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97-525: Milana Vayntrub was cast as a version of Squirrel Girl based on her The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl depiction in the live-action unaired Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) pilot New Warriors , before vocally reprising the role in the Marvel Rising media franchise (2018–2019). A podcast sequel to the comic book series, Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show , launched in April 2022. It

194-527: A mutant , she was later retconned to be "medically and legally distinct from being a mutant." She can also command an army of squirrels, which she typically uses to overwhelm her foes. As The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl begins, Squirrel Girl has left her home in the Avengers Mansion to major in computer science at Empire State University. While moving into her dormitory, she fights the villain Kraven

291-573: A private investigator on Earth. The creative team consisted of writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Joe Quinones. Howard the Duck (vol. 5) ran for 5 issues before Marvel relaunched many of their existing titles with the All-New, All-Different Marvel line of comics. This led to a reboot produced by the same creative team starting with Howard the Duck (vol. 6) #1 in November 2015. This series included

388-607: A "quietly bold move for Marvel", publishing "a female-centric comic that's intended to appeal equally to canon-heads and newcomers". Starting in May 2015, the Secret Wars crossover storyline affected a number of Marvel comics and characters. Marvel announced in June 2015 that, after Secret Wars was complete, they would reboot their entire line as part of an All-New, All-Different Marvel rebranding. Though The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

485-523: A Gun creates thousands of clones of Howard during a fierce battle. As Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck escape the warehouse, they reveal that they rescued the "real" Howard and Beverly, while Spider-Man left with one of the clones. Howard has his feathers dyed green, and is renamed "Leonard the Duck", and Beverly has her hair dyed black and is renamed "Rhonda Martini". Leonard later had a cameo appearance in Savage Dragon #41, and Leonard and Rhonda have

582-781: A character called the Critic, travels to a dimension known as the Baloneyverse and again battles a group called the Band of the Bland, whom he had previously battled with the Defenders. In an encounter with Peter Parker and Ben Reilly (the then-current Spider-Man), Howard gets a rematch with the Circus of Crime and the Circus is defeated. During the fight, Howard and Beverly get stuck in

679-453: A chemical facility of Doctor Bong's. Beverly is hired by Bong's Globally Branded Content Corporation, which manufactures boy bands from protein vats based on the sexual arousal of a focus group of gay men. Attempting to destroy an escapee whom Beverly has taken in, Bong inadvertently knocks Howard into a vat, which changes him, unstably, into a rat. When Howard later showers, he changes his form multiple times before again permanently returning to

776-423: A curve he teleported all the smarter students into the past. Nancy then adjusts the teleporter to go back randomly over the last several weeks and teleports Doreen multiple times, creating a Time Loop with dozens of Squirrel Girls, that all overwhelm Doctor Doom, not unlike his initial encounter Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special , but with dozens of Squirrel Girls instead of Squirrels. Doom surrenders and returns all

873-457: A degree of creative autonomy when he became the comic series' editor in addition to his usual writing duties. With issue #16, unable to meet the deadline for his regular script, Gerber substituted an entire issue of text pieces and illustrations satirizing his own difficulties as a writer. The Walt Disney Company contacted Marvel in 1977 over concerns that the visual design of Howard infringed on their trademark for Donald Duck . Marvel agreed to

970-455: A lawsuit against Marvel; these included Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby . The lawsuit was settled on September 24, 1982, with Gerber acknowledging that his work on the character was done as work-for-hire and that Marvel parent Cadence Industries owned "all right, title and interest" to Howard the Duck and the Howard material he had produced. On November 5, 1982, Judge David Kenyon approved

1067-558: A lunch with her mom, Brain Drain attacks them, but it turns out there was a malfunction that they were able to fix and make him kind. They then dress him in human clothes and enroll him in Computer Science classes to allow him to upgrade his old WWII tech. The next morning Doreen is teleported into the 1960s. Nobody remembers Doreen except for Nancy. She finds a secret message from the past, so Nancy begins exploring ways to go into

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1164-627: A mouse (as a parody of Mickey Mouse , in retaliation for the Disney-mandated redesign), and entering a chain of events parodying comics such as Witchblade , Preacher and several others, with Howard ultimately having a conversation with God in Hell. Howard had cameo appearances in She-Hulk (vol. 2) #9 in February 2005 and in She-Hulk vol. 3 #3/#100 in February 2006 (issue #3 was also

1261-569: A new digital sketch series called Making Fun With Akilah and Milana . She starred in the Quibi streaming television series Die Hart and in the short film The Shabbos Goy as Hannah, both released in July 2020. In 2022, she also played a leading role in Comedy Central 's television film Out of Office . In January 2016, after visiting Greece and meeting with refugee families fleeing

