Howard The Duck: The Movie #3 - Marvel Comics

HOWARD THE DUCK: THE MOVIE No. 3, February 1987

Bringing the “Marvel Comics” official adaption of Willard Huyck’s “Howard The Duck” motion picture to an end, Danny Fingeroth’s script certainly delivered its readers an action-packed conclusion with law enforcement gun-battles, devastating explosions, grotesque-looking alien invaders, harrowing plane flights and even a deafening rock concert. Unfortunately though, none of these plot points make much sense whatsoever, apart from predominantly providing the titular character with an opportunity to deliver a number of 'wisequacks' and bravely battle a supposedly all-powerful Dark Overlord; “Now I’ve got to really shake my tail feathers…”

In fact, the sheer amount of coincidences found within this twenty-two page periodical’s narrative must have disappointed its audience as much as Gloria Katz was when her ‘big screen’ production was nominated for seven Razzie Awards. For starters, just what are the chances that the police officers who arrested Phil Blumburtt “at the plant” would also stop to assist the clearage operation at Joe Roman’s Cajun Sushi Café, and resultantly leave the janitor hand-cuffed in the back of their car? Likewise, having escaped incarceration courtesy of his feathered friend, any perusing bibliophiles are then expected to believe the laboratory assistant lucks upon a ‘fully-fuelled’ micro-plane which just happens to have been stored overnight in the open within ‘spitting distance’ of the restaurant the pair are fleeing from?

Perhaps this publication’s biggest happenstance however is that, having somehow ‘slipped through’ Aerodyne’s presumably comprehensive security cordon, Howard and Beverly Switzler’s bespectacled acquaintance not only manage to locate a Neutron Disintegrator… developed for the army until the cost overruns became really embarrassing”, but a mechanised trolley with which to transport and fire it from. Of course, such destructive technology is ordinarily useless without a suitably-trained operator, so it’s rather jammy that the hero duck can both ‘shoot straight’ and also fit so precisely inside the vehicle’s cockpit that his webbed-feet can activate the peddles whilst the weapon's lethal-looking barrel harmlessly rests just above his head…

Quite possibly the only strength to Issue Three of “Howard The Duck: The Movie” therefore is Kyle Baker’s marvellous rendering of Steve Gerber’s co-creation, which despite the shocking storyline still manages to maintain an appeal throughout his misadventures. Disappointingly though, the same cannot be said for the rest of the American animator’s pencilling, which whilst conceivably competent, appears overly messy and discouragingly ill-defined upon the printed page.

Writer: Danny Fingeroth, Artist: Kyle Barker, and Colorist: Glynis Oliver