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Rewatching DuckTales! It’s the season one finale! Episode 65, “Til Nephews Do Us Part,” is famous for having tons of cameos of characters from past episodes. But does it work a conclusion to everything the show has done up to this point?

What’s all this, then? How is 65 episodes a season? The way these syndicated Monday-through-Friday cartoons worked is that they were produced as a 65-episode package and sent out to affiliates all over the country to air as they saw fit. The 65 episodes was just enough for 13 weeks, allowing the networks to air the entire season beginning to end four times in one year. This was standard for TV animation in the 80s, but the distribution of DuckTales is about to get really weird after this.

Here’s what happens: Huey, Dewey and Louie are excited to join Scrooge on expedition to find the lost relics of Malaysia. The relics are on protected land, however, so Scrooge plots to buy the land. This puts him in negotiations with rival millionaire Millionara Vanderbucks. She doesn’t accept his offer, but she does invite him to dinner. Scrooge is smitten, losing interest in his search for the relics. As the two continue to hit it off, the kids grow mistrustful of Millionara. When she’s alone, Millionara monologues about how the romance is a ruse, and she’s really after Scrooge’s fortune.

Scrooge proposes to Millionara (a “merger” as he calls it), and then the nephews and Webby overhear Millionara talking about her scheme. Millionara also plans to send the kids away to school and to fire Mrs. Beakely, so she has Scrooge all to herself. Everybody convinces Scrooge to resume his quest for the lost relics. Scrooge sees this as an opportunity for a wedding gift for Millionara, while the boys use the adventure to pull pranks on Millionara and split up the couple. The pranks backfire, putting Millionara in danger. Scrooge rescues her heroically, and their bond grows stronger.

All of Duckburg shows up for the big wedding. There are some subplots about the Beagle Boys sneaking into the wedding, and best man Donald Duck dropping the ring down a sewer grate and chasing after it. Just before saying “I do,” it finally dawns on Scrooge that Millionara is only after him for his money. Then Scrooge’s ex, Glittering Goldie, shows up with a shotgun. Jealous, she chases Scrooge out of the wedding.

Humbug: My thesis is that the series-long arc of DuckTales is Scrooge learning that his family is more important than his fortune. This season finale goes against that in a big way. Every other line of dialogue is some joke about how rich he is. The big wedding takes place in a bank instead of a church, the bouquets are dollar bills instead of flower, and so on. There’s some talk about the nephews not wanting to be split up, but act 3 of the episode is all about saving Scrooge’s money, and not his family.

Junior woodchucks: One of the nephews’ pranks is switch Millionara’s mosquito repellent with a mosquito attractor. How is that a thing?

Fasten your seatbelts: Launchpad joins everyone for the search for the relics (which they never find) and later uses his helicopter to dump rice all over the outside of the wedding.

Maid and maiden: Millionara threatens to send Webby to finishing school, to which Webby responds “I don’t want to be finished!” That’s an interesting glimpse into her character.

In the Navy: This is Donald Duck’s final appearance in DuckTales. As the mid-80s became the late-80s, Disney was picking up steam on a lot of new animated content that would become the big Disney Renaissance, so perhaps Donald was considered too valuable of an IP for daytime TV.

Great gadgeteer: Gyro shows up at the wedding with a rice-throwing machine. It throws the rice in Donald’s face, which is what causes Donald to lose Scrooge’s ring.

Fowl fouls: Little is known about Millionara, and her only motivation is pure greed. At one point, she’s described as the “world’s wealthiest woman,” which makes me wonder why Scrooge has never heard of her before this.

Down in Duckburg: Cameos! Knowing this was the last episode of the season (or ever?) the animators went nuts filling the background at the wedding with characters from past episodes. This includes main characters like Doofus, Glomgold, and Magica, semi-regular characters like Gladstone Gander and the guys from the Explorers Club, and tons of one-off characters from previous episodes. The Disney Wiki has the whole list if you want to bother.

