Comics Reviews: MICKEY MOUSE #309 and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #720 (June 2011, kaboom!)

All credit to Boom! for figuring out a way to squeeze the most out of its last two "classic Disney" comics releases. The second part of Romano Scarpa's adventure "The Treasure of Marco Topo" (1984) wasn't originally supposed to be in WDC&S #720, but the company wisely bumped a previously announced feature so as to slip Scarpa's entire story under the wire before the guillotine fell. (Those metaphors aren't mixed, they're positively tangled!). The last-minute switch actually wound up making a whole lot of sense, as Scarpa's tale, with its clever and entertaining crossover of the Duck and Mouse "universes," frankly deserved to appear in WDC&S, the omnibus comics title par excellence. "Here's to the greatest bunch of characters I know!" Mickey declares at the end of "Topo." If this is, in fact, fated to be the last original line of dialogue ever delivered in WDC&S, then it would be hard to come up with a more fitting one.

These last two issues' return to the "first principles" of Disney comics -- create funny and memorable characters, let 'em bounce off of one another, and watch what happens -- stand in marked contrast to Boom!'s original plans for these titles. WDC&S and MICKEY MOUSE both began life at Boom! as wholly unrecognizable entities -- WDC&S as the home of the Ultraheroes, MM as the home of WIZARDS OF MICKEY. Both "New Directions" were actually somewhat faithful to the spirits of the titles that housed them, just in completely off-the-wall ways. Once ULTRAHEROES and WOM split off to go their merry way (assuming that full-scale power-dives into the Earth's surface qualify even tangentially as "merry"), Boom! caught lightning in a bottle with Casty in WDC&S and kept MICKEY readable with a generally good mixture of new and old material. It wasn't enough to save the day, but "Topo" allows Boom! to cede its control of these titles with a considerable amount of grace.

The story of Mickey's search for a golden gondola ornament hidden in Venice by his ancestor Marco Topo contains surprisingly little "real" action -- at least, less than originally seems to be promised by a European treasure jaunt involving Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Scrooge, Brigitta MacBridge, Pete, Trudy Van Tubb, and The Phantom Blot. (Where are Donald and his Nephews, you ask? Let co-scripter Joe Torcivia enlighten you on that point himself.) A good portion of Part One is taken up by Mickey's wordsmithing neighbor's translation of Marco Topo's diary, and, once the gang gets to Venice, all of the action takes place in a single square in the city's Getto Novo district. Scarpa does pay good attention to local color in setting the action during the Carnival of Venice and using a real podium in the square as a key marker in the search for the ornament, but I rather wish that "The Maestro" had made use of a few more locations in his native city. What makes the story work are the believable interactions between the characters -- and here, Joe and David Gerstein shine. Everyone gets something to do (though The Blot spends most of his time skulking around in the background and muttering to himself before making one big push for the McGuffin near the end), and everyone is written perfectly in character. It "feels" very much like a modern-day version of the Gold Key PHANTOM BLOT comic, in which the writers effortlessly mixed and matched various characters to extremely good effect.

There are a couple of weak spots in the plot that Joe and David, try as they might, can't quite manage to paper over. If the spirit of Marco Topo is doomed to hang around the square until some descendant finds his ornament, then shouldn't Marco have made double-extra sure that his descendants would be able to find the instructions for locating the ornament a bit more easily? Even Mickey would have had a hard time finding Topo's diary had Pete not crushed The Mouse's newly-inherited "18th-century cupboard" with a steamroller and revealed the precious parchments "hidden in the paneling." At least Topo doesn't appear to particularly regret his foolishness, even getting into the spirit of the Carnival revelers who enjoy playing pranks on Mickey and his friends. A more serious (and frankly annoying) issue arises when the Carnival-goers greet Mickey's gang as...

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

S
P
A
C
E

... stars of a reality series back home. Oog! Here, Joe and David were trying to make sense of the obvious fact that the Venetians clearly recognize Mickey and his gang as "celebrities" of some sort. However, I would have tried to tie the explanation into previously established Disney material, as opposed to riffing on The Jersey Shore. How about regarding the House of Mouse short cartoons as "reality TV" of a sort... or DuckTales as "The Further Adventures of the Famous Scrooge McDuck with a Camera Along"? We could then explain the presence of Trudy and Brigitta by positing that they appeared in "later seasons" of HOM and/or DT -- seasons that we unlucky denizens of "Earth Prime" never got to see but the inhabitants of "Earth-Disney" did. Anything is preferable to trying to figure out which of the cast members of Calisota Shore corresponds to "Snooki."

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

S
P
A
C
E

F
I
N
I
T
O

Picked nits aside, this was a most delightful way to conclude Boom!'s tenure on the "classic Disney" titles. Uh... over to you, Stan? (And I don't mean Blather.)

