10. The Long, Sad Saga Of Steve Gerber And Howard The Duck
What it was: Steve Gerber is one of the most innovative, experimental and with it writer in Marvel Comics history. Not that you'd know it from the way the publisher treated him. Along with working on Omega The Unknown and Man-Thing, Gerber's most famous creation is Howard The Duck, who caused him no shortage of headaches. It was when Marvel licensed Howard to that ill-fated George Lucas movie that the writer kicked up a fuss about his rights to his creation, suing Marvel and funding his case through a comic called Destroyer Duck with contributions from Jack Kirby. In the end, Gerber was forced to admit the Duck was solely Marvel's intellectual property. What it changed: Gerber's employment and the general opinion of Marvel. He worked for DC and in animation in the aftermath of the Howard suit, returning to write a mature-readers miniseries starring the Duck in 2001. The writer died in 2008. Marvel have since launched a new Howard series following his post-credits cameo in the Guardians Of The Galaxy film.
Tom Baker
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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
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