Leaving the Nest
Howard was eventually dumped back on Earth-616, arriving in Cleveland, Ohio, and fighting the likes of Garko the Man-Frog and Bessie, the vampiric Hellcow. Homeless and penniless, Howard contemplated suicide by leaping from a tower, which turned out to be the base of the mad financial wizard Pro-Rata. Captured and forced to serve Pro-Rata alongside another prisoner, Beverly Switzler, Howard retrieved the Key to the Cosmic Calculator. However, with Spider-Man’s assistance, Howard thwarted Pro-Rata, befriended Beverly, and kept the Key. Living with Beverly, Howard’s adventures continued, as he saved Bev’s friend Arthur Winslow from a lifetime as the Turnip-Man, servant of Phelch, the ancient alien Space-Turnip; encountered the lunatic Kidney Lady, who sought to save everyone from a perceived conspiracy to destroy their kidneys; learned Quak Fu from the semi-mystic Master C’haaj to defeat the murderous Count Macho; helped another of Bev’s friends, Paul Same, overcome his dual existence as the somnambulant vigilante the Winky-Man; and defeated professional wrestler Emil “The Goat/Man-Mountain” Klout.
After an encounter with the Rev. Joon Moon Yuc and his Yucchies cult, Howard ate Patsy Dragonsworth’s monstrous Gingerbread Man into submission and then stumbled into becoming the All-Night Party’s candidate for President of the United States of America. Apparently unencumbered by citizenship (or any other) laws, Howard’s candor, honesty, motto of “Get Down, America”, and unconventional campaign run by Mad Genius Associates impressed the public, and he shot to the top of the polls. Surviving assassination attempts, including one by Dr. Angst’s Band of the Bland thwarted with the aid of the Defenders, Howard ultimately fell victim to doctored photographs and a smear campaign run by the duck-hating Bellhop, agent of Canadian super-patriot Pierre Dentifris. Though the election was lost, Howard pursued Dentifris only to flee upon finding him wearing a powerful exoskeleton as le Beaver. Dentifris fell to his death, but Howard was tormented by his own cowardice and had a nervous breakdown. Following another encounter with the Kidney Lady, Howard was sent to Sauerbraten County Mental Health Facility. There he met Winda Wester, who had both transdimensional powers and a lisp. Rev. Yuc convinced director Dr. Reich that Winda was possessed. Demonologist Daimon Hellstrom, AKA Hellstorm, attempted to disrupt Yuc’s exorcism ritual, resulting in Howard being possessed by Hellstorm’s Darksoul.
Cured and reunited with Bev and Paul, alongside Winda, Howard exposed an illegal toxic gas test of General D. Zastermarch, accompanied Steve Gerber on a cross-country trip, and did some advertising work. Upon his return, Howard took a magical journey to save Winda and Bev in the city of Bagmom, alerting the Caliph to his son’s foul plot in the process. During their return home aboard the SS Damned, Howard and Bev were abducted by the powerful Doctor Bong, who forced Bev to marry him to save Howard’s life, though he nonetheless transformed Howard into human form. Escaping back to the USA with the aid of Bong’s servant, the duckwoman Fifi, who seemingly sacrificed her life in the process, Howard arrived in Manhattan and soon reverted to duck form. Howard took a job with Beverly “Lee” Switzler, the uncle and namesake of Bev, overcoming Sudd, the Scrubbing Bubble that Walks like a Man, and the moral terrorists of Save Our Offspring From Indecency (S.O.O.F.I.). Howard was then drafted by Dakimh alongside his former allies against Thog to stop Bzzk’Joh and his Imperium Emporium from razing the universe and building a giant strip mall.