Comics Review: MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #303 (December 2010, Boom! Kids)

Mickey's snazzy new wheels -- provided by the Mouseton Police Department, which, judging by the number of high-tech accouterments packed into the vehicle, must be doing double duty as an affiliate of Double Duck's "Agency" -- take The Mouse and his lady into something resembling an adventure in "Mickey Mouse and the Tools of the Trade." For what is basically a six- to eight-page plot from a Dell/Gold Key issue of MICKEY MOUSE stretched out, like the proverbial piece of discarded gum attached to one's shoe, to over 20 pages, this 2002 Italian story is surprisingly enjoyable. The antagonists (a pair of supermarket thieves who intend to use the proceeds of their petty theft to "escape to South America"? Uh huh...) are easily dismissed, allowing us to focus on the wonder-car's many attributes. Minnie kvetches in somewhat annoying fashion before getting caught up in the chase, and the two mice don't even get (or deserve) the lion's share of the credit for sacking the bad guys, but this story rises above the humdrum for two reasons: Saida Temafonte's good scripting (Temafonte has improved a great deal since those early installments of WIZARDS OF MICKEY, HERO SQUAD, and Double Duck) and Giorgio Di Vita's artwork, which preserves the liveliness of the best Italian artists without stepping "over the line" into rampant sloppiness. Not a deathless work by any means, but a nice time-passer while we gin ourselves up for 2011 and the return of "classic" Mouse material.

Comics Review: MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #302 (November 2010, Boom! Studios)

Sergio Badino and Giorgio Cavazzano's "Legend of the Robo-Presidents" turns out to have been a more substantial epic than I'd thought. I was expecting another "half-and-half" deal here, with one story closing and another opening; instead, "Robo-Presidents" takes up all the space. In said space, we learn that The Phantom Blot has retrofitted the giant robot Presidents that inventor Borzon Gutglum had been commissioned to build to complement the newly-sculpted Mount Rushmore attraction (make sure to read that again, slowly) with the help of software designed by Gutglum's slightly wayward grandson. For all of The Blot's pleonastic, pompous pedantry (at least translator Saida Temafonte is consistent on this score; s/he used the same characterization for vastly different versions of The Blot in the ULTRAHEROES and WIZARDS OF MICKEY tales), the villain's plot is what he himself might call a "dreadfully banal" strike at the gold in Fort Knox. This comes, it should be noted, on the heels of The Blot's channeling of Hugo Drax in Casty's "Mickey Mouse and the Orbiting Nightmare." Honestly, if The Blot's new image as an intellectual is to be taken entirely seriously, then he really should be above ripping off schemes by James Bond villains, much less relying on the help of goons with names like "Billy Bob." The Blot, in the tradition of Pinky and the Brain, seems not to realize that the flying Robo-Presidents couldn't possibly get off the ground if they were truly "stuffed" with gold, but at least he has writer Badino to blame for that little oversight. Morty and Ferdie get a rare chance to fill the HD&L hero role, and, as you might guess, the "Nintenduck" obsession that they displayed in #301 winds up being a key to the good guys finally winning. An absurd story, to be sure, but oddly engaging, with Cavazzano's energetic art, as always, a point in its favor.

In the wake of The Blot's appearing without his black hood and cloak throughout the WIZARDS OF MICKEY sequence and in civvies in part two of "Mickey Mouse and the Orbiting Nightmare," his partially-unmasked status here is notable. Once he captures Mickey, Minnie, Morty, and Ferdie, he pulls off his hood and spends the rest of the story with his head showing above the cloak. I suppose that this is an "Italian thing," and, after mulling over the events of both this story and "Orbiting Nightmare," it's a "thing" that I actually do understand. The Blot can't pretend that absolutely no one knows what he looks like anymore (otherwise, why use a disguise to infiltrate Space Hotel Olympus in the first place?) and, while he can still rely on the "full effect" of his costume to produce some "fright value," there is no real reason why his face can't be regularly shown. This, of course, provides the writers with a challenge, to make The Blot's schemes really imaginative so as to compensate for the "loss of mystery." If The Blot's next caper involves "toppling" Mousetonian rockets or swallowing up Duckburgian space capsules, then he has every right to lodge a protest.

