The Midas Touch is a story drawn and written by Carl Barks. It was first printed in Uncle Scrooge #36 in December 1961. It is notable for being the first appearance of Magica De Spell, who would go on to be one of Scrooge McDuck's recurring enemies.
Scrooge McDuck is polishing his dimes when he visited by Magica De Spell, an Italian duck claiming to be a sorceress. Magica wishes to buy one of his dimes for a dollar, explaining her plans to craft a magical amulet that will give her the Midas Touch by melting together coins touched by the world's richest men. Unbelieving in her claims of magic, but amused nonetheless, Scrooge makes the deal. After Magica leaves, Scrooge realizes that she took his Number One Dime by mistake, and chases her down to correct the mix-up. However, Magica decides that the very first coin of the world's richest duck must be loaded with power, and refuses to give it up. Now Scrooge and his nephews Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie must track down the witch before she can melt his dime in the fires of Mt. Vesuvius!
Tropes:
- Logical Weakness: Magica's Foof Bombs are very good at blinding people, and she uses them liberally to escape her pursuers multiple times. Huey, Dewey and Louie eventually get some dark sunglasses to protect their eyes, making the Bombs useless.
- Midas Touch: Gaining this is Magica's goal, which eventually turned into an outright obsession in future stories. Though unlike the Trope Namer, King Midas himself, Magica's power would come from an amulet that she could take off whenever she didn't want to turn everything she touched into gold.
- My Card: Magica gives her card to Scrooge's secretary when introducing herself.
- Near-Villain Victory: Magica is literally inches away from melting Scrooge's Number One Dime before being captured.
- Spotting the Thread: Scrooge and Donald try to ambush Magica by disguising themselves as sheep and lying in wait. Magica, however, gets suspicious that a pair of sheep ended up so far up the pass and Foof-Bombs them.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The entire feud between Magica and Scrooge began because Magica accidentally took Scrooge's Number One Dime instead one of the countless other dimes on his desk. She didn't even know of the Number One's existence until Scrooge tried to correct the mistake.
