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| Paperinik | |
|---|---|
 Donald Duck as Paperinik. Art by Marco Rota. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Walt Disney Co. (licenser) Mondadori (licensee) |
| First appearance | "Paperinik il diabolico vendicatore," Topolino #706-707, 1969 |
| Created by | Elisa Penna (story) Guido Martina (script) Giovan Battista Carpi (art) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Donald Fauntleroy Duck |
| Team affiliations | Gyro Gearloose |
| Notable aliases | Duck Avenger, Superduck, PK |
| Abilities | Uses a variety of gadgets plus his own cleverness to fight crime. |
Paperinik (also known as Phantomias, Duck Avenger, Superduck, PK, Fantomerik, Superdonald and Phantom Duck) is a comic book superhero, Donald Duck's alter ego. Donald originally created his superheroic identity as a means of secretly seeking revenge against relatives such as Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander, but soon found himself fighting other menaces. The character is an Italian invention and, as a pervasive feature where he appears, very much not in canon with stories that do not feature him.
Contents |
History
Publication history
In 1969, various children complained to the publishers of the Italian version of the Donald Duck comics (Mondadori) that Donald was always the loser in their stories. Writer Guido Martina and artist Giovan Battista Carpi responded by giving Donald a superhero alias named "Paperinik". The name "Paperinik" is a combination of the names "Diabolik", a then-popular fictional villain who started a hype about villains with names ending in -ik, and "Paperino" (Italian for little duck), Donald's Italian name.
In the French version he was called Fantomiald, in the German version Phantomias, Superpato (Latin America) and Patomás (Spain) in the spanish translations, and the Greek version Phantom Duck (Φάντομ Ντακ), all of them based on the master-criminal Fantômas. In Denmark his adventures have mostly been published in small books called "Jumbobøger", or "Jumbo books" (Due to being several hundred pages long, not for their size). He is known in Denmark as "Stålanden", meaning "The Steel-duck" and in Sweden as "Stål-Kalle", meaning "Steel-Donald", and in Icelandic as "Stálöndin", also meaning "The Steel-duck". These names are probably based on Stålmanden/Stålmannen, local names for Superman. In Finland, Papernik is published in "Aku Ankan Taskukirja", "Donald Duck's Pocket Book". The Finnish name for Papernik is "Taikaviitta", meaning "Magic Cape". In Norway he is called "Fantonald", a portmanteau of "Fantomet" (The Phantom) and "Donald". In Poland the series is published under a name "Gigant Poleca" and the hero is named "Superkwęk" as in "Super Duck". Also, in Brazil, he is called "Superpato", which stands for "Super Duck".
The creators introduced Paperinik in the two-part, 60-page story "Paperinik il diabolico vendicatore" ("Paperinik the Diabolical Avenger") published on June 8 and June 15, 1969.
Original version
The debut story featured Donald receiving the ownership papers of Villa Rosa, an abandoned villa outside of Duckburg (Paperopoli in Italian original version) whose owner had disappeared decades ago. Donald soon finds that the papers were actually intended for his cousin Gladstone, but he is content not to correct the mistake. Visiting the villa with his nephews, he discovers the diary and an abandoned suit of Fantomius, who was known as a notorious gentleman burglar and sometime vigilante active during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Donald learns his methods of maintaining a secret identity by acting as a harmless and rather incompetent gentleman during the day and during the night as a vindicator, taking revenge for his grievances against society. Intrigued, Donald decides to keep his discoveries to himself as they might prove useful.
He soon meets his own two greatest causes of grief: his ruthless and domineering maternal uncle Scrooge McDuck and his arrogant and extremely lucky first cousin Gladstone, who enjoys taunting Donald with his own effortless successes in comparison to Donald's constant efforts and failures. Deciding to take revenge on them, Donald presents the diary's notes on weapons and transportation means to Gyro Gearloose, who soon equips him with a utility belt and boots that contain many useful gadgets and also adds special equipment to Donald's car. The first mission for "Paperinik", as he names himself, is to steal his uncle's mattress which contains $1,000,000 in small bills. He does so by making certain that Scrooge inhales enough of a sleep-inducing drug to keep him out of action all night. He then frames Gladstone for the theft.
Scrooge and Gladstone, along with the police, manage to track the thief to the Villa the next day. Gladstone, trying to clear his name, decides to investigate the villa but the "candle" he uses for light is actually dynamite. He accidentally destroys the villa and the money ends up scattered around the area. Scrooge seems convinced that Gladstone is responsible but decides not to place charges if Gladstone manages to collect the money. Meanwhile Donald is gloating over all of this, and states that his career has just begun.