Comics Review: WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #712 (October 2010, Boom! Kids)

We now have incontrovertible evidence that the justly-praised Casty is not, in fact, bulletproof. I was considerably underwhelmed by the conclusion of "Mickey Mouse and the Orbiting Nightmare," and that was before I noticed that Magic Eye Studios' cover gives away the identity of the villain. Granted, he's not in his standard garb, but folks in the know will quickly recognize the "civilian" corpus of The Phantom Blot. Having infiltrated Project Space Hotel Olympus disguised as designer Alastair Zond and having "retrofitted" the orbiting hostel to fit the standard world-domination protocol, The Blot plans to hold the world to ransom with a "death ray." Hugo Drax would certainly be proud, but even the megalomaniacal villain of Moonraker didn't go to the lengths of redesigning his space station to look just like him. For a bad guy who's habitually hidden behind a cloak, advertising to the entire world what you really look like doesn't seem like the most intelligent thing to do.

My friend Brent Swanson once argued that, once The Blot was unmasked at the end of his origin story, he lost what made him special. I don't necessarily agree with that theory in general, but, in the case of this particular tale, I do see Brent's point. The unmasked Blot was fairly effective as the villain in the WIZARDS OF MICKEY continuity, but that was a "costume story" and such deviations from the norm were acceptable under the circs. Here, apart from the 50-cent vocabulary and the gargantuan, self-indulgent "personal ad," The Blot could literally have been any big-ticket baddie -- say, The Rhyming Man making his what-seems-inevitable-at-some-point comeback. As other comics writers and artists -- not to mention DuckTales and Mickey Mouseworks/House of Mouse -- have shown, there's a workable middle ground between rehashing the Floyd Gottfredson version of The Blot and using him as just another schemer in a violet sport coat and bumblebee turtleneck (hmm... perhaps The Blot should stick to what he knows, sartorially speaking, and remain in "basic black" at all times).

Casty also failed to take advantage of the large cast he introduced, Love Boat fashion, in part one. Everyone save Cassandra Dot bails when "the orbital stabilizers [are] destroyed," and, while Cassandra shows the ability to "grow" when she ignores her own far-fetched theories of aliens in favor of helping Mickey solve a very concrete mystery, adding stowaway Goofy to the mix doesn't really help much. Mickey even resorts to using his pal as an inadvertent "rogue missile" when beginning the fightback against The Blot. Additional business involving the passengers, however, wouldn't have fixed the flaw at the heart of the story.

The creeping "Gemstone-ization" of Boom!'s "classic Disney" output is amplified by this ish's backup story, the GOOFY four-pager "Tidy Friday". This vintage 1958 tale, in which Clarabelle tries to clean Goofy's apocalyptically messy house, is just the sort of nugget that a Gladstone or Gemstone issue of WDC&S would have tucked into the magazine. Had the story featured Donald or some other "non-Mouse-oriented" character, I would have been even more impressed. Onward to issue #715, in which the "classics" come back with a vengeance.

Comics Review: WIZARDS OF MICKEY #8 (August 2010, Boom! Kids)

The plot didn't tie up all of the loose ends -- and the grand and glorious opportunity for all the members of Wizards of Mickey to show their mettle in a "climactic battle" against The Phantom Blot pretty much devolved into the "Mickey Mouse Magic Show" before all spells were said and cast -- but the last issue of WOM amounted to a fairly decent payoff. Nereus does, in fact, turn up to lend Mickey et al. a hand; in fact, we find that he had actually magically come back with The Blot from that distant dimension, which makes all those communications with Mickey a little more logical, if only slightly. Goofy gets to use his "Iron Dragon" to dispatch The Blot's fire-breathing ally, but Donald's contribution to the festivities is limited to casting a delayed-reaction spell on Mickey's staff that Mickey cleverly employs against The Blot at just the right time, and "Pluto the Were-dog" has no role at all. Pete and The Beagle Brothers, meanwhile, are apparently still caught up in the twister whipped up by the peeved Turbo at the end of issue #7, the misleading cover displayed above notwithstanding. (To slightly paraphrase Greg Weagle, the last thing this story needed was more windbags!) Mickey winds up the Supreme Sorcerer and possessor of the Great Crown, which, considering that many more WOM stories exist, seems almost too good to be true; when you're on top, isn't the only place you can go straight down -- and wouldn't Mickey have to lose the Crown at some point in order for future stories to have any meaning or tension? The phrase "So ends the first chapter in the saga [of WOM]" strongly suggests that we may find out at some future time. I'll certainly more than welcome additional WOM stories as part of the regular "budget" of tales in the newly revived MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS. A revival of the WOM title itself, however, seems unlikely.

