The Incompleat Howard - Volume Two!

In this second volume of The Complete Howard the Duck the rest of the original color run is captured along with the first of Howard's black and white magazine. In these issues the energy which catapulted the fowl to fame is beginning to sputter. There are still amazing moments but Steve Gerber appears (at least from this distance) to be running a little low on inspiration.  There are several writers who give Gerber a break now and again as the series rumbles along and Gene Colan's artwork supported by Klaus Janson's embellishments is remarkable though too requiring some interruptions, some planned some not. 

In the first of the stories here we at long last find out more about the mysterious and exceedingly powerful Dr. Bong, an enemy who can freeze his opponents in place with a the strike of his capacious bell-covered head.  Dr. Bong is a former corrupt journalist who used the power of the press to destroy reputations and game wealth and power.  His present goal is Beverly Switzler, a woman he has been fascinated with since he first saw her as a live model in their college days. Now as an nigh all-powerful and thoroughly unscrupulous megalomaniac he simply kidnaps her. 

Dr. Bong's specialty is genetics and to that end he has created a small army of critters called "Neez" which is also what they say to the exclusion of anything else. In a weird attempt to give Howard what he imagines the duck wants, Bong puts him into a machine and alters his genetics to transform Howard into a "hairless ape". Howard is not amused. 

Escaping Dr. Bong's lair (which shifts locations from the ocean to the mountains) Howard and an evolved duck named Fifi fly to NYC. The crash landing kills the unfortunate Fifi and puts Howard into a situation in which he must now cope with the world on its own terms sans his peculiar nature. But who he is and what eventually proves too powerful and he once again transforms into a duck. For her part Beverly to save Howard's life consents to marry the mad Dr. Bong. 

Now Howard minus his lovely Beverly must find a way to live and so he gets a job and just so happens to land one with a dude named "Beverly Switzler". Turns out this generous businessman is Beverly's uncle and namesake. Howard hires on as a dishwasher and works alongside a chap named Sudd who also is a dedicated member of SOOFI. (Save Our Offspring From Indecency). But Sudd's desire for cleanliness in all things overcomes him when a microwave accident transforms him into a monster comprised of cleansing bubbles. 

Howard survives Sudd only to have to confront SOOFI itself in the next issue drawn by Carmine Infantino. This organization which uses death and mayhem to clean up America in all its circumstances turns out to be headed by an infamous fiture who readers of the era might well recognize as a spokeswoman for Florida citrus concerns.

 

Howard then finds himself drawn back to his roots when he is shanghaied the sorceress Jennifer Kale, Korrek the Barbarian and the enigmatic Man-Thing. The trio need the brave Howard to battle against some dope named "Bzzk'Joh" (Berserker) who wants to conquer the universe or something like that. This issue and the next are deftly drawn by Howard's co-creator Val Mayerik. 

This Star Wars parody yarn comes to a conclusion in the very next issue which features a cover that makes it impossible not to notice the source material. It's a fun romp of a story but it is somewhat off the tone of quasi-seriousness which had become necessary for many of the best Howard stories. This is a lark of a story without any sense of consequences, fun but ultimately meaningless and now it just occurs to me perhaps that was Gerber's intent. 

Howard is back on Earth and up to his old tricks of trying to scratch out a living among us hairless apes in the next issue. He is having some trouble along the way as he tries to get to the docks to meet Wendy Wester and Paul Same who are arriving at long last aboard the ship Howard and Beverly had been kidnapped from many issues before. 

Paul Same had been a starving artist but aboard the ship he met Iris Raritan who took a shine to him and his work and became his patron. This new connection throws Howad and his friends into a wild fracas when they attend a party of Raritan's and find the Circus of Crime. 

The Ringmaster sees show-biz potential in Howard and kidnaps him yet again to become a performer. Of course Howard doesn't find his new role to his liking and fights back. His friends try to find him and when they do with the assistance of Raritan, Paul and Wendy are critically injured. 

