3 out of 5

Wow, what a smash-and-grab book.  When Steve was fightin’ the good fight against Marvel to get rights to his creation Howard the Duck, Eclipse comics put him up with Destroyer Duck, Gerber plotting and Jack Kirby (???) drawing a non-too-veiled stab at corporations and his HTD ordeal.  Anger fueled a first issue, which took a dip, production wise, onto normal paper stock (as opposed to Eclipse’s thicker Baxter paper for their brighter and at-the-time expansive colors) so that the book could be published entirely for Steve’s legal profits, the cover bearing a “Lawsuit Benefit Edition” moniker.  “The Little Guy,” a workin’ duck, is somehow zapped from an anthropomorphic animal planet to a human planet, where he is promised the moon and stars when signing a contract with “Godcorp” but is soon being pimped around for entertainment via carnival acts, then sex acts, and then, when that is exhausted, operated upon.  Years later, he returns to his planet, dying on the doorstep of his friend Duke “Destroyer” Duck, who vows to avenge TLG.

Cue Duke crossing worlds (via some VERY Kirby spaceship designs) and taking on the oddities of Godcorp – CEO Ned Packer, with his belief that corporate managers are the highest lifeforms – and Wobblina Strangelegs, a “universally jointed” underling at the corporation.  Duke’s actions help to expose some of the companies nefarious activities, displayed to the public by The Little Guy’s “Hero” lawyer, who wears a cape and has big pecs.  Now I can’t really say who the lawyer represents (I’m sure it’s obvious, but, uh… maybe it was also just a funny gag..?), but that detail aside… non too subtle, yes?  And no punches are pulled – Duke takes a violent, straight-forward revenge.  Kirby’s pencils don’t quite match up to how wacky Steve’s brain functions sometimes, but he gets the swooping action across in his usual pointed style, and so the whole first issue has this really great rush going for it.  It also feels packed – you get this full story with these random characters and gags, and then there are a couple “real life comic story” back-ups that are amusing, and then.. hey, lookit that, the first appearance of Groo the Wanderer in a back-up as well.  Finally a letter from Gerber saying “thanks for helping me to tell people to fuck off.”

Issue 2 is where things get bumpy.  The first issue was driven by purpose.  The second…?  And that’s what Steve seemed to struggle with.  He’s got enough leftover pieces from the story to fuel his fire in some further funny and cutely critical-of-the-industry directions – taking down some remaining pieces of Godcorp, he runs into hitman Uranus P. Chicago, who is obsessed with Muriel Hemingway, and we’re introduced to a Godcorp grunt named Cogburn who has, essentially a detachable spine and looks like John Byrne.  We’re on Eclipse’s regular paper stock again, so it looks pretty awesome, and though Kirby still has trouble with some of Steve’s zanier set pieces, he seems enthused by the task, and the character designs are bright and steadfast, though the inks don’t feel as confident as the pencils so the look gets a little mashy.

Now let’s jump to the end of this story – issue 4 Steve is editing the book and talking in the letter pages about Duke’s bright future…!  …And in issue 5 he announces that it seems best if he and Jack leave the book in other hands.  Duke had a few more post-Gerber issues sporadically published thereafter.  I admittedly haven’t read these.  So while I believe in the intentions of committing themselves to a series, DD starts to flounder about for some forced feeling weirdness.  It has clever concepts and characters and jokes, but they just feel a little off in the execution, and that indirectness of plot doesn’t help Jack to get a better grasp on how to panel these things, so the look starts to lose momentum as well.  I credit the crew for understanding that, without the original spirit of issue 1, despite knowing that good ideas were out there for Duke, that perhaps they just didn’t have the right mindset for making it happen.

Issues 2 through 5 also have a backup by Jerry Siegel (!  – I know, Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, like wtf already) called Starling which doesn’t really help the overall appeal of those Destroyer Duck issues – the back-up takes up more and more space (whether there wasn’t enough Duck material or this was purposeful, who knows), and it’s pretty embarrassing stuff to my readin’ eyes, springboarding from a Superman concept into a “but what if the alien was evil and there was a lot of sex” soap-opera mess, with loosey goosey and yet stiff pencils by Val Mayerik (which is Val’s style).  Sure, we’re rating Destroyer Duck separate from its back-up stories, but just comparing the rush of that #1 issue with its jam-packed with ideas feeling to the plodding, silly “Starling…”

Anyhow.  If you find issue #1 – get it.  For sure.  You’ll probably want more of DD – that’s why more issues were made – and there are some totally Gerber concepts buzzing about the remaining storyline, but it’s very hit or miss after that debut issue.