Donald later discovers a second volume of Fantomius's diary in the anniversary story "Paperinik e il ritorno a Villa Rosa" ("Paperinik and the Return to Villa Rosa") by Fabio Michelini and Giovan Battista Carpi. The later story was 53 pages long and was first published in two parts on September 17 and September 24, 1996.
The first story is considered an Italian Duck comic classic, and was popular with readers of the time as Donald acted with more confidence, intelligence and skill than that of his regular identity. The story seems also to owe many of its aspects to its writer Guido Martina whose stories often focused on the darker and more villainous aspects of his characters' personalities.
The second phase
In the early stories, Paperinik wasn't actually a superhero, but a vindicator, avenging wrongs that had been done to Donald, sometimes in blatantly illegal ways. The writers toned this aspect down later and turned him into a superhero instead, as they understood it was not a good long-term idea to turn Donald into a full-time villain[original research?]. The character's methods did not change much but he started targeting the criminal population of Duckburg, in particular the Beagle Boys. This still remains his main mission today, although he occasionally faces higher profile adversaries and finds missions which require him to travel away from Duckburg.
The "old style" stories and characterization eventually fell out of favor, and Paperinik emerged as the main defender of Duckburg, keeping watch on the city with his high-tech and always nonlethal weapons and gadgets, in a fashion much reminiscent of the Batman. The American hero is given explicit tribute in some stories where the Mayor or Police Chief of Duckburg are seen requesting Paperinik's assistance with a kind of Bat-Signal which projects the outline of a bat "wearing" Donald's trademark hat.
Gyro Gearloose remains the only citizen of Duckburg to know about Donald's secret identity. Initially, Gyro later forgets Donald's alias by eating a Car-Can (read below), but this is disregarded in Paperinik's continuing appearances, and Donald is subsequently found to be approaching Gearloose with requests for new equipment quite frequently. Gyro becomes his first and most important ally, dependably providing him with a vast array of powerful (though still often humorous) weapons and sometimes helping him in his adventures. Some other characters discover Donald's secret time and again, but he always protects himself by erasing their memories with Gyro's "Car-Can Sweeties" or by leading them onto a false trail. The name "Car-Can" is a contraction of the Italian "Caramelle Cancellin": Caramelle stands for "sweets", and "Cancellin" is a made up word related to the word "cancellare", "to erase".
To explain his knowledge of Paperinik's activities, Donald made the public believe that he is "Paperinik's best friend", a fact that utterly perplexes Uncle Scrooge and the other characters.
Many of these stories were much more light-hearted than the first ones, and the theme of revenge was usually absent, although it is still occasionally used, especially against Scrooge McDuck.
This version of the character appeared in the Brazilian comic Clube dos Herois (Hero's Club), along with Super Goof, Super Gilly, the Purple Butterfly, the Red Bat, the Green Bat, Paperinika and the Red Wasp.
Modern versions
In the 1990s the character had been dropped by most authors; his adventures were limited to fighting some environmental criminals and crooks of that sort. So, to boost the character, in 1996 a new monthly series was launched: "PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures". The series had a new format for an Italian Disney comic as it was influenced by Marvel Comics' superhero comic books both graphically and story-wise. The art was more modern and "faster". Many young Disney artists were involved in the project: Claudio Sciarrone, Alessandro Barbucci, Silvia Ziche and many others. The best young writers too were hired to make the series successful: Tito Faraci and Francesco Artibani among the best-known.
With the addition of many new technological characters (droids, A.I.s, aliens, etc.) the series was intended for a different target audience than the classical Paperinik. The adventures were mainly science fiction and in addition to the story featured in every issue were published sketches, special files, analyses and more. The stories were much darker than the original Paperinik stories, having more action and a few deaths from time to time.
The story begins with Donald Duck finding a secret floor in the building (Ducklair Tower) where he works. This was the secret laboratory of eccentric millionaire Everett Ducklair, whose assets were purchased by Scrooge when he left to "discover his true self" in the Eastern monastery of Dhasam-bul. Ducklair had created an artificial intelligence called Uno, which controlled the entire building. Donald managed to enter the 151th floor with his "Classic Paperinik" devices and befriended Uno. He offered to assist him in fighting crime, partly just for the desire of having a friend, since "loneliness is hard even for artificials". This proved to be necessary when the alien menace of the Evronians began to target Duckburg and the whole Earth, since the technology and physiology of the extraterrestrials left PK's usual weapons completely outclassed.
This marked the disappearance of Gyro from the stories; also, Donald's interactions with the usual Disney Club characters was minimized (with Huey, Dewey and Louie being written off the story in the first issue), since his PK persona was now the main focus of the entire series and not just "Donald's cool alter-ego".