Howard was reunited with Paul and Winda, then forced into joining the Circus of Crime as their comedy act until he overpowered them with the aid of the eccentric heiress Iris Raritan. Doctor Bong returned soon after, and Lee led Howard to mad quasi-genius Howard Starkowski (a delusional veteran with shrapnel in his head who believed himself to be Tony Stark’s uncle and mentor) who designed “Iron Duck” armor that allowed Howard to face Bong until Bev arrived to save him. Cloning “quintuplets” from Bong’s fingernail clippings, Bev threatened to expose Bong as a negligent father unless he annulled their non-consummated marriage and released Howard.
The cosmic axis tipped again as Howard’s world changed markedly. He returned to Cleveland and had new adventures against the poultry tyrant Mr. Chicken; Jackpot, the One-Armed Bandit; a magically-powered Kidney Lady; and Pro-Rata. He partnered with Lee Switzler in “To Hack and Back Cab Company,” and he saved Santa Claus’ workshop from the nuclear threat of Greedy Killerwatt and the Pinball Lizard. Mystic detective/alien caterpillar Hemlock Shoals enlisted Howard to stop the Cockroach, a bug mutated by the Cosmic Key Howard had long-since pawned. After Winda’s powers helped destroy the mind-enslaving plot of Bozos Eagerly Serving Tyrants (BEST)—a union of Dr. Reich, revealed as (or at least believing himself to have been) Hitler’s dentist; Rev. Yuc; the leader of SOOFI; elitist Werner Blowhard; and the Mahagreasy Migraine Yogi, exploiter of Buddhists—Howard realized that Winda could send him home. Delaying this, Howard was bitten by Vlad Dracula, AKA Dracula, who had mistaken him for a costumed man. After suffering relatively harmless vampiric tendencies, Howard regained his mind and saved Bev from Dracula, staking him with a fencepost.
Howard and Bev then ran a short-lived burlesque show, which was transported by rejected try-out sorcerer Dr. Odd to an alien dimension, wherein they were assaulted by Tyler II, a vampire refrigerator and the Vacuum Pack. Returning to Earth, Howard narrowly survived the reactionary Captain Americana. When Bev agreed to accompany him, Howard had Winda send them to “Duckworld,” though it was not the world he remembered. Howard was now considered a messianic figure via the Witness to the Ascension Cult (WACkies) led by the corrupt Reverend Godfrey Gander and Scrounge MacDrake, who manipulate their immense following for political power. Exposing Gander as a fraud, Howard and Bev returned to Earth. Arriving again in the Citrusville swamps, Howard and Bev liberated Swamp City from Kong Lomerate’s monopoly; rescued the young slaves of senile delinquent the Grey Panther; played the television roles of Duck-Man and Duck Girl in a commercial for Spruce Payne and defeated Payne’s killers, the murderous (and bribarious) Maller and his agents; and defeated the Duck God-worshipping Thibodaux Boudreaux, AKA Black Talon, via voodoo training from Mammy Tuba. However, Howard’s self-absorption and lack of communication finally led Bev to leave Howard. Seeking distraction via a new locale in Chicago, Howard was mistaken for private investigator Dirk Byrd, completing Byrd’s last contract by exposing the murderous plot of conjoined twins Hinky and Dinky Blust.
Briefly returning to Cleveland as a cabbie, Howard helped Spider-Man defeat Status Quo and his anti-faddists. Howard continued to travel, and by Christmas he was contemplating suicide in San Francisco. Andy the Angel tried to cheer up Howard via glimpsing Earth-83234, in which Howard had never arrived. Though all of his friends were far better off, Howard was amused by Andy’s pathetic effort and bought the angel a beer. Howard eventually hitchhiked back to Cleveland with Ceci Ryder, en route defeating anti-environmentalist Morton Erg, AKA Gopher. Howard then won a ten million dollar sweepstakes, briefly leading a life of decadent luxury before squandering it all on Dr. Dwight Clive, who created Alexis the Duck as his mate. Unfortunately, Alexis was a money-hungry shrew, and Howard swiftly abandoned her.