1358-534: A plot by Psycho-Man to use the Man-Thing's volatile empathy to create a weapon. Howard and Beverly are brainwashed and forced to work for Save Our Offspring From Indecency (S.O.O.F.I.) as Cynical Duck and Swizzle. They promote S.O.O.F.I. at a public speech held for them by J. Jonah Jameson. Spider-Man later interrupts a S.O.O.F.I. indoctrination at the New York Public Library, and Beverly and

1455-455: A redesign of the character by Disney artists. A key feature of the redesign was that the character would wear pants. In 1978, Gerber was removed from the newspaper strip and the comic-book series due to chronic problems with deadlines. His final issue of the comic-book series was #27 (September 1978). The series continued for four more issues with stories by Marv Wolfman , Mary Skrenes , Mark Evanier , and Bill Mantlo . The final episode of

1552-552: A saleswoman named Lily Adams in a series of TV commercials for AT&T . She returned to the role in 2020. She also portrayed Tina Shukshin as a series regular on the Yahoo! Screen series Other Space , created by Paul Feig , in 2015. The following year, she appeared in Feig's Ghostbusters reboot alongside Other Space cast members Neil Casey , Eugene Cordero , Bess Rous , and Karan Soni . Between 2016 and 2017, she appeared in

1649-565: A script for the issue, but withdrew it after it had been revised to conform to editorial guidelines. Issue #33 (October 1986), scripted by Christopher Stager, featured a parody of the film Bride of Frankenstein . Howard co-creator Val Mayerik co-plotted the story and provided the art. It was released alongside an adaptation of the Howard the Duck feature film, which was published in Marvel Super Special #41 (November 1986) and

1746-720: A single-panel cameo when they meet Gerber's Nevada in Vertigo Comics ' Winter's Edge #2. In 2001, when Marvel launched its MAX imprint of "mature readers" comics, Gerber returned to write a six-issue Howard the Duck miniseries illustrated by Phil Winslade and Glenn Fabry. Featuring several familiar Howard the Duck characters, the series, like the original one, parodied a wide range of other comics and pop culture figures, but with considerably stronger language and sexual content than what would have been allowable 25 years earlier. The series has Doctor Bong causing Howard to go through multiple changes of form, principally into

1843-577: A steamroller, the result is blood on asphalt." Gene Colan became the regular penciller with issue #4. Gerber later said to Colan: "There really was almost a telepathic connection there. I would see something in my mind, and that is what you would draw! I've never had that experience with another artist before or since." Sporting the slogan "Get Down, America!", the All-Night Party was a fictional political party that appeared in Gerber's Howard

1940-651: A three-issue comic-book series. Gerber returned to Howard in 1989 in The Sensational She-Hulk #14–17. The character was again living with Beverly Switzler, now working as a rent-a- ninja . How they got back together was never explained. Beverly was not involved in the story, in which She-Hulk takes Howard on a trip through several dimensions with a theoretical physicist from Empire State University. Gerber's next story featuring Howard appeared in Spider-Man Team-Up #5 (December 1996), around

2037-680: A two-part crossover with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl . The 11th and last issue was released in October 2016. Howard's first appearance in comics is when he is abruptly abducted from his home planet by an unseen force and randomly dropped into the Florida Everglades by the demon-lord Thog the Nether-Spawn . He meets the Man-Thing , who had been attacked by Korrek of Katharta, and the three of them are confronted by warriors of

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2134-490: A warehouse full of anthropomorphic ducks, briefly meeting the Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck . Parker and Reilly leave the warehouse believing that they have the correct versions of Howard and Beverly with them. However, in the Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck companion story that takes place simultaneously and that was written by Gerber, it is explained that the version of Howard and Beverly that left

2231-554: A way to land safely in a nearby dumpster. Howard returns to his business as a private eye, working in the same building as She-Hulk, in Brooklyn. One of his first new clients is Jonathan Richards, who hires Howard to retrieve a necklace stolen by the Black Cat. With the help of Tara Tam, his new friend and assistant, Howard manages to recover the necklace. However, on his way to give it back to Richards, he finds himself kidnapped by

2328-400: Is a creature half-id and half-superego, while Iprah is an all-ego promoter of self-indulgent pop psychology. Considering her dangerous, Gabriel sends the cherub Thrasher to resurrect Sigmund Freud, whose cigar blasts out half of Thrasher's brains (being immortal, this just makes him act drunk). Iprah destroys Freud, but Howard blasts her with the cigar, separating her from Deuteronomy. Puffing on

2425-579: Is an American actress, comedian, and activist. She began her career as a child actress and came to prominence for her appearances in AT&;T television commercials as saleswoman Lily Adams from 2013 to 2016 and since 2020. In addition to her commercial appearances, she was a series regular on the Yahoo! Screen science fiction comedy Other Space (2015) and had a recurring role on the NBC drama This Is Us (2016–2017). Vayntrub has also voiced Squirrel Girl in