Comics Reviews: DISNEY'S HERO SQUAD #7 and WIZARDS OF MICKEY #7 (July 2010, Boom! Kids)

My first joint review of these titles in a while -- and, depending on shipping skeds, it may well be the last, as each is scheduled to "go on hiatus" following installment #8. I can now honestly say that I won't be at all sorry to see HERO SQUAD depart... and, while I have enjoyed WIZARDS OF MICKEY for the most part, seeing it go won't exactly crush my spirits. I think it is far more likely that we'll see WIZARDS again, seeing as how there's so much unpublished material available. Perhaps WIZARDS can be turned into a recurring subfeature in the newly revived MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS? Hey, if Donald can enjoy stints as a superspy and (so I hear) as a kung fu expert in DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS, why can't Mickey don different creative chapeaux in "his" title? (Of course, the way that Boom! has been burning up the Casty material, WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES can almost be counted as a MICKEY book now.)

The end of "The Battle for the Ultramachine" SHOULD, by all rights, have appeared in HERO SQUAD #8, but it looks as if we're going to get a trivial follow-up story, "Fight Before the Exams," to fill in the gap. (Whatever happened to the plan to reprint more hero origin stories?) It's finally occurred to me that the Ultramachine epic turned out to be very much like a classic JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA story penned by Gardner Fox, with discrete individual battles seguing into a grand free-for-all finale. The main difference here is that the actual en masse combat between the Ultraheroes and the Sinister 7 didn't last that long. More attention was paid to the two groups' combining of forces to stop the giant, out-of-control, Ultramachine-powered Eega Beeva. And therein lies the problem -- we didn't really know ANY of these characters well enough for the alliance to have any impact at all. A number of artist Stefan Turconi's panels featured squiggly little characters buzzing around Big Eega like hornets around a hornets' nest, doing... stuff. That pretty much summed up the impersonal, uninvolving nature of this battle. Mickey, after being subjected to menial duties and minor humiliations throughout most of the story, actually makes the most meaningful contribution to Eega's neutralization... which is promptly undercut when Eega crushes a loose Ultrapod (thereby making it impossible to reconstruct the Ultramachine) and blandly admits that he really should have thought of that beforehand! Pno kidding, Psherlock. This struck me as supremely cynical storytelling. At least the final few pages tried to tidy up some loose ends: the "civilian" Donald and Daisy making up (with a direct, beak-on-beak kiss? How often have we seen that in a Duck story?), Fethry getting a new igloo-selling idea, Cloverleaf (who's called "Clover" several times here for some unknown reason) finally getting someone to join his online fan club. The identity of Cloverleaf's cyber-buddy is probably the best gag in the entire story. Scrooge had better make darn sure that his Money Bin defenses (a giant mechanical hand and foot? Gizmoduck should feel insulted) are extra-secure in the near future, or "Old #1" will be tested to the utmost as a "lucky" charm.

The heroes and villains meander away from the Money Bin at the end of "Ultraheroes" exchanging reluctant compliments and vague threats of future battles (because, well, that's what is expected of them). So it's not all that surprising to see Pete immediately return in "Fight Before the Exams" as what would appear to be a "final exam" challenge for the still-training Ultraheroes. The promised "fight" looks to be between Duck Avenger and Cloverleaf, who close the issue with a bout of fairly irritating bickering. Whatever happens in HS #8, it will be a decided anticlimax... but then, the climax of the "Ultramachine Saga" already was.

The big question I have regarding WIZARDS OF MICKEY #7 actually relates to WIZARDS OF MICKEY #8. With the final part of "The Sorcerer of Donnybrook Castle" taking up space at the back of the issue, how will the first great battle between WOM and The Phantom Blot be brought to a really satisfying conclusion in such a small amount of space? Will continuity issues -- Donald's delayed-reaction magic, WOM's painfully-forged alliances with the Dragons and Team Diamond Moon, Goofy's endless search for a profession (it's photography, this time -- well, he did build the team's "Iron Dragon" flying machine in what seemed like a split second, so I suppose he could whip up a camera "in a jiff", a la Gadget) -- be wrapped up at the same time as The Blot, Pete, and The Beagle Brothers are dealt with? If they can pull this off, it'll be quite a feat. I suspect that the long-absent Nereus may wind up lending a hand somehow, since Mickey got a warning through his techno-charm to be wary of the bad guys' "rage spell" trap at Fang Castle. I did notice one continuity error when Donald mentioned that inviting "all the wizards" in the tournament to meet in the same location was not S.O.P. for this competition. What about The Blot's plan to steal "all" the staffs and Diamagics at Arborea in WOM #3, or even the party at 1000 Rooms Castle in #5? I may be searching for nits here, though. Assuming that you can accept the premise, the world of WIZARDS OF MICKEY has featured a decent amount of consistency (Team Yum-Yum Cook and Team Jinx are still around!) and, by and large, the stories have been enjoyable, if a little disjointed. Squeezing the rest of the package into 12 pages seems like a tall order, however. Let's see whether the magic holds to the end.

