Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Date: November 1996
Cover Price: $3.95
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: Chris Marrinan
There’s trouble brewing in Chicago! Dr. Brainard is assembling his group of Anomalous-Americans – no doubt for some evil plot. Specimen Q is one of Brainard’s past experiments and he’s come to Chicago to find the person responsible for trapping him within a full-body suit of armor. However, a rampaging creature in armor doesn’t go unnoticed in a big city and he’s soon attacked by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and, later, by the Savage Dragon. Fortunately, the Savage Dragon is powerful enough to knock loose some of the armor revealing Specimen Q is … Destroyer Duck!
The Savage Dragon eventually learns that Destroyer Duck means the city no harm and he takes him along for a trade-off (an electronic sitar for the Ringmaster’s hypnotic disc) that’s going down in a shady warehouse. Once there, the duo gets embroiled in a mix-up with the Elf (from Gerber’s run on the Defenders), Spider-Man, some members of the Circus of Crime and Howard the Duck, himself (along with Beverly). In order to create confusion, the Elf summons thousands of ducks – utter chaos! However, the Dragon manages to make the trade and Destroyer Duck grabs Howard and Beverly – escaping the manic warehouse.
They discover that the electronic sitar is one of Brainard’s devices – instrumental in his bid for power, which is being challenged by the Vicious Circle (another group of super-villains). So, the Dragon and Destroyer Duck throw themselves in the middle of this battle between super-villain teams but no one is able to stop Brainard’s escape. After the turmoil, Dragon & DD enter Howard & Bev into the Witness Protection Program with their new looks and identities (Leonard & Rhonda Martini) and send them off to Buffalo, New York.
Story-wise, this team-up is lacking. There seems to be too much thrown in to it, making it a bit unfocused. Yeah – there are some super-teams battling … but the warehouse trade-off seems like a random event thrown into the plot. And, well, it kind of is. But, it’s really the most important part. Again, with Destroyer Duck books, it’s all about the story-behind-the-story. This warehouse scene interacts with Spider-Man Team-Up #5 (featuring Spidey & Howard the Duck), which shows the same scene from another angle. But, this “kidnapping” of Howard from the Marvel Universe was Gerber’s way of saying that he got Howard out of Marvel and left them with a soulless shell. His way of sticking it to the man, if you will. The backmatter of this book contains writings from Erik Larsen & Steve Gerber that explain this “unofficial crossover” and the motivations behind it much better than I ever could. But, I’d only recommend this to any fan of Gerber, Howard or creator’s rights.
On Ebay: Destroyer Duck | Steve Gerber | Savage Dragon