Howard later joined with Dakimh, Korrek, Jennifer Kale, Man-Thing, and others to resolve damage caused by a reality warp initiated by Krylorian Techno-Artist Chireep. Retaking control of his life, Howard eventually made up with Bev, and they moved back in together in Cleveland with Howard working as a computer salesman. He was caught up in Dr. Angst’s “Cosmic Squish” plot, involving expanding compacted dimensions to crush all reality, leaving only a small realm Angst would rule. Alongside She-Hulk, her assistant Louise Mason, scientist Brent Wilcox and elderly vigilante the Terror, Howard defeated Angst’s Band of the Bland and foiled his plot. Howard suffered a succession of brief dimensional jarrings at the hands of the extradimensional Whoatcher (an owl-like version of the Watcher) and the Overlord of Dimension X, encountering Peter Porker, AKA Spider-Ham, of Earth-7311 in the former, and encountering only nausea in the latter.
Howard joined Spider-Man clone Ben Reilly, AKA Scarlet Spider, in another struggle against the Circus of Crime, who were then allied with the powerful Relf, the Elf with a Gun. In the course of the struggle, Relf summoned thousands of extradimensional duck beings, confusing everyone, but the Circus was ultimately defeated, and Relf fled. While working in a Cleveland video store, Howard encountered the vigilante Judge Elmer Dwedd, then served as a department store Santa, ultimately saving the real Santa Claus from a Hydra plot.
Taking to the road again (perhaps following another tiff with Bev), Howard picked up hitchhiking mutants Chamber and Skin, joined them in a bar fight to gain information on Skin’s old associate Tores, and soon took them up on an offer to visit the Massachusetts Academy. There he met young mutants Leech, Arthur Maddicks, AKA Artie Maddicks and Franklin Richards, as well as the alien Tana Nile. Unfortunately, Howard’s arrival coincided with an assault by Tom Cassidy, AKA Black Tom. Howard set Cassidy on fire with gasoline and his cigar, but Cassidy recovered and threatened to slay them all. Franklin’s powers unconsciously kicked in, summoning the Man-Thing and transporting them all extradimensionally. This group had a number of surreal adventures—including a seeming visit to Duckworld—while being pursued by the monstrous Dark Rider, but Howard realized the truth. Howard convinced the others to confront Franklin, forcing him to realize that he was creating their adventures so he would not have to accept his parents’ recent seeming death at the hands of Onslaught.
Howard sought out Jennifer Kale and coerced her into trying to send him home again, but her spell instead opened a portal to Dinosaur World (Earth-78411). Only with the help of Ghost Riders Johnny Blaze and Daniel Ketch was he saved from the frenzied Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy. Howard again returned to Cleveland as a cab driver, but then the Nexus of Realities shattered when the heroes who had disappeared in battle with Onslaught returned from the “Counter-Earth” world created by Franklin.
A fragment of the Nexus lodged within Howard due to his affinity for it, and he was abducted by the Cult of Entropy, who wished to destroy the fragment at the proper celestial alignment to hasten the universe’s decay. The Man-Thing absorbed the Nexus fragment from Howard and defeated the Entropists, allowing Howard to beat a hasty retreat. Howard and Bev then rented out a shack on H.L. Histy’s scrapyard while Howard worked as Histy’s security guard, taking in Parsival the pit bull and a nasty cat named Charlie. Bev got what seemed like a dream job from Globally Branded Content.com, but it turned out to be a revenge plot by Dr. Bong. Investigating, Howard was knocked into a genetic engineering vat, which exploded, leaving Howard a human-sized mouse. Initially turning into progressively stranger forms, Howard stabilized in mouse form, enabling him to escape when Bong tried to frame him as terrorist Osama el-Braka (as the soldiers were looking for a duck, not a mouse), though his shack was destroyed in the process. Bong joined with Dr. Kenneth Flogg against Howard, but Howard briefly gained the power endowed by the mystic Amulet of Pazuzu, slaying Flogg’s agent Ian Whippingham. Bev removed the Amulet from Howard, stopping him from slaying Bong, who then fled.
