GREEDY KILLERWATT

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Former nuclear technician

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Band of the Bland (Black Hole/Morton Kribbee, Sitting Bullseye/Olivier Bedwette, Spanker/Fred Hovel, Tillie the Hun/Matilda von Tromp), le Beaver/Pierre Dentifris, Black Talon/Thibodaux Boudreaux, Bzzk J'oh, Doctor Angst (Floyd Mangles), Doctor Bong (Lester Verde), Jackpot, Jokester, Kong Lomerate, Maller, Pinball Lizard, Pro-Rata, Puffin, Quizling, and Wally Sidney, various mutated animals

Enemies: Howard the Duck, Santa Claus and his elves (esp. Sunquist), Carol Starkowitz;
    presumably Andy the Angel, Chirreep, Jennifer Kale, Korrek, Master C'haaj, Hemlock Shoals, Claude Starkowski (see comments)

Known Relatives: Unidentified mother

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: North Pole Nuclear Power Facility;
    formerly Three Mile Island, Goldsboro, PA

First Appearance: Howard the Duck II#3 (February, 1980)

Powers/Abilities: Greedy Killerwatt can generate and project radiation in various forms, including blasts of force and heat. 

    He can also use his powers to mutate others. 

    In addition to Pinball Lizard, he mutated a number of creatures indigenous to the North Pole. However, his mutates only remained in that form until he ceases concentrating on them.

History:
(Howard the Duck II#3 (fb)) - His mother used to tell him "You can't make pies with rotten apples!"

(Howard the Duck II#3 (fb)) - The man who would become Greedy Killerwatt was formerly employed at Three Mile Island nuclear facility as a "Jumper"--a worker hired to enter 'hot' areas of nuclear plants to do various tasks. This generally involved absorbing more radiation in seconds than the average nuclear worker absorbed in the course of a lifetime. Eventually he fell ill: "By the time they hauled me out of there, I was glowing like a lightbulb!" Ironically, his body had chosen to make the same analogy, as he began to mutate into the form of a living lightbulb. Eventually, however, he felt better--stronger than ever before. His abnormal appearances caused others to shun him. Growing to hate those who had taunted him, he decided to steal away their laughter by stealing away that which they held most dear: Christmas.

    As part of his "Christmas Caper," Greedy Killerwatt (as he now called himself), mutated an ex-con to become his agent: Pinball Lizard. Killerwatt then plotted to destroy the world via a nuclear meltdown at the North Pole. The highly-radioactive super-thermal nuclear fuel would theoretically  "melt down" through the Earth itself, boring a molten tunnel until it reached Antarctica, where it would shoot out the other end of the planet. Then, like a punctured gasbag propelled by escaping air, the planet would whiz crazily through space, deflating and, finally, self-destructing.

    Killerwatt--acting through less-threatening agents--convinced Santa Claus to license him to build the North Pole Nuclear Power Facility on his workshop land. As his plans approached readiness, Killerwatt had Pinball Lizard trap Santa Claus away from the North Pole so he could initiate the "Antarctica Syndrome."

(Howard the Duck II#3) - With the aid of Howard the Duck and Carol Starkowitz, Santa Claus returned to the North Pole and drove Pinball Lizard from his Workshop. Pinball returned to Killerwatt in failure, with Santa, Howard, and others close behind. Killerwatt unleashed his mutates to fight them off, but Howard and Carol bypassed them and tracked Killerwatt to his master control room. In addition to his blasts of power, Killerwatt unleashed his theme song upon them:

I am Greedy Killerwatt,
If you want nukes I got a lot,
The Stuff I push is really hot,
The Power of Tomorrow!

I'm the guy who raises cane,
Pollutes the Fish, Poisons the Rain,
But if you want watts you can't complain,
My Laughter is your sorrow!

    Howard and Carol proved unable to stop Killerwatt, but they did delay him long enough for Sunquist to take him out with a bullet that shattered his glassy dome. With his downfall, all of his mutates returned to normal.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II" (fb) - BTS) - An apparently restored Greedy Killerwatt was transported -- along with Dr. Angst and the Band of the Bland (Black Hole Sitting Bullseye, Spanker, Tillie the Hun), le Beaver, Black Talon, Bzzk J'oh, Doctor Bong, Jackpot, Jokester, Kong-Lomerate, Maller, Pro-Rata, Puffin, Quizling, and Wally Sidney -- to within a fire hydrant-like construct in an interdimensional space between the REALITY mirroring the storyline generated by the Poporb of Krylorian techno-artist Chireep. Chaos swiftly erupted as many of their number began fighting amongst themselves.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II") - Bong and Angst urged the others to cease their brawling. After Galactongue disgorged a galaxy into the interspace, Bong his associates were greeted by the Brotherhood of Evil Prepositions (Amonger, Arounder, Betweener, Of, Underneather, and Withiner), who challenged them to "Play both ends against the middle, and all you desire shall be yours!" They were then transported to the boardroom of a building on a planet in the new galaxy, where Kong Lomerate assumed a leadership role. 