2522-486: Is an actual variant or the real Howard the Duck posing as a variant in order to mooch off their food. Lady Araña throws Howard the Duck out of the building. After tossing his Spider-Man outfit into the garbage can, Howard the Duck leaves stating that it was worth the shot. Howard has no superhuman powers, but is skilled in the martial art known as Quak-Fu, enough to defeat, or at least to hold his own against, far larger opponents. He has shown some degree of mystic talent in

2619-598: Is approached by Richards in the middle of his fight against the Ringmaster and Richards reveals himself to be Talos the Untamed, who reveals that the necklace was part of a marginally powerful item known as the Abundant Glove. With help from Doctor Strange, Howard and Tara locate the final piece of the Abundant Glove, but are unable to put it back together when Talos grabs it and proceeds to use it to wreak havoc on

2716-598: Is hired as a dishwasher by Beverly's uncle, Lee Switzler. Howard is later reunited with Dakihm the Enchanter, the Man-Thing, Korrek and Jennifer Kale, and they all battle the demon Bzzk'Joh. Korrek pilots the ship the Epoch Weasel and drops Howard back off at Cleveland before he and their allies fly away. Howard finally meets up with the cruise ship that rescued Paul and Winda from Doctor Bong, and finds that Paul and Winda have befriended socialite Iris Raritan. Howard

2813-462: Is later kidnapped by the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime . Winda is abandoned by Paul and Iris and Paul is shot and left in a coma. After defeating the Circus of Crime, Howard is plagued by pessimistic dreams and goes his way alone, just as he had at the series' beginning. Writer Bill Mantlo, beginning with issue #30, returned the series to its former status quo, bringing Beverly back into

2910-528: Is left desiccated and practically dead. Howard then encounters Namor , who thought he had slain Man-Thing, but Howard explains that he would not be lugging his friend's body around if that were the case. Howard sets the Man-Thing down in the water, and he revives during Howard's conversation with Namor. Once he sees that the Man-Thing is alive and well, he bids Namor farewell and says that he is returning to Cleveland. Years later, back with Beverly, he undergoes further shapeshifting experiences after an accident at

3007-408: Is no joke: "... that life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view." Gloria Katz , producer of the notorious, ill-fated 1986 film adaptation of the comic, expressed a diametrically opposed opinion of the character, "It's a film about a duck from outer space ... It's not supposed to be an existential experience." Howard

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl - Misplaced Pages Continue

3104-433: Is written by North and stars Vayntrub. Marvel registered a trademark for Squirrel Girl in July 2014, leading to speculation that the character would appear in a future film or television series, such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Jessica Jones . In October, Entertainment Weekly revealed that Squirrel Girl would star in a solo series by writer Ryan North and artist Erica Henderson . Entertainment Weekly called it

3201-481: Is written by North, directed by Giovanna Sardelli and stars Milana Vayntrub as Squirrel Girl; the series is produced by Radio Point. Additionally, North "wrote an all-new 'Squirrel Girl' vertical comic tie-in" which debuted on Marvel Unlimited . Doreen Green, known as Squirrel Girl , is a human superhero with the proportional strength and speed of a squirrel, as well as the ability to speak with squirrels, like her sidekick , Tippy-Toe. While originally introduced as

3298-584: The Iprah show with the topic "Why Women Give It to Men Who Don't Get It", guest starring Dr. Phlip . Upon leaving the House of Mystery, Howard is once again transformed into an anthropomorphic mouse. It is revealed that Iprah has been merged with an experiment by the Angel Gabriel called Deuteronomy, intended to replace God, because God has been spending all his time in a bar in Hell since 1938. Deuteronomy

3395-729: The Marvel Rising franchise since 2018 after being cast as the character in the unaired television pilot for New Warriors . Milana Vayntrub was born on March 8, 1987, to a secular Ashkenazi Jewish family in Tashkent , Uzbekistan , then a Soviet republic . When she was two years old, she and her parents immigrated to the United States as refugees from antisemitism , settling in West Hollywood , California . She started acting in Mattel Barbie commercials at

3492-571: The Marvel Rising franchise. She reprised the role for a six-episode scripted podcast from Marvel and Sirius XM titled Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show . Also in 2017, Vayntrub starred in the Eko interactive streaming television series That Moment When as Jill. She starred in the film Mother's Little Helpers in 2019, which premiered at South by Southwest . In April 2020, Comedy Central 's YouTube channel released three sketches starring Vayntrub and Akilah Hughes as part of

3589-501: The Cult of Entropy , who wrap him in swaddling clothes. Although last seen in the swamp, Howard states that he was thrown into baggage and transported on a plane. The cult wants Howard because he has part of the Nexus of All Realities , which shattered during Heroes Reborn , inside of him. Man-Thing then enters Howard's mouth, and Howard vomits him back out with the fragment, but Man-Thing

