Essential Defenders volume 2

This month will see the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy film. In the absence of any dedicated Essentials for any version of the team, let alone the modern one, I'm going to take a look at a volume containing one of the original's earliest storylines.

Essential Defenders volume 2 reprints Defenders #15-30 and Giant-Size Defenders #1-4 plus Marvel Two-in-One #6-7, Marvel Team-Up #33-35 and Marvel Treasury Edition #12. The regular Defenders issues are written first by Len Wein and then by Steve Gerber, with one by Bill Mantlo. Wein and Gerber write most of the Giant-Sizes with Tony Isabella writing a framing sequence in the first that carries reprints of past stories by Stan Lee, Bill Everett and Denny O'Neil from the likes of Incredible Hulk #3, Sub-Mariner Comics #41 and Strange Tales #145, representing solo tales from each of the three founders. The Marvel Two-in-One issues and the Marvel Treasury Edition are by Gerber whilst the Marvel Team-Up issues are by Gerry Conway. The regular issues are all drawn by Sal Buscema, as is the Marvel Treasury Edition, all of the Marvel Team-Ups and one of the Marvel Two-in-Ones, whilst the Giant-Sizes are by Jim Starlin, Gil Kane and Don Heck with the reprints carrying the art of Jack Kirby, Everett and Steve Ditko. The other Marvel Two-in-One issue is drawn by George Tuska. Inevitably the creator labels are in a separate post.

This volume suffers badly from the momentum being interrupted by various extra issues being included. Whilst the Marvel Two-in-One issues are part of a crossover with Defenders, and the Giant-Sizes invariably get collected with the regular series (though only the last one's storyline flows directly into the regular series), the Marvel Team-Up issues are utterly inconsequential to the ongoing series and feel as though they've been included solely to make up the numbers with guest appearances. And the Marvel Treasury Edition is a Howard the Duck special in which he teams up with the Defenders, but the entire tone of the piece is very much that of Howard's series rather than the Defenders, in spite of the two sharing the same writer, and once again it feels rather out of place here. Wouldn't it have been better to advance the regular title a few more issues rather then including these diversions that drag things out? But in spite of them the series has now got a clear sense of its purpose and cast.

By now there's a clear core membership consisting of Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk, but with a good number of other heroes passing through the pages. It isn't always clear in issues themselves with other heroes as to who is a temporary member and who is merely a guest star, but in Giant-Size #4 captions mention the wider heroes Doctor Strange could perhaps call upon and lists the Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer and "...perhaps even Power Man ... Daredevil ... Daimon Hellstrom ... Hawkeye" in what is effectively the first canonical list of all the team's "members". But the nature of the beast is such that only the core regulars can be clearly identified. Still it's the heroes on this list who are turned to when most of the regulars plus Yellowjacket are captured by the Sons of the Serpent. Notably steps are taken such that contact methods are cut before the Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer or Hawkeye can be reached. It would also seem from these lists that Professor X, the Thing and, in the previous volume, Namorita all fall firmly on the guest star side of things, as do the Guardians of the Galaxy and Howard the Duck who pop up later on in the volume. On a different level Valkyrie's sort of ex-husband Jack Norriss winds up aiding the team more than once, even getting transported to the future, but his presence, though useful, isn't really desired either.

Instead we have a clear core membership, and even ex-membership, though the team hasn't taken on the hassle of constitutions, approval processes and formal initiations. The four core members are clearly happy to work together in spite of their disparate origins, powers and personalities. Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Silver Surfer have both left the team and in spite of the volume's cover, reproducing that of Giant-Size Defenders #1, they don't actually show up in the present. Their sole appearances are confined to reprints of past solo adventures in Giant-Size #1, though curiously whilst Namor's is incorporated into the issue's narrative, and thus represented here, the Silver Surfer's reprint was separate and is thus left out. Oddly the introductory blurb that appears on each issue until #25 continues to list Namor as a part of "the greatest NON-TEAM in history", suggesting someone failed to notice that he had left in issue #14 or that his motivation was precisely because the Defenders were now clearly becoming a coherent team.

