Kidney Lady

A bizarre recurring antagonist from Howard the Duck's early adventures, the Kidney Lady is a deranged Cleveland woman obsessed with the belief that Howard is a threat to human kidneys, making her a perfect embodiment of the absurdist social satire defining Steve Gerber's run.

Few characters capture the gloriously weird spirit of Marvel's Bronze Age quite like Kidney Lady, who burst onto the scene in 1976's Howard the Duck #2, conjured by the singular creative team of Steve Gerber, Frank Brunner, and Jim Starlin. She's the kind of unforgettable oddball that only that era's most daring, satirical comics could produce — a figure strange enough to haunt the margins of Howard's already deeply strange world alongside the likes of Beverly Switzler and Winda Wester. Her appearances are few but her cult reputation is outsized, the sort of character collectors delight in rediscovering across reprints like the Marvel Masterworks: Howard the Duck volumes. If you love the Bronze Age at its most gloriously unhinged, Kidney Lady is exactly the kind of deep-cut treasure that reminds you why Howard the Duck remains one of Marvel's most singular achievements.