PRO-RATA

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human magic-user

Occupation: Accountant, Would-Be Chief Accountant to the Universe

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, Greedy Killerwatt, Kong Lomerate, Maller, Puffin, Quizling, and Wally Sidney
    associate of the Astral Auditor; creator of the Eggsmen;
    former master of a weredog;

Enemies: Howard the Duck, Hemlock Shoals, Prei-Ying Mantis, Beverly Switzler;
    presumably Andy the Angel, Chirreep, Jennifer Kale, Korrek, Master C'haaj, Hemlock Shoals, Claude Starkowski (see comments)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: The Mad Financial Wizard; the Cosmic Accountant

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    at least formerly Cleveland, Ohio

First Appearance: Howard the Duck I#1 (January, 1976)

Powers: Pro-Rata has a variety of mystical abilities, which all have some connection to accounting. His primary goal was to achieve sufficient power at the moment the stellar balance sheet comes into alignment, when the astral audit would be taken, so that he alone would collect the cosmic dividend. He can fire blasts of force, open portals to other dimensions, animate inanimate objects, open dimensional portals, and manipulate the perceptions of others.

    Pro-Rata's greatest source of power was the Cosmic Calculator. However, he could only access a small portion of its power on his own. To access its full power, he would require the Jeweled Key to the Calculator, the greatest fiscal force in the universe. He could borrow power from other sources, but if he could not pay it back, the magic would be repossessed and he would be thrown into debtor's prison. He used a flying cash register to travel.

     His Eggsmen (Coffee, Eyeclops (eggs), OJ (orange juice), Sizzler (bacon), and Toast), a mystically animated economical breakfast, had limited abilities including flying, projection of force blasts, as well as amplification of their natural heat or acidity.

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 173 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White

History: Pro-Rata was descended from Egyptian sorcerers, Slavic witches, and Druids. He believed that all of these groups failed because they were unable to see world domination in terms of accounting. He felt that the universe is the ultimate flow chart, and whoever can juggle the books can rule infinity.

(Howard the Duck II#4/2 (fb)) - Pro-Rata sought to obtain the Cosmic Key, aka the Jeweled Key to Pro-Rata's Cosmic Calculator to access its full power. To this end, he traveled to the extra-dimensional realm of Maltesia, where they Key was held by their chief accountant, Prei-Ying Mantis. Pro-Rata slew Prei-Ying by breaking his neck with a slide rule, and prepared to abscond with the Key. However, he was then confronted by Hemlock Shoals, a mystic and detective of Maltesia, who had been summoned by Prei-Ying, who suspected he might be attacked. Shoals knocked the Key from Pro-Rata's grasp as he opened an interdimensional portal, and the Key fell through a portal that accessed a myriad of realms. Pro-Rata fled and continued his search for the Key.

(Howard the Duck I#1) - Pro-Rata had made a base out of a tower of credit cards on an island on Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. For unknown reasons he kidnapped Beverly Switzler and imprisoned her in his tower. He planned to send his weredog (a man that can turn into a dog) to the Citadel of Sai-Fuur, where the Jeweled Key to his Cosmic Calculator had ended up. He planned this on the night when the stellar balance sheet came into alignment, so that he could reap the cosmic dividend when the astral audit was taken. However, that same night, Howard the Duck found and scaled the marathon, and killed the weredog after it attacked him when he attempted to rescue Beverly Switzler.

In order to obtain the key before midnight, Pro-Rata sent Howard and Beverly to the Citadel. They successfully obtained it, but when Pro-Rata summoned the back to his tower, he inadvertently hit the wrong decimal on his calculator, and also brought back the immense and powerful Bahndbird which was attacking them outside the Citadel. Figuring the Key would make Pro-Rata too powerful, Howard refused to give it to him. Pro-Rata prepared to slay Howard, as well as Spider-Man, who had seen the shattering of the tower by the Bahnd-Bird. Howard ambushed Pro-Rata, tackling him from behind off the top of the tower. Howard was rescued by Spider-Man, but Pro-Rata fell to his seeming death.

(Howard the Duck II#4/2 (fb)- BTS) - However, Pro-Rata survived and set about investing his remaining mystical might to gain vengeance. After Howard and Beverly returned from a long trip, Pro-Rata, having found a new mystical force bank in an abandoned tower in the Union Terminal, set about making Howard's life more troublesome. 

    He placed an advertisement in a newspaper about duck hunting season, and he used his flying cash register to crash Howard's taxi into another, causing him to get into a fight. Next he created a false movie studio in Union Terminal to lure Howard and Beverly into a trap, from which he could learn the location of the Jeweled Key.

(Howard the Duck II#4/2) - In his Union Terminal base, Pro-Rata learned that Howard had hocked the Cosmic Calculator, after which he sent his Eggsmen to attack them. Howard and Beverly defeated the Eggsmen and then unseated Pro-Rata from his cash register. Pro-Rata's power, unable to be repaid without the Jeweled Key, was then repossessed by the Astral Auditor. Pro-Rata fell into the collapsing vortex as the false realm of the movie studio collapsed in on itself. 

    Howard and Beverly narrowly escaped the destruction of the vortex.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II" (fb) - BTS) - Pro-Rata 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, Dr. Bong, Jackpot, Jokester, Greedy Killerwatt, Kong-Lomerate, Maller, 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!" Seeing the Amonger's odd form flow out form around himself and the other villains, Pro-Rata proclaimed, "By the Stellar Spreadsheet...What is that?

    They were then transported to the boardroom of a building on a planet in the new galaxy, where Kong Lomerate assumed a leadership role. Pro-Rata was seated to Kong's far right, preceded by Quizling, Puffin, Jokester, Maller, Greedy Killerwatt, Wally Sidney, and Doctor Bong (closest to Kong).

(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.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II") - As they had all observed that others had arrived via a Winnnebago, Pro-Rata 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) - Pro-Rata, presumably along with some of the others, targeted Andy the Angel, Dakimh the Enchanter, Jennifer Kale, Korrek the Barbarian, Man-Thing, Master C'haaj (sp?), Hemlock Shoals, and Claude Starkowski, while Kong led Maller, Jackpot, and Greedy Killerwatt to attack Howard and Chireep, who had left the mailroom (see comments).

Comments: Created by Steve Gerber and Frank Brunner.

    Pro-Rata is responsible for bringing together that swinging couple, Beverly Switzler and Howard the Duck.

    Pro-Rata has an entry in Mystic Arcana: The Book of Marvel Magic.

    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!

Thanks to Loki for providing an image upgrade based on what was used in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#9 Pro-Rata entry

Images:

...ehh....image update needed still!

Appearances:
Howard the Duck I#1 (January, 1976) - Steve Gerber (writer), Frank Brunner (pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Howard the Duck II#1 (October, 1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Dave Simons & Bob McLeod (inks), Rick Marshall (editor)
Howard the Duck II#2 (December, 1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Dave Simons (inks), Rick Marshall (editor)
Howard the Duck II#4 (March, 1980) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Dave Simons (inks), Lynn Graeme (editor)
unpublished Howard the Duck story by Gerber - 1985

First posted: Pro-Rata was apparently one of the 403-ish profiles uploaded at the start of the Appendix on 9/1/2021
Last updated: 03/05/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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