Guilt over the injuries to his friends and the general unrelenting stress of his daily life lead Howard to have nightmares in which he fights back. he wakes to find the male Beverly Switzler and Raritan by his side and they make a plan for Raritan and Howard to confront the Circus of Crime. Against the odds they do just that. 

Gerber is assisted on the writing in the next issue by Mark Skrenes and once again Carmine Infantino steps up to draw the story. This is a file story as the presence of Beverly indicates. Together the two old comrades fight against several antagonists (an elderly femme fatale, a myopic bus driver, and a overly zealous military man) who all tell of their encounters with the duck and his girlfriend to a psychiatrist who labels them all mad until he himself catches a glimpse of Howard and must be carried out in a straitjacket. 

The next issue is again a fill-in with Mark Evanier supplying the plot and Will Meugniot doing the art. It's a send-up of the Jerry Lewis Telethon which once made an annual splash and some money for Muscular Distrophy. A down-on-his-luck comedian sees Howard and and in him an affliciton which will draw in the cash. Needless to say it's a fracas in Las Vegas when Howard comes to understand he's part of a scam. 

The original storyline and artist are back in the next issue which finally finds us checking on Winda and Paul who are still hospitalized. Doctor Bong returns and gives Howard an ultimatum. He is jealous of Beverly's continuing regard for Howard despite her becoming his wife. And he gives Howard only a few hours before he comes to kill him once and for all. Beverly's uncle now owns a garage and gets his mechanic, a delusional bloke named Claude Starkowski who claims to be the brains behind much of Stark Industries greatest breakthroughs, to build a suit of armor for Howard to fight Bong. 

In the final regular issue of the original color comic run Dr. Bong and Howard face off with Howard's armor saving him but not really giving him an upper hand. When it looks as if  Bong will at long last kill Howard, the lovely Beverly steps in and presents Dr. Bong with a bowl full of genetically engineered Bong quintuplets. She threatens Bong with bad publicity for abandoning his progeny (his own weapon of choice) if he doesn't spare Howard. In a fit after having been betrayed by Beverly he relents and sends both Beverly and Howard back to Cleveland and the bedsides of Paul and Winda. Beverly's uncle greets them with affection and the curtain comes down for the time being. 

When Howard the Duck returns to the comic racks later in the years 1979 it is without the guiding hand of his co-creator Steve Gerber who had been fired by Marvel for missing deadlines. (More on Gerber's dismissal next week.) Instead we find the underrated Bill Mantlo helming the scripting chores. The saga picks up where we left off in a story drawn by Michael Golden. Howard and the two Beverly Switzlers are driving back to Cleveland when they suffer a flat tire. With no spare, they seek shelter and unfortunately find it on the farm of the murderous Mr. Chicken and his henchman Skidoo. He wants to dominate the poultry market with his genetically superior birds and sees something in Howard to help that process. Beverly he just tries to kill. To be honest the motivations in this story confused me, but Howard and Bev do survive and rejoin the other Beverly in the repaired car. 

Back in Cleveland at last they find that Bev's uncle has bought a taxi firm and Howard needs a hack license to work for him. After some grumbling this is accomplished and on the streets he and Beverly find fares and trouble when the Cleveland marathon breaks out and a notable runner named Cleft Chin appears to have been drugged or something and so for reasons that never make sense Howard and Beverly decide to drag him into their cab and help him win. The enemy who is causing this trouble is an outrageous fellow called Jackpot the One-Armed Bandit who can belch out coins at the drop of his one single arm. They prevail. 

Then in the third story Howard runs up against the Kidney Lady again as well as some other creep dubbed the Brooklyn Dodger who is just as weirdly offended Howard. This pair capture Howard and Beverly and attempt to use magic to quicken to life a couch which will swallow them up. But they beat down the villains of course and then Winda an Paul appear, the latter having finally recovered. The gang finally together take advantage of an offer by a movie producer Digitalis and we can only guess how that will work out. While some of the character motivations feel off, nevertheless Howard and Beverly are back together and clearly so. And now with the status quo has at long last reset, we await the next issue where the Pro-Rata, who has been lurking in the shadows, plans to strike. 

More next week. 

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