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II" - BTS) - Meanwhile, another group -- Andy the Angel, Dakimh the Enchanter, Howard the Duck, Jennifer Kale, Korrek the Barbarian, Man-Thing, Master C'haaj (sp?), Hemlock Shoals, and Claude Starkowski (and they were soon joined by Chireep and her Poporb) -- had been similarly transported into the interspace (with a Winnnebago-like construct) and arrived in the building's mailroom.

    Both groups were transported to the office building on the planet formed from contents disgorged by Galactongue; Greedy Killerwatt's group arrived in the boardroom, while the group from the Winnebago-like construct arrived in the mailroom.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II") - Greedy Killerwatt sat on Doctor Bong's side of the table (on Kong Lomerate's right), between Wally Sidney and the Maller.

    Killerwatt and the others agreed to Kong's plan that they must divide, intimidate, and then damage their opponents.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II" (fb) - BTS) - Kong led Maller, Jackpot, and Greedy Killerwatt to attack Howard and Chireep, who had left the mailroom.

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo and Gene "The Dean" Colan.

    You young'uns may not remember Three Mile Island, but it is a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which had a small meltdown on March 28, 1979. I was so close to it that I could actually see the reactors of Three Mile Island from my high school window (though I wasn't in high school at the time of the meltdown). Anyway, it's been overshadowed by Chernobyl and other more recent disasters, but it was a big deal at the time.
    For more info, see this site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/sfeature/

    The Antarctica Syndrome is an obvious parody on the China Syndrome:

This film is a political thriller about a news crew that accidentally witnesses a control room crisis at the fictional Ventana nuclear energy plant; the news team photographer surreptitiously shoots the event. Mike Gray wrote the first draft of the screenplay in 1974 based on a real event at the Dresden II reactor near Chicago in 1970 due to the stuck needle of a water level gauge. Another draft was written in 1975 based on another real event at the Browns Ferry reactor in Alabama on March 22 when a fire disabled the cooling system and almost uncovered the fuel core threatening a 5000 degree meltdown nicknamed "The China Syndrome--I'd guess that this was also theoretically (or at least jokingly referred to) going to melt a hole to China.

    Greedy Killerwatt is also a parody of Reddy Killowatt, particularly in name.  Reddy was an old cartoon mascot for various electric companies, as you can see here: http://www.toymuseum.com/inside/c5/3237019.html
    --Omar Karindu

    Gerber's unpublished story:

• Obviously, the point at the start of these was that the events of the Howard the Duck magazine series and Bizarre Adventures#34 never happened in Reality-616. 
• At the start of the story, Howard-616 had been in an interdimensional void for a period of time. The script said six years, but it was six years real time, and so closer to just a 1.2 years. That corresponds to the time since Gerber had last published a Howard story.
  
• I don't know how the story was to end, but Howard's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry confirmed Howard as not originally coming from Duckworld but that his reality had been warped/merged so that it was now his native world. The events of the Howard the Duck magazine occurred in Howard's history as a result of the reality merger. Steve Gerber himself approved the entry before it was published.
• Chireep's stories created or were based on an alternate reality (Earth-791021), which then merged with (or overwrote) Earth-616's, affecting Howard's behavior and memory. Howard indeed had all of the adventures from the magazines, and the few other stories prior to 1985, but they were the merged Howard, which is why he remembered Duckworld as his home. In that reality, his parents' names were Ronald and Henrietta according to Gerber's story, BTW.
• When Chireep stopped making stories, the alternate reality split from Earth-616, and Howard was flung into the void, which is where Gerber's unpublished story took place.
• The "next issue" blurb was to be:
  
  POWER PLAYS!  BACK-STABBING!  CAREER STRATEGIES!  RUG-PULLING!  DEATH!  NEW CLOTHES!  MORE DEATH!  
  PLUS-- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT IN 1974-- THE ORIGIN OF HOWARD THE DUCK! 
  ALL IN THE ASTOUNDING CONCLUSION OF "SECRET CRISIS II"-- REALITY: ITS PREVENTION AND CURE!

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

• KILLERWATT of Earth-982 ( ) - Revengers, Savage Six--Spider-Girl#9
• other "Greed" or "Killer" characters

Horrible, ugly, ghastly, execrable, outrageous, frightful, shocking, hideous, mutated monstrosities that were obviously once poor, innocent seals, polar bears, penguins, and whales.

    They were mutated by Greedy Killerwatt and used as his fighting force. They fought Santa Claus, his elves, and some of their toys. However, when Killerwatt was defeated and at least seemingly slain by Sunquist, they reverted back to normal.

--Howard the Duck II#3

North Pole Nuclear Power Facility

Killerwatt tricked Santa Claus into allowing him to create this facility on his Workshop Land and use it as the major power source. With it he planned to cause a meltdown and destroy the Earth via the Antarctica Syndrome. With Killerwatt's defeat, the Nuclear Facility was shut down and Santa Claus began to convert his Toyshop back to solar power, and his sleigh back to organic fuels.

--Howard the Duck II#3

images:
Howard the Duck II#3 "A Christmas for Carol"

Appearances:
Howard the Duck II#3 (February, 1980) - Lynn Graeme (editor)
    "A Christmas for Carol" - by Bill Mantlo (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), and Dave Simons (inks)
unpublished Howard the Duck story by Gerber - 1985

First posted: 11/30/2003
Last updated: 11/06/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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