies of modern society.

Howard the Duck was a tremendous hit in the mid-1970s when his first series was spun off from his appearance in a Man-Thing story in Fear #19, (also written by Steve Gerber). Years later Gerber and artist, Jack Kirby, created Destroyer Duck, a not-so-subtle attempt to draw attention and finances to Gerber’s struggle to obtain the copyright to his creation. The case was settled out of court with Marvel retaining the copyright. The return of Gerber to write this new series would indicate that hostilities have lessened.

— George Haberberger

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