"The Dazzling Duck She-Venger"

 See?  I can do non-Western stories.  Just try me!  This, from 1973, seemed like a good story to do.  Right, so, just to make sure we're all on the same page: Guido Martina and Elisa Penna introduced Donald's superhero alter-ego Paperinik (Duck Avenger) in 1969 (I don't know who did what, and Martina seems to have helmed the character solo for quite a while, but I didn't want to forget about Penna).  I say "superhero" advisedly: one of the main things about the character is that, in his original appearances, he doesn't do anything heroic; he just uses his powers to indulge his petty grievances against his relatives.  That IS actually a pretty funny joke--but it's rather limited, and frankly Donald is such a jerk that they can be a little grueling to read, so it's no surprise that eventually he became more of a straightforward good guy (actually, it's possible that as of that third story, he was starting that transformation, as he IS a bit more sympathetic there--though that might just be a non-standard devitation; no later stories have been published in English, so I don't know).  I was never a big fan of these, but on rereading them in preparation for this entry, I realized that taken in moderation, I did find them fairly amusing, in an antisocial sort of way.  Probably best read while a bit drunk.

(This is from the second DA comic, and no, it's not clear why they're both hopping)

I think maybe part of the appeal of the character was that--as many or all of you will know--Martina always depicted Donald as downtrodden, especially by his raging dickhead of an uncle, so seeing him get some payback (he wins out in all of these first three stories, at any rate) might be cathartic.  Fair enough.

So before we get started, I'm going to tell you what I think, because I feel like it would be awkward to try to dance around it.  The question people ask about this story: "is it feminist?"  But I don't think that's the right question.  Don't get me wrong, it's definitely something we're going to talk about, but it's not the central point.  I think we fall into a trap with a story like this: we see some feminist or anti-feminist trappings, and therefore we prime ourselves to think of the story in those terms.  But those are big ol' red herrings.  Presumably Martina perceived that feminism was gaining traction and wanted to include some of its trappings in his story, but fundamentally, this is the same thing as those previous Paperinik stories.  As I wrote above, Donald as DA "just uses his powers to indulge his petty grievances against his relatives."  Well, here's the same thing, only with Daisy.  The story becomes A LOT more coherent when you consider it in those terms.  The very vague feminist trappings are just window dressing, and they don't play out or resolve in any coherent way.  

(I suppose in a more general way, we could see it as feminist purely in a "see? women can abuse their power and be obnoxious JUST as well as men!" way, which...well, true, but probably not what anyone was looking for.)

You can see what I mean right from the start.  Here's a familiar setup that is going to have a familiar interruption...

Now, you might be tempted to think, hey, why does this allegedly-feminist story open with this extremely hoary low-grade sitcom-style misogyny?  Well, that's because it's not mean to be "feminist" in that way.  It's still a little odd--isn't this story supposed to be from Daisy's perspective?  Why are we just getting Donald here at the start?  But there it is.

Wimmin be talking.  They're famous for it.

Now: it IS definitely true that Scrooge (and Donald, but mainly Scrooge) DO act sexist in this story to an extent that's clearly intentional.  But also, it really doesn't feel a lot different from the kind of free-floating sexism you'd expect in any ol' story of this provinence.

Also, I DO have to point out that someone involved in this localization seems to be under the misapprehension that "mano a mano" means "man to man."  Or else Scrooge believes that.  Or else it's immaterial; it is just there because of what it SOUNDS like, in a hermetic sort of way.  In any case...

Scrooge's dismissive attitude towards her is, I hate to say it, positively Trumpian.  Really one of the most unpleasant things I've seen in a Disney comic.  AND YET, Daisy's "we duck women" line is also clearly being played for laughs, so what are we even doing?

Of course. one unknown unknown is to what extent the translation slants the story in a particular way.  I mean, that "those backwards boys" line is clearly one of those examples I mentioned earlier of the trappings of feminism, but was it something like that in the original, or does the English version make more of a point of that?  I could not say.

And I genuinely can't tell whether that "her office is so far and Donald was my ride" line is meant to be like "ho ho, she thinks she's so independent, and yet she is reliant on a man for transportation!"  Clearly an idiotic sentiment, if that's what we're going for.

Um.  I also can't tell how pointed it's meant to be that immediately after asserting her independence, she flirts her way into a ride.  Yeesh.

But anyway, HERE'S an undeniable joke about the irrationality of womankind.  I don't know; it might get a bit repetitive, to just monotonously catalogue all these instances.  I mean, they are what they are.  They're not hard to interpret.

