Few MCU Fans Can Identify the 1st Marvel Movie Ever — a 1986 Box Office Bomb That’s Gained a Cult Following
Over the last 15 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the most successful film and TV franchise ever. But back in the ’80s, superhero films weren’t so big.
Some fans may remember that the first Marvel feature film, Howard the Duck, bombed at the box office in 1986. And while it received plenty of negative reviews at the time, the wacky superhero movie has since earned a cult following.
Who is Howard the Duck in Marvel comics?
Howard the Duck is a character created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik for Marvel Comics. He first appeared as a supporting hero in 1973’s Man-Thing before getting his own series in 1976.
In the comics, Howard the Duck is mysteriously abducted from his home planet and transported to Earth. He goes on to fight several different villains, including Doctor Bong, Band of the Bland, and Pro-Rata. And he teams up with heroes like the Defenders, Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, and Jennifer Walters’ She-Hulk.
According to Gerber, he came up with the idea for Howard the Duck while writing Adventure Into Fear #19 for Man-Thing in his Brooklyn home. “I had to have a visual that topped a barbarian jumping out of a jar of peanut butter,” the late writer said in a 1997 interview with B-independent. “Someone in the neighborhood had apparently just gotten a new stereo and — kept playing the same song over and over again.”
“I think I went into a kind of trance to block out the noise,” Gerber recalled. “And the next thing I knew, I was typing something about a three-dimensional cartoon duck waddling out of the brush in Man-Thing’s swamp. I’m not joking or exaggerating. That’s literally how it happened.”
‘Star Wars’ creator George Lucas co-produced the ‘Howard the Duck’ movie
The Howard the Duck comic series was one of Marvel’s best sellers in the ’80s. And Star Wars creator George Lucas was among its many fans. When the filmmaker concluded production on 1973’s American Graffiti with his former film school friends William Hyuck and Gloria Katz, he pitched them the idea of Howard the Duck.
Hyuck and Katz went on to write the screenplay for Howard the Duck. The film — which starred Tim Robbins, Lea Thompson, and Ed Gale — was produced by Lucasfilm with Lucas serving as an executive producer.
However, despite coming from the studio that created blockbusters like Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and having such a massive comic book following, Howard the Duck flopped at the box office. With a budget of almost $37 million, the movie only grossed $38 million worldwide.
The film earned a reputation as one of the worst of all time. Critics blasted the special effects, hokey jokes, and boring storyline. And many comic book fans were disappointed with how the movie removed the source material’s satirical tone and surrealism and made Howard nicer.
Will fans see Howard the Duck in the MCU?
In the years following its 1986 release, Howard the Duck gained a cult following. And while it didn’t get a sequel, the character did inch its way into the MCU. Voiced by Seth Green, Howard made a cameo in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Howard has since appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Endgame, and What If…?. An animated series was planned for Hulu. But Disney scrapped the plan when it dissolved Marvel TV in 2019.
Fans have been hoping to see Howard the Duck return to the MCU in some capacity. But unfortunately, Marvel hasn’t announced any movie or series plans as of yet.
