Howard The Duck Set To Return?

Howard the Duck hasn’t been in a movie since 1986, but he still looks good… ish.

Howard’s been around since 1973 when he made his first appearance in a comic, Adventure into Fear #19. He’s an ill-tempered duck from outer space whose adventures are usually social satires and parodies of genre fiction. And his appearance in a Marvel movie can mean only one thing.

Howard the Duck is coming back.

Marvel movies are well-known for the little extras that get thrown into the mix after the credits. There is always a spoiler for another movie, even if the film it hints at hasn’t been created yet. It’s part of the fun of a Marvel release: waiting through the credits to see the teaser. It’s a treat that always leaves moviegoers chattering as they exit the theater.

No one expected Howard to make an appearance at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, but perhaps they should have. The two comics have a few things in common: a connection to the Collector and their lack of respect for social niceties.

Guardians of the Galaxy is not your typical Marvel fare. There’s no Captain America here, no Thor or Iron Man. It’s irreverent and funny in a way that pokes holes in the serious world of hero comics. Howard the Duck fits in here. He’s been a write-in candidate for the U.S. Presidency, after all, and how ridiculous is that?

As ridiculous as only a cigar-smoking, hard-drinking anthropomorphic duck in a suit can be. The only way this could get better is if they got Tom Waits to do the voice. Seth Green will do nicely, though.

In the original comics, Howard looked like Donald Duck. This led to legal issues in 1978, when The Walt Disney Company threatened to sue Marvel for copyright infringements. This led to a change in appearance and the addition of trousers. No one ever seemed to care that he had a human girlfriend.

Howard is ill-tempered and has all the approachability of a cactus. He’s been in a number of crossover hero comics, where he’s met everyone from Spider-Man to She-Hulk to Doctor Strange. He has a history. He gets around. He comes from an alternate Earth where he was kidnapped and dropped in our version of Cleveland, Ohio. Or, at least, a version of Cleveland.

How unlucky can a duck get?

He has no super-powers but is a master of Quack-Fu. In the past, he has sometimes used a suit of powered armor called the Iron Duck, which came equipped with flamethrowers, leaping coils, and a chest-mounted searchlight. The suit even looked like a really cheap Stark Industries prototype.

A live action movie was made by George Lucas in the mid-80s after the success of the original Star Wars trilogy; as Yahoo points out, it’s considered to be one of the worst films ever made, but it has a cult following. It bombed at the box office yet thrilled children despite not being a kid-friendly film. With the purchase of Lucasfilm and Marvel Entertainment, Howard has become the property of the Disney corporation and it looks like they intend to give the fans another chance at enjoying Howard on the big screen.

And here’s the spoiler, as previously reported in the Inquisitr. In the teaser at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, Howard is seen in connection to The Collector. The Collector, a comic book character since 1966, was first spotted in the mid-credits scene at the end of Thor: The Dark World. As mentioned by The Huffington Post, the Collector (as played by Benicio Del Toro) has a much larger role in the Guardians of the Galaxy film and, in the end, he’s mocked by part of his collection. Howard is seen drinking a martini in the shadows.

This isn’t the first time he’s been connected to the Collector. In an episode of the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H animated television series, Howard was seen in a cameo, admired as the ultra rare hero, mint condition. Still in the box, so to speak. But he’s not in the box anymore and that leaves Marvel fans with a new question.

Can Howard the Duck be the next comeback kid?

[Image Courtesy of TheHollywoodGossip.com]