Disney Longbox Reviews Donald Duck #14

To hype up the release of Duck Avenger in August,we have another early story featuring him (Well not really….. You’ll see later), IDW has decided to release the sequel story to the origin of Duck Avenger once again drawn by Italian Disney artist Romano Scarpa. Let’s get started shall we ?

THE REVENGE OF THE DUCK AVENGER

FIRST PUBLISHED IN TOPOLINO #473 (1970)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:ITALY

FIRST TIME PUBLISHED IN NORTH AMERICA

 

Donald Duck visits Gyro Gearloose to see if he managed to repair his car (Old 313), but this is more than just a paint job. Gyro has outfitted the vehicle with numerous gadgets to help him out of traffic jams, stealth and hover over obstacles to the suprise of some nearby bulls.

After the joyride,the boys soon return to the Duck Avenger lair where Gyro showcases the other enhancements he made including a crank to make stairs to go beneath the woodshed.

As Donald talks about who he would use the Duck Avenger persona against, Gyro then takes a dose of his latest invention, Coco-NoNo to help him keep the Duck Avenger identity safe by erasing his memory.

After Gyro leaves, Scrooge arrives to give Donald some more work at cheap labor but soon finds that he is not around and decides to sit on his front porch until his stubborn nephew shows up to some comedic effect.

Donald decides to prank Scrooge in order to be rid of him by faking a Beagle Boy prank call as he soon decides to go raid the Fantomallard mansion for some more Duck Avenger items before anyone else finds them.

He soon finds the Duck Avenger standing amidst the rubble ( See what I meant) but it turns out to only be Gladstone Gander in disguise with Daisy on their way to a costume party.

Donald soon learns that Daisy had planned to go with him,but due to his being absent in the last few days, asked Gladstone instead. Scrooge came over earlier to ask for help with organizing a charity costume ball. Frustrated, Donald refuses to help them and gets himself banned from the ball.

Donald soon decides to return home and plan his revenge on the gang by crashing the party as Duck Avenger with the Coco-NoNos at his disposal. Want to see what happens next ? You will have to come back to Disney Longbox Reviews next month Im afraid since its a two-parter.

COOKIE CAPERS

FIRST PUBLISHED IN ANDERS OND #28 (2011)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: ICELAND

FIRST TIME PUBLISHED IN NORTH AMERICA

In our second story, the nephews are hoping to sell Junior Woodchucks cookies to Donald so they can go to Fizzyland. But Donald is a little pre-occupied with ridding his lawn of dandelions while bickering about how Jones’ yard is always squeaky clean of the pests. Donald suggests to go sell some to Jones rather than bully their own uncle.

Jones starts pestering the nephews,reminding them they had a baseball through his window, a kite in his tree and their dog in his yard. He yells he would never buy cookies from them which infuriates Donald which of course you realize this means war.

Donald soon goes over to Jones with his irresistible sales pitch which soon fails due to Jones refusing to buy cookies from a duck. Donald then threatens to fill his yard full of dandelions but Jones dumps some cod oil all over Donald,bringing out the nearby alley cats to go after Donald.

Donald soon dons a familiar costume despite the nephews wanting to go sell cookies elsewhere as he pretends to be a rich miser wanting to buy cookies as Jones decides to trick him in return.

As Jones was about to buy the cookies from the nephews to re-sell to the old man, another Woodchuck troop soon shows him having heard Donald’s cries. Donald is soon forced to buy cookies from Troop B to avoid blowing his cover. Donald soon ends up buying 600$ worth of cookies which attracts the local news van.

The news asks Donald to eat one of the cookies for a shot. He ends up swallowing some of his fake beard and spits it out as it makes the cookies seem awful to the shock of the Woodchucks and the happiness of Jones.

How will Donald get himself out of this one and make it up to the Woodchucks ? Read on for yourself dear readers.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

REVENGE OF THE DUCK AVENGER: 

I have been a fan of Duck Avenger since I was a kid,having read his stories in France’s Mickey Parade (They were sold in Ontario and Quebec until recently), I always knew him as Fantomiald and PK from the 2002 video game.

While I have been reading the early stories courtesy of IDW, I must say I am not a fan of these early stories since Donald just uses the identity to do revenge schemes against people he hates. He is not quite the superhero we will know and love later on.

This issue dosen’t have the Duck Avenger in it as he will be featured in the second part instead, this part could have been skimmed down in order to fit both parts as one larger story.

COOKIE CAPERS:

This is the story that made the issue for me, the writing for this makes it really feel like it could have been one of the theatrical Donald Duck shorts from the 1940’s.

Jones is the perfect foil for Donald since it reminds me of Pete from the 1953 short Donald’s Neighbour. He can easily outsmart Donald without trying, seeing through his disguises.

Like the shorts, Donald dosen’t come out victorious and remains miserable due to his plan backfiring on him in such an elaborate and big way.

CREDITS:

WRITERS: GUIDO MARTINA ( STORY 1) KNUT NAERUM ( STORY 2)

ARTISTS: ROMANO SCARPA ( STORY 1) DAAN JIIPES ( STORY 2)

EDITOR: SARAH GAYDOS

ARCHIVES EDITOR: DAVID GERSTEIN

PUBLISHER: IDW AND DISNEY COMICS