Howard the Duck

The Watchmaker’s Hand: Jeffery Deaver

Lincoln Rhyme is back in a novel that, at times, feels like it could be the character’s last adventure.

Author Jeffery Deaver pits his best-known character against arch-nemesis the Watchmaker in a race against time.

Rhyme must solve and stop a series of attacks that are causing towering cranes to crash into buildings and roadways. He must also piece together how and why these deadly attacks are happening … all while Rhyme is being targeted by a treacherous cop working for the detective’s long-time foe and Rhyme’s wife/partner Amelia Sachs is partially incapacitated by exposure to acidic fumes.

“The Bone Collector,” the first Lincoln Rhyme novel, may be the best known, with a movie adaptation starring Denzel Washington as Rhyme, a paralyzed forensic genius. Deaver has penned several Rhyme novels since, along with other stand-alone books and series. With his background as a journalist and an attorney, Deaver creates page-turning thrillers fueled by details.

There are a couple of awkward moments in “The Watchmaker’s Hand.” For example, Rhyme has a scientist’s mind; he is uninterested in pop culture. But not understanding a reference as commonplace and as generations-old as Superman’s kryptonite seems to undermine Rhyme’s brilliance rather than accentuate his disdain of mainstream knowledge.

Speaking of pop culture, intentional or otherwise, Deaver sets some readers up for envisioning the bad guy and his corrupt cop partner as the Skipper and Gilligan from “Gilligan’s Island.” The cop is named Gilligan and the Watchmaker’s last name is Hale, the same last name as the actor who played the Skipper. Lincoln Rhyme may never put such a cultural reference together but some readers will then have an image of the Skipper as the culprit behind the collapsing cranes.

Overall, “The Watchmaker’s Hand” is prime Lincoln Rhyme and a fine way to spend some time.

Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection Vol. 2

Upfront, I always preferred the story lines collected in the first volume as opposed to the second volume of “Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection.”

The first volume featured the earliest issues of the groundbreaking Marvel Comics title about a talking duck trapped on our world of “hairless apes,” as Howard sees humans. Volume One includes Howard’s wrestling to adapt to being yanked from his duck world to living in our world … and in one issue literally appearing as a masked wrestler. There’s Quack-Fu, his run for president, the Kidney Lady, KISS, his relationship with human girlfriend Beverly Switzler, a bad guy dressed like a giant beaver on the Canadian border, etc.

The issues collected in the first volume delve more into parodies of social conditions and expectations in the 1970s – the satire in many issues remains relevant 50 years later.

The second volume, however, kicks off with the over-long Doctor Bong storyline – a character who wants to marry Beverly Switzler, and storylines that seem more like pop culture spoofs – such as “Star Wars” – rather than irreverent looks at social culture. Doctor Bong is an odd mix of Doctor Doom and Dr. Moreau, with his face concealed by a bell-shaped mask and a hand replaced by a mace-like bell clapper; the Bong storyline spoofs comic books.

Then there is the biggest issue with the last “Howard the Duck” issues – creator Steve Gerber was no longer writing the character that has been described as his alter ego. There’s a character called Howard the Duck without Gerber, but without Gerber, it’s really not Howard the Duck.

Still, even with these faults, it’s fun rereading the issues collected in the second volume.

One note: These volumes contain the 1970s run. Not the “Howard” magazine comics from the 1980s or the more recent comics.