HOWARD THE DUCK v.2 #1
"Making the Band"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics/MAX Comics
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: Phil Winslade
Colors: Chris Chuckry
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Stuart Moore
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
I'll be honest... I've read little of Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck. I've only seen snippets of the much-maligned film. Despite all of the acclaim his noted 1970s series received, my interest in the property remained low. But no more. Gerber and Winslade offer up a hilarious and unrelenting send-up of corporate mindsets, North American consumerism, and social and scientific ethics. This new look at Howard the Duck is appropriately goofy, but it's clever as well.
Howard and his girlfriend Beverly are living in a junkyard, and the former is going nuts. Fortunately, Beverly ends up landing a six-figure job for a corporation that's putting together the latest boy band. The whole setup strikes Beverly as more than a little bit weird, and when Howard looks into the corporation, he figures out part of the problem: the CEO is a total nutjob with whom both he and Beverly are acquainted.
I wasn't wild about Phil Winslade's work on such books as Nevada and a couple of Wonder Woman stories. But in recent months, I found his detailed approach growing on me. I enjoyed his work on Daredevil/Spider-Man, and his art on this new title stands out as my favorite sample yet. He takes us to the filth of a pile of garbage to the well-financed polish of Corporate America, and he does so with seeming ease. Hell, Howard also seems like a plausible figure in these pages.
When Gerber takes Beverly and the reader into the halls of Globally Branded Content-dot-com, it makes for a surreal experience, but what's truly disturbing, in a goofy and entertaining way, is how close it is to the truth of the real world. Though the closing scene shifts to more traditional comics conflicts, it's the satire and criticism in the first half of the issue that really hooked me on the title.
Gerber is to be congratulated for offering such an accessible gateway into the world of Howard the Duck. Gerber is building on his past work, not ignoring it, but he's also not ignoring the fact that there are those who will not know much about the property. I'm also pleased to find a surprisingly personal story told through the eyes of a duck. Fortunately, one need not be aware of recent events in Gerber's life -- his involvement in a dot-com venture, and his partner's quest for steady work -- to fully connect to the down-to-earth elements in his script.
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