Howard The Duck Makes April "What The Duck" Month

[Fanghawk]

Howard The Duck Makes April "What The Duck" Month

This April, Howard the Duck celebrates his Marvel Comics comback by appearing in multiple "What The Duck" variant covers.

Howard The Duck is primed to make a huge comeback in the comic book world, thanks to <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/9622-Who-Was-That-At-The-End-of-Guardians-of-the-Galaxy>a surprise Guardians of the Galaxy cameo and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138730-Marvel-Announces-New-Howard-the-Duck-Comic>a new Marvel Comics series this March. According to Marvel, the fan response has been enormous and overwhelmingly positive, prompting the company to spread Duck love to other series. And I don't mean in a shared storyline kind of way (although that will probably occur eventually). Instead, Marvel is making April "What The Duck" month where the character appears in no less than 20 variant covers.

These aren't even "Howard shares space with the title character" kind of variants, by the way. These are covers where Howard completely replaces the central hero while parodying moments from art and film history. Not that comic readers will necessarily mind - they're great fun to look at, and the standard covers are still available if you prefer them. It's just an interesting promotion to get Howard the Duck fans looking at other Marvel Comics, and vice versa.

"Response to the announcement of the new Howard the Duck series has been staggering," Marvel senior vice president of Sales & Marketing David Gabriel explained. "There were so many talented artists eager to take a quack at drawing a Howard cover we couldn't resist building an entire variant month around him. This April is going to be WTD certified!"

Four preview images have been released so far, with more to follow. Two are inspired by famous paintings - Amazing Spider-Man's cover is replaced with a duck version of "American Gothic", while Uncanny Inhumans traps Howard in "The Scream". The other two are drawn from historical pop culture, with Howard meeting a moon landing astronaut in Rocket Raccoon or dangling from a silent-film era clocktower in All-New Hawkeye.

Whether "What The Duck" is successful or not remains to be seen, but the covers are certainly impressive in their own right. Howard the Duck's regular series, meanwhile, will launch on March 4, 2015.

[gallery=3779]

All-New Hawkeye #2 - WTD Variant Cover by Francesco Francavilla
Amazing Spider-Man #17 - WTD Variant Cover by W. Scott Forbes
Rocket Raccoon #10 - WTD Variant Cover by Rob Guillory
Uncanny Inhumans #0 - WTD Variant Cover by Christian Ward
All-New Captain America #6
All-New X-Men #41
Ant-Man #4
Daredevil #15
Deadpool #45 (a.k.a. Deadpool #250)
Guardians of the Galaxy #26
Hulk #14
Inhuman #14
Legendary Star-Lord #11
Ms. Marvel #14
S.H.I.E.L.D. #5
Silk #3
Spider-Gwen #3
Superior Iron Man #7
Thor #7
Uncanny Avengers #4

Permalink

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Isn't this guy the clone of Howard the duck and not the real one.

 

[Zontar]

Isn't this guy the clone of Howard the duck and not the real one.

Only in the mind of one writer, as that would mean that the real Howard is in the comics of a different company.

 

[Razhem]

I can see his tail well defined?! WHAT IS THIS INDECENT IMAGERY?!

 

[ryukage_sama]

Variant covers to celebrate the female artists at Marvel, great idea. It works well to spread it over multiple series because women do work throughout Marvel's lineup.

Over a dozen variants for a character lacking sufficient popularity to even see print in a decade, that's troubling. Marvel has enough assets that we don't have to worry about them sliding into bankruptcy over this, but I fear they will take the wrong lesson and pull resources from sustaining longer, more narratively rewarding series.

 

[Callate]

Was someone asking for this?... Seriously, was someone outside Marvel's hallowed halls honestly pining for the return of Howard the Duck?

I know. I know. The original character was very different than the cinematic travesty, and even said travesty has its defenders, even if I have a hard time comprehending why.

But of all the scope of the Marvel Universe, all the goodwill their movies have generated... They're using their victory lap on Howard the Duck?...

If Ant-Man is a flop, you know someone's going to cite this as the moment Marvel started to jump the shark.

 

[small]

Was someone asking for this?... Seriously, was someone outside Marvel's hallowed halls honestly pining for the return of Howard the Duck?

I know. I know. The original character was very different than the cinematic travesty, and even said travesty has its defenders, even if I have a hard time comprehending why.

But of all the scope of the Marvel Universe, all the goodwill their movies have generated... They're using their victory lap on Howard the Duck?...

If Ant-Man is a flop, you know someone's going to cite this as the moment Marvel started to jump the shark.

*raises hand* im looking forward to it, heck i loved the tacky movie