Saturday, May 22, 2010

Comics Review: DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #354 (May 2010, Boom! Kids)

Attention, all Agency staffers and hangers-on: we are now in full Mobius-strip mode! After wrapping "Before the Premiere" in this issue, we glide straight into the next Double Duck story without even finding out how Donald solved the dilemma of fulfilling his "birthday mission" for Daisy. What there is of "Souvenir de Paris," however, amounts to little more than a canape; we barely stick around long enough to find out that our old friend Kay K/Red Primerose (1) has escaped from prison, (2) has joined the evil "Organization," and (3) is now skulking about top-secret think tanks in a form-fitting black body suit. What few Double Duck "filler stories" exist would not have made up the difference between the issue's full length and the length of "Before the Premiere Part 2," so I suppose that I understand the editorial decision, but ouch! talk about awkward...

My earlier speculations about "Premiere" resulted in some hits and some misses. The "Org" was interested in influencing the Clippedonian election results and did intend to exploit the crushing climactic crescendo of the opera to power the scheme. Conductor Felino Felinys' ultimate role, however, wasn't what I had expected. Nor did I expect that Donald would foil the plot in such elementary, yet entirely logical, fashion. Once Don realized that his triangle note was the "cherry on top" of the gargantuan musical sundae, phase one of his plan was easy to carry out. The second will be familiar to anyone who's ever seen a cartoon in which the climactic sequence takes place in a hall with a giant chandelier. Nice job, Donald; you're actually showing more competence in this spy gig than in just about any other position you've ever held (though the owners of the Daisy Dairy Company might debate the point -- especially since you actually earned an executive position with that firm). I expect, however, that a revenge-motivated Kay/Red will provide you with by far your toughest challenge yet.

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