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.)
Read more »Labels: Giorgio Cavazzano, Guido Martina