After a run of 50 regular issues plus various specials, the series was interrupted, to restart with a new name [["PK2"]]. The series, less inspired than the first one, was a sequel to it, with most of the same characters and situations and maybe a little bit more continuity-oriented. This run lasted 18 issues. This series mainly focused on the character of Everett Ducklair returning to Duckburg after having spent years in the monastery of Dhasam-bul. It was revealed Ducklair had two daughters, who for some reason despise him, apparently for something to do with Ducklair getting rid of their mother.
It was then decided by the publisher to reboot the whole PK universe, and in the current series, named simply "PK", Paperinik has never existed and "PK" is the name Donald chose reading the serial number of his shield, the Extransformer: -PK237-. The "Galactic Defenders" (Guardiani della Galassia), an organization that protect the universe, appoint Donald as the defender of Earth. This new version of Paperinik had little to do with the previous continuity started in 1969. "PK", although having some fans, is considered by various fans as a betrayal of the previous character's spirit. Many of the later are lobbying for the return of "PKNA", considered by them to be the best of the three newer series.
In the meanwhile, stories starring the classical Paperinik have appeared in other Italian Disney comics, and the character has recently received a better treatment than he had in the 1990s. Currently, Paperinik is somewhat back to his traditional origins, and thus the classic version of the character hasn't been forgotten.
In 2002, a video game starring Paperinik was released for PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, entitled Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows (sometimes called Disney's Donald Duck PK, or just PK). In the game, Donald Duck is transported into the future and tasked with saving the world from the Evronians; a race of aliens who also serve as the main antagonists in the PKNA comics. He is given special powers, and told that he has become a "platyrhynchos kineticus", an energized duck, or PK for short, stepping around his Paperinik roots. The game did not fare well commercially.
Roots of the character
The roots of Paperinik can be found in older literary characters. As many as six of them have been named as parent-characters based on the elements that they had in common with Paperinik, although his creation can also be seen as part of the rise of popularity of literary villains and anti-heroes in Italy during the 1960s:
- Diabolik, created by sisters Angela Giussani and Luciana Giussani in 1962. Paperinik owes his name to this Italian master criminal who was among the most popular anti-heroes of the 1960s in Italy. He is the main influence for the first stories starring Paperinik.
- Batman, created by Bob Kane (October 24, 1915 - November 3, 1998) and Bill Finger (February 8, 1914 - February, 1974) in 1939. Paperinik's use of gadgets placed in his uniform, utility belt and car seems to derive from this influential superhero. He becomes the main influence for later stories.
- Rocambole, created by Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail (1829-1871) as the main character of a series published in daily newspapers between 1857 and 1870 and later concentrated in eight volumes. Rocambole was an adventurer who started as a master criminal and later became a master crime-fighter. In both of his careers his methods included acting behind the scenes and manipulating persons and events. Both as a vindicator and as a superhero, Paperinik would use similar methods to achieve his goals.
- Arsène Lupin, created by Maurice Leblanc (November 11, 1864 - November 6, 1941) as the main character of a series of twenty-one novels published between 1905 and 1939. He is often described as a gentleman burglar and sometimes acted as a detective and the description of Fantomius' activities was based on him. Though a so-called villain wanted by the police, Lupin actually had a strong sense of honor and his targets were usually persons whose sources of wealth were less than honest. He administered his own type of justice as he saw it and often helped the police without them knowing it.
- Fantômas, created by Marcel Allain (September 15, 1885-August 25, 1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874-1914) as the main character of a series of forty-three novels published between 1911 and 1963. The name "Fantomius" was presumably taken from this character to avoid copyright problems (famous brands and celebrities names are usually crippled in Italian published Disney comics for this reason). Fantômas was a master criminal and master manipulator with sadistic and homicidal tendencies. Though Paperinik had little in common with him, it should be perhaps noted that Fantômas' closest allies and his worst enemies were all related to him one way or the other. This was also the case with Paperinik early in his career. The French name for Paperinik is "Fantomiald" - a play on "Fantô-mas" and "Don-ald".
- Zorro created by Johnston McCulley (February 2, 1883 - November 23, 1958) in 1918. Fantomius's methods of maintaining a secret identity derived from those of Zorro. Zorro indeed acted as a harmless gentleman when not acting as a vigilante during the night. He was also mainly active in California. Paperinik is mainly active in Duckburg's fictional U.S. state of Calisota, located in the area equivalent to northern California (according to comic writer Don Rosa). For a chronology of Zorro see: Zorro
External links
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