Reference row: Millionara Vanderbucks is of course a parody of the Vanderbilt family, once America’s wealthiest family. After making a fortune in railroads, the Vanderbilts got even richer with a number of other businesses. They famously lived in a group of mansions along Fifth Street in Manhattan. While there are still a lot of Vanderbilts around today, their empire isn’t what it once was. In terms of DuckTales, remember that Webby’s last name is Vanderquack. Distant relatives?

Thoughts on this viewing: Because of all the cameos, I’m assuming this was always intended to the season one wrap-up. But it’s all just corny jokes, without any of the character themes or sense of adventure that the best DuckTales episodes have to offer. If the series had ended here, that would’ve been a disappointment. The good news is, there’s more DuckTales to come, with new characters, a spinoff in the works, and even a movie!

Next: Clan of the cave duck.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!

Rewatching DuckTales! Things are getting spooky (but not really) in episode 64, “Ducky Horror Picture Show.” It’s just a jump to the left…

Here’s what happens: Scrooge owns a movie theater, and he is hosting a marathon of classic monster films. He tells his nephews that despite everything he’s seen on his adventures, the movie monsters aren’t real. He’s also rececently purchased an old mansion with hopes of turning it into a new convention center. A private club with be the mansion’s first guests. Turns out this club is secretly Monsters Unanimous, including the vampire Count Drakeula, Quackenstein’s monster, the Bride of Quackenstein, a wolfman (wolfduck?) a hunchback, the blob, and more.

The monsters’ convention is really a big party. The run wild around Duckburg, with the whole city believing they are actors promoting Scrooge’s movie marathon. Scrooge knows the truth about them and wants them to leave because of all the destruction their partying has caused. The situation is complicated by the arrival of a giant ape, Ping Kong, who intends to climb the highest building in Duckburg – Scrooge’s money bin!

Despite Kong’s rampage, the police and Duckburg residents insist that it’s all a movie promotion. The monsters then show up at the movie theater to protest how monsters are depicted in movies. When the monsters discover that movie fans love them rather than fear them, they no longer feel the need to live in secret. Scrooge and the monster set up a live show where people can come see them in person. This allows Scrooge to pay for all the damage and still make a profit, and it gives the monsters a happy ending.

Humbug: We learn Scrooge’s three rules of hotel management: 1) The customer is always right. 2) Courtesy is good business. 3) The bigger the baggage, the bigger the tip.

Junior woodchucks: At the movies, Huey and Dewey are terrified of the monsters, but Louie is fascinated by them, wishing they were real. You’d think would come up again at the end of the episode, but nope.

Maid and maiden: Mrs. Beakeley shows up as a maid at the new convention center, and there’s a funny bit where she’s cast in the Fay Wray role for the giant ape in the live show.

Foul fowls: Because the point of the episode is that monsters are just like everyone else, the actual antagonist of the story is the Duckburg cop who refuses to do anything because he doesn’t believe the monsters are real.

Down in Duckburg: Scrooge’s movie theater is called the Scroogerama Dome, and it’s making a profit showing classic films rather than new ones.

Reference row: The great Universal monsters are the big sandbox this episode plays in, and I suspect the creators are also paying homage to the 1967 cult classic Mad Monster Party, which has a similar premise. And do I really have to tell you what the episode title refers to?

Thoughts on this viewing: The big selling point here is not monsters, but monster puns. They are constant throughout the episode. The moral of “those who are different have thoughts and feelings just like you” is pretty heavy-handed, but it’s a kids show.

Next: Changing of the seasons.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Reach for the Kleenex, because issue #502 is a real tearjerker – with a little time travel on the side.

