Sunday, August 03, 2014

The "Howard The Duck" End-of-Credit Scene in "Guardians..."

*******SPOILER ALERT**********

Don't read this if you do not want to know, or if you haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy.

Holy quack! I didn't know there was all these behind-the-scenes history behind the Howard the Duck! Business Insider touched upon the meaning of the end-of-credit scene in "Guardians of the Galaxy" which featured Howard the Duck.

The scene pans down over the wrecked ruins of The Collector's (Benicio del Toro) trophy room after it was destroyed earlier in the film. We see The Collector, a man who collects rare and exotic items across galaxies, beleaguered and injured while sipping a beverage out of a green cup. A dog dressed in an astronaut suit comes up to him and licks his face.

All of a sudden a voice off screen asks, "What do you let him lick you like that for?" The camera then cuts to none other than Howard the Duck, a sci-fi creature from Marvel, who says "Gross" before sipping from his own bright green cup.

That is all fine and dandy, but it appears that Howard The Duck has had a run in with Disney way back when.

Shortly after his creation in '73, Disney threatened Marvel with legal action claiming Howard the Duck's satirical design bore a striking resemblance to Donald Duck. 

According to an archived  Silver Bullet Comics interview — now known as Comics Bulletin —  with Howard the Duck co-creator Stever Gerber, Marvel came to a bizarre deal with Disney that virtually allowed the Mouse House to redesign the character.

"To avoid litigation, Marvel's old management signed an incredibly stupid agreement with Disney. Under its terms, all future appearances of Howard must conform to a set of designs that Disney provided for the character. You've seen this design. It's the one from the black-and-white HTD magazine, with the ghastly swollen beak, the beady eyes, and the baggy trousers that make the duck look like a derelict. What's absolutely astonishing, though, is that the Disney agreement is worded in such a way that Marvel isn't even permitted to create a new, alternative design for the character, even if that design bears no resemblance to Donald."

As the article stated, it is interesting that the Howard the Duck that appeared in the movie is a closer resemblance to the original drawing.

Hum... I still don't know what this all means! :)

Zz.

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