302 HOWARD THE DUCK
characters created by him. Marvel then fi red Gerber from the monthly HtD title. Th e
lawsuit helped raise public awareness of the issue of creators’ rights, and ended in 1981
with an undisclosed settlement. As a fundraiser for Gerber’s lawsuit, Eclipse Comics
published Destroyer Duck #1, which was one of the fi rst successful independent comic
books of the 1980s and also introduced Groo the Wanderer. Following Gerber’s fi ring,
the monthly comic was soon cancelled and replaced by a black-and-white magazine-
sized comic that lasted until 1981. In 1985 Gerber submitted a proposal to revive the
character, but it was rejected, partly because of Gerber’s insistence that Howard stories
by other writers had never “happened.” Gerber did return to the character on two occa-
sions, for a four-issue storyline in Sensational She-Hulk (1991) and a six-issue miniseries
(2002). Howard’s latest miniseries (2008) was not written by Gerber, who died that
year of lung disease.
HtD may appear to be a funny animal comic (given Howard’s resemblance to
Donald Duck, which was strong enough to result in legal action by Disney) or a
parody superhero comic (given the bizarre villains Howard often encounters). How-
ever, it is in fact a seriously intended work of satire. Gerber said that HtD was his
“serious book” and Defenders , which he was writing at the same time, was his “humor
book.” Originally from a world of cartoon animals, Howard is magically transported to
Earth, specifi cally the city of Cleveland, against his will, thus becoming—as the tagline
says—“trapped in a world he never made.” As a nonhuman, who is also too smart for
his own good and has a strong cynical streak, Howard is uniquely equipped to recog-
nize and comment on the absurdities of American life. “Four Feathers of Death!” in
#3 of the original series argues that the martial arts craze encourages violent tenden-
cies. Issues #7 and #8, in which Howard runs for president, criticize the dishonesty
of American politics. Th e recurring “Kidney Lady” character, who blames Howard
for ruining her namesake organs, is Gerber’s caricature of reactionary and totalitarian
elements in American society. In the 2001 miniseries, Gerber satirizes the popular-
ity of overproduced, commercialized boy-band music by featuring a boy-band whose
members are grown in vats. Overall, Howard sees contemporary America as a childish
society which lacks respect for individual freedom, an attitude which Gerber himself
probably shared. For Howard, the primary redeeming feature of hairless-ape society is
his companion Beverly Switzler, a human who took in the homeless Howard after he
rescued her from a villain. Gerber is ambiguous as to the exact nature of Howard and
Beverly’s relationship, though later writers depicted them as an interspecies couple.
However, Howard’s aff ection for Beverly is genuine; she represents his only link to
hairless-ape society, and when she is forced to marry Howard’s archenemy, Dr. Bong,
to save Howard’s life, Howard is left alone and depressed. In Gerber’s original series,
Beverly leaves Howard for his archenemy Dr. Bong (the name is deliberate), but by the
time of the Sensational She-Hulk story they are back together, without explanation.
Howard the Duck , though often hilariously funny, also has its serious and somber
side. It is ultimately about the diffi culty of surviving as an intelligent and sensitive
person (or waterfowl) in contemporary America. Like other Gerber works such as