Poor Franklin is suffering trauma after Dr. Doom trapped him a hell-world a few issues back. Sue and Ben took him to Coney Island to cheer him up, only for him to lash out at a crowd of the FF’s fans. Meanwhile Johnny grabbed a gun and took Reed back in time to find a young, pre-evil Dr. Doom. At Coney Island, Ben scares off the crowd by pretending to be the Hulk (!). Then he and Sue sit down for a heart-to-heart chat with Franklin that takes up most of this issue. Franklin accuses Sue and Ben of not coming to save him right away, and instead leaving him in the hell-world. We see things from Franklin’s point-of-view, and it looks like he’s still in the hell-world, surrounded by demons and fire.

In “20th century Europe” Johnny, Reed, and baby Valeria spy on young Victor Von Doom, who is on a picnic with his girlfriend, also named Valeria. Johnny takes the baby and hands Reed the gun. Reed reflects on all the evil Doom has caused over the years, including the recent unremovable scars on Reed’s face. He ponders how it will never happen if he pulls the trigger. But then he can’t bring himself to do it. Johnny admits he knew Reed wouldn’t change history, and that this exercise was to help Reed not keep his anger bottled up. Johnny says that if Reed lets Doom’s actions get to him, then Doom wins. Reed says, “You’re right,” and he then raises the gun and fires.

Sue apologizes for not rescuing Franklin sooner, and she says there’s nothing she wouldn’t do protect him. As she talks, she expands her powers to turn everything around them invisible, to where she, Franklin, and Ben are standing in what looks like an empty white field. Ben steps in with a little more realism, saying that Franklin will never be safe. He says Franklin is smart enough to know he won’t always be safe, and that’s what’s scaring him, more than the hell-world.   

In old-timey Europe, Reed’s shot just barely misses young Doom’s head. Young Doom acts a lot like current-day Doom, swearing vengeance on whoever fired at him. He and his Valeria run off. Johnny chides Reed on potentially violating the space-time continuum, but Reed says he knows exactly what he was doing. Reed finds a tuft of Doom’s hair that he burned off in his attack. “I have plans in mind,” Reed says as he, Johnny, and the baby return to the present.

The heart-to-heart talk continues. Sue tells Franklin that Ben grew up in the toughest neighborhood in New York, and he learned that there are no guarantees in life, but that doesn’t mean you have to be miserable. Ben talks about how he used to be a hotshot football star and test pilot, and all that is gone now he’s trapped in his monstrous, rocky body. He says that even though he was dealt a bad hand, he had Reed, Sue and Johnny looking after him. “I didn’t haf’ta cash in my chips,” he says, “’cause what keeps ya in the fame are the good cards.”

Ben further says that he could have lived his new life in seclusion but instead he became an explorer, seeing other worlds and the depths of the ocean. “I wouldn’t trade my life for all the safety there is.” He talks about the day Franklin was born, when the FF were in battle against Annihilus and they didn’t know if Franklin would live. Ben further says that there are days he backslides, but he knows he has friends and family to remind him that tomorrow can always be better. As Ben speaks, the images of the demons and fire fade away, and Franklin tells Sue he feels better.

Later, we learn Franklin is on the road to recovery, sleeping through the night and showing an interest in ordinary kid things again. Reed experiments on the tuft of hair taken from Doom, and Franklin sits by a window, watching the city outside. Ben writes in his journal, “I don’t know that we’ll ever be the same. But maybe that’s okay.”

Unstable molecule: Reed at first aims through a scope to shoot at Doom, but then he shoots from the hip when he actually fires the gun. Reed’s near-perfect aim should be added to his skill set.

Fade out: This is the first (only?) time we’ve seen Sue turn absolutely everything invisible. An impressive use of her powers, but probably not practical.

Clobberin’ time: Ben says his rocky body means that he can’t be with women, but he’s had quite a few romances over the years. His on-again off-again with Alicia is most well-known, but there was Sharon Ventura and Thundra, and flirtations that were almost relationships with Alyssa Foy, Bounty, and Kathleen O’Meara of Damage Control.