Howard and Bev briefly stayed at the Boarding House of Mystery, enjoying a night of wish fulfillment before joining tenant and investigator Splatter Gomorrah in exposing the talk show host Iprah as a marketing franchise. However, Iprah was then possessed by the demon-angel hybrid Deuteronomy. Howard used the magical cigar of the Saint of Therapists to slay Iprah and banish Deuteronomy from Earth, but he unwisely took a puff from the cigar and promptly disintegrated. Howard was sent to Hell, but was saved by God himself, who was grateful for Deuteronomy’s defeat and shared with Howard the meaning of life before returning him to Earth in his “normal” duck form. After She-Hulk convinced Howard to stop smoking, he employed Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway to sue a movie producer for failing to deliver a promised movie trilogy and prequel, and he also appeared at a time trial on She-Hulk’s behalf.
When Howard tried to register for the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA), he found he had been ruled non-existent. Howard was subsequently targeted by Bradley & Patton Barrel, fraternal twin Case University quantum physicists mocked for their poor hunting ability, and encountered Mental Organism Designed Only for Talking (M.O.D.O.T.), who sought power via control of the world’s radio and TV personalities. While foiling both plots, Howard was thrown into an animal pound, released after officially registering with the SHRA and promising to never use his “powers” in public. Howard was again arrested, however, after he yelled “duck,” and a group ducked to avoid a falling statue, which a judge ruled as use of a super-power; further, the judge ruled that Howard had no rights since he wasn’t a citizen and placed him in the Cleveland zoo. Bev helped free Howard, then convinced the U.S. president to make Howard a citizen and pardon him for any criminal activities. Freed, Howard slipped on some dog poop and possibly broke his scapula. With Bev at his side—for as long as she can stand it—Howard continues his quest for happiness and his next meal, forever trapped in a world he never made.
Howard joins the army against the Skrulls during their invasion, and later joined the Ohio Initiative, and became an agent of A.R.M.O.R. He was later hired by Morbius, the Living Vampire to track down zombies throughout the multiverse and collect samples to help cure the plague of the flesh-eaters. He worked with X-51, AKA Machine Man, Jackie Kane, AKA Swift Cloud, and together they successfully collected what they needed, while dodging many dangers.
Next, Howard started a new team, the Fearsome Four, with She-Hulk, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Nighthawk to quell the Man-Thing who was out of control, caused by the Hammers of the Serpent which were spread across Earth and caused chaos through fear. They went up against foes such as the Psycho-Man and other alternate universe heroes which were brought to Earth-616 through Man-Thing’s mystical connection to the Nexus of All Realities. The team helped Man-Thing return to normal and saved Earth by facing their fears, and then disbanded with their mission complete.
Howard and Bev then went up against S.O.O.F.I. again but this time they were brainwashed by the organization into thinking they were Cynical Duck and Swizzle. They attempted to indoctrinate people at the New York Public Library, but Spider-Man intervened. Bev and the other S.O.O.F.I.’s attacked him, seeing him as a demonic entity. Spider-Man escaped with Howard, and his brainwashing was broken when he realized Bev was in danger. They then tricked the S.O.O.F.I. so Howard could get close to Bev and remind her of their life. It worked, and working with Spider-Man they defeated the leader of the S.O.O.F.I.’s, the Supreme S.O.O.F.I.
His next assignment from A.R.M.O.R. was to lead a team to stop and fight Nazi zombies from Earth-12591 who wanted to spread their reign to other universes. He recruited Dum Dum Dugan and added him to his team dubbed the Ducky Dozen. The team included Battlestar, Red Raven, Blazing Skull, Dynaman, Eternal Brain, a lion-person named Gur, Dragoon, the robot Flexo, Breeze Barton, and a female Taxi Taylor. They traveled to Earth-12591 and fought hordes of zombies, but lost the majority of their members. The survivors included Howard, Battlestar, Dugan, and Taxi Taylor along with Earth-12591’s resistance team’s member Riveter. Howard later joined Doop in Dimension ZZZ to battle a horde of robo-barbarians.