Of the regulars, it's inevitable the two without their own titles who get the most character development. Valkyrie is steadily coming to terms with being an artificial construct with no past of her own, placed in the body of a mortal woman, and trying to discover more about Barbara Noriss's life of which she has no memory. This leads to a trek to Barbara's home town and encounters with first old friends and then her father, all the time being unable to return their feelings for her. The worst comes with Barbara's husband Jack, who just cannot comprehend that it's not actually his wife in her body and he often acts the devoted, defending husband to a woman who neither asks for it nor needs it. Despite the problems of her past, Valkyrie makes the best of her situation and more than proves herself in battle. Her only weakness is one that feels rather out of place for a Marvel hero and especially a Bronze Age hero - she is unable to fight another female, whether human, alien or robotic, without succumbing to crippling pains. It feels more at home with a vulnerability to fire or crumbling at the sight of a green rock or the inability to use a power against the colour yellow rather than the personality flaws, power limitations or physiological factors that usually restrain Marvel heroes. But in spite of this Valkyrie serves well as an equal member of the team. There are hints early on that she and Nightcrawler might become an item but it never comes off. However at one point he buys an ex-riding school to serve as a stable for Valkyrie's horse Aragorn. Otherwise Nightcrawler is steadily building himself up in his heroic role but also finding that things in his company aren't always in line with his orders. He may be a rich socialite but he also has his vulnerable side, especially when he and girlfriend Trish Starr are caught in a car explosion that costs her her left arm and then he declines to offer sufficient commitment and she leaves him. Meanwhile the Hulk is in one of his best periods, having finally found the permanent friends he has been looking for for so long and seems calmer than usual. He's also getting better at remembering things and realising other points such that his own skin makes him a target of the Sons of the Serpent. Doctor Strange is very much in his traditional form, though at times his powers are used a little too easily to resolve a situation. However this is rare and otherwise he serves well as the team's leading hand.

The various additional issues offer a variety of adventures, ranging from the needless such as the Marvel Team-Up fights with the Meteorite Man, formerly the Looter, or Jeremiah, a religious fanatic mutant, to the team building such as the Giant-Sizes. The first fills out details on the founding Defenders and then subsequent issues introduce the team to a range of guest stars including Daimon Hellstrom the Son of Satan, Daredevil, Yellowjacket and then the Guardians of the Galaxy. The foes in these issues are just as diverse, including individual Defenders' old foes such as the demon Asmodeus from Doctor Strange, Nighthawk's former villainous team the Squadron Sinister or Yellowjacket's old foe Egghead. There's also more general Marvel foes such as the Badoon, the Grandmaster or the Prime Mover, as well as new ones of whom the most significant is Korvac. Over in the Treasury Edition the Defenders and Howard tackle the Band of the Bland, a group of deliberately unoriginal villains made up of Dr. Angst, Sitting Bullseye, Black Hole, Spanker and Tillie the Hun.

Over in the regular issues there's a succession of epics against a mixture of established and new foes, with quite a few ramifications for the wider Marvel universe. We kick off with one of the last X-Men appearances from their wilderness years as Professor X sides with the Defenders against Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants; Magneto's hubris leads him to create Alpha the Ultimate Mutant who judges the Brotherhood unworthy and deages them to babies. (Now there's at least an interim solution to the problem of Magneto being tied to real world history without noticeably ageing.) Then a team-up with Luke Cage, Power Man brings the first ever appearance of the Wrecking Crew as the Wrecker acquires a team around him. Notably the team's black member, Thunderball, is the most intelligent of them, being a nuclear physicist. Valkyrie's quest for her past brings both a crossover with the Thing's title Marvel Two-in-One and also a battle with the Enchantress and the Executioner then with the Nameless One. Then there's an extended clash with the Sons of the Serpent, Marvel's stock group of racists with elements of the Ku Klux Klan about them. This adventure brings the return of several heroes including Yellowjacket, Daredevil, Power Man and the Son of Satan, but also the revelation that the Sons are led by a black man trying to "escape 'my own people'" and to enhance Nighthawk's company's profits. There are also some one-off issues including the introduction of the Headmen, a weird group of villains with distinctly odd heads whether Gorilla Man, a human one grafted onto an ape, Shrunken Bones, whose skeleton has reduced leaving the flesh loose, or Chondu, a mystic whose head has been grafted onto other bodies. And there's Tapping Tommy, who wants revenge for a succession of failures including the musical genre and takes it out on Nighthawk for buying an old studio to turn into housing, using robots in the process.

One of the biggest epics comes near the end as the Defenders meet the Guardians of the Galaxy and travel with them into a dark future where mankind has overcome self-inflicted disasters and invasion to build an empire with bio-engineering diversifying the human form, but the human race has now been conquered by the Brotherhood of the Badoon. It's a tale that incorporates time travel, including Major Vance Astro meeting his younger self, multiple worlds, the fierce gender divide amongst the Badoon, various alien worlds, the mysterious Starhawk and a showdown that begins a revolution. The story shows real epic and ambition, helping to expand the original Guardians mythology and roster no end without feeling like an intrusion on the Defenders. Nor does it end neatly, with Doctor Strange transporting his team back in time upon realising that Starhawk embodies the human race and its hope.

