YMMV / Disney Ducks Comic Universe

• Adaptation Displacement:
  • While still remembered, the Classic Disney Shorts aren't nearly as popular and well-known as the comic books by Carl Barks and his successors in European and South-American countries that based on that classic cartoons.
  • Panchito's horse, Señor Martinez actually comes from old American newspaper strips written in the 40s which, while popular in some countries, were never reprinted in English until after the publication of The Three Caballeros Ride Again.
• Anvilicious: Some of the stories (especially "War of the Wendigo") move into this territory.
• Awesome Art: A lot of artists fall into this. Artist Fabio Celoni and colorist Mirka Andolfo are especially notable for their absolutely gorgeous artwork in various comics parodying classic literature. Take a look at their versions of Frankenstein and Dracula for some amazing examples.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Scrooge, mainly for his jerkass tendencies. It's particularly for Donald's fans. This is part of the reason behind the creation of Paperinik.
  • Huey, Dewey and Louie are either considered Wise Beyond Their Years and Nice Guys, if a bit mischievous, or brats who often condescend their uncle Donald.
  • Gladstone, big time. His fans find him a fascinating Deconstructed Character Archetype of the Born Lucky trope with a lot of Hidden Depths to explore. His detractors find him an insufferable Smug Snake who doesn't deserve a single one of his victories. Especially hard in stories where Gladstone wins solely because of his luck, whereas the hardworking Donald is left in the dust.
  • Daisy Duck. She has a lot of fans considering she stars in her own comic stories where she is her own character. Especially comics from the Netherlands play out her own personality and goals. However, some Donald-fans criticize her for her Tsundere-tendencies towards her boyfriend as well as always heavingly flirting with Gladstone to make Donald jealous and to get afford to material things Donald can't give her, making her a Gold Digger in the eyes of some fans. It clearly is a case of Depending on the Writer as more modern writers tend to play that aspects down. For example, DuckTales (2017) is given a lot of credit by Daisy-critics for making her more likable and her love story with Donald more genuine than most other depictions in comics or cartoons.
  • Donald Duck, who's in the same boat as his Uncle Scrooge. You can feel sorry to him due to him thinking that world hates him, or loath him for treating his nephews more like slaves than family and being a temperamental slacker.
• Broken Base: Discussions over whether Don Rosa is Carl Barks' "true" successor or simply one of many writers (albeit a very good one) playing in his sandbox get heated on occasion. Funnily enough, Don Rosa himself considers his stories to be merely "fanart" and "too detailed and complicated" to be compared to the greatness of Carl Barks. Still, there are fans who will say they like his stories even better than Barks'. Opinions are varied, to say the least.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Just try reading any of Carl Barks' Scrooge comics without hearing the voices of Alan Young or David Tennant in your head.
• Crosses the Line Twice: A cheapskate who will read a newspaper from a trash can rather than buying one despite having a net worth of $900 billion is surely funnier than a cheapskate with a net worth of a few million who simply treats others like crap for his own gain.
• Designated Hero: Surprisingly common:
  • Scrooge McDuck, who's in some stories depicted as a flat-out villain, who abuses his family and employees and cares only about money. Example; in one story, after Gyro invention goes haywire thanks to Donald, resulting in movie monsters coming from the screen to real life, Scrooge decides to punish Donald by trapping him in movie screen and letting him being chased by a King Kong to the delight of customers of his cinema.
  • Donald is no angel himself. In some stories he's greedy as his uncle and wants money for his own selfish reasons.
• Designated Monkey: Sure, Donald is Born Unlucky, but given how much abuse and misfortune he endures, is no wonder that there are some people who stopped laughing at joke that Donald is forbidden for working in certain places in Duckburg and has an entire army of creditors hanging over his neck, and who want to strip him out of his money.
• Designated Villain: Similar to above, this is also surprisingly common:
  • Donald is often treated as this in stories that feature Huey, Dewey and Louie. He's really just an ordinary guy trying to raise three brats who aren't even his own children, they're his sister's who shoved them off on him. From the nephews' perspective, Donald is a petty disciplinarian because he wants them to attend school or do the dishes.