Comics Review: WIZARDS OF MICKEY #6 (Boom! Kids, June 2010)

The looming "ultimate showdown" between the Wizards of Mickey team and the "back-from-the-brink-or-wherever-it-was-he-was-hiding" Phantom Blot may be the last WOM material we see for a bit, and WOM #6 -- which, praise be, actually brings a substory to a conclusion without diving straight into another one (see below for what fills the gap) -- sets up the looming faceoff rather nicely. During the concluding phase of "The Return of the Phantom Blot" -- which meant something very different back in a more mundane day -- Mickey, with a fair amount of assistance from Minnie, leaps to the fore as the hero. Mickey has now been promoted to the rank of "sixth-level sorcerer" thanks to a gift from the grateful Dragon Lord Ormen, but he uses some old-fashioned trickery worthy of a Captain Kirk computer-con to blunt The Blot's plot to use wood shavings from other sorcerers' staves -- plus some additional materials which The Blot conveniently stumbled upon during his trip out of the other dimension -- to magically locate the heart of the Dragon Kingdom. I have to wonder, where's the love for Donald and Goofy? Shouldn't their staffs' powers get augmented, as well? At the very least, the Dragons could cure Donald's magic of its unfortunate habit of only working on a time delay. Hopefully, Mickey won't get to hog all the legerdermainly laurels during what's to come in the final two (for the moment) issues. BTW, during our brief flashback visit to the other dimension -- which appears to be located very close to the North Pole, by the looks of things -- we learn that Mickey's master Nereus is still alive and well. If and when this title returns, at least Nereus will be around to lend an experienced hand, though Mickey is piling up honors at such a clip that the apprentice may soon be giving commands to the master.

We get a surprise at the back of the book with the reprinting of part one of the Paul Murry-drawn WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES MICKEY MOUSE serial "The Sorcerer of Donnybrook Castle" (1969-1970). The unexpected insertion is justified by the argument that, in the words of the Gummi Bears theme song, "magic and mystery are part of" Mickey and Co.'s history. Well, since Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy spend this portion of the story under the delusion that their journey to medieval times (courtesy of a short-tempered wizard) is part and parcel of their tour of the headlined fortress, they're less a part of the story (so far, at least) than pieces of flotsam carried along in the wake of it. There actually is a real mystery here: What happened to Minnie's pucker? The original tale was produced during the "bow-tied Mickey/frump Minnie" era, during which Minnie sported those off-putting big red lips. Both previous American printings of this story feature that version of Minnie. Here, though, the lips have been stripped! Given that Murry's lettering has been completely replaced while the actual dialogue has remained intact, I'm guessing that Boom! used a European reprint with a "de-puckerized" Minnie (and at least one such version does exist, according to Inducks) as its source material. This is fine as far as it goes... but the Minnie we've been seeing in WIZARDS OF MICKEY has big lips in some panels, "normal" lips in others!! In this case, consistency is most definitely not the hobgoblin of oversized mice.

An Update on Boom! Sales

Here's an updated graph detailing Boom! sales to comic-book and specialty shops as of May 2010. (Thanks to Kneon for the updated information.)
Sales for MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS/WIZARDS OF MICKEY aren't included because there was only one additional data point available. WOM #2 sold 3704 copies -- a 27% decline from the first issue -- and the remaining issues covered during this period, WOM #3 and WOM #4, didn't make Diamond's list of the Top 300 sellers. At least WOM fared better than HERO SQUAD, which fell out of the Top 300 after issue #1. The DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS graph is missing a data point for month 6 (issue #352) for the same reason. What would worry me if I were Boom! is that DD&F #352 was the final issue of the first Double Duck story arc, the one which Red Primerose's identity was revealed. By contrast, the final chapter of Casty's "Mickey Mouse and the World to Come" (WDC&S #706) produced a modest, but welcome, uptick in sales. With the declines of UNCLE $CROOGE and DD&F having flattened out at the same time, perhaps we have reached the proverbial "bottom of the ski slope."

The most recent PREVIEWS solicited orders for books slated to be released in September... and HERO SQUAD and WIZARDS OF MICKEY are conspicuous by their absence. Instead, MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS will return for a gala issue #300. There's lots of WIZARDS OF MICKEY material still out there; ULTRAHEROES, not so much. What will Boom! do when/if it decides to revisit these concepts? I wouldn't mind HERO SQUAD being a "filler" in some other book at some point, but there doesn't appear to be enough remaining material to justify restarting the title. Also, wouldn't a return to "classic" practice in MM&F be stepping on the over-sized Mouse shoes of the Casty material currently running in WDC&S?