Steve Gerber's writing takes on both a distinctly odd turn and a degree of social commentary, though it's not as pronounced as his work on Howard the Duck. In the Sons of the Serpent story there's also a look at the horrors of the slums and signs of hope when Jack Norriss's surge of courage to save "his wife" spurs a watching crowd of whites to attack the Sons. Later there's an extended history of the Earth from the present day until the 31st century, taking in not only the continuity of Killraven but also ecological collapse, the dangers of unfettered capitalism destroying the environment, colonialism from both ends and much more. Elsewhere we get the odd situations and characters, with the first appearance of the mysterious Elf with a Gun who pops up to shoot a random person for seemingly no reason at all. However one thing I don't like about Gerber's work is the resort to a page of mainly text with a single drawn panel and the story advanced in narration, a device he resorts to more than once. It feels like the issue in question was poorly paced and this was an effort to rectify it.

When the regular series is in full flow then this volume is generally quite good and fun to read, with a wonderful diversity of scope and characterisation, not to mention the weirder elements. However when the series gets interrupted by numerous specials, crossovers and guest appearances then it the momentum frequently fails and the volume grinds to a halt. It would have been much better to leave out all the Marvel Team-Ups and the Marvel Treasury Edition and just concentrate on the core Defenders a bit more.

Essential Captain America volume 5

Essential Captain America volume 5 comprises Captain America and the Falcon #187-205 plus Annual #3 and the Marvel Treasury Edition special Captain America's Bicentennial Battles. The early issues see writing by John Warner, Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins, Bill Mantlo and Marv Wolfman, and art by Frank Robbins and Sal Buscema. Then from issue #193 onwards everything, including the annual and special, is written and drawn by Cap's co-creator Jack Kirby in his mid 1970s return to Marvel. Bonus material includes Kirby's original pencils for the covers of issues #197, #198 & #199.

The first six issues show the book in a state of extreme creative mess. Frank Robbins's artwork is poor and at times veers into caricature, whilst the high turnover of writers results in no clear direction. Just to add to the mess the issues are trying to mop up after the ridiculous revelations about the Falcon at the end of the last volume that showed him to have been a gangster transformed by the Red Skull into the ultimate sleeper agent. Following a rather unusual form of shock therapy the result is that he remembers both his gangster and hero days but he feels as though he is two persons in a single body. The exact ramifications of this are not explored as well as they should be, so it's unclear just whether he now has a split personality or else the two personas have somehow merged or if one has triumphed over the other but retained both sets of memories. The result is an awkward and unsatisfactory arrangement that's at risk of falling into a mess with future writers unfamiliar with what's planned or just how Sam has reconciled the two sets of memories. His criminal status is addressed more head on with a trial that gives him a suspended sentence with Nick Fury serving as his parole officer. Given the turnover of writers it's hard to identify just who took the wrong decisions but even the option of dismissing the Red Skull's claims as false is dangled yet rather than take such a natural way out of this mess the series instead decides to go with them. But the result is deeply unsatisfactory and shows the dangers of changing writers too quickly at a critical point for the series.

The foes in these issues aren't too memorable either. There's the Druid, previously seen in the S.H.I.E.L.D. strip in Strange Tales, who has Cap whisked away to an arena for no particular reason but it helps to mark time. Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters acting director Jeff Cochren forces Cap to take pat in a weird fight designed to snap the Falcon out of his comatose state; it turns out to be a plot by Nightshade to take control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and conquer the world. Subsequently the Falcon's trial is interrupted by an assassination contract undertaken by old Daredevil foe Stilt-Man. Then in a fill-in issue Dr. Faustus plots to steal millions from New York City; the issue is notable as the first ever appearance of Karla Sofen, the future Moonstone, but here she's little more than a gangster's mole. It is possible that John Warner thought he had been assigned the series for the long run rather than the fill-ins he wound up doing, and Tony Isabella seems to have fallen into the same trap whilst Marv Wolfman's issue has all the signs of a one-off fill-in and there's also artist Frank Robbins contributing to the writing plus Bill Mantlo scripting the last of Isabella's plots, but this really is a classic example of how too many cooks really can spoil the broth.

"King Kirby is BACK -- and greater than ever!" proclaims the cover of issue #193, though the effect is somewhat lost here because both the annual and the Treasury edition are placed before it. This was the start of Kirby's return to Marvel after an absence of about five years. Or perhaps a partial return. Over the next few years Kirby would produce a number of titles including The Eternals, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur, Black Panther and this one, but only the last two were pre-existing series (and even then Black Panther was renumbered with "Jungle Action" dropped from the title). And there was very little interaction with either the wider Marvel universe or what had come before. Indeed The Eternals was even intended to be in its own continuity, years before such standalone projects became widespread. As I've noted before, Kirby's Black Panther feels somewhat like a 1970s version of Heroes Reborn, such is the disconnect from what had come before. With Captain America and the Falcon the jump is less jarring but it still feels like a big side step.

