How An 80s Sci-Fi Disaster Destroyed Marvel And Ruined A Back To the Future Icon
After decades of successful Marvel Studios movies, it may be difficult to imagine, but it’s true. There was a time when signing up for a movie based on a Marvel Comics property was not an instant ticket to stardom. Serving as possibly the best example in this or any other universe is the 1986 bomb, Howard the Duck.
And yet, while the movie was a massive disaster, and likely contributed to delaying the emergence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for decades, it didn’t have to be that way. In fact, with Marvel’s recent pivot into R-rated movies and the M C U’s comedic focus, Howard the Duck could be just what Marvel needs most right now.
So how did it go so horribly wrong, in 1986? This is why Howard the Duck failed.
Howard The Duck For President
Created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik, Howard the Duck originally appeared as a side character for “Man-Thing in Adventure into Fear” #19. He quickly became a favorite of Gerber’s, and Howard the Duck got his own book in 1976, featuring overt social satire and crass humor that set it apart from other Marvel comics.
Howard the Duck was a popular character throughout the late 70s, with his fictional 1976 presidential run resulting in thousands of write-in votes in the real-world election. Of course, the character’s reputation as a cool, countercultural, comic book character was destroyed in 1986 with the release of George Lucas’s Howard the Duck. And he has never recovered.
Duck Human Relations Doom Howard’s Movie
The movie, starring Lea Thompson alongside a puppet voiced by Chip Zien, was a massive flop, earning back just $38 million on its $37 million budget. The movie briefly takes place on Duckworld, a planet that closely resembles Earth but has two moons and is inhabited by anthropomorphic ducks.
It doesn’t take long before our titular character gets launched into space, and lands in Cleveland Ohio, where he befriends Beverly Switzler after saving her from being mugged. He uses the martial art of Quack-Fu.
The Marvel film escalates quickly when, Beverly invites Howard back to her place to spend the night, implying that a creepy interspecies romance will come to fruition at some point in the film.
After a fight breaks out at one of Beverly’s shows, Howard once again saves the day. He is eventually asked to become the band’s manager, to which he obliges.
This course of events, eventually leads to an extremely uncomfortable scene full of sexual tension and actual intimate contact between Howard and Beverly. This segment of the movie can only be described as casual bestiality.
Howard The Duck Fails To Find A Balance
It’s one of the big problems with this Marvel adaptation, or any PG-rated movie that tries to shoe-horn adult humor into the plot. On one hand, uh PG rating allows for a broader audience, which is normally a good thing for overall box office numbers. On the other hand, people took their kids to see this movie because it was about a duck, and probably had a lot of explaining to do on the drive home.
Howard the Duck was too childish for adults to appreciate, and too adult for children to not be traumatized. Given the level of creepy, duck, and human intimacy involved, I assume a few adults were traumatized, too.
While all of the above is happening, there is a B-plot involving Howard and Beverly seeking the help of Phil Blumburtt, played by Tim Robbins, to get Howard back to his home planet. Phil is a lab assistant who thinks the laser spectroscope that accidentally brought Howard to Earth could also send him back to Duckworld if they can reverse-engineer the device. In doing so, they accidentally bring another life form back to earth, and he possesses Dr. Walter Jenning before introducing himself as the “Dark Overlord of the Universe.”
Why Howard The Duck Failed
Though the Marvel films of today that we know and love mostly do an excellent job in building out several concurrent storylines, Howard the Duck completely missed the mark, and leaves us with an unsatisfying resolution. The expressionless puppet, mindless humor, and forgettable plot were all highlighted in its overwhelming negative reviews.
To say this Marvel movie was not well-received would be an understatement. Howard the Duck not only barely broke even at the box office, but it was also nominated for a whopping seven Golden Raspberry Awards. It’s one thing for a film to be nominated for a Razzie, let alone seven Razzies, but Howard the Duck won four of them: Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star, and Worst Visual Effects.
The movie was such a disaster, that star Lea Thompson now blames it for ruining her career. Speaking on the Celebrity Catch Up Podcast she revealed:
“It was devastating. In the course of a year I was in the biggest hit and the biggest bomb, so that probably destroyed my film career. Even though I did some good films after that, it was really difficult…”
The hit that Leah Thompson is referring to, is Back to the Future with Michael J. Fox, a movie that kicked off one of the best trilogies ever made. It’s easy to understand why she would see these two movies in stark juxtaposition.
Tim Robbins co-stars in Howard the Duck, and it didn’t seem to affect his career trajectory. It was two years later he starred in what’s still considered one of the funniest comedies in cinema, Bull Durham. Two years after that, he was in the mind-bending cult classic Jacob’s Ladder; two more years later, he was in the indie thriller The Player, and two more years later brought the iconic classic The Shawshank Redemption.
Howard the Duck should have been a big deal. It was supposed to launch Marvel’s movie age. After all, the guy who made Star Wars produced it.
Howard the Duck was the first theatrical Marvel release since 1944’s Captain America serial. George Lucas was enthusiastic about adapting the Steve Gerber comic book of the same name, praising it for its film noir characteristics and inherent absurdity.
If you look at Howard the Duck as a proof of concept, rather than just a horrible Marvel film, it does have a lot going for it. Though the actual duck costume’s final iteration on the big screen left a lot to be desired, the special effects throughout the film that were done by Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic are actually quite good, in some instances.
A series of poor decisions, like shooting a live-action film in favor of an animated one due to contractual obligations and a time crunch, doomed the project.
Marvel’s Future In The Duck Movie Business
After a long hibernation, Howard the Duck has slowly begun to recover as a character. He’s remained a fixture in the comic universe and is slowly being reintroduced to non-comic readers through the MCU. He’s made several cameo appearances in movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Endgame. With Seth Green as the current, consistent voice of the character, he’s primed for a comeback.
Multiple ideas have been floated for a Howard the Duck project in the MCU. An animated adult comedy on Hulu was planned with Kevin Smith set to write and produce, but that show was canceled in 2020 along with several other Hulu shows. Rob Zombie and Lea Thompson have both pitched movies about the character, but those pitches happened before the MCU was making R-rated movies.
With Deadpool and Wolverine finding massive success as an R-rated, comedy-focused movie, it may be time for Disney to take another look at Howard the Duck. Like Deadpool, Howard has a crass sense of humor and a gruff but lovable personality that lends itself to adult comedy. While the standard PG-13 M C U brand of comedy isn’t well suited to the character, he could help establish Marvel as a home for adult comedy.
Unlike the MCU’s other comedy characters, Deadpool and She Hulk, Howard the Duck’s comedy is rooted in broad social commentary. He’s not a superhero parody, and his jokes tend to be about real-world political and social issues.
The MCU has become increasingly self-involved, and a character that actively comments on and mocks our real world would help the franchise feel relevant again. George Lucas’s Howard the Duck made the character a punchline for decades, but he still has a lot to offer. As Disney looks for ways to reinvent the M C U, they should ignore the 80s movie and give the alien duck another shot.
Marvel needs bold moves to survive, and resurrecting the biggest flop in the company’s history may be just what they need.
You must log in to post a comment