3686-531: The Defenders . A doctored-photo scandal leads him to Canada where he defeats a supervillain, the Beaver, who caused the scandal. The Beaver falls to his death in a battle with Howard. Howard then suffers a nervous breakdown and flees Bev and their situation on a bus. Unfortunately, the bus' passengers are all believers in various weird cults, and try to interest Howard in them. His seatmates are Winda Wester and

3783-650: The Disney+ series What If...? (2021–present). Howard the Duck was created by writer Steve Gerber and penciler Val Mayerik in Adventure into Fear #19 (Dec. 1973) as a secondary character in that comic's " Man-Thing " feature. He graduated to his own backup feature in Giant-Size Man-Thing #4–5 (May and Aug. 1975), confronting such bizarre horror-parody characters as Garko the Man-Frog and Bessie

3880-457: The Endless , Spider Jerusalem , and Gerber's own Nevada (called Utah), all characters from DC Comics ' Vertigo imprint . The downside to the House is that everyone staying there gets their every wish; so Che Guevara can have his revolution, but someone else can easily slaughter him. One tenant, a writer named Mr. Gommorah (a parody of Spider Jerusalem), later takes Beverly and Howard to be on

3977-465: The S. S. Damned , a cruise ship returning from scenic Bagmom, Howard and Beverly are taken captive by Lester Verde. Verde had known Beverly in college and had a crush on her and had assumed the identity of the supervillain Doctor Bong , who illegally marries Beverly against her will and transforms Howard into a human. After escaping back to New York and being restored to his natural form, Howard

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl - Misplaced Pages Continue

4074-598: The Syrian Civil War , Vayntrub co-founded a website and social media movement called "Can't Do Nothing" to spotlight the European migrant crisis . Vayntrub is pro- abortion rights , and she has stated that she aborted a pregnancy as a college student due to financial concerns. In 2020, Vayntrub was subjected to a wave of online sexual harassment , some of it based on images of her that had been manipulated. The campaign began on an AT&T social media site, and

4171-467: The YouTube comedy channel Live Prude Girls where they produced a number of shorts. Live Prude Girls went on to be featured on NewMediaRockstars ' Top 100 Channels countdown, ranked at number 93. Vayntrub has had small roles in film and television, including Life Happens and Silicon Valley . She has also starred in several CollegeHumor videos. From 2013 to 2016, Vayntrub portrayed

4268-582: The Collector and allied with the Guardians of the Galaxy to escape the villain, who was attempting to add Howard to his collection of rare space objects and entities. Upon returning to Earth, Howard is robbed by May Parker , Spider-Man's aunt, and later re-encounters the Ringmaster, who is revealed to have brainwashed the elderly into committing robberies. After recovering the necklace for a third time, Howard

4365-554: The Congress of Realities. He then meets Dakimh the Enchanter and Dakimh banishes the warriors and transports Howard, Man-Thing, and Korrek to his castle, where they are joined by Jennifer Kale . They then travel to the realm of Therea and destroy Thog the Nether-Spawn. Howard then accidentally falls off the inter-dimensional stepping stones that the group were traveling on and materializes in Cleveland, Ohio, where he battles Garko

4462-529: The Duck Howard the Duck is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The character was created by writer Steve Gerber , based very loosely on his college friend Howard Tockman, and artist Val Mayerik . Howard the Duck first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 ( cover-dated Dec. 1973) and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of

4559-582: The Duck series during the U.S. Presidential campaign of 1976 , and led to Howard the Duck allegedly receiving thousands of write-in votes in the actual election. Gerber addressed questions about the campaign in the letters column of the comic book and, as Mad Genius Associates, sold merchandise publicizing the campaign. Marvel attempted a spin-off with a short-lived Howard the Duck newspaper comic strip from 1977 to 1978, at first written by Gerber and drawn by Colan and Mayerik, later written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Alan Kupperberg . Gerber gained

4656-405: The Duck is a three-foot-tall anthropomorphic duck . He generally wears a tie and shirt and is almost always found smoking a cigar . Originally, like many cartoon ducks, he wore no pants; Disney threatened legal action due to Howard's resemblance to Donald Duck , and Marvel redesigned that aspect of the character by writing into the script that Howard was the target of anti-nudity protests, and

4753-656: The Duck is among the building tenants that learn from Patsy Walker what happened to She-Hulk following the fight against Thanos . Howard's last name of Duckson is revealed in War of the Realms : War Scrolls #1. Howard the Duck later attempted to pose as a spider variant of himself called the Spectacular Spider-Duck in the building where the Great Web of Life of Destiny is only for Spider-Boy to ask if that