With the apparent shelving of the "New Direction" titles for the nonce and the concurrent commitment to DuckTales material in UNCLE $CROOGE and an ongoing DARKWING DUCK title, Boom! might be said to have redefined its target audience. With HERO SQUAD and WIZARDS OF MICKEY, Boom! aimed for the "kid" audience brought up on a diet of superhero movies and HARRY POTTER novels. The current Disney Afternoon gambit seems to be attempting to reach those young adults (and, of course, a couple of us young-at-heart older ones) whose first sustained, consistent exposure to "Disney product" came through watching the "Golden Age" TV series. Judging by the early reports on the brisk sales of DARKWING DUCK #1, this may not have been a bad strategy. Aside from the "goosing effect" that nostalgia has had on sales, the older readers of the TV-based comics might encourage their own children to become interested in the old series. Were the various divisions of Disney not so rigidly segregated, I might even dare to hope that this might lead Disney DVD to rethink its decision to abort its releases of the "Golden Age" DVD collections.

Comics Reviews: DISNEY'S HERO SQUAD #5 and WIZARDS OF MICKEY #5 (Boom! Kids, May 2010)

There's no longer any serious doubt in my mind that HERO SQUAD has fallen WELL behind fellow "Disney departure" titles WIZARDS OF MICKEY and DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS on the old "like-o-meter." This week's issue of HS falls dangerously close to "worthy-of-MSTing" territory, while WIZARDS, despite serious inconsistencies in artistic quality and the creakiness inherent in its "from-one-venue-to-another" structure, has stabilized into a reliably satisfactory reading experience.


For a "significant" issue that finally allows us to see the effects of the assembled Ultramachine and reveals the identity of the "genius" responsible for inventing such a dangerous device in the first place, HERO SQUAD #5 is distressingly poor, especially in the realm of simple logic. Exactly HOW, may I ask, did Mickey, who was very clearly left behind when the Ultraheroes returned to Duckburg from The Sinister 7's island, manage to join them by the time they arrived to face off against The 7 at Villa Rose? (At least Scrooge, The Money Bin, and The Beagle Boys get a proper "blastoff notice" from the isle as a sidebar to the main action.) Gladstone/Cloverleaf's traitorous actions in HS #4 still haven't been explained, but neither has his apparent decision to break off from BOTH groups and "wait for the right moment to show everybody I'm the best of them all!". Given that Iron Gus accidentally captures all of The 7 save the renegade Emil Eagle by sheer, dumb good fortune (and isn't good luck Cloverleaf's shtick, anyway?), Clove is already halfway there without even trying. The powers of Eega Beeva's "Green Ultra-Suit" consist of the rapid quasi-magical deployment of... prehistoric animals, including a "Pleistocene flea" (sic) that can "disable all technological devices" (not even sic-worthy). Of course Eega is capable of time travel, so one can see him dipping liberally into the distant past, but why use only beasts from that period, rather than mixing in some uber-tech so as to keep foes (especially futuristic ones) honest? Eega's approach might be dismissed as an odd quirk of a character liberally festooned with same, but then we learn that Eega himself was responsible for building the Ultramachine... and that, when activated (by a desperate Emil, in this case), the device zaps Eega into "giant zombie" mode. That's the kind of super-weapon I want to create -- a machine the activation of which renders me completely incapable of controlling myself. No other issue of this title has pointed up so clearly the disadvantages of the "forced-serial" format. No doubt future chapters will provide us with some sort of explanation for Cloverleaf's behavior and Eega's frankly senseless tech, but cutting the story off before we get there leaves the reader completely baffled. The novelty of seeing Disney characters as superheroes has worn off; now it's time to get semi-serious and start putting the pieces of this increasingly schizophrenic narrative together.

In contrast to HS #5, WIZARDS OF MICKEY #5 features a refreshing number of "shout-outs" to earlier stages of the ongoing episodic continuity. Pluto, unseen since MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #296, finally joins (or, in the case of master Mickey, rejoins) "Our Gandalfian Gang," newly "pawed" with the power of lycanthropy. I'm not entirely comfortable with the explanation as to how Pluto gained this "talent" (nor was I aware that werewolves magically grew spiked helmets upon transformation), but at least Mickey appears to have the ability to control it (even during a full moon!), so it will probably come in handy as we proceed. Pluto helps Wizards of Mickey uncover the "monster scam" being run by Pete and The Beagle Brothers before we head off to a nice breather -- a party amongst the contestants in the sorcery tournament. We see some familiar folks here, including "Team Diamond Moon," "Team Jinx", and even the trio of soup-brewing sorcerers who originally told Mickey about the tournament back in #296. Though the ever-changing artwork makes it harder than it should to recognize some of these old faces, it's nice to see writer Stefano Ambrosio maintaining a throughline of characters, as well as theme. Sadly for WOM, Pete and The Beagles, newly sprung from gaol, also return, under the direct orders of this issue's most noteworthy returnee: The Phantom Blot. I'd still like to know how The Blot avoided Nereus' fate, but at least he's back, above-board, and undisguised, so another showdown with WOM will no doubt soon be upon us. Add the priceless revelation that Goofy -- after having previously considered a number of different occupations in lieu of sorcerer-dom -- now thinks that his true calling may be as a statistician, and how could I not enjoy this issue? (Technically, Goofy's actually a probabilist, since he talks about the chances of Pete and The Beagles escaping from prison. Let him perform a few hypothesis tests and/or sample surveys, and then I'll be completely convinced.)