Flame on: Johnny impersonates Reed for his rant about not screwing with the space-time continuum, in the argument that it’s exactly the sort of thing Reed would say.

Four and a half: The issue ends with Franklin showing an interest in basketball. He’s not normally shown as being a sports-loving kid, but it’s probably more about him wanting to get out and about and interact with others, etc.

Our gal Val: Johnny is depicted holding the baby with one arm and his other arm flamed on. This doesn’t appear to have generated any controversy, though. I guess it’s understood by this point that Johnny has enough control of his power that Valeria is in no danger.

Commercial break: This one lived up to the hype.

Trivia time: When Ben retells the story of Franklin’s birth, he mentions Annihilus and another monster. That second monster is one of the borers, Annihilus’ henchmonsters at the time. The borers later reappeared in an issue of Defenders, and that was it for them in Marvel continuity. Somebody at Marvel should bring them back.

Fantastic or frightful? I imagine a lot of readers will dismiss this issue as too sappy and sentimental, and I can see that. But its heart is in the right place. A good message about healing through connecting with other people – the right other people, at least. Reed’s subplot, of course, sets some intrigue for the near future.

Next: Have fun storming the castle.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!

Rewatching DuckTales! After checking in with Donald Duck’s Navy adventures last week, we’re with him again this week in episode 63, “All Ducks on Deck.”

Here’s what happens: He’s visiting the mansion, regaling Huey, Dewey and Louie with exaggerated tales of his heroism. Donald, Scrooge, and Launchpad leave to drop off Donald, after which Scrooge and Launchpad have “other business.” When Donald leaves his duffel bag behind, the boys hide inside it to become stowaways.  

Cut to Cat Island, where would-be world conqueror the Phantom Blot has subjected the locals. He calls his co-conspirator Agent X. On board Donald’s ship, the nephews are quick to discover that Donald’s stories of heroism are fabricated, and that he’s really a put-upon klutz. They plot to secretly help Donald earn some medals. Scrooge and Launchpad travel to Cat Island to check on Scrooge’s fishing fleet, which has been out of contact for weeks. They get captured by the Phantom Blot.

The boys’ schemes to help Donald backfire, so the reveal to him that they snuck aboard the ship. We learn that there’s an invisible jet (!) on board the ship. It’s stolen by Donald’s fellow sailor Ensign Plover, who was really Agent X all along. He steals the jet and takes to Cat Island. Scrooge and Launchpad manage an escape from their cell. They defeat the Phantom Blot with help from Scrooge’s fishermen. They then fly the invisible jet back to Donald’s ship. The ship experiences a power failure, and it’s Donald who comes up with the idea to light Launchpad’s way with flare guns. He doesn’t get a real medal for his efforts, so the nephews give him one they made.

Humbug: To escape from the Phantom Blot’s cell, Scrooge goes full MacGyver by whipping up a fishing rod out of his and the other prisoners’ pocket scraps to pull a lever and free themselves.  

Junior woodchucks: The boys’ attempts to make Donald look like a hero include a remote-control fake shark for him to fight, and a radio device that will guarantee Donald’s missile will its target no matter what. Except then Admiral Grimitz spots the device and puts in his back pocket, setting up a comedy explosion.

Fasten your seatbelts: Launchpad does a pretty good flying the invisible jet, considering that he cannot see any of the controls. He does mistake the canopy opening for the ejector seats though.

In the Navy: Donald’s responsibilities aboard his ship are all over the place. He’s put to work swabbing the deck and peeling potatoes, and he also gets a turn at practice-firing missiles at a drone.

Fowl fouls: The Phantom Blot is an old-school Disney character. Rather than originate from the Carl Barks Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics, the Phantom Blot was a villain in the classic Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. This is his only appearance in DuckTales.

Down in Duckburg: Donald the boys use Scrooge’s desk to play aircraft carrier, which angers Scrooge but amuses Launchpad.