  • Quite a few stories have Rockerduck actually being far more benevolent than Scrooge, or simply being completely moral. We're still meant to root against him regardless.
  • Gladstone in stories centered on him. In many stories, he competes with Donald, and, despite some struggle (usually "Dear god, I have to work to succeed!"), wins thanks to his luck. In these stories, Donald is usually actually superior in whatever skill they competed in, and far more deserving of winning.
• Die for Our Ship: Suffice to say, Scrooge/Goldie fans do not care for Brigitta, though this is mitigated somewhat by Scrooge (so far) never having returned Brigitta's feelings, and she's a complete non-existent character in Don Rosa's universe anyhow.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Goldie. Used only once by her creator Carl Barks and far more often by Romano Scarpa, Don Rosa, and others, not to mention her multiple appearances throughout the various DuckTales cartoons.
  • See Duck Tales page to relative examples from the show.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • How Ludwig von Drake is related to Donald is quite a mystery. He is apparently Donald's uncle, but this would make him either Scrooge's brother or Grandma's son, neither of which seems likely since he is Austrian. Don Rosa has offered the possible explanation that he is married to Scrooge's sister, Matilda. Some German comics have Daisy calling him "Uncle". Walt Disney himself introduced Ludwig as the brother of Donald's father once.
  • Another puzzling relative is Gideon McDuck, a Recurring Character in the Italian comics described as Scrooge's brother. Romano Scarpa's intent when creating him in 1956 was that he'd be simply that: Scrooge's brother, fair and square. However, when Don Rosa wrote his version of Scrooge's youth (which has been accepted as one of the solidest bits of canon out there when it comes to Duck comics), he ignored Gideon, because he did not know about him to begin with. Why Gideon wasn't there at Scrooge's home back in Scotland in his youth remains unknown, but many american fans consider him a half-brother from a brief relationship of Fergus McDuck's after his wife's death. It has sometimes been guessed that Gideon is Scrooge's younger brother, born only after Scrooge left Scotland^note He is named "Scrooge's younger brother" in the 2015 American translation of his debut appearance, but it's a deplorably unfaithful translation, despite being also a very funny one, so it can't be counted as canon..
• Escapist Character: Uncle Scrooge. He's super rich and a Cool Old Guy, things keep going his way despite his cruelty to his nephews, and yet it's entertaining to see him mop the floor with his enemies.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Donald is often subject to this with European fandom that prefer to pair him with other girls than Daisy. Notable example are Reginella from her saga, Xadhoom and Lyla in Paperinik New Adventures and Kay-K in Double Duck.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • A few of the comics featuring Scrooge McDuck imply Scrooge and Magica De Spell have what appears to be a mutual attraction. Magica might even have better chances than most villains since Don Rosa's Scrooge actually has had hatesex.
  • A few Italian stories have Magica engaged by her family to an unwanted fiancé called Rosolio Rhododendron. When her family witnesses Magica and Scrooge bickering Like an Old Married Couple (over the topic that Scrooge was not expecting a surprise visit from Magica's folks), some of Magica's relatives get the distinct impression that she has more chemistry with Scrooge. Rosolio seems jealous.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Rockerduck seems to appear more frequently in Italian comics than Glomgold ever did in American ones. In Italy and countries where Italian comics are dominant Rockerduck is likely to be regarded as the definitive business rival and for that an if not the Arch-Enemy of Scrooge while Flintheart is barely used or known.
  • The Beagle Boys' grandfather appears much more frequently in Italian stories, but that version of the character appears to be solely based on the "Grandpa Beagle" from "The Money Well" and not on Blackheart Beagle from "The Fantastic River Race." Some of the versions make him more kind.
  • Fethry Duck is popular in Europe as he's very often shown in Italian stories as part of an iconic duo with Donald, but is especially HUGE in Brazil, to the point that he got his own solo comic there. The Brazilian comics also introduced his nephew (Dugan), his girlfriend (Gloria, and before her there was another girlfriend called Rita), and his superhero alter-ego (The Red Bat). It is known that Don Rosa didn't like him, but was pressured by his editors to include Fethry in the Duck family tree due to his international popularity.
