Howard the Duck has gone down in history as one of the worst comic book movies ever made, but what made the movie bomb? The superhero genre has been going through a great run in recent years, not only on the big screen but also on television. This popularity has been, in big part, thanks to connected universes like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, but before these led the way through the superhero genre, this realm went through some big failures that ultimately served as an example of what to avoid – and one of the most infamous failures in this area was Howard the Duck.

Howard the Duck was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik and made his debut in Adventure into Fear #19 in 1973. Howard is a foul-mouthed, ill-tempered, rude duck who comes from another planet and is now trapped on Earth, with his adventures being mostly social satires. Howard made the jump to the big screen in 1986 in a movie simply titled Howard the Duck, directed by Willard Huyck, executive produced by George Lucas, and with Chip Zien providing the voice for the character. Unfortunately, Howard the Duck didn’t have all those elements from the comic books that made him unique, and the movie was a critical and commercial failure.

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The Howard the Duck movie wasn’t exactly an origin story though it did see the character landing on Earth after his armchair suddenly propelled him out of his apartment in his homeworld Duckworld. Once on Earth, he met Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson), who played in a band called Cherry Bomb and who helped Howard find a way to return to his planet. From there, the movie goes through everything: “romance”, action, and more sci-fi elements, and this combination and a lot more contributed to Howard the Duck being a major box office bomb and a regular in lists of the “worst films of all time”.

Howard the Duck and Beverley

A lot of elements from Howard the Duck have been endlessly criticized and pointed out as the reasons for its failure when in reality it was due to a bunch of bad decisions. First off, the movie’s humor didn’t appeal to the audience, who found the story to be boring and the tone of the movie to be uneven. This, along with the animatronics, which were infamously terrible to the point of being borderline nightmarish, didn’t help the audience connect with the character, who instead of looking realistic looked stiff and his facial expressions didn’t match the voice. There were also the weird sexual elements in the story, as seen in scenes like those of Beverly and Howard in bed after she asked him to be her band’s manager and when Beverly found an unwrapped condom in his wallet. These confused the audience as to whether this was a kid’s movie (after all, it’s a talking duck from Marvel Comics) or an adult movie, and contributed to Howard the Duck bombing at the box office.

Surely, with time, Howard the Duck has built a cult following and viewers have somewhat forgiven him and are more open now to seeing him again either on TV or film with a much better team behind it, as is the MCU. Howard has already appeared in the MCU though in cameo roles, as was the post-credits scene in Guardians of the Galaxy, a scene at a bar in Contraxia in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and he was brought to the Battle of Earth in Avengers: Endgame, though this doesn’t mean he will be given another solo-movie anytime soon. Howard the Duck has a place in movie history for the wrong reasons, but his failure ultimately led to bigger and better things, though these don’t include him.

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