Howard the Duck's cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy seems to have sparked some renewed interest in the character. He has his own self titled comic returning to the stands, and with Disney owning marvel now, there shouldn't be any more dispute as to how he can appear. Will Howard get the chance to redeem himself with another motion picture? I don't think we are quite there yet, but at least he is on the comeback trail.
Here is a great write up of Harlequin in the most recent New York Magazine. Cant wait to see how she is portrayed in the upcoming Suicide Squad film!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vulture.com/2014/12/harley-quinn-dc-comics-suicide-squad.html
If Marvel/Disney can make Guardians of the Galaxy a box office hit, and reclaim Spider-Man, they can pretty much do ANY thing now!
ReplyDeleteI would think Howard the Duck will make a big comeback. wasn't Howard a poke at Donald Duck?
I'm not a fan of Harley Quinn's new look...give me the Batman: The Animated Series look any day...
Howard wasn't a poke at Donald but that I how Disney took it and forced Marvel at the time to stop drawing him the way he originally looked. When Steve Gerber got the chance to return to Howard during the launch of Marvel Max's line in the early 2000s Howard was going to be drawn with his original look until the checked with legal and it turns out Disney still screwed them by having it so Howard could never be drawn in his original look again. That is why Gerber decided to poke fun of the agreement by having Howard become Mickey for the mini-series. I had hope Howard would have the agreement loosened up after Disney bought Marvel but after seeing the art from the upcoming Howard the Duck series it appears to not be the case.
ReplyDeleteThat original agreement is probably why Gerber invented Destroyer Duck. A waterfowl version of cyborg anti-hero, Deathlok the Demolisher. With the villainous Godcorp "allegedly" representing Disney.
ReplyDeleteGerber's Destroyer Duck had nothing to do with Disney's objections to Howard The Duck's appearance. Gerber had left Marvel by this time in acrimonious circumstances.
ReplyDeleteAnd I had thought he was "acrimonious" about Marvel kowtowing to Disney.
ReplyDeleteThe Howard the Duck movie is my favorite example of how someone very talented (George Lucas) can generate something really awful. I could similarly point to George Clooney, Michael Gough, Alicia Silverstone, and Uma Thurman, four very talented performers whose bad performances contributed greatly to the debacle that was 1997's Batman and Robin, directed by the also-talented Joel Schumacher. (Chris O'Donnell and Arnold Schwarzenegger actually did pretty good in that respect.)
ReplyDeleteBy contrast, this cover shows a lot of promise for what would be the story inside. I can just imagine the two of them deciding that one must be an hallucination of the other, and arguing over which is which.
Ha - I like your take on the story, Bob!
ReplyDeleteGeorge Clooney, Michael Gough, Alicia Silverstone, and Chris O'Donnell had nothing to do with the box office failure of BATMAN AND ROBIN. That was _totally_ the fault of the costume designer! I mean, really; Kevlar nipples????!
ReplyDeleteThe costume designer has to share the blame with the writers. The Bat-credit card? Really!
ReplyDeletePeter David made a funny once about the scene where Clooney as Bruce Wayne was having dinner with his girlfriend, and he whispered the name "Ivy." When she asked him, "Who's Ivy?" he should have answered, "Ivy? Uh... no, I said I.V. Sometimes I have these daydreams that I'm a doctor in an E.R."
GOOD ONE, BB! :-D
ReplyDelete@various Anonymice: Bob Greenwade is correct; Bill Mantlo was writing the B&W Howard magazine when the Disney suit happened, c.1980. Godcorp was meant to represent Marvel. In 1977, Howard was a very popular title which also had a critical cache. It spun off a newspaper strip and Gerber was afraid that if the character was spread too thin that Jim Shooter would hand him over to any writer available to capitalize on whatever next outlet came along. That would damage the 'brand', so to speak, so Gerber wanted assurance of creative control. Like Marv Wolfman on "Tomb Of Dracula", he was effectively his own editor anyway. He wanted it in writing and Shooter viewed that as stealing Marvel's property, since Gerber created Howard while under contract. Mantlo was assigned to complete the Howard color comic's last issues based on Gerber's unfinished plots (some of which were credited to Gerber, I think), then the magazine replaced the comic. (David Anthony Kraft was already doing this on "Defenders" for different reasons). Jack Kirby abruptly quit at this time, bringing stories in "Machine Man", "Devil Dinosaur" and "Black Panther" to weird endings with unresolved threads. Marvel's loss was Ruby Spears' gain: Gerber an Kirby created Thundarr before Destroyer Duck.
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