4850-407: The Duck is briefly seen as part of the superpowered army gathered to battle invading Skrull forces. He is seen armed with a pistol and wearing a Skrull's hand around his neck. He is later seen kicking a Skrull during interrogation after the invasion. Brian Michael Bendis has commented when asked of Howard: "That character has shown up in six issues I've done, and I've never typed the words Howard

4947-532: The Duck was portrayed by Ed Gale and voiced by Chip Zien in the critically and commercially unsuccessful 1986 self-titled film . Starting in 2014, the character , voiced by Seth Green , appeared in cameos in several Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, the Disney XD animated series Guardians of the Galaxy (2015–19) and Ultimate Spider-Man (2016; with Kevin Michael Richardson ), and

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5044-600: The Duck." In Marvel Zombies 5 , Howard the Duck of Earth-616 teams up with Machine Man to travel across the multiverse fighting zombies. During the Fear Itself storyline, Howard forms a team called the Fearsome Four with She-Hulk, Frankenstein's Monster and Nighthawk to stop the Man-Thing when he goes on a rampage in Manhattan, due to the fear and chaos he senses on the citizens. They later discover

5141-582: The Fantastic Four and everything returns to normal. Afterwards, with the help of new arrival Gwenpool , Howard prevented HYDRA from infecting the world with a deadly virus. He also has a crossover event with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl . Howard the Duck is shown to be living in the She-Hulk's apartment building when Patsy Walker moved out. During the Civil War II storyline, Howard

5238-555: The Hellcow , before acquiring his own comic book title with Howard the Duck #1 in 1976. Gerber wrote 27 issues of the series (for the most part ditching the horror parodies), illustrated by a variety of artists, beginning with Frank Brunner . For Gerber, Howard was a flesh-and-blood duck and explained that "If Wile E. Coyote gets run over by a steamroller, the result is a pancake-flat coyote who can be expected to snap back to three dimensions within moments; if Howard gets run over by

5335-589: The Hunter and convinces him to go after more dangerous prey. Later issues had Squirrel Girl facing Whiplash and Galactus . A romantic interest named Tomas is introduced, who later turns out to also be a hero named "Chipmunk Hunk" and also has animal-based powers. During a battle with Ratatoskr , Squirrel Girl teams up with Thor (Jane Foster) , Odinson and Loki to defeat the Asgardian demon. Doreen and her dorm-mate Nancy move off campus into an apartment. During

5432-481: The Kidney Lady, a woman who believes that the soul of a person lives in their kidneys and attempts to stop anything she sees as "anti-kidney health". After the bus crashes, Howard and Winda are sent to a mental institution. There he meets Daimon Hellstrom, and is briefly possessed by Hellstrom's demonic soul, becoming the new Son of Satan . Beverly and Paul manage to get them both back to Cleveland. Later, while on

5529-408: The Man-Frog. Howard is arrested at this time for disturbing the peace and is mistaken for a mutant during a strip search, but is released because the police fear he has mutant abilities. Howard also briefly encounters and kills a vampiric cow named Bessie the Hellcow . Howard makes friends with an artists' model named Beverly Switzler and a bizarre series of encounters follow. He battles Pro-Rata ,

5626-487: The Man-Thing. Because of his experience with zombie-infested worlds and his leadership of Machine Man, Howard is chosen as the leader of, as he dubs them, the Ducky Dozen. The team is composed of him, several Golden Age heroes, Dum-Dum Dugan , and Battlestar , who is also a veteran of a zombie incident. Upon entering Earth-12591, the Ducky Dozen fight hordes of zombie Nazis and Asgardians , but suffer grave losses as

5723-473: The S.O.O.F.I.s to throw the pair into the special Blanditron at Guantanamo Bay, but Beverly keeps them at bay with a whip. Spidey attacks the S.O.O.F.I.s and unmasks the Supreme S.O.O.F.I., while the others escape through their teleporter. Howard states that he believes S.O.O.F.I. will lay low for a while after such a defeat and he also hopes that the group's Florida Everglades base might lead them to meet up with

5820-470: The Squirrel Girls to the correct time lines, except for the elderly Squirrel Girl, who becomes Cody's crazy aunt. The next day Doreen notices somebody trying to catnap Nancy's cat, Mew. It was actually Howard the Duck investigating a missing cat case. Kraven then appears and abducts Howard. Doreen follows him to a billionaire madwoman named Shannon Sugarbaker, who is obsessed with cosplay . She has abducted human-like creatures, like Beast , Rocket Raccoon ,

5917-469: The age of five, in part to mitigate her family's financial problems. Vayntrub dropped out of Beverly Hills High School after her sophomore year, obtained a GED , and went on to earn a BA in Communication from University of California, San Diego . She studied improv comedy with the Upright Citizens Brigade . Vayntrub made her acting debut appearing in three episodes of the NBC television series ER in 1995. She and Stevie Nelson teamed up to start