Part of this comes from the very limited use of pre-existing supporting characters and villains. Captain America and the Falcon may have worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. a lot, but it was a generic S.H.I.E.L.D. shorn of all its most familiar agents. Sharon is only seen twice in this run of issues, but seems to have been reduced to a generic superhero girlfriend who knows her boyfriend's identity but is tired him always going off on missions. This doesn't feel like the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who not only knows the score from her own experience but has often been the absent one herself. Other than the two leads, the only pre-existing character to make any significant appearance is the Falcon's girlfriend Leila, and she's a pale shadow of her former self with little of her fire and determination on display. Beyond that Captain America's Bicentennial Battles features brief appearances by Bucky and the Red Skull, plus some historical figures, but that's about it. Was Kirby, whether consciously or unconsciously, trying to cut out as much of the influence of Stan Lee as possible? Or was he just aiming for as much creative control over the series as possible? And using as few characters originated by others as possible was one way of doing this.

One of the most obvious practical consequences is a total failure to sort out the mess with the Falcon's personality and memories. Instead the whole plot point is completely ignored at the precise moment it needed tidying and the character is presented somewhat generically. Now I'd be perfectly happy to get to a situation where the whole mess is never mentioned ever again, but it's not helpful in the long term to be continuously wondering about the character and/or successive writers taking different approaches to how his past is presented. It needs a straightforward resolution that clearly establishes just who the Falcon now is and so he can easily go forward with the whole mess forgotten. Instead it's bypassed, just adding to the sense of reboot. Oddly, given the Heroes Reborn comparisons flying around, the situation feels rather like that of Iron Man who, just before the reboot, was revealed to be a long term sleeper agent of an old foe and whose resultant new status quo and background was never fully addressed before Onslaught and Heroes Reborn, and indeed for some years afterwards a traditional take on the character was presented without covering his two different pasts.

Also noticeable by its absence is any particular sense of political influence on the series. Henry Kissinger pops up at the end of issue #193 (although in accordance with a semi-observed Marvel tradition of not explicitly identifying politicians he's not actually named on panel bar telling the duo they can call him "Henny") to brief the duo but he could be any senior government figure to emphasise the severity of the situation - indeed it's more of a surprise that it's the Secretary of State rather than the President. The 200th anniversary of American independence was marked by both the Treasury Edition Captain America's Bicentennial Battles and the regular series in a storyline conveniently culminating in issue #200, but without wading into contemporary debate about just what the United States stands for or the country's role in the world; questions that were much debated in that post Vietnam era. It seems clear that, unlike Steve Engelhart or some of the series's later writers, Jack Kirby had no particular desire to use Captain America to explore contemporary questions about patriotism and politics, let alone take an actual side in such debates, but rather presented him as a figure who served all of his country, a unifying figure on a par with Uncle Sam. Indeed the final page of the Treasury Special depicts Captain America shaking hands with Uncle Sam in front of a birthday cake.

Captain America's Bicentennial Battles is itself rather inconsequential, but as the equivalent of a graphic novel that's for the best. It introduces the dubiously named "Mister Buda", a sorcerer who has since been renamed "the Contemplator", one of the various Elders of the Universe. Mister Buda sends Cap on a trip throughout American history, including the future, so as to see what America is all about. Cap sees a succession of incidents both at home and abroad, but grasps the fundamental underlying point that all are striving no matter the odds. As he explains to a group of children at the end:

That's America! A place of stubborn confidence -- where both young and old can hope and dream, and wade through disappointment, despair and the crunch of events -- with the chance of making life meaningful!

It may seem twee but then most attempts to sum up a country's civic national identity often wide up producing such general concepts that can frankly be found to work in many other countries (just think of the various attempts to bottle and distil "Britishness" that get tied in knots on this). But it's a good way to take Cap on a tour of American history as part of the general celebrations. At the Treasury Edition size the artwork must really look amazing but even in reduced form it shows Kirby's talent immensely.

Whilst the special is about celebrating what makes America, the regular series shows Cap protecting it. The Madbomb storyline is frankly a few chapters too long and somewhat unfocused. I don't actually find Kirby's dialogue as clunky as many others do, but it often seems more routine than spectacular and can dull the effect of an extended storyline. The tale takes Cap and the Falcon on an extended trip, including a visit to the hidden world of the Elite, a group of aristocrats seeking to overturn the American Revolution and install themselves in power. The climax comes as the Elite's leader, William Taurey, aims to detonate a giant "madbomb" to send the country into chaos, but there's also a personal element that he's smarting over his ancestor's defeat in a duel with an ancestor of Steve Rogers. The ideas are good but the execution isn't the best, making the showdown less amazing than it might otherwise have been.

