Open "Mike" Night - Howard the Duck (2015) #1 & Impulse (1995) #1

By Gina Maillaro and Mike Maillaro

Howard the Duck (2015) #5

Written by: Chip Zdarsky
Pencilled by: Joe Quinones
Inked by:Joe Rivera with Paola Rivera
Cover by: Joe Quinones
Colored by:  Rico Renzi
Lettered by: Travis Lanham

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Mike: Howard the Duck has his own comic series again. Run that one through your brain.  Honestly, I have no idea how this possibly came about.  I really doubt his brief cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy (which looked basically nothing like the comic version of Howard) is responsible.  My guess is that because of his success on Sex Criminals, Marvel reached out to Chip Zdarsky and offered him “any book he wanted.”  And he decided to go with Howard the Duck. What’s even more amazing is that this comic is great!

Not only is it really funny, but it still has a solid story at it’s core, and real strong characterization.  Although that should not surprise anyone. All good comedies typically have good stories and characters, or else they tend to fail real badly.

Gina: I totally agree that this book was shockingly well done, especially since it was a veritable who’s who of the Marvel Universe and yet even with the guest appearances Supreme, it maintained a clever humor with no character feeling like a pointless gimmick.

Mike: One of the funniest things to me was the random made up editor’s notes throughout the book.  “See Fantastic Two #1” and even ones for the future “See The Inconsolable Spider-Man #8 (2018).”  It was even funnier because some of them were actually real.  Yes, it is true that Reed Richards did once convince a bunch of Skrulls to live out their lives as cows.  And yes, it is also true that people would later eat the meat of these cows and get superpowers as the Skrulls Kill Krew.   And now we find out that there was ever a Skrull who got turned into a duck (Reed Richards is one weird dude)...which apparently gave Howard’s new friend Tara superpowers when she ate that duck.  

I also loved that this comic seemed to relentlessly mock Human Torch as a goofball and Spider-Man as a whiney bag of woe who needs to be saved by his good buddy Howard.  I definitely suspect that this comic had to have been written by Howard himself.  Chip Zdarsky is clearly a pseudonym.

Gina: I enjoyed the relentless mocking.  I will admit that not being an expert in Marvel’s history, it was difficult to parse through what was and was not “historically accurate,”  but at the end of the issue, I really didn’t care.

Mike: Yeah, this would probably upset some comic fans, but to me, it doesn’t matter.  The goal should be telling a good story, and that is exactly what happened here.    The Abundant Gauntlet was a great little plot device, setting up a reason for tons of guest stars and a chance for Howard to play the hero. They even managed to make Talos the non-shapeshifting Skrull into a mostly credible threat.   By the way, Talos was created by Peter David back during his Hulk run for those keeping score at home.

Next week, Howard is back...sort of.  As part of Secret Wars, Scottie Young and Jim Mahford are doing a series called Howard the Human.  Instead of a duck being dumped on a planet of humans, this is a story about a human dumped into a domain full of animals.

Gina:  Truth be told, the part of this book that made me the happiest was that it had nothing to do with Secret Wars.  I am getting a little tired of trying to figure out how all of these worlds work, and shifting gears with each title.  I think I enjoyed this book more because of its detachment from the current Marvel Universe.

Mike: Although Secret Wars is responsible for this book getting renumbered...after only 5 issues.  Same creative team, maybe Howard gets a new hat.  So silly.

Scores?

Gina: The writing was fantastic and the art was classic, I give it a 4.5 and a 4 respectively.

Mike: I like those scores.  I think I have to go a little higher on the art.  4.5’s across the board. Just for the random baby MODOK that appeared as part of the Abundant Gauntlet.  I just stared at that image for a while when I first saw it.  

Impulse #1

Written by: Mark Waid
Pencilled by: Humberto Ramos
Inked by: Wayne Faucher
Colored by: Tom McCraw
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos

Published by: DC
Cover Price: $0.99 on Comixology

Gina:  This book made me realize how much I miss Impulse.  Not the version of Bart Allen who became Kid Flash, but the hyperactive 4 year old who is trapped in the body of a 12 year old.  This issue gives Bart’s back story from his point of view, at least how he understands it. I am also a fan of Max Mercury, and while this does not hit his dry humor yet, it does establish the dynamic between Max and Bart.

Mike: It actually makes me feel bad to say this since I am such a huge fan...but Mark Waid may have created Impulse, but he was just not the right person to write him.  Todd Dezago and Peter David were the ones who really helped Bart Allen find his own voice.  I haven’t read the early issues of Impulse in a long time, but this just wasn’t quite the right feel for the character.  Bart almost feels like a slightly tragic character, which is kind of odd considering how much fun the character became later on.Even Max Mercury is so serious here.  Like you said, I miss his dry sense of humor we got later on.   Fun fact, Max Mercury in his original form was a character named Quicksilver from way back in National Comics #5 in 1940.  

Gina:  I agree that he seems like a tragic figure here, but like i said, it is from Bart’s POV which as we see later, changes faster than a NASCAR in a race. Truth be told, I think that underlying tragedy is part of the reason why Bart is the way he is, because he retains the information, like the events in the classroom, but can’t quite use the information to draw the right conclusions about it.

Mike: Not a bad theory.  It definitely sounds like something Waid would come up with.  I keep wanting to say that Waid didn’t feel comfortable writing a kid...but I don’t think that’s fair.  He seemed to have a real strong vision of who Bart was, and I am judging this issue more based on the version of Bart that appeared soon after this, who I am such a fan of.  That version of Bart is basically one of my all time favorite characters.

But this was still a very good first issue.  It established Impulse’s new status quo real well, living as a “normal” kid in suburbia with Max Mercury.  The story of Impulse stumbling into a terrorist plot makes perfect sense.  Impulse would often stumble into trouble and have to figure out how to get out of it.  

Gina: I love this book. Not as much as Young Justice, but then, there are few things I love as much as Young Justice.  I think Waid did a great job laying the groundwork for the character, and like everything else, Peter David perfected him.  

This book could not get much better.  It was a fantastic introduction to an awesome character.  The writing was phenomenal, and the art was great 5 and 4.5 respectively.

Mike: I actually HATE Humberto Ramos art.  He was decent on X-Nation 2099, but it just didn’t work for me on this at all.  I definitely can’t agree with you on that.  I will go 4 for the writing.  And a 2.5 for the art.   It’s just ugly.  I prefer the more cartoony Impulse we would get later on.  Give me Todd Nauck or Carlo Barberi any day.  

Gina: I thought he captured Impulse’s movement real well, which is real difficult to do with a speedster.

Mike: Fair enough.  Thanks for filling in again, wifey.   Next week, we are going to hit up some Peter David Supergirl. See you all then!

Final Scores