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6014-521: The cartoon-like artwork by Erica Henderson as unique in Marvel's publications. IGN regarded the series as "one of the best new debuts of recent memory". Reviews of issue #2 were positive, with PopMatters calling it a "breath of fresh air: funny, charming, quirky, strong, brave, unbeatable". Comic Book Resources write that issue #1 of the reboot was "silly as ever" and "consistently fun". Entertainment Weekly has said that Squirrel Girl will soon be "defending Earth from threats most cosmic". The series

6111-440: The cigar, Howard disintegrates and arrives in Hell. He is eventually freed by Yah, a being who claims to be "God". Sometime later, Howard attempts to register under the Superhero Registration Act during the superhero Civil War , but learns his socially disrupted life has created so many bureaucratic headaches that the government's official policy is that Howard does not exist. This lack of government oversight delights him: "For

6208-433: The city before being subdued by Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch) . Howard says that he relates to the pair being trapped in a world they never made before wandering off. After a brief series of adventures with Generation X , Howard gets a job as a department store Santa Claus, which gets him dragged to the North Pole where the real Santa Claus has sold out to HYDRA . Howard goes through several dimensions, apparently through

6305-421: The city. Talos is confronted by numerous heroes while Howard and Tara take cover. Howard is able to point out that Tara, who is revealed to possess shapeshifting powers similar to that of a Skrull, could help him defeat Talos. Tara used her powers to impersonate Skrull Emperor Kl'rt (the Super-Skrull ), distracting Talos long enough for Howard to snatch the Abundant Glove from his hand. Talos is later apprehended by

6402-466: The company came to her defense, stating "We will not tolerate the inappropriate comments and harassment of Milana Vayntrub, the talented actor that portrays Lily in our ads," and shut down comments. Vayntrub asked for the harassment to stop in an Instagram live stream, saying, "I'm hurting and it's bringing up, like, a lot of feelings of sexual assault." Vayntrub is married and has a son, but has chosen to keep both of their names private. Howard

6499-407: The cosmic accountant, then meets Spider-Man at the end of the battle. He battles Turnip-Man and the Kidney Lady, who would become a semi-recurring character over the years, then learns the fictional martial art of "Quack-Fu". Howard then encounters the Winky Man, who is actually the sleepwalking alter-ego of Beverly's artist friend, Paul Same , who would become a series regular and later become

6596-403: The course of the adventure, Howard has a romance with Tana Nile, culminating in a kiss, after which he apologizes and tells her of his attachment to Beverly. When Franklin understands that he has shaped all of these worlds, the group finds themselves back in the Man-Thing's swamp. While Man-Thing becomes a self-appointed guardian to Franklin Richards, Howard goes off on his own and is captured by

6693-604: The doucheblade. The doucheblade causes its holder to grow enormous bare breasts and armor in a parody of Witchblade , and, possessed by this, Howard kills the male lover of a businessman who works with Verde as he and Verde break into Suzy's house. Arriving at the Boarding House of Mystery, Howard and Beverly encounter Cain and Abel , the latter with a rock stuck in his head that allows him only moments of lucidity. There, they are granted their every wish, including Howard's return to his true form, and Beverly never being poor again, and meet parodies of John Constantine , Wesley Dodds ,

6790-562: The final issue of the original 70s Howard the Duck series (issue #31). Howard later encounters Dracula and even once returns to Duckworld. At the end of the nine-issue magazine series, Howard leaves Beverly (at her request) and is later offered a genetically-constructed female duck mate, whom he does not take to. On a later occasion, She-Hulk accidentally pulls Howard though a cosmic wormhole along with theoretical physicist Brent Wilcox and they are able to prevent other universes from crowding out Earth-616 . During this time, Howard meets

6887-427: The form of the giant rat. Verde then goes to the press and claims that his building was attacked by Osama el-Barka ("Osama the Duck" in Arabic). Howard and Beverly are sent back on the road after the junkyard office where they are living is destroyed by a S.W.A.T. team. Denied admittance to every possible shelter due to lack of funds, the pair and their dog find a sign for the Boarding House of Mystery , but are taken to

6984-518: The horde back with nothing but a broken sword, a rubber chicken with nails in it and a gun that shoots bees. After the death of Uatu the Watcher and the activation of the secrets buried in his eye, Howard discovers that he has the potential to be the most intelligent being in Duckworld. After evading a squirrel while driving, he is thrown flying from his vehicle but uses his intellect to calculate

7081-413: The hospital. Beverly's uncle Lee brings everyone back to Cleveland and employs Howard as a cab driver, while Paul, back to being a somnambulist after his release from the hospital, becomes Winda's boyfriend. Howard dons a suit of "Iron Duck" armor made by Claude Starkowitz, a man who has delusions of being related to Tony Stark and dreams of being the personal armorer to Iron Man , and battles Doctor Bong in

