Even since he stepped in the Marvel Universe in Adventure Into Fear #19, by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik, Howard the Duck has long been one of Marvel's most unique and bizarre characters. He's survived all kinds of threats over the years, ranging from the deadly serious to the laughably over-the-top.
But perhaps one of his most impressive victories came in Marvel Zombies 5 by Fred Van Lente, Jose Angel Cano Lopez, Thomas Palmer Sr, Alvaro Lopez, Simon Bowland, and Val Staples, when he was a chief member of a multiversal trio that took on numerous different incarnations of the zombie plague in the Marvel Universe.
In Earth-616, A.R.M.O.R. -- aka the Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response Agency -- is a branch of the world governments designed to protect the Earth from specific threats. A.R.M.O.R. specifically contends with extra-dimensional threats from traveling across the multiverse and reaching the rest of the world. This means dealing with all sorts of threats -- such as the zombie plague that has wiped out entire worlds worth of people across the multiverse. The various legions of Marvel Zombies even come in different forms, with different variants of the disease -- with perhaps the most terrifying being the Hunger Gospel from the world designated as Earth-Z.
But there are plenty of other versions of zombies across the Marvel multiverse, which are the focus of Marvel Zombies 5. The series is centered on two agents of A.R.M.O.R. sent on a multiversal excursion to encounter some of the different versions of the Marvel Zombies Virus and to bring samples back for analysis before a Planestorm fuses them all into one reality that would be completely overrun and dominated by the different variations of the Zombie Virus. Morbius the Living Vampire -- who at the time was a scientist with A.R.M.O.R. -- recruited Howard the Duck and Aaron Stack aka the Machine Man for the mission, with the hope that success could result in the production of an all-around cure for the zombie plague in the multiverse.
The pair's first stop was Earth-483, an old west reality similar to 1872 where they ended up recruiting the super-speed sharpshooter Jackie Kane -- the daughter of this world's old west hero, Hurricane. Next, they visit Earth-691 -- a reality where the Martians of War of the Worlds returned to conquer the planet, only for Kilraven to unleash zombies against the Martians as a weapon. Howard quickly proved to be a capable zombie killer and effectively the leader of the group -- especially as Machine Man was at the time still dealing with a fresh breakup from Jocasta. On Earth-555, the original Black Knight was tricked into unleashing mystical undead, forcing Howard to give his full faith and trust into Jackie's abilities -- with his confidence ending up being proven right.
In the cybernetic world of Earth-8410, Howard and his team barely escape a cybernetically grown virus designed by that world's villainous incarnation of Jocasta. They finally end the story reaching Earth-0000 -- a world similar to the real world, where a single comic fan was exposed to the virus, allowing the trio to claim a sample and make their way back to Earth-616. It's likely only someone as conditioned to the bizarre nature of the Marvel Universe could have been as successful as Howard in his mission, and alongside his partners he was able to actually help prove the possibility that a cure to the Marvel Zombies virus isn't impossible.