In which Disney Weirdness takes a look at a recent-ish comic book
I have been eagerly purchasing all of the Marvel Disney books as they are released, and then stacking them up in a pile and not reading them. After consulting with the learned members of the esteemed Feathery Society, I decided to jump in with what is considered by experts to be the best of the lot, Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime.
Let's start with the positives: The book looks fantastic. Marvel wisely decided to treat this book as an Italy showcase, with art from Paolo Mottura, Francesco D'ippolito, Lucio De Giuseppe, Alessandro Pastrovicchio, Vitale Mangiatordi, and Giada Perissinotto. If the intent behind this book was to showcase what the Disney Italia artists are capable of, then mission accomplished. If this book causes some teenage kid to check out PKNA or Double Duck or the Disney Originals series, it counts as a success.
The first appearance of Uncle Scrooge, "Christmas on Bear Mountain," which you already have in your collection, is included as a bonus story, for historical context and also (one assumes) to entice readers to check out Fantagraphics' Carl Barks Library series, and also to pad out the page count.
So it's a good-looking comic, what's the problem? The problem is Jason Aaron.
Aaron is a superhero writer, and a great one. But he isn't quite as comfortable in Duckburg as he is on Earth-616 or Bizzaro World or whatever. In the introduction piece, Aaron writes that his introduction into Duck comics was through Don Rosa's "Son of the Sun" and "Guardians of the Lost Library." Don Rosa, as much as we love him, is an atypical Duck scribe, in that his stories are continuity-heavy, meticulously researched, and reference deep cut comic book lore in a way that puts Roy Thomas to shame. That stuff is catnip to superhero fans.
Aaron's imagined audience for this comic is a Marvel Comics reader who is dipping his webbed toes into Disney Comics for the first time. Fittingly, it's a slam-bang action fest that pulls Uncle Scrooges from all over the (ugh) Multiverse to battle the Lord of Dimes (Scrooge, but evil).
It's an Infinity Gauntlet, a Secret Wars, a Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Which is fine, if that's your thing.
If you have a teenage nephew or someone else in your life who is super into superheroes, they ought to like this. Hardcore Duck fans like us might bristle at Donald the berserker
but if you are only familiar with the animated cartoons you won't care.
SO overall, this ins't a bad comic. The story is fun for what it is, and the art looks great. Here's hoping the next one will strike a better balance between action and humor.
