Howard The Duck #7 - A Review

It's all very simple.

Howard The Duck is a detective. He got hired by lawyer Jennifer Walter (aka She-Hulk) to track down one of her clients. Said client is a high-rolling rich jerk named Gary Stark (no relation, though he pretends there is) who mysteriously disappeared doing high-roller rich jerk stuff.

Howard recruits his "good friend" Spider-Man's boss (aka Peter Parker, but also secretly Spider-Man) to help them with a sting to figure out where Gary Stark went. This attracts the attention of D.A. Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil, but also secretly Matt Murdock), who has his own reasons for tracking down Gary Stark. And when Gary's trail leads to the Savage Land, they all have to go hitch a ride with Steve Rogers (aka The Senior Citizen Formerly Known As Captain America) so they don't violate the UN rules on traveling to The Savage Land!

See!  Totally simple!  It isn't until the geeks with the dinosaur-controlling helmets show up that things get complicated...


Guest artist Kevin Maguire is in fine form here. Nobody draws a great facial expression quite like Maguire and he is given ample opportunity to exercise his gifts for physical comedy throughout the issue. The color-art by Joe Quinones and Jordan Gibson bring the verdant wilds of the Savage Land to life perfectly, resulting in some amazing looking backgrounds.


This may not be a Giffen/DeMatteis comic book, but you'd never know it from the script. Chip Zdarksy's script seems to be a love letter to the BWA-HA-HA! days of comics, with all of the established characters played as overblown parodies of themselves and Howard stuck in the middle as the only sane man, er duck! How much you enjoy this issue may depend upon how willing you are to tolerate Spider-Man telling his amazing friends that they suck but I personally found the whole thing hilarious!

Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat #1 - A Review

Patsy Walker has had an interesting life, to put it mildly. And she's had more than her share of bad days. Like today, when she lost her job, her apartment and found out that her best/worst frenemy from her teen years has taken over the rights to the uber-embarrassing comic Patsy's mom based on her and put the whole nightmarish run back into print!

Still, Patsy Walker has been through Hell before. Literally. And it's going to take a lot more than this to get her down! So with a new roommate and a new attitude, Patsy is going to make things work with a new business venture.


I wasn't quite sure what to expect of Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat, but damn me (pun very much intended) if Kate Leth didn't hook me immediately. We get the rundown on Patsy and her powers almost immediately, before setting the stage for the book and introducing Patsy's supporting cast. Of particular note is Tom -a.k.a. Tubs - a former friend from Patsy's teen years who is now a big bear of a comic shop owner. And yes, I do mean bear in the way you think I mean it.


The artwork is a perfect mirror to Leth's scripts. Brittney L. Williams boasts a style that suits both the dynamic action of Patsy's superhero side and the slice-of-life comedy that dominates the rest of her life. And the colors by Megan Wilson are bright and cheerful, adding to the high spirit of the series.

This book is a fun read, born of the same wellspring as The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.  Patsy is an immediately likable heroine and there's many moments that will have you laughing out loud, both due to the witty writing and the visual gags in the artwork. I can't recommend this series enough.