The other adventures in this volume are also a little underwhelming. The annual is placed as the first Kirby created issue but is a total one-off tale of Cap getting caught up with two groups of aliens as an escaped prisoner is pursued and crashes on Earth; it has the revelation that Cap has backed the wrong side but is a little too black and white for the era rather than a more nuanced presentation that shows both sides with shades of grey. Meanwhile in the last few regular issues the Falcon and Leila get captured and brainwashed by the Night People, the inmates who have taken over an asylum in another dimension. Once back on Earth Cap manages to cure the Falcon through battling a corpse animated by a being from the future, though by the volume's end there's no sign of Leila having been cured.

All in all these adventures feel rather generic and awkward. Apart from the bicentennial celebrations they could frankly feature any superheroes for all the difference it makes. Captain America may have been under the full control of one of his co-creators but the result just doesn't feel as special as it was made out to be. This was one of the first times Marvel trumpeted the presence of an individual creator and so invariably expectations rise in such circumstances. But the result feels as though the baby was thrown out with the bath water, cutting out nearly all the pre-existing elements beyond the title characters, and the result is almost its own universe of rather generic characters and villains. The issues immediately before Kirby's return showed what a mess the title had already descended into so he was actually an improvement and brought stability but the result is less than exciting and not the series at its best.

Essential Howard the Duck volume 1

Essential Howard the Duck volume 1 contains issues #1-27 & Annual #1 from the character's original series, plus the character's first appearance in Adventure into Fear #19 as reprinted with a short introduction in Man-Thing #1, solo strips from Giant-Size Man-Thing #4-5 (yes they really did publish a comic with that name, so stop sniggering) and Marvel Treasury Edition #12, a rare issue with original material.

Everything in this volume is written by Steve Gerber. The duck's first appearance in Adventure into Fear is drawn by Val Mayerik, who returns for the annual and issues #22-23. Frank Brunner draws both the Giant-Size Man-Thing stories and then the first two issues of the regular series. Gene Colan draws most of the series with individual issues by John Buscema (#3), Carmine Infantino (#21) and "A Cast of Thousands" on issue #16. The Marvel Treasury Edition is drawn by Sal Buscema.

The cover to the volume reuses the Brian Bolland cover (though with new colours) from issue #33 which isn't included here and was published many years later. It may seem an odd choice to use a later image but it's possibly a consequence of a design change forced upon Howard as a result of legal noises from Disney after the stories in this volume were originally published and a legally binding agreement signed at the time. Most obviously Howard was now wearing trousers.

This volume was first published eleven years ago and to date there's been no sign of a second volume, thus making Howard the Duck technically the series with the longest gap between Essential volumes (bar Conan, but Marvel lost the rights after the first and only volume appeared). But what could go in a second volume? Back in the 1970s Howard's original series continued for another four issues with various other writers. Then it was replaced by a black & white magazine that lasted nine issues, with other stories in the magazine Crazy #63-77 and one further story in the magazine Bizarre Adventures #34. Around the same time Howard appeared in Marvel Team-Up #96 (reprinted in Essential Marvel Team-Up #4). And then there was a newspaper strip. The onset of the movie in 1985 saw a brief revival of the original title and numbering, with a further issue #32 put out, followed by issue #33 nine months later. (There was also a three issue adaptation of the movie but such adaptations are usually out of continuity and ignored by everything else.) Beyond that Howard appeared in a four part story in Sensational She Hulk, written by Steve Gerber, then in 1996/7 there were several appearances when Howard returned, including a story by Gerber in Spider-Man Team-Up, a one-shot Christmas special and other appearances in Ghost Rider, Generation X and the Daydreamers limited series. The Marvel Omnibus edition from 2008 does include issues #28-33 and Marvel Team-Up #96 as well.

In an interview in 2001 about a forthcoming new Howard the Duck limited series (which this volume was published to tie in with), Gerber stated "...I don't even intend to acknowledge any of the Howard stories published after the first 27 issues of the original comic book. As far as I'm concerned, they're not part of the Howard "canon." They're apocrypha." It's rare to find a character so strongly associated with a single creator or for subsequent creators' work on the character to be so heavily ignored by fans, and doubtless this is why there hasn't been sufficient demand for the further adventures of Howard to appear in the Essentials though it would be nice for newer generations to have the chance to see them for themselves without having to obtain the pricey Omnibus (which is now out of print and commanding very high prices on the back copy market).