7178-404: The ill-tempered anthropomorphic animal trapped on a human-dominated Earth. Echoing this, the most common tagline of his comics reads 'Trapped In a World He Never Made!'. Howard's adventures are generally social satires , while a few are parodies of genre fiction with a metafictional awareness of the medium. The book is existentialist , and its main joke, according to Gerber, is that there

7275-415: The missing cat built into a cyborg, and a Squirrel that was fused with Wolverine's DNA and adamantium claws and was going to release them in a high stakes hunt . Kraven and Doreen join them, but Sharon has a superpowered Cosplay outfit with Angel's wings, Iron Man's repulsors, Hulk fists, and Thor's hammer. Doreen and Howard sneak back into the mansion and Howard finds his own superpowered costume and rescues

7372-507: The motion and dismissed the case. The only new story featuring the character between 1981 and 1986 appeared in Bizarre Adventures #34 (1983) Scripted by Steven Grant , it featured a suicidal Howard being put through a parody of It's a Wonderful Life . The original comic book series reappeared with issue #32 (January 1986). It featured a story that had been written by Grant four years earlier. Steve Gerber had submitted

7469-399: The newspaper strip was published on October 29, 1978. Issue #31 (May 1979) of the comic-book series announced on its letters page that it would be the final issue of Howard the Duck as a color comic. Marvel then relaunched the series that year as a bimonthly black and white magazine, with scripts by Mantlo, art by Colan and Michael Golden and unrelated backup features by others. The magazine

7566-539: The numbered as the 100th total issue of all the various She-Hulk series). In 2007, he returned in Howard the Duck vol. 4 #1-4, a miniseries by writer Ty Templeton and artist Juan Bobillo . This series was rated for ages 9 and up, though one issue was published with a Marvel Zombies tie-in cover with a parental advisory claim. In November 2014, Marvel announced an ongoing series starting in March 2015 featuring Howard as

7663-466: The other S.O.O.F.I.s see Spidey as a semi-demonic figure and attack him. Spidey escapes with Howard and breaks his brainwashing when Beverly is threatened. Howard quickly explains S.O.O.F.I.'s goals to Spider-Man. As Spider-Man publicly announces his long-standing support for S.O.O.F.I., Howard confronts Bev as she stands beside the Supreme S.O.O.F.I. Howard is able to break through to Beverly, reminding her of their past together. The Supreme S.O.O.F.I. orders

7760-488: The other abductees. Howard is glad that he closed his case and Kraven learns humility after being hunted for the first time. He vows to only hunt hunters in the future. Issue #1 was published on January 7, 2015, to positive reviews. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl was praised for its comedy, and the character of Squirrel Girl was seen as empowering for being likable, smart, and having an average appearance unlike that of typical superheroes. The Guardian in particular applauded

7857-403: The other super heroes before they gain any of their powers. Nancy iPhone, which still shows the future, verifies on Misplaced Pages that Doom controls the future. The students track down Doom to Central Park and then teleports before them another student, Cory, and an elderly Doreen Green. It turns out Cory received a teleportation device from a crazy aunt, and since his Computer Science classes graded on

7954-516: The pair's roommate. Howard also briefly becomes a wrestler. Howard and Beverly hit the road, seeking shelter in a gothic mansion where they battle a girl named Patsy and her giant, animated-to-life gingerbread man. They eventually end up in New York City, where Howard is nominated for President of the United States by the All-Night Party and he later battles the Band of the Bland , alongside

8051-400: The past, to the point that Stephen Strange taught some spells to Howard and even offered to train him, but Howard declined. On one occasion, Howard used a suit of powered armor known as the "Iron Duck", designed by Claude Starkowitz. Besides its property as body armor, the suit was equipped with foot-mounted leaping coils, a chest-mounted searchlight, and arm-mounted flamethrowers. Howard

8148-495: The past. She then meets Doctor Doom (from 1991 who was just defeated by Squirrel Girl and Iron Man in Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special ). Nancy tricks Doom to travel into the past and rescue Squirrel Girl. In the past, Doreen found several other ECU students also stuck in the past and creates a support group. Doom and Nancy meet them, but then Doom reveals he plans on killing Squirrel Girl and all

8245-406: The picture and having her divorce Doctor Bong. Howard's creator Steve Gerber, who left the series after issue #27, originally intended for Beverly and Bong's marriage to be lasting and for Beverly to be written out of the series from that point on. Howard and Beverly's friend Paul, who had ended up in a coma after he had previously been shot by the Ringmaster, awakens from his coma and is released from