Reference row: The Phantom Blot compares himself to Captain Hook, Darth Vader, and Dr. Doom, three characters all now owned by Disney. He also quotes “I’m mean, I’m mean, you know what I mean,” a song lyric from the 1980 Popeye movie, referencing the villain Bluto.

Thoughts on this viewing: The episode is more interested in slapstick comedy than in the adventure, so the invisible jet plot gets introduced very late in the story. Similarly, the Phantom Blot is a nice over-the-top villain, yet he’s in and out of the episode pretty quick. It’s an amusing episode, but it could have been a lot bigger and better.

Next: It’s just a jump to the left.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We all love superhero battles, but what do the characters go through in the days following a superhero battle? That’s the question in issue #501. Also, guest artist Casey Jones (not the Ninja Turtle guy, I’m assuming) fills in for Mike Wieringo.

The previous issue was an all-out battle with Dr. Doom to rescue Franklin from an evil hell-world. The FF won in the end, but not without cost – the least of which is Doom mangling Reed’s face to Reed will forever be reminded of him. This issue begins revealing that Franklin hasn’t spoken since his rescue, writing “Things are bad” in his journal. A doctor visits, and says Reed won’t be able to come up with a scientific miracle cure this time. Franklin’s road to well-being will take patience.

Franklin’s not the only one. We see that Johnny was burned by hellfire last issue, which can hurt him in ways that an earthly fire cannot. Johnny asks why Reed can’t use his powers to reshape the scarring on his face, and Reed answers that the scars contain nerve damage, making it impossible to stretch them. He adds that his stretchy powers make conventional cosmetic surgery similarly impossible. Ben hangs out alone in his room, and we see that damage on his rocky skin left over from the battle.

Later, Sue takes Franklin out for a fun day Coney Island, in hopes of getting Franklin to come out of his shell. Ben joins them, with Sue keeping him invisible the whole time so they don’t attract attention. After some fun slapstick with invisible Ben bumbling around, Sue worries that Reed is going to obsess over what Doom has done to them all.

At the new Baxter Building, Reed is doing just that. Johnny makes a pretense of cleaning up the place after the battle, grabbing a laser gun and setting off Doom’s old time machine, still inside Reed’s lab after all these years. Reed, Johnny, and baby Valeria travel through the time machine to years earlier, in Hungary. They find young Victyor von Doom, having a picnic with his love, Valeria. (No, not the baby. The original Valeria the baby was named after.) Johnny arms the laser rifle, suggesting that they take out Doom there, in the past, before Doom becomes evil.

Back at Coney Island, some jerk tries to hit on Sue, so she turns Ben visible to scare him off. When the rest of crowd realizes it’s Ben and Sue, a crowd surrounds them and asks for autographs. Franklin loses it. He swings punches at the fans and he finally speaks, yelling “Get the **** away from us!”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed says he’s not accompanying the family to Coney Island, not because he’s embarrassed by his scars, but because his new face frightens his own son. Dark stuff, dude.

Fade out: Although concerned about Franklin, Sue agrees to sign autographs for the fans, calling it “two minutes of P.R.”

Clobberin’ time: Ben tries to ride the Ferris wheel at Coney Island, but he’s too heavy for it. Remember that our old friend The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition, Ben weighs 500 pounds.

Flame on: I’m unclear on the nature of Johnny’s injuries. He spends the first part of the issue wearing a high-tech cast over one arm, then later he’s walking around in a crutch without the cast.

Four and a half: In addition to writing cryptic things in his journal, Franklin is also drawing pictures of what he saw in the hell-world. We don’t see the drawings, but they unsettle his family.

Our gal Val: It’s an odd choice to have baby Valeria come along on the time travel adventure. I guess no one was available to babysit.

Commercial break: Gross.

Trivia time: Coney Island is a favorite locale for superhero battles in the Marvel Universe, going all the way back to 1940s Captain America and Human Torch comics (that’s the WWII android Human Torch, not Johnny). Spider-Man and Captain America appear to have visited Coney Island the most, and Iron Man had his official headquarters at Coney Island for a time. Coney Island even has its own group of villains, the Coney Island Cruisers, led by the man known only as… Bobo.   