Gerber's Howard the Duck has acquired a legendary status amongst those who read it at the time. But sometimes such legendary fiction can prove to be a disappointment when read by later generations. Often the ideas pioneered have been so heavily copied and refined that an original groundbreaking piece can seem flat by comparison. And satire is invariably of its own time and often requires not just knowledge of the world it draws upon but also actual experience. Without such experience the satire can date faster than just about anything else. I find some of the contemporary Saturday Night Lives a bit tough going because they're drawing upon a very different world and because these were the early days when they were still finding their feet. How did the duck fare in similar circumstances?

To be perfectly frank, not very well. I've found this volume takes much longer and harder to get through than just about any other Essential I've so far reviewed. I suspect the main problem is rooted in my lack of a cultural context for much of the satire. It's easy to spot targets such as Reverend Joon Moon Yuc and his cult as an unsubtle parody of Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church, or the election campaign as a commentary on how US politics was conducted at the time. But with other subjects it's harder to recognise the target and so all that's left is the surface level comedy. This series has not aged well at all.

As for the stories themselves, throughout these pages Howard encounters many foes, most of who are of a decidedly surreal nature. Amongst them are Garkko the Man-Frog, a human who takes a potion and turns into a frog but the transformation goes all the way until he's just an animal who gets run over by a police car. Then there's Bessie the vampire cow, who has spent three hundred years pursuing the vampire who changed her in the first place. Pro-Rata a wizard who plans to become the Chief Accountant of the universe once he has obtained the final key for the Cosmic Calculator. Turnip-Man, the fusion of a frustrated writer with a sentient space turnip. Count Macho, a bullying show-off. Winky Man, the alter ego of a man with a sleeping disorder. In his daytime ego of Paul Same he becomes a friend and flatmate of Howard and Beverly. The Reverend John Moon Yuc, the charismatic leader of a religious cult known as "Yucchies". The Gingerbread Man, baked by a woman suspected of being a witch. Dr. Reich, the mysterious director of a psychiatric clinic, who looks like Adolph Hitler. Bzzk'Jho, the offspring of a demon and a madman. Howard's Presidential campaign brings other villains out of the woodwork, with the Treasury Edition special teaming Howard and the Defenders against the Band of the Bland, a group of unoriginal villains made up of Dr. Angst, Sitting Bullseye, Black Hole, Spanker and Tillie the Hun. Then the campaign is derailed by the schemes of Le Beaver, a fanatical Canadian nationalist. A trip to the Middle East country of "Bagmom" sees Howard and the others uncover a plot by Prince Hassim and Roxxon, Marvel's regular Dastardly Evil Corporation, to secure oil drilling rights from a reluctant Caliph. Then there's SOOFI - Save Our Offspring From Indecency - a morality crusade whose members are prepared to kill and commit suicide in the name of morality. One of their members is transformed by a microwave explosion into Sudd - a living bubble bath who sets out to clean up the neighbourhood. There are few villains from the wider Marvel universe but the last few issues see him encounter the Circus of Crime, here consisting of the classic line-up of the Ringmaster, the Clown, Cannonball, the Great Gambonnos and Princess Python.

Two foes of Howard's are better known than the others. Regularly popping up on the sidelines is the Kidney Lady, an old woman obsessed about preventing any possible damage to her kidneys. Midway through the run she tells how she fell for a book seller who went to go and fight in the war, leaving behind just a hotel bill and a book on the importance of kidneys. But issue #15 sees the debut of Howard's best known foe, Doctor Bong. A journalist specialising in distortion and smears, he has become a mad scientist operating out of a castle on a strange island, performing experiments that produce strange half-human, half-animal creatures. He also has a bizarre bell shaped helmet from which he can emit sonic frequencies to cause whatever effect is desired. He has been infatuated with Beverly since they were students and now he forces her to marry him to save Howard from death. By the standards of the title he's not the most bizarre thing around but he makes for a pretty rounded character

However this series is very much not a conventional adventuring hero series, even if it is set in the regular Marvel universe, and many issues focus on the problems Howard faces as he tries to go about life in a world he never made. Often he encounters twists on day to day problems, such as his quest for money in issue #5 as he successively works as an assistant to a clown on children's television until he attacks the star, then as a debt collector for an electrical appliance company, and finally tries his hand wrestling and actually beats champion "The Goat" only to be denied the promised money for any man who can last three rounds because he's not a man. Most bizarre of all is Howard's campaign for President. Whilst travelling from Cleveland to New York, Howard and Beverley take jobs at the All-Night Party convention. Soon Howard finds himself as the party nominee on a platform of straightforward, honest offensive talking. He rapidly attracts the assassins and smear merchants. With the slogan "Get Down, America!" and a managed campaign that tries to avoid saying anything, Howard could have swept to victory. But then on polling day the papers fall for a hoax and print an appallingly composited picture that purports to show Howard and Beverley in the bath together. These were the days before widespread early voting and the Clintons so Howard's chances evaporated. Nevertheless in the real world thousands of voters found a fictional fowl talker from another dimension a better prospect than Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter (I can't imagine why...) and wrote-in votes for the Duck. Imagine if so many had done so and he'd actually won electoral votes... It's a good satire on politics and provides the series with its best remembered moment.