  • Disney comics in general are known to still be hugely popular in Europe, while they have largely faded out of American culture. Duck comics are no exception, and in fact seem to enjoy even more popularity there than Mickey Mouse ever did. This may be related to these comics being quite similar in style to Franco-Belgian Comics.
    • At least in Finland, the stories are so popular that the names of some characters have become slang words to describe people, like "hannuhanhi" or "pellepeloton"^note The translated full names of both Gladstone Gander (Hannu Hanhi) and Gyro Gearloose (Pelle Peloton), without capitalization for lucky and smart people respectively.
  • The comics are also very popular in Egypt and India, to the point that the characters have become localized pop culture icons. Parents literally pass down the hobby of reading these comics to their kids. As a result, some people have casually accumulated an incredible collection of the comics over decades.
  • At least according to Don Rosa's commentary, when it was "revealed" in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck that Grandma Duck was not McDuck's sister, it apparently made the front page of some Italian newspapers.
• Good Bad Translation:
  • Due to the differences in gender pronouns between Arabic and English, when Duck comics were first translated to Egyptian slang, Donald's nephews were erroneously referred to as his nephews from a brother, not his (canonical) sister. This error has gone on for decades that it is unsure it can ever be undone. As far as most Egyptian fans of the comics are concerned, Donald has a brother. Somewhere. In the Finnish translation however, it has been slowly corrected throughout the years (they still refer to Donald with the word equivalent of "father's brother", but are themselves referred with gender-neutral or correct pronoun).
  • In the Egyptian translations of the comics, Donald's nephews refer to Gladstone by his first name, or as 'Uncle Gladstone' - the word Uncle being used as a term of respect. The equivalent of the English term 'Cousin Gladstone' is rarely ever used.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In one comic book adaptation called Lost in the Andes! (April, 1949), Donald and his nephews discover a world that is similar to the world of Minecraft well before the video game was invented.
  • The Carl Barks comic "Forbidden Valley" has Donald and his nephews going to a dinosaur-inhabited valley to deal with invasive insects destroying crops, which sounds like the plot of Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Donald is this because he's a Jerkass character, but all parties have screwed him over at least once, even when he did nothing to deserve it, with even his nephews being against him sometimes. Given how much of the world is against him, it kinda comes as no surprise that Donald acts out so much.
  • Scrooge, especially in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. He is greedy and foul-tempered, yes, but he was The Dutiful Son and a loving brother who left home at the age of 13 to support his family so that they can keep their ancestral home. However, he's been repeatedly screwed over, and every time it seems like he'd make it big, something happens that forces him to lose everything and start over. It is all but stated that his hard life made him Took a Level in Jerkass, which subsequently alienated him from his family, and by the time he's reached his goal of becoming the richest person in the world, he's lost everything else.
• Mainstream Obscurity: Works inspired by Carl Barks' comics are more well-known by the American public than the comics themselves. Amongst comic critics and aficionados, they remain as some of the most acclaimed and beloved non-Superhero comics in the history of the medium.
• Magnificent Bastard: Arpin Lusene is Scrooge McDuck's most intelligent and competent foe. A charming French millionaire playboy who lives a double life as a Gentleman Thief, Lusene vows to steal Scrooge's entire fortune in front of the whole world before going into retirement. After accidentally coming into the possession of the dangerous Omnisolve, Lusene gets the brilliant idea to coat a stolen suit of armor with the substance, turning himself into an unstoppable Juggernaut of a Black Knight who nearly destroys all of Scrooge's riches to fake having stolen it. After Lusene's defeat, he returns and uses subterfuge to regain his suit of armor, then makes his previous plan fool-proof. Scrooge scuppers his original plan to empty the Money Bin by threatening a media blackout, so Lusene settles for destroying Scrooge's other trophies housed in the Duckburg museum, and nearly dissolves poor Donald after accidentally being trapped with him by Scrooge. Even despite being ultimately bested by Scrooge, Lusene always accepts his defeat gracefully, both regarding the other as a Worthy Opponent.
• Memetic Mutation
  • Within this wiki: Scrooge had sex. ^note In Don Rosa's The Prisoner of White Agony Valley.
