HOWARD THE DUCK 303
Man-Th ing and Omega the Unknown , HtD is closer in sensibility to underground
comics than to most other Marvel comics of the time.
Th e 1986 fi lm adaptation, produced by Lucasfi lm, entirely ignores the satirical
aspect of the original series and instead tries to exploit the comic potential of the fact
that Howard is a duck. In the comic this fact is rarely important: it hardly matters what
kind of animal Howard is, as long as he is not human, and he spends most of the 2002
miniseries in the form of a mouse. Whereas Colan depicted Howard with the same
degree of realism as the human characters in the series, Howard’s duck costume in the
fi lm looks blatantly fake. Perhaps the fi lm’s only redeeming feature is Lea Th ompson’s
occasionally endearing performance as Bev. Th e fi lm was a critical and commercial
failure; it shared $20.7 million at the box offi ce and shared the Golden Raspberry
Award for the worst fi lm of 1986. Its failure has been blamed for Marvel’s failure to
release any other major motion picture adaptations until 2000. However, Marvel has
kept Gerber’s original HtD stories in print, and they remain essential reading for those
interested in mainstream comic books of the 1970s.
Selected Bibliography: Cooke, Jon B. “Steve Gerber’s Crazy Days.” Interview with
Steve Gerber. Comic Book Artist Collection Volume 3 , ed. Jon B. Cooke. Raleigh, NC:
TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005, 54–67; Gerber, Steve, et al. Th e Essential Howard the
Duck. New York: Marvel Comics, 2002.
Aaron Kashtan
HULK. See Incredible Hulk, Th e