Comics Review: WIZARDS OF MICKEY #4 (Boom! Kids, April 2010)

Our magic-mongering heroes open this issue by recovering the stolen dragon's egg from "The Iron Sorcerers." In so doing, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy demonstrate yet again that they've got plenty of old-fashioned ingenuity to complement their improving magical skills; they defeat the menacing "Warlock Robot" by attacking the fused metal creature's psychological Achilles' heel (and, yes, there really is one). Then, it's off to Castle Blackburg (and not a Hokie Bird in sight) for a planned rematch with the Tapestry Sorcerers, aka Team Tapestry. (Waitasec -- what about the much-stressed, relentlessly-repeated ground rule that "a team is eliminated from the sorcery tournament when it loses its Diamagic"? Didn't Team Tapestry lose its Stone Diamagic to Wizards of Mickey in that earlier match? Seems to me that the writers have lost the "thread" of their carefully-constructed premise. And that's my only weaving-related joke, I promise.) Black Pete and The Beagle Brothers finally reappear, this time running a "monster-hunting" scam and intending to add the people of Blackburg to their list of "connees." Pete evinces a complete lack of interest in the ongoing tournament; in the absence of The Phantom Blot's guiding hand, could he and The Beagles be "evolving" into a medieval version of their more mundanely crooked future selves? And... could a real monster actually be following Wizards of Mickey? If the plot gets any thicker, it will congeal, but WIZARDS continues to widen its lead over the flagging HERO SQUAD insofar as consistently high quality goes.

Comics Review: DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #353 (Boom! Kids, April 2010)

Evidently, the identity of The Agency's "Big Boss" is, like the Sherlock Holmes story of the Giant Rat of Sumatra, "a tale for which the world is not yet prepared." "Before the Premiere," the new "Double Duck" story arc, instead throws us straight into a new adventure introducing The Organization, which apparently will serve as FOWL to The Agency's SHUSH. Here, Donald is being asked to keep tabs on a former Agency bigwig, orchestra conductor Felino Felinys (who is, against all probability, a bird rather than a cat), whom The Org is apparently interested in nabbing and "reactivating" from his mind-zapped forgetitude. The song-slinging ex-"spook" is presently engaged in preparing the premiere of a forbidding new opera at Milan's La Scala Opera House. Strange doings are afoot, however: there's Bondian tech aplenty in the basement of the grand structure, while Felinys seems oddly insistent (even for a conductor) that "triangle-player" Donald not be "one nanosecond late" to play his one note of the piece, which occurs at the climax of the concluding crescendo. This, combined with occasional slips of the tongue, suggests strongly to me that Felinys has already been "turned" to the side of bad and that we're in for a "sound assault" on someone or something. Could it have something to do with the seemingly irrelevant "Clippedonia election results" reported in the newscast on page one? Perhaps The Org plans to monkey with the results by means of musical malfeasance? It won't take us long to find out, as this story is much shorter than the recently-concluded origin epic. The tale won't be short enough, though, to dispense with the "mundane irritant" subplot. Taking the place of the unpaid parking ticket this time around is Donald's rash promise to give the ever-demanding Daisy a surprise birthday party. Oddly, Donald's frequent lies here trigger mishaps for others, a tic that didn't turn up in the origin story.

Giorgio Cavazzano, the prime influence on modern Italian Duck artists, draws this first segment of the story (and, if Inducks is right, will at least pencil the rest). His loose artwork is an acquired taste for us Statesiders, though WORLD OF THE DRAGONLORDS softened me up to a considerable extent. However, the cohort of Cavazzano-wannabes who drew the earlier chapters of "Double Duck," as well as WIZARDS OF MICKEY, would probably have been hard-pressed to pen the striking reproduction of La Scala seen here (as well as on the cover of TOPOLINO #2767 (December 9, 2008), which I've reproduced above).

As someone who's long had to hear from others about mathematics' inherent power to bore, I couldn't help but chuckle at the implication in the first few pages of this story that classical music bores ALL "normal" males (the poor schlub sitting behind Don and Daisy at the Canasta Club concert is just as anxious to get away as Don is). Part of the chuckle was due to the fact that the opening newscast presents the Milan opera premiere as a news story. If classical music is so irrelevant, then why is such attention being paid to it? Is that news network run exclusively by females?