  • It's popular on 4chan to photoshop a certain image of Donald to scenes of carnage and destruction.
  • DON'T FUCK WITH MCDUCK.
  • Ah'm keepin' me money!
  • There are two infamous screenshots from some old episodes, where something (a rock under a blanket, a bee he swallowed) goes in Donald's groin area... and it looks exactly what you think it would.
  • "Nice to know at three in the morning."^Finnish"Kiva tietää näin kolmelta aamuyöstä."^ExplanationIn 2011, an anonymous user of the Finnish image board Ylilauta posted an edited panel from the Carl Barks story "The Firebug" in which one of Donald's nephews wakes him up from a nightmare. The speech bubble of the nephew was blank, but Donald's had been edited to contain the aforementioned text. Other users of the board, and later people elsewhere as well, subsequently edited the panel further, with the nephew announcing various things (Donald having forgotten to take his sleeping meds, Huey's poop exploding through the house's foundations, film and song references etc.) to the disinterested Donald. The memetic statement was later referred to e.g. by the name of the Facebook meme page Kolmelta aamuyöstä.
  • "Turn off the lights!" ^Finnish"Sammuttakaa valot!"^ExplanationIn the rather censored first Finnish translation of the Carl Barks story "Cap'n Blight's Mystery Ship", one character saying "Viva the revolution!" is translated as "Sammuttakaa valot!" ("Turn off the lights"). This has resulted in "Sammuttakaa valot" becoming a common phrase among Finnish duck fans, especially in talks about censored comics.
  • "What the fuck now, I thought this lunacy has been finished?" "Fuck you! Never stop the madness and soon we're rolling again!"^Finnish"Mitä vittua nyt taas, luulin että tällainen sekoilu on lopetettu?" "Haista vittu! Never stop the madness ja kohta vedetään taas!"^ExplanationFrom a bizarre edit of Barks' "Tralla La" from the Punk in Finland forums depicting Scrooge as a Black Metal artist. No, we don't know either. And yes, the "never stop the madness" (which appears to be refererence to Euronymous) is in English.
  • Hyllymbvyör? ^ExplanationAnother meme among Finnish readers, an unusual sound effect from a story where Donald's house is swarmed by caterpillars, which he immediately repeats. Often used in place of a more normal sound effect in memes.
• Moe:
  • Reginella. Little body, big eyes, nice and adorable personality. Even her woobie status helps.
  • Huey, Dewey and Louie are very cute, when they're not portrayed as brats.
• Moral Event Horizon: Occasionally, though the fact that most writers follow their own canon rarely makes it stick. Of particular note was in the story A Little Something Special by Don Rosa. At the end of the story, Grandpa Blackheart Beagle attempts to detonate a massive load of explosives underneath Duckburg, only being prevented by Donald deactivating the detonator. Considering that Duckburg is a densely populated West Coast metropole in Rosa's continuity, this would be an act of terrorism at least as destructive as the 9/11 terrorist attack. And he was doing it out of spite.
• More Popular Spin Off: The Disney Ducks comic universe is much more renowned and actively followed than that of the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe, even getting two animated adaptations to its name because of its surprising popularity. Also, in some European countries the comics are more popular and well-known than the Classic Disney Shorts their originally based on.
• Once Original, Now Common: Carl Barks' comic books tend to suffer from this nowadays. For their time, there simply weren't any other Funny Animal or kids comics like them; most of the competition was juvenile hackwork or just banal kids filler in regards to story. Barks was one of the first writers for those kind of books to actually respect the intelligence of his audience and try to have consistent and dynamic characterization, strong plotting and surprisingly witty humor. But come the following decades, and the idea of having this kind of storytelling in comics is not only extremely common but downright necessary in order to hold the attention of a mainstream audience, making newcomers to his comics wonder just what makes them such a big deal and leaving them unimpressed with the admittedly generic plots and somewhat dated humor of them.