Just because I like words, I do enjoy the series of adjectives in the top right.  Was there something like that in the original?  Possibly, but probably a bit toned down from this.

And we have some sort of low-level gagetry stuff, like a pill to poison your enemies with.  Wait, what?

...oh.  Still sounds to me like poison, though.

Yes.  And even though this story is theoretically about Daisy, we still have Scrooge being an abusive dick to Donald, as in most Martina duck stories.  Maybe we need the proviso that, although this is MEANT to be a distaff version of a Duck Avenger story, Martina isn't really doing a great job at that, hence all this irrelevant shit.

And beyond that, way more of it is from Donald's perspective than you'd think.  Has this ever happened in reverse?  Daisy taking over part of a DA story?  I wish more of that seventies stuff would be translated so I could verify.  Time for a new Duck Avenger Disney Masters book, I'd say.

Also, he kind of comes across as more of a sexist dick here than he ever does dealing with Daisy.

But he gets comeuppance for that, so I still feel the eventual punishment Daisy's gonna wreak on him isn't even karmically justified (if we're trying "justify" any of this, which is probably a futile thing to do).

One thing I will say in favor of this story: not that these crime-trio characters are particularly, uh, characterized, or have much to do, but they do have a kind of groovy swinging-sixties vibe about them that I enjoy.

The usual kind of thing...

Right, so to rephrase that: if you don't help us, we will murder you and your girlfriend.  I mean,  understand that "wring your necks" is supposed to make it sound a bit softer, but I think what they're really saying is easy enough for anyone to understand (or are we just meant to think of Homer strangling Bart?).  I'm glad the translation was able to get away with that, but also a little bit surprised.

And the reason Daisy wants to wreak vengeance on Donald?  Because she thinks he's cheating on her.  Which, to be fair, that WAS kinda what he was initially going for with the crime woman, but hasn't he suffered enough now?  Well, okay, maybe he hasn't.  You be the judge!  Still, I don't love the fact that she does this sort of obvious conclusion-jumping-to.

...I'm not sure that's what it's about.  Another red herring.  I mean, I like her costume fine, I guess.  It first appeared in the second DA story, in which she was wearing it to a costume ball.

Just LOOK at the fashion of young people of today!  I feel like that line is intentionally naff, and in that sense I enjoy it.

Anyway, some spyjinx occur.  She tranquilizes this dog.

...and, she gets caught.  Well, Donald as Duck Avenger has his share of screw-ups too.

Is it hilarious?  Is it even a joke?  Are we even positive which speech balloon she's actually responding to?  Are these all questions?

This is nitpicking horribly, but if that's meant to be French, I do not think you want that diacritical there.

Anyway, there's a bunch of stuff with her spying about as Donald looks on haplessly.  I suppose that's as much as you get from this story, girl-power-wise.

Yes, the story does make it  clear that they're not actually dead, but DAMN does that image of them being exploded go hard.  Frightful!

Donald is really doing himself no favors here: "she bashed me with a car boot and pointed a gun at me" seems like it would be, really, a better answer in every way, if he doesn't want to be in the doghouse.  But...I dunno; then it might be hard to justify Daisy being a dick to him, not that it's always necessary to justify such things.

I mean, this isn't even superhero-related; it's just being a reaaaaal asshole.  I mean, look, if you think Donald kind of just deserves to be punished for the ambient sexism that's apparent in a lot of stories like this, fine.  Seeing Donald's id run rampant is kind of the point of Duck Avenger stories, so why not  give Daisy a chance?  But man.  I'm just really not impressed.

Do we like the fact that Scrooge is brandishing a stone axe for no clear reason?  Yeah, kinda.  But as for the rest of it, it's such de rigeur Martina stuff that I can't bring myself to feel strongly about it.

I'll just note that Scrooge was by far the biggest misogynist in the story, and he also ends up being...well, not really punished at all, unless you think "getting mad at Donald" counts as punishment.   A difficult thing to reconcile with this being a feminist story, but...well, I've said my piece.

I do agree with "Men, phooey!" in a general sense, but here it kinda feels like Martina throwing up his hands and just saying, yeah, WHATEVER, this is what it it, I'm washing my hands of the whole thing.  Which may well be the right reaction to have.

You know...I'm not opposed on principle to breaking the fourth wall, but the way Daisy's doing it here creates the impression that, something has been accomplished here, or that we've learned something.  Whereas in reality, I'm sorry, but no one was cheered and nothing was discussed.  

I still find it interesting, though, and I still want to read more DA stories.  But don't talk to me about that PKNA/New Duck Adventures stuff--even if I were into it, which I'm not, it has very little to do with any of this.