Marvel Origins: Howard the Duck

It's official and it's making national entertainment news headlines across the TV airwaves and Internet fiber optic cables. Walt Disney Pictures, the multi-billion dollar industry known for classic children's entertainment, has agreed to "acquire Marvel and its portfolio of over 5,000 characters" according to the official release from Marvel's homepage: www.marvel.com. According to countless other news sources, the transaction will ring out to the tune of $50 per Marvel Comics share, resulting in a grand total purchase of $4 billion.

Robert A. Iger, President and CEO of Disney, stated, "This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters, including Iron Man, Spiderman, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories." (Source: Marvel)

Whether or not this deal will prove successful for both parties remains to be seen, particularly considering negotiations will not be officially wrapped out until the end of the year. However, the intense divisions of supporters and opposition on both sides will no doubt be interesting to follow. Will Disney remain true to Marvel's long stance of high quality character portrayals and cinematic development? Or, will this whole deal go the way of the dodo?

In case you weren't aware, Marvel isn't just known for their big, bad super heroes and evil villains such as Iron Man and Spiderman. Many longtime and even avid comic book fans are unfamiliar with Marvel's classic web-footed, yellow-billed Howard the Duck super hero of the 1970s. Created by writer Steve Gerber and brought to life by artist Val Mayerik, he certainly remains one of Marvel's most cartoonish hero icons in publication history. Interestingly enough, his similarity in terms of appearance to that of Disney's Donald Duck is uncanny, a controversy that even resulted in a few near copyright infringement lawsuits.

Howard's first appearance was in the pages of Adventure Into Fear (issue #19, December 1973) and would mark the beginning of countless subsequent spoofs and spinoff series. His character was even brought to life on the silver screen by Hollywood Director/Writer Willard Huyck in the 1986 sci-fi adventure comedy Howard the Duck, starring actor Ed Gale as Howard T. Duck. The cast also included famed actors Tim Robbins, Lea Thompson, and Jeffery Jones. Unfortunately, the poor reception of Huyck's film has since cast a longstanding shadow of failure over the beloved persona that is Howard the Duck.

Hailing from the other-dimensional, Earth-like planet known as Duckworld, Howard is the oldest son of Dave and Dottie Duck. After an initial plot storyline involving Marvel's swamp-dwelling monster Man Thing, Howard eventually gained his own series. It was here that creators/writers Gerber and Val Mayerick (1973) introduced social and ethical themes into this otherwise comically cartoonish publication. As a duck in a human society, Howard was forced to face life as an outsider and the same problematic feelings of isolation and loneliness so many of his Marvel hero counterparts dealt with. Marvel Universe author Peter Sanderson describes Howard as acting "like a cynical, embittered adult, but he is also like a child, abruptly bereft of the security of home, finding himself in an adult world where everyone is taller than he, refuses to take him seriously, and insists he follow their rules." (Abradale Publishers, 1998).

The evil cosmic demon known as Thog the Nether-Spawn soon caused an interdimensional shift in the Cosmic Axis, an occurrence which subsequently replanted Howard into the Florida Everglades on Earth. Apparently, the Everglades were the exact spot where every angle of the Nexus of All Realities converged into a single location: the swamp home of the monstrous Man Thing. Who knew?

During his time on Earth, Howard eventually finds himself in Cleveland, Ohio, becoming a taxi cab driver for pay and ultimately clashing in battle with the amphibious Garko the Man-Frog. Throughout his subsequent adventure series, Marvel writers continuously employed the use of supernatural and magical theme ideals in an effort to appeal to younger generation readers. Howard would eventually be arrested by human police offers for "disturbing the peace" and is later mistaken for a mutant creature.