• The Scrappy: Paperinika (Super Daisy), Daisy's superhero alter-ego. While abandoned for years by Italian authors after a rather bizarre story, Brazilian authors made her in pretty much The Ace who constantly one-upped and humiliated Paperinik. Because Paperinik was introduced as Donald's chance to escape from his regular Butt-Monkey / Chew Toy status, these stories did not go over well with Italian fans. Also, her exaggerated feminist characterization made her particularly unlikeable. She is rescued from this status in Ultraheroes where she got a more balanced personality and became more likable to the readers.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Despite them rarely ever interacting in any comics or the shows, there are some fans who have taken to ship Gladstone Gander and Magica DeSpell together, the idea of the pairing and how their personalities would clash probably being a reason why.
• Signature Scene: For comics Donald and his personality, the finale of "Vacation Time" by Barks, where Donald using quick thinking, improvisation, and totally motivated parental concern, protects his nephews by MacGyvering stuff from the forest to save them from a forest fire is this.
• Title Confusion: Due to the popularity of the show and similarities in universe and cast, the comics are sometimes labelled Ducktales by fans (helped by the fact that the comics don't really go by a recurring label). Don Rosa in particular resented being called a "Ducktales cartoonist" (he did like the show, but did not consider it a loyal adaptation of the comic universe he and Barks created).
• Values Dissonance:
  • Even as little as a few decades ago, Daisy had a habit of beating Donald and/or Gladstone if they mistreated her (sometimes for rather petty reasons). Modern readers may not be amused by this, as nowadays it comes off as domestic abuse.
  • Carl Barks was an ardent supporter of Capitalism and created Scrooge not just as a character to entertain children, but also to demonstrate how extremely high wealth can be a force for good. While this is obviously not an incorrect message, it's one the audience may well look weirdly at post-Great Recession.
  • A minor example, but it's a common joke in the Finnish fandom how the official translation of the name Gyro Gearloose (Pelle Peloton) has aged poorly; while "Pelle" is a legitimate Finnish name, it's an extremely archaic one, and just happens to mean "clown"/"jester"^note "Peloton" meanwhile means "fearless", which isn't nearly as bad but still results in an inventor called "Clown Fearless". But since the name has been in use for decades by now, it's pretty much impossible to update.
• The Woobie:
  • Though it's obviously never brought up on panel, there is legitimate horror in Huey, Dewey, and Louie's backstories. They were abandoned by their mother on Donald's doorstep, to be raised by their generally well-meaning but somewhat questionable uncle. And if you throw DuckTales in as canon, Donald himself abandons them. Glimpses of the future suggest he never returns, and he's not mentioned again after the second season premiere. At the very least, one imagines a great deal of therapy in their future.
  • Reginella. Every time she appears it looks like she'll be finally able to stay with Donald... And then, right at her happiest, something forces their separation again.
• Woolseyism: The French translation of those stories replaces the Meaningful Names of most of the cast by various vastly different names (some of them being puns or portmanteau words), which are as meaningful (if not more) as the original ones. For instance:^note Donald Duck is a notable aversion, as he is one of the few majors characters to retain his original name
  • Scrooge McDuck becomes Balthazar Picsou ("Balthazar Penny-Thief").
  • Flintheart Glomgold becomes Archibald Gripsou ("Archibald Penny-Pincher").
  • John D. Rockerduck becomes John Flairsou or Crésus Flairsou depending on the translator ("John Penny-Sniffer" / "Croesus Penny-Sniffer").
  • Gyro Gearloose becomes Géo Trouvetou ("Geo Find-Everything" or "Geo Discover-Everything").
  • The Beagle Boys become Les Rapetou ("Those Who Steal Everything").
  • Professor Ludwig Von Drake becomes Professeur Donald Dingue ("Professor Donald Mad").
  • Paperinik becomes Fantomiald (portemanteau of "Fantôme" and Donald; "Fantôme" is French for "Ghost").
  • Magica De Spell becomes Miss Tick.
  • Gladstone Gander becomes Gontran Bonheur ("Gontran Happiness").
  • In Scandinavia, the cast gets different names that are mostly just direct translations of their English names. Norway is the only exception, as almost the entire cast goes by the same names, only pronounced differently. The straight examples are Huey, Dewey and Louie (Ole, Dole and Doffen) and the Beagle Boys (B-gjengen, lit. The B-Gang).

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