When Uatu the Watcher perished, Howard learned secrets from his eye such as his potential to be Duckworld’s most intelligent being and used this new information to calculate his way to safety after being thrown from a vehicle.
Howard then returned to his work as a private investigator and he with Tara Tam attempted to help Jonathan Richards locate a stolen necklace. In the process, the Collector captured him, adding Howard to his Gallery of Rare Lifeforms. Fellow prisoner Rocket Raccoon teamed up with Howard and they broke out. Little did they know that their genetic samples were collected and cultivated into clones of themselves but female versions, Linda and Shocket, whom they would meet later. Once returned, Howard faced the Ringmaster who hypnotized others to steal for him and who possessed the stolen necklace which he recovered for Richards. Richards then revealed himself to be Talos the Untamed, a Skrull, who caused chaos all over the city. Howard reached out to ally Doctor Strange to learn more about the gems and the necklace, it turned out, was actually one of the Abundant Gems and they located the final piece of the Abundant Glove which could contain them all. Howard encouraged Tara to use her Skrull abilities to battle Talos which she did and while Talos was distracted by her shape-shifting powers, Howard usurped Talos’ glove and defeat him.
Wanting to return home to Duckworld, Howard and Tara traveled to Florida where the Nexus of All Realities was and using the glove with the Compassion Gem that it contained, plus advice from Doctor Strange to imagine his destination, he tried to go home. Though he didn’t go anywhere. Then the Wizard attacked him for destroying his portal, but Howard dodged the attack with his newfound teleportation abilities, and then suddenly the Wizard was shot in the chest by Linda and Shocket who had traveled through time seeking The Living Nexus, which is what Howard had become. Howard soon realized that after entering the Nexus portal, he inadvertently merged himself with the Nexus which thrust transdimensional teleportation, gateway, and universe creation abilities upon him. But these new abilities also attracted others like The Stranger, Scout, Galactus’ biggest fan (who ultimately gives up her pursuit), and the Collector who wanted him back in his collection. Tara, Linda and Shocket, and the Guardians of the Galaxy team up to save Howard and they succeed especially after Howard uses his abilities to send the Collector away. He then uses his abilities to send everyone back to their respective homes using the Nexus and then uses his bond with it to go back home, which turned out to be Bev’s new house. They reunited but Bev told him he was a drama magnet, proven correct when a Sentinel called the Iron Punisher attacked them. They were soon rescued by Scout who had seen he was in trouble through the Nexus, and Bev told him she wasn’t ready to jump back into danger and retreated home. Howard asked Scout for a ride to New York and just before he picked back up his life as a private eye, Scout gave him a bauble of her Power Cosmic to call her if he needed anything.
His next client was Lea Thompson which led Howard to discover that intergalactic television producer Mojo had been secretly filming Howard’s life as a reality TV show and broadcasting it across the galaxy. Mojo hired Chipp and Jho to ensure Howard’s life stayed interesting, and Chipp was taking it too far. He ended up stabbing Howard and taking the Power Cosmic off of him and using it, which gave him Scout powers. Meanwhile, Doctor Strange noticed Howard’s spirit float by in the Astral Plane and grabbed it before it exited their plane of reality. Howard returned to life and fought Chipp and Scout soon arrived having been called by the Power Cosmic she left Howard, and took away Chipp’s powers. Howard then knocked Chipp out and Chipp’s people, the Sparkitects, arrested him. The Sparitects offered Howard compensation for their unlawful damages to his life, and granted him one wish. Howard wished that Bev graduate from Veterinary school and be able to open up her own practice, and it was made so.