Reed warns against Johnny going back in time to mess with Davy Crockett again. Johnny’s unseen adventure with Davy Crockett was last referenced in vol. 3 #60.

Speaking of which, how does the new Baxter Building have Dr. Doom’s old time machine? I think of two possibilities. One is that when Noah Baxter and his team made the building, they used their science genius to recreate the time machine. The other is that when the Watcher saved some of the FF’s personal items from the destruction of the original Baxter Building, he also saved the time machine for some reason.

Fantastic or frightful? Despite some humorous moments, this issue takes a pretty deep look at all the emotional weight these characters are carrying around, and the extremes they’re going through to deal with it. A lot of superhero comics skip over this stuff in favor of kicking off another adventure, but I like the occasional “what they do in their down time” story.

Next: Heart to heart.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!

Rewatching DuckTales! Time for adventure on the high seas as the series goes full Red October in episode sixty-two, “Spies in Their Eyes.”

Here’s what happens: We catch up with Donald Duck, who is accompanying Admiral Grimitz in testing out a new experimental submarine. He’s also meeting up with Scrooge and the nephews while his ship is in Singapore. There’s also international espionage afoot as Donald is being followed by femme fatale Cinnamon Teal, who wants info on the sub. We learn that Scrooge secretly funded the new sub, and he too wants info on its performance.

Cinnamon uses her powers of hypnosis to mesmerize Donald. Under her control, he steals the computer for the sub and returns it, getting spotted by the security cameras. Cinnamon makes it so that he doesn’t remember any of this. Donald is arrested by the Navy, and Cinnamon turns the computer over to another to another villain, Victor. Scrooge and boys refuse to believe Donald is a spy, so they investigate. Scrooge confronts Cinnamon, who isn’t all that bad, it turns out. Victor was blackmailing her, so she and Scrooge decide to work together.

Scrooge and Cinnamon go to Grimitz where she demonstrates her hypnosis powers, proving Donald innocent. Victor then uses the computer to steal the submarine. Hoping to make matters right, Donald sneaks aboard the sub. Victor fires on Grimitz’s ship, but Scrooge lures the torpedoes away with a speedboat. Then it’s Cinnamon, and not Donald, who stops Victor by hypnotizing him through the sub’s periscope. Donald destroys what he thinks are his court-marital papers, only to learn he instead accidentally ripped up Scrooge’s contract to build more submarines.

Humbug: As a seasoned adventurer, Scrooge is prepared for Cinnamon’s hypnosis powers. He’s quick to put on a pair of anti-hypnosis sunglasses before she can try her tricks on him.

Junior Woodchucks: While at the Cloak and Dagger Club, which is filled with spies, the nephews get into the spy game in a big way. They get money for dishing out information, and then getting that money taken away for other information.

In the Navy: There are a few lines of dialogue stating that Donald’s Navy service has actually helped him become a more competent, self-confident person. But, he’s still not the one who saves the day at the end.

Foul fowls: It’s unclear what Victor wants, exactly. As soon he gets control of the submarine, his first move is to attack the U.S. Navy singlehandedly. I guess he’s less of a spy and more of a trigger-happy madman.

Reference row: Victor’s full name is Victor Luzer, which would seem to be a parody of Victor Laszlo from Casablanca. But he doesn’t anything like the Casablanca guy, unless that movie had a blackmailing/hypnosis subplot I don’t remember.

Thoughts on this viewing: I liked all spy movie parody gags in this, and I’m always up for some submarine action. Unfortunately, the Singapore setting means a lot of massively unfortunate Asian stereotypes. And I remain perplexed about how this is supposed a spotlight episode for Donald, only for the other characters to save the day in the end.

Next: Blot it out.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!