Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Jim Mahfood
Overview:
Howard, a private investigator, is the only human being in
New Quack City. The city is full of random species such as cows, cats, dogs,
and even lizards. Howard takes a special case that might be too much for him to
handle. How will things fair for him as a human? Writer, Skottie Young, and
artists, Jim Mahfood, gives readers their spin on Howard in this Secret Wars
tie-in.
Synopsis:
The story starts off in New Quack City. Howard is at Curt
Connor's pub and is having a few drinks. Suddenly, he is confronted by the
Vulture and his gang. Vulture demands Howard the money that he owes him as he
gets ready to shoot Howard.
The story switches to a flash back earlier that day. Howard
is investigating a crime scene down an alleyway where he finds a dead possum.
Then the Vulture cuts Howard off from his flash back, so Howard fast forwards
his story where it gets more interesting.
The story switches to Howard meeting up with the Black Cat
(literally) at her penthouse. She asks Howard if he has located the informant
that has been spying on her. Howard breaks the news to her that the informant
is dead, which displeases her. As her henchman is about to drop Howard from the
balcony, Black Cat assigns Howard to find out who murdered the informant before
she gets the blame for it.
Later that day, Howard heads to Hen's Kitchen to meet up
with Mouse Murdock at his office. They stroll down the streets and discuss
about the mystery of the dead possum. As they figured out who put the hit on the
possum, Wilson Fisk (who's a giant ape) bumps into them and unleashes the Hand
(ninja monkeys) onto them. Howard gets knocked out, but Murdock manages to take
out most of the Hand. Murdock gives Howard a note; then, Howard makes his way
to Connor's pub where the story started.
The Vulture and his gang are in the state of confusion and
tries to figure out the point to Howard’s story. Black Cat and her henchmen
enter the bar and seeks to capture Howard. This leads to a confrontation
between Vulture's and Black Cat's gang. The cops also get into the mix as they
enter the bar. As Howard realizes things are about to escalate, he calls out
his buddy in the bathroom if he's done.
PLOT TWIST: Howard's buddy turns out to be the dead
possum/informant who was playing....possum all along.
Howard got the gang all together in order to have them all
arrested with the help of his informant, Pete.
Review:
While Secret Wars has been dragging on, it does produce
some solid stories such as this one. It's nice to see and read a story that
puts a twist to the Howard the Duck character by making him human along with
Connor's lizard, Hardy's Black Cat, and Toome's Vulture. It would have been
nice and more intriguing to see Howard in an all duck world instead, and how he
has to deal with it. The dialogue and character interactions was not that quip
nor humorous, but the artwork and the story in general made this book a little
interesting. I enjoyed Mahfood design on Howard by making him look like he was
from the 70's with the hair and mustache. The art design throughout this book
had an edgy and graffiti style. However, there were parts in this book that
looked weird and out of place. I understand the vision and goal was to make the
book look cartoony, but the art could have a bit cleaner and smoother,
especially the characters.
Overall, the book was a good, fun read. If you don't mind
the weird, edgy artwork and would like to read a fun Secret Wars tie-in,
especially a one-shot story, I would recommend picking up this book.
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