Writer – Ty Templeton
Artist – Juan Bobillo
Howard the Duck was created by Steve Gerber in 1973 as a supporting character in Man-Thing, and later graduated to his own solo title. Over the years the character built up a cult following for its satirical storylines, and although written by various people over the years, was generally considered as only worth reading when written by Gerber. There was also the film, which did so badly in the US that it was renamed Howard… A New Breed of Hero when released in the UK, but we’ll gloss over that.
Marvel has now decided to release a four issue miniseries, written by Ty Templeton and drawn by Juan Bobillo. Now, my experience of the character is pretty much limited to reputation, the movie, and Gerber’s last miniseries that came out from Marvel Max a few years back, which wasn’t particularly good.
Neither is this.
Ty Templeton is a wonderful artist. I started getting into DC books around the time he was doing work on two of my favourite books, JLI and Secret Origins. He co-wrote the last few issues of She-Hulk with Dan Slott, which were pretty good. So, what’s wrong here?
Unfortunately, pretty much everything. The two lead characters, Howard and Beverly, are not particularly interesting. They’re both idiots, and not even entertaining idiots. They don’t have to be likeable, but they’re neither interesting nor funny, which is pretty much unforgivable in a humour book. The supporting cast are clichés, and the villains for the issue are a couple of hunters, which is probably supposed to be a hilarious satire on gun control but fails on pretty much every level.
Bobillo’s art style has a very select appeal, although he was one of the things that initially appealed to me on She-Hulk, so I came to this book with an open mind. He manages to do better than Templeton, but not much. Howard appears to have been redesigned to look less like Donald Duck, but the end result has him just looking ugly, and his Beverly isn’t particularly attractive above the neck.
I was hoping to like this book, but I came away disappointed by almost every aspect - except for the reveal that the big-headed AIM-leading villain is not M.O.D.O.K. but M.O.D.O.T., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Talking. That’s the best joke in the book, and I’ve spoiled it for you.
This book has actually put me off of picking up the Marvel Essential of Gerber’s run. I almost feel nostalgic for Lea Thompson. Avoid at all costs.
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Russell Hillman was born in London but now lives in Coventry. His hobbies include precious little. He doesn’t get out much, but thinks reading a lot of comics makes up for it. He’s wrong.