The series also overtly satirises a number of its contemporary comics such as Conan the Barbarian, Killraven and Master of Kung-Fu, though the more overt superheroes are sent-up though guest appearances instead. Spider-Man was used in the first issue in one of his earliest full-on guest appearances to launch a title, then later in the run we get a couple of issues with Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, in which his demonic side is inadvertently released to possess Howard. There are also overt parodies of other cultural phenomenons, most obviously a Star Wars parody in which Howard and a gang of heroes, including a guest appearance by the Man-Thing, have to save the universe using the power of the "Farce".

But not everyone Howard encounters is hostile to him. In the first issue he encounters by far his best known friend, Beverly Switzler. The two then stay together for the next eighteen issues until she agrees to marry Doctor Bong to save Howard. Beverly is a young woman trying to make her own way in life and brings a sense of positive optimism to contrast with Howard’s pessimism. It's astonishing how close their relationship is shown to be, even though comics in that era couldn't be totally explicit. But there's a naturalness to their relationship that makes it work in spite of the basic oddness of it. After all the basic theme of the series is that the difference between the serious and the silly is only a point of view. Along the way Howard and Beverly acquire two other recurring friends of note, Winda Wester, a young lady with a speech impediment who is initially demonically possessed, and Paul Same, a tenant in the same building as Beverly, who initially has a sleep problem caused by insecurities but he overcomes this and discovers his talent as an artist. There's also Beverly's uncle who has the same name, but goes by "Lee" who briefly employs Howard and then gives him the remainder of the time of his rented flat. Between the various recurring characters we get some good interactions that enhance the succession of situations Howard finds himself in.

Issue #16 is a curiosity. Having missed the regular deadline, Steve Gerber instead offer up a rambling essay that's a dialogue between Howard and his creator, discussing the problems writers face and various literary conventions and trappings. It's a reminder that there was a time when something had to be published and the alternative was a reprint as seen with some of the other volumes from the 1970s. Clearly the idea of creating in advance standby fill-in issues that would be ready to print in any emergency had not yet been implemented at Marvel, although even that approach would have created problems because issue #16 comes in the middle of the introduction of Doctor Bong. The essay is exactly what it says it is, namely the rushed ramblings of a writer in a hurry. There's a few interesting concepts in there such as the battle between a show girl, an ostrich and a lamp shade, but overall it's not too satisfying. As a one-off novelty it naturally excited a few and at least it wasn't a reprint or a delayed issue, but it feels terribly awkward and out of place. Still full kudos to Gerber and Marvel for confessing so publicly about the delays on the series.

Sadly this volume ends on an incomplete note. Howard has concluded his dealings with the Circus of Crime and is left in Cleveland with memories. Beverly is still married to Doctor Bong and seems to be liking it, at least until he husband announces his plans both for world conquest and to slay Howard. However we don't get to see how that would be resolved, because after issue #27 Steve Gerber left the title. He contributed to one further issue for contractual reasons but otherwise fell out with Marvel over the issue of the ownership of Howard. It would be many years before he would write for both the company and the character again. Other writers would handle the character in the meantime, but the Essentials have yet to show their take on things. And there also came Howard's biggest moment.

Now it's almost impossible to approach the subject of Howard the Duck without acknowledging the film. Somehow this has obtained a reputation as one of the worst movies of all time. Yes it fell into the trap that virtually all live Marvel adaptations pre-Blade did of just not understanding the source material (it's not just about a duck from another world landing in ours, it's a strong social satire) and yes the duck costume isn't the best, but it's a relatively straight forward tale of a stranger trying to get home, having to understand the world he's come to and face a threat that stands in his way. Perhaps the real problem was expectations - if you take the creator of Star Wars and have him present an adaptation of a cult comic book character then you're already building things up. And then who exactly was the film aimed at? Comic book movies still had a "for kids" reputation but this one has some quite racy moments, to the point that here in the UK there's two versions on DVD, an uncut 12 certificate and a cut PG version. So if it wasn't really aiming at the cult audience the comic attracted and not really suitable for kids and not a high action, far out science fiction piece then just who was the target audience? All that said the film has done better than reported - its total box office takings exceeded production costs and that's even before the home video and TV income. (When the DVD came out here some years ago, somebody even felt confident enough to take out adverts in Metro newspaper.) But the critics panned it, George Lucas disowned it and even in the comics it's been hard for Howard to avoid jokes about the film. But should Howard be dogged by the film? Captain America didn't spend two decades with his rather awful 1990 film brought up all the time and it's easy to forget that there was a TV movie that said it was based on Doctor Strange in the late 1970s. But then they've both done a lot of other things. By contrast Howard has had long periods of inertia. And there was the massive creators' rights case which invariably drew attention to the potential profitability of the property, so its seeming failure to do well stood out more.

