Man-Thing, Peanut Butter and Howard the Duck

Fear #19
“The Enchanter's Apprentice”
Writer: Steve Gerber
Penciler: Val Mayerik
Inker: Sal Trapani
Letterer: Art Simek
Colorist: Stan Goldberg
Editor: Roy Thomas
Publisher: Marvel
Released: Sept. 11, 1973

Fifty years ago today, the world was introduced to perhaps pop culture's most important waterfowl whose name doesn't start with D.

Tell me you didn't think Howard the Duck debuted on the big screen in 1986.

No disrespect intended to anyone involved with the movie,* but 13 years prior Howard emerged as not even the most absurd part of a pretty absurd issue of an anthology series called either “Fear” or “Adventure into Fear,” depending on which website you're checking. The cover seems to go with “Adventure into Fear,” although those letters are much smaller than the billing for the star: Man-Thing.

At least, he gets top billing. The story's really more about Jennifer Kale, a sentient leaf cabbage brought to life when magical lightning struck a garden one night.

No, wait, she's a human, the granddaughter of Joshua Kale, whose inner monologue tells us he knows a lot about the occult and who an asterisked footnote tells us has appeared in previous issues of Fear.** We first meet her in a strange landscape where military soldiers of differing eras battle barbarians and mystical warriors. Taking in the whole scene is the aforementioned Man-Thing.

Clad in a cape, boots and silver bikini, Jennifer descends from a castle in the sky to pull the muck monster out of the fray. But a sword-wielding fellow by the name of Korrek leads his associates after them, only to see his compatriots fall to their deaths as Jennifer's light bridge dissipates. Initially focused on Man-Thing, Korrek instead decides to exact vengeance on Jennifer. But just before the killing blow is struck... she wakes up in her bed at her grandfather's house.

After Grandpa Josh calms her down, he meets up with her brother Andy in the kitchen. Andy grumbles about being awakened and heads back to bed with the lid off his peanut butter, which you really shouldn't do, because this can happen:

I'm supposed to be surprised by a talking duck after that?

The peanut butter figure turns into Korrek, who continues his efforts to kill Jennifer. But when her grandfather and brother hear the commotion, Korrek flees, because killing Sabrina the Teenage Witch is one thing, but if Archie and Mr. Weatherbee show up, well, that's just too much danger for a manly swordsman to face alone, I guess?

Just then, Dakhim the Enchanter, who a helpful note from Thomas tells us has also appeared in this series before, shows up to explain what's going on. See, there are multiple planes of existence, and usually they're separated, but when something happens like, say, folks building an airport in a swamp that just happens to be the Nexus of All Realities, well, sometimes these planes can collide, and isn't that pretty much the basis of the Cosmic Squish Principle, the four-part She-Hulk storyline that marked Gerber's return to Howard? Judge for yourself by checking out my posts on it here.

Anyhoo, Dakhim tells Jennifer she has great mystical potential and offers her a gig as his apprentice. Meanwhile, Korrek goes moping in a swamp, where Man-Thing lumbers up to him. Although the swamp monster is not a sleeping teenage girl, Korrek attacks, but his sword has no discernible effect on the vegetation and muck that constitutes his would-be foe's body. So Korrek gives up and waits for Man-Thing to finish him. Instead, he meets this guy:

Finally! The color scheme's a little off from what it would be but the grumbling is immediately recognizable as Howard, apparently stranded due to all the problems with the colliding planes of existence. Before we can get more of the mallard who brought us here, the story jumps back to Jennifer and Dakhim, who is quick to disappear when the combined forces of modern military and not-so-modern barbarians burst into his stronghold. They take Jennifer to be executed before the Congress of Realities, which would probably get better ratings on C-SPAN than the U.S. Congress.

Back on Earth, Howard and Korrek go looking for a way out of the swamp and back to their respective worlds, and Man-Thing is lumbering along behind them because that's what Man-Thing does. They come upon a host of demonic creatures attacking the workers for the contractor on the airport job, F.A. Schist Construction, which is a Gerber name if ever there was one. But they're really there to kill Man-Thing, who is the Nexus' guardian.

The next-issue blurb promises “a sanity rending conclusion featuring almost everything in the universe.” But tapping the next issue in Marvel Unlimited brings us to Fear #20 featuring... Morbius the Living Vampire?

Yep, Man-Thing got his own title where this story wraps up. I do want to read it, although this issue also makes me curious about Jennifer's story and renews my interest in reading about Man-Thing. He's a visually striking character, and easy to joke about, but I've read few, if any, solo tales with him, outside of the R.L. Stine limited series, which was a whole 'nother level of weird. Man-Thing's always been one of those characters, like the Punisher or Dr. Strange, that I've found more interesting when played off of other characters than on their own. But I really don't know what a Man-Thing solo story would look like. This issue gives me a clue though: other people doing stuff while Man-Thing lumbers around, and, I presume, occasionally setting creatures that know fear on fire.

It would be two years before Howard got his own ongoing title, which is available on Unlimited and has been collected a few times. I mistakenly thought I'd read this issue in Essential Howard the Duck but that starts with Giant-Size Man-Thing #4.*** Reading that collection transformed Howard from odd curiosity to one of my favorite characters. Here we have a duck that looks so much like Donald that Disney threatened to sue Marvel and part of the settlement involved requiring him to wear pants.**** And Gerber transformed him into an everyman who keeps getting caught up in weird adventures and just wants people to use common sense and leave him alone.

Howard's anniversary snuck up on me, which is why I'm writing about this issue instead of doing a deeper dive. You can check out the Howard/She-Hulk storyline on this site or read my exploration of the life and times of the Dr. Doom to Howard's Mr. Fantastic – Dr. Bong – here.

This issue brought back the feeling I had as a kid of picking up a random comic and being thrust into the middle of the storyline. Gerber's writing about the nature of reality and whatnot wasn't as sardonic as I'm used to with Howard, but it was still very much him. He wrote a ton of straight superhero/fantasy stuff before and after his heyday with Howard, and one reason I don't fret too much about the cost and quality of comics being published today is knowing there's a wealth of Gerber material out there I have yet to read.

For now, a happy birthday to Howard, and if you only know him from the movie, track down some comics, especially the ones penned by Gerber, ASAP!

*- ESPECIALLY not Lea Thompson.

** - Just Fear there.

*** - Yes, they really called it that.

**** - And he's kept them on thus far, even after Disney bought Marvel.