Howard The Duck #3 - A Review

The good news is that Howard The Duck has become the living conduit for The Nexus of All Realities! The bad news is... everything else.

Actually, that first part isn't good news either!  Because now Howard is a living portal capable of sending anyone anywhere... except himself. So not only can he not go back to his home dimension but now he's being hunted by every war-mongering race in the universe as well as every self-important cosmic being known only by a vague one-word title.

Also, The Final Gwenpool story ever! (Not really. Probably.)


The main story of this issue is enjoyable but suffers somewhat for burying its lead.  The cover - and the first two pages - feature Howard as The Silver Surfer with no explanation given. The rest of the chapter continues on from where Issue #1 ended, with little progress being made toward the promise of a Metallic Mallard.

This seems to have been a trend in Marvel's humor comics of late, with the new Ant-Man series similarly dancing around the question of just how Scott Lang wound up in prison again. Thankfully, while it seems that Chip Zdarsky is padding things out a bit, the journey toward the end is hilarious. And the artwork by Joe Quinones and Joe Rivera is as good as ever.


The Gwenpool comic at the end seems much stronger. Christopher Hastings - perhaps most famous for his work on The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - is a fine comedic writer who revels in the insanity of a pantless fangirl kicking ass through the sheer confusion of her enemies. The artwork by Danilo Beyruth and Tamra Bonvillain perfectly matches the manic energy of Hastings' script.

Howard The Duck #2 - A Review

Recently, Howard The Duck found himself in the clutches of The Collector. But with a little help from his cellmate Rocket Raccoon and his buddies in the Guardians of The Galaxy, Howard was able to escape from captivity.

More recently, Howard - on a quest for the Nexus of All Realities - had a rather violent encounter with half of the Frightful Four. But he survived intact... only to have another violent encounter with two characters who seemed to be female versions of himself and Rocket.

Now, we shall learn the story of how Howard and Rocket were cloned before they escaped the clutches of The Collector. As well as the unholy origins of Linda the Duck and Shocket Raccoon! Well, not that unholy really - they were raised by a Collector employee who went rogue and took them back in time to escape his boss. But "unholy origins" sounds better.


The main story of this month's Howard The Duck is an interesting diversion but not much more than that. Chip Zdarsky goes light on the humor with this tale, which- given that the comedy is the main draw of this series - seems an odd choice. The artwork by Veronica Fish is decent enough but doesn't demand attention. All in all the whole package is rather bland. Not bad, mind you, but hardly memorable.


Thankfully the back-up story by Christopher Hastings - featuring the utterly insane Gwenpool - more than makes up for the short-comings of the main story. The artwork by Danilo Beyruth and Tamra Bnvillain matches the story in its vibrancy and manic energy. And, oh yes, Howard is actually in this one!

Howard The Duck #1 - A Review

Trapped in a world he never made (whatever THAT means?!), Howard The Duck has finally had it. Sure, he's found some limited success as a private investigator. And he has a good pair of friends in elderly widow May Parker and shape-shifter Tara Tam. But he still wants to go back to the universe from which he originally came.

As luck would have it, his recent encounters with The Abundant Glove - an artifact of moderate but ultimately limited cosmic power - may be the key to getting Howard back home. But the way will not be easy, even ignoring Howard's innate ability to find trouble and costumed weirdos no matter how much he tries to live a normal life. Well, as normal as your life can be when you're an anthropomorphic duck trapped on a world full of hairless apes.


If you were enjoying the previous Howard The Duck series (you know - the one that ran for five issues before Marvel renumbered everything? AGAIN?!), you'll enjoy this one as well. Chip Zdarsky is still delivering the funny. And Joe Quinones and Joe Rivera are still making everything look good.


The only real change is that the back-up comics seem to be serialized now as well. In this story by Chris Hastings, Howard is hired by Black Cat to track down a pink-clad mercenary who is unbeknownst to her but knownst to us as Gwenpool!  Yes, there's some universe where Gwen Stacy became Deadpool. And now she's here - cutely and insanely illustrated by Danilo Beyruth and Tamra Bonvillain.

So... yeah. If you're the sort of person who enjoys utter lunacy and the sheer randomness of The Marvel Universe laid bare to be laughed at, then you'll love Howard The Duck. Assuming you weren't already loving it.  Damn renumberings....