Comic Characters Who Started Out As A Joke

Rocket Raccoon became a big hit with fans after appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy, The Tick is about to have his third TV show, and Howard the Duck got his own (albeit crappy) movie decades before Spider-Man.

Know what else these characters all have in common? They all started out as joke characters that became seriously popular.

Rocket Raccoon was initially named Rocky, created as an homage to the Beatles song, but after his first few guest appearances he became popular enough to get his own mini-series.

Then we didn't see him again for like 25 years...but now Rocket's one of the most popular Marvel Comics characters of all time!

The Tick started out as an absurdist parody of superheroes Ben Edlund created for the New England Comics newsletter, and folks liked The Tick so much he became the comic chain's mascot.

Ben began drawing Tick strips for the NEC newsletter, and then the company got into the business of making their own comics and started releasing The Tick as a series.

Lastly there's my favorite cigar chompin' duck Howard, who was created by Steve Gerber as a gag but became a pluckin' hero.

Howard came from an alternate Earth full of funny animals instead of humans, so he was the perfect everyduck to star in a comic series that satirizes American culture and genre fiction.

The original Howard The Duck series dealt with existentialist themes and life in a multiverse, and this is the series' main joke, according to Gerber-

"that life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view."

See 15 Popular Comic Book Characters That Started As Jokes here