Marvel Celebrates Howard the Duck's 50th Anniversary With New Variant Covers

Nearly five decades ago, one Marvel character became trapped in a world he's grown accustomed to — and it looks like the publisher is about to celebrate that in spades. Marvel has unveiled plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Howard the Duck, which will begin in February of 2023. This initiative will include a number of variant covers pairing Howard with other Marvel characters, even the Planet of the Apes. Initially, there will be four Howard-themed variant covers, for books published in February, March, and April of 2023. Additionally, Marvel will be publishing two Marvel Masterworks volumes of Howard the Duck reprints, which will encompass Steve Gerber's original work on the character with art from Val Mayerik, Frank Brunner, and Gene Colan.

February 15th will see the launch of two variant covers — an Avengers Forever #14 Planet of the Apes variant cover by David Talaski, and a Mary Jane & Black Cat #3 variant cover by Carlos Gomez. These will be followed by a Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 by Cory Smith on March 1st, and a Warlock: Rebirth #1 by Ron Lim on April 19th.

Will Marvel reboot Howard the Duck?

Howard the Duck has had a unique tenure in Marvel Comics and beyond, which included a 1986 live-action movie that has become infamous in the decades since. While Howard has appeared sporadically in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as voiced by Seth Green, there has yet to be a full-fledged reboot — but Lea Thompson, who starred in the original film, wants to change that.

"I worked on the pitch for a really long time and I had the help of Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones and they had done a run of Howard the Duck, the last run of Howard the Duck, and they put me in it, Lea Thompson," Thompson explained back in 2018. "And it was really great, so I asked them for help and Joe drew some drawings and Chip and I worked on the pitch and we did it in Marvel and they really liked it. They loved it, actually. But they were like, 'We have no plans for these things, and we're doing the streaming thing, and we'll call you back.' So tweet away, guys!"

What do you think of these Howard the Duck-themed variant covers? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!