Marvel Just Dropped A Horrifying Twist On The Most Notorious Scene In The History Of Superhero Movies

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Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for What If...? season 3For all the success of the MCU era, there have been some dark days in Marvel"s comic book movie past, and one of them just took an even darker turn thanks to the last major superhero release of 2024. Prior to the MCU, there were several attempts to adapt Marvel Comics, from the early age of serials, with 1940s adaptations for both Captain Marvel and Captain America through to the weirdness of the late 1970s Spider-Man and Captain America movies.
But it wasn"t until the 1980s that studios started throwing real money behind Marvel rights, well before Sam Raimi"s Spider-Man and the original X-Men movies changed everything. It"s something of a forgotten period for Marvel, but in 1986, George Lucas threatened to ruin the good name of Marvel with a movie so terrible that it belongs in a museum. I never thought I"d be writing this, but the modern Marvel timeline has just made Howard The Duck more relevant than ever.
Almost 40 Years Ago, George Lucas Made One Of The Worst Marvel Movies Ever Why Would Anyone Throw More Than $30m At A Wise-Cracking Duck?!

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Howard the Duck PG Howard the Duck, directed by Willard Huyck, tells the story of an anthropomorphic duck named Howard, who is unexpectedly transported from his home planet to Earth. Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, and Tim Robbins star in this science fiction comedy as they assist Howard in his quest to return home while confronting a dark entity that threatens Earth. The film is based on the Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck.
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*Availability in US Release Date August 1, 1986 Runtime 110 minutes Cast Lea Thompson , Jeffrey Jones , Tim Robbins , Ed Gale , Chip Zien , Tim Rose Director Willard Huyck In 1977, on the back of the success of the first Star Wars movie, George Lucas did the unthinkable: he stopped directing. His hiatus lasted until the 1990s, with Lucas stepping into a producer and writer role for multiple projects that spawned successes like Labyrinth and Willow, as well as a series of duds. None will be remembered quite as well as the one he made in 1986 with director Willard Huyck: Howard the Duck.
The first big-screen Marvel adaptation since 1944, and still one of the most bizarre, it was destined to became a notorious flop, costing a staggering $37 million to make - for reference, the highest-grossing film of 1986, Top Gun, cost just $15m - it barely managed to scrape $16 million at the domestic box office. Accounts differ on how instrumental Lucas was in the film"s genesis, but he was apparently fascinated by the comic"s funny/noirish tone, and spearheaded its production, opting for the live-action adaptation that spiraled its cost over the initial plan to make an animated version.
Critics basically mauled Howard the Duck upon release, with Gene Siskel memorably calling it a “stupid film”. Today, the film holds an impressively terrible 13% on Rotten Tomatoes - 2% lower than the Morbius event horizon. Despite its failure, Howard the Duck has become something of a cult fascination, if not quite a classic, and is one of the most surreal things you’ll ever watch as a Marvel fan. If you can bring yourself to do so.
Howard The Duck's Love Scene Is The Lowest Point In Marvel Movie History As One Of The Characters Puts It "This Relationship Defies All Laws Of Nature" It’s fair to say that Howard the Duck has an adult tone, and pushed its edgy agenda to the limit for 1986 sensibilities. That’s another way of saying that at one point, the film includes a love scene between Howard and Lea Thompson’s very human Beverly Switzler. Moodily shot, and prefaced by some skin-crawling flirty foreplay, the scene pushes the boundaries of common decency, and while there is clearly a playful spirit, it is genuinely discomforting. A lot is left to the imagination, because the pair are ultimately interrupted, but the film wants you to fill in the gaps.
Worse, the film was preposterously marketed as a family-friendly comedy, but is punctuated by odd adult moments, raunchy humor, and an extended scene in a duck-themed brothel. Oh, and a topless duck with decidedly human anatomy. At one point, Howard pauses his existential crisis to "appreciate" Beverly"s figure, as the script hauntingly captures:

“I’ve given up trying to assimilate. I’ve got to get back to my own kind! [notices Beverly’s behind as he watches her crawl across the top of her bed in her underwear] Although, I have developed a greater appreciation for the female version of the human anatomy. Arooooo!”

Naturally, outrage followed, and even now, decades on, Howard The Duck’s strange foray into furry fetishism stands out even against the more mature themes of the likes of Deadpool or Logan. Those more recent movies wear their R-ratings on their sleeves, with hyper-violence and colorful language, but Howard The Duck was so tonally inconsistent that it’s jarring. And in one of the most unexpected developments of recent MCU history, we now have what amounts to a follow-up to the scene that shows the horrifying implications of superhero duck sex.
What If Season 3 Just Went One Step Beyond Howard The Duck's Sex Scene With A Horrifying Reveal

Marvel"s What If...? has been an opportunity for the studio"s animated branch to answer some, let"s say, creative questions using the MCU"s multiverse. The latest season explores the idea of an evolved Hulk fighting the Avengers, the result of the Emergence from Eternals destroying Earth, and the fallout from The Watcher interfering. All pretty standard stuff.
But then, in What If...? season 3 episode 4, released on Christmas Day, no less, the MCU introduces a new Messiah, in the shape of Byrdie (later played by Natasha Lyonne in subsequent episodes). And because this might be the most unhinged animated superhero show ever made, Byrdie is the offspring of Howard The Duck and Darcy (Kat Dennings), who fell in love in What If...? season 2, bonding over their fondness for sarcasm, presumably.
The problem here, and the reason this goes further than Howard The Duck"s notorious love scene, is that What If...? reveals that the result of interspecies sex with Howard is a giant egg. Yes, after they fell in love, the pair married, consummated like... well, ducks, and Darcy got pregnant and laid an egg quite a lot larger than an ostrich egg. The logistics alone defy imagination. So if you ever found yourself wondering about the implications of that sex scene back in 1986 and what might ultimately... happen, you now have an answer. I"m not personally sure I wanted it.
Is this worse than being asked to imagine the rest of the love scene between Howard and Beverly? I"m not sure we need to debate that entirely, but I am left haunted by the same encouragement to imagine what wasn"t shown. And I really have to question why What If...?"s writing room decided that the question they wanted to pose would ultimately boil down to the looming, unspoken vision of a human laying an egg.

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6/10 26 8.9/10 What If...? What If… ? is an animated anthology series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which features fan-favorite characters, including Peggy Carter, T’Challa, Doctor Strange, Killmonger, Thor, and more. The new series, directed by Bryan Andrews with AC Bradley as head writer, features signature MCU action with a curious twist. The show sees Uatu the Watcher, an omnipotent being that observes the events of multiple universes from afar as they unfold, unable to interfere. However, things shift when an entity peers beyond the veil, jeopardizing the multiverse.
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*Availability in US Release Date August 11, 2021 Franchise(s) Marvel Cinematic Universe Seasons 3 Writers Ashley Bradley , Matthew Chauncey Showrunner Ashley Bradley New episodes of What If...? release every day on Disney+ until December 29

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