His original series was more successful in its day and left a whole generation of fans who gave it legendary status. But sometimes series don't live up to the legends surrounding them and that's very much the case with this one. To a contemporary cult audience Howard the Duck may well have been a biting satire on life in the mid-70s but when viewed out of context and out of time it really doesn't stand up very well. All in all this is quite a disappointment.

Omitted material: Marvel Treasury Edition 28 – Superman and Spider-Man

Another issue which the Essentials do not reprint but I thought was worth a look at is Marvel Treasury Edition #28. This was generally a reprint anthology series in the huge Treasury Edition format, featuring many different Marvel characters, but occasionally it carried original material. This was true of the final issue, #28, which carried “Superman and Spider-Man”, the second team-up between the lead Marvel and DC characters. Once again this has had a few reprints since, usually to tie in with more recent Marvel/DC crossovers. It cost $2.50 in a year when the regular Marvel titles went for $0.50 and I believe DC’s regular books went for the same price.

The story is written by Jim Shooter, with some plot suggestions from Marv Wolfman, and drawn by John Buscema. Whilst Buscema had drawn a handful of Spider-Man issues over the years, Shooter had written very few but was the-then Marvel Editor-in-Chief. Did he take this one for himself to prevent creative squabbling (his stated reason for later writing Secret Wars)? Or was it for more mundane reasons? Their Superman credentials were more limited – it was nearly two decades before Buscema did his first work for DC. Jim Shooter had, however, written for Superman in the 1960s, whilst in 1981 Wolfman was the regular writer on Action Comics.

Before the main story we get a one page feature introducing both heroes’ origins, but amazingly the Spider-Man section completely omits any mention of Uncle Ben and responsibility. Equally there’s no reason given for why Superman uses his powers as he does (and my knowledge of Superman continuity is such that I don’t know the answer for this particular incarnation).

The main story is presented as a semi-sequel to the earlier Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man and the story in part seeks to compensate for the villain imbalance in the earlier team-up by this time making the primary villain Doctor Doom, with a secondary role played by the Parasite. Now Doctor Doom is not specifically a Spider-Man villain and the two had had relatively few encounters up to this point, but he is the premier Marvel villain and one of the few who can present a world threatening menace that’s a credible threat for Superman. However the Parasite is not of the best known Superman villains outside his own book, and doesn’t feel like he deserves to be in a particularly special adventure. But then this is not a particularly special adventure.

Sadly the story itself seems overcomplicated for the sake of it, with Doctor Doom spending endless billions on a project to wipe out the world’s fossil and nuclear fuels and then use his ownership of the surviving super reactor to take control of the planet. He’s brought the Parasite along as part of a convoluted scheme to turn the latter into a crystal for the reactor to prevent it otherwise destroying the world. Already you can see the complications in this tale, and it throws in guest appearances by the Hulk (well he did have a TV series at the time) and Wonder Woman (whose series had ended but were there endless reruns?) that don’t add a great deal. Superman and Spider-Man’s interaction is limited to a brief meeting in Metropolis when the Hulk is rampaging and the climax when both investigate Doom’s base but get captured, though they free each other and work to save the day. However we get some extended sequences as Clark Kent briefly relocates to New York and takes a post at the Daily Bugle, whilst Peter Parker is talked into staying in Metropolis for a while and working at the Daily Planet. Peter’s sudden uprooting of his life is hard to swallow but the arrangement allows us to see each hero’s alter ego interacting with some of the other’s supporting cast, and many comment on the similarities of the two.

Lacking the novelty of the first team-up, this story is left looking for something to make it special but doesn’t really find it. It may explore new angles and contrasts between the heroes, but the problem is their adventures and power levels are on such different scales that it’s hard to have them credibly interact for extended periods of time. Instead the title searches for original ideas, throws in extra heroes for the sake of it and presents situations that stain credulity. Doom’s scheme might have been inspired by real life contemporary fears about the energy supply at a time when the oil crisis was still fresh in people’s minds, but by the time the issue came out the tide was already turning.

Overall this story feels poor and uninspired, and probably produced for no other reason than to tie into the-then contemporary movie Superman II. If this is typical of the inter-company crossovers then I can’t say I’m waiting with baited breath for a possible Essential Showcase Presents collecting all the Marvel & DC team-ups.