8342-410: The police station for questioning and strip searches by Suzy Pazuzu, with whom Beverly had attended high school. One of the officers on the case is the same beat cop who mistook Howard for a mutant many years before. Suzy is the inheritor of the doucheblade , which starts to take her over when she wears an enchanted bracelet. In a skirmish, the bracelet is caught by Howard causing him to be the wielder of

8439-445: The power of Man-Thing, who can now talk but does not understand this new, unknown ability, and lands on a version of Duckworld where his parents are essentially Ward and June Cleaver , he has a sister named Princess, and he is regarded as a hero because his activities on Earth-616 were recognized by Duckworld's version of Reed Richards . This origin traces the source of these dimensions to be projections from Franklin's mind. Throughout

8536-457: The rest of my life, no more parking tickets, or taxes, or jury duty. Heck, I couldn't even vote if I wanted to!" In this story, Howard says he was pressured to give up his cigars. After he defeats the supervillain M.O.D.O.T.'s ( M obile O rganism D esigned O nly for T alking) scheme to control the public through mass media, his attorney, Jennifer Walters , successfully restores his citizenship, including all relevant responsibilities. Howard

8633-512: The same time he was writing a " Savage Dragon /Destroyer Duck" crossover for Image. He had the idea to create an unofficial crossover between the two issues, where the characters would meet momentarily in the shadows, but which would not affect either story. Soon after, Gerber discovered that Howard was scheduled to appear in Ghost Rider vol. 3, #81 (Jan. 1997) alongside Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy , and issues of Generation X , as well as

8730-657: The team's members are either killed or zombified during the battle. After successfully accomplishing their mission, Howard, Dugan, Taxi Taylor and Battlestar are the only members to survive and return to Earth-616 along with the Riveter, the only survivor of Earth-12591's resistance team, the Suffragists. Howard later teams up with his friend Doop to battle the Robo-Barbarians in Dimension ZZZ. They beat

8827-491: The television series This Is Us , playing Sloane Sandburg. In July 2017, Vayntrub was cast in the lead role of Marvel Comics superheroine Squirrel Girl in the New Warriors television pilot for Freeform . Freeform ultimately passed on the series that November, and despite attempts to move the series to another network, it was ultimately cancelled. Despite the series' cancellation, Vayntrub voiced Squirrel Girl in

8924-589: The three issue Daydreamers miniseries by J.M. DeMatteis . Gerber was not pleased with this development, and changed the "unofficial crossover" somewhat. In Spider-Man Team-Up #5, Spider-Man , Beverly and Howard meet the Elf with a Gun and two shadowy figures (presumed to be Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck) in a darkened warehouse, grab a disc, then leave shortly afterwards. But in the Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck crossover comic, Elf with

9021-508: The warehouse with Parker and Reilly are simply clones taken by mistake and that the real Howard and Beverly actually left the scene with Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck. The sorceress Jennifer Kale , in a weekly attempt to return Howard to his home world, inadvertently teleports Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy into her New York apartment. The disoriented dinosaur attempts to eat Howard, but spits him out when shot with Johnny Blaze 's hellfire gun. Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy then rampage through

9118-582: Was canceled after nine issues. On August 29, 1980, after learning of Marvel's efforts to license Howard for use in film and broadcast media, Steve Gerber filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Marvel corporate parent Cadence Industries and other parties, alleging that he was the sole owner of the character. This was one of the first highly publicized creator's rights cases in American comics, and attracted support from major industry figures, some of whom created homage/parody stories with Gerber to fund

9215-462: Was forced to do business with "Wally Sidney", a failed cartoonist who made his fortune through a chain of conservative clothing retailers known as "Sidney World". Howard tries on various outfits, including ones akin to Donald Duck's sailor uniform and Uncle Scrooge 's coat and top hat , before settling on his new attire of a business suit complete with trousers. Although Howard sulks that he has lost, Beverly reassures him that she does not want him to be

9312-693: Was nominated for an Eisner Award in both 2016 and 2017, winning in 2017 as the " Best Publication for Teens ". The series has been collected into trade paperbacks : The series has been collected into three mid-size graphic novels: The series has been collected into Hardcover: Squirrel Girl has also been featured in a graphic novel written by The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl' s creative team released as an independent story. Squirrel Girl has also been featured in two middle grade novels . Milana Vayntrub Milana Aleksandrovna Vayntrub ( / ˈ v aɪ n t r uː b / VYNE -troob , Russian : Милана Александровна Вайнтруб ; born March 8, 1987)

9409-533: Was not part of the Secret Wars storyline, the series was set to be rebooted with Squirrel Girl joining an Avengers team. Marvel later named this team the Avengers Idea Mechanics . In April 2022, Marvel Entertainment and Sirius XM launched Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show which is a six-episode podcast series that acts as a direct continuation of the comic series. It

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