Boom! Sales: The First Six Months (more or less)

Since a statistical graph is always worth three thousand words... plus or minus a margin of error of 500 or so... I've created a line graph to illustrate Kneon Transitt's data log on the number of Boom! "Duck and Mouse" titles that Diamond has sold to comic-book shops. Here, "Boom! Issue Number" refers to the first, second, etc. issues of each title released under Boom!'s auspices. The abbreviations in the legend should be obvious. (Sorry I didn't include HERO SQUAD, but Kneon had only one data point for that title. For the record, HERO SQUAD #1 sold 4557 copies.)

The one spike in the MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS graph indicates the switchover from MM&F to WIZARDS OF MICKEY. WOM #2 sold about 1300 copies less than WOM #1, which might be due to the "collector's item" reflex but is still bothersome, given that MM&F and WOM have been telling a continuing story.

Kneon includes links to some information on Gemstone sales as well. Boom! appears to be holding its own reasonably well relative to Gemstone's later sales figures, but the downward trend is nonetheless worrisome. I'm especially disappointed in the figures that Kneon reported for the hardback and softcover collections. The first volume of LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE McDUCK barely cleared the 1000-copy mark, and it's the only collection to have done so to date. WALT DISNEY'S VALENTINE'S CLASSICS scored a paltry 383 copies, a real shame given the high quality of that collection. MICKEY MOUSE CLASSICS did better (785), but only slightly better than CHRISTMAS CLASSICS. Hopefully, bookstore sales will help pump up these figures a bit, especially on the collections that merely reprint material that has already appeared in the monthly titles.

Comics Reviews: DISNEY'S HERO SQUAD #3 and WIZARDS OF MICKEY #3 (Boom! Kids, March 2010)

We didn't make as much headway in this month's editions of the "Heroic Titles" as I'd hoped. Indeed, we seem to be swimming in circles... hopefully, that's not the first sign that these titles are preparing to "jump the shark"!

We seem to be no closer to "closing the loop" on the Ultramachine saga in HERO SQUAD. Thanks to some quick thinking by Duck Avenger, The Phantom Blot loses all control of his motor functions (ewww!) and the Ultraheroes are able to finally claim control of Ultrapod-5, helping make up for Super Daisy and Iron Gus' inability to keep Roller Dollar from spiriting away Pod-6. Just when Eega Beeva (who has contributed absolutely squat of note to the Ultraheroes' campaign, I might add) is declaring the contest a draw (and thus, a victory for the turf-defending Ultras) in between puffs on his gum bubble, the other shoe drops as Emil Eagle gleefully announces that The Sinister 7 have captured Mickey. (Remember, Mickey went in search of Scrooge? Remember?) I foresee the Ultras having to give up their Pods in exchange for Mickey and then breaking their necks to prevent The S7 from completing the Ultramachine. Duck Avenger and the "liquified" Blot have a nice battle in the sewers, but that's it insofar as action goes for this ish.

Somewhat surprisingly, the "Origins" back-up feature passes over the origin of Duck Avenger and gives us part one of "Origin of the Red Bat". Actually, I'm impressed that The Red Bat actually rated an origin, albeit one in an obscure Brazilian story from 1972. The uninspired drawing could easily have been plucked from one of the Disney Studios stories of the era, and the premise -- a costumed Fethry and Donald crashing a masked ball to get a scoop for Scrooge's newspaper -- is equally blah (does Scrooge really have the time to play J. Jonah Jameson like this?). Even the ultimate villains will not be a surprise, as the "disguised" Beagle Boys give their i.d.'s away before we reach the inevitably awkward "To Be Continued" cut-off point. Bring on the Italian origins of Duck Avenger and Super Daisy with all deliberate speed, please!

In WIZARDS OF MICKEY, after an attempt by The-Villain-Who-Supposedly-Was-Destroyed-But-The-Joke's-On-You-He-Really-Wasn't to "rig" a multi-handed sorcery match and win a whole bunch of Diamagics has failed, our heroes get a call for aid from the mysterious magic-wielding dragons. It seems that "The Warlock Robot" and its minions have swiped a dragon egg and intend to probe it to provide TVWSWDBTJOYHRW with additional magical resources. Here, we see the influence of Tolkien peeking through, with a villainous adversary willing to employ "technology" as well as magic. Wizards of Mickey proved their bona fides to the dragon lord by (1) caring for the dragon puppy Fafnir and (2) using their smarts to defeat a team of oversized warlocks named The Giant Gonzos (no, this is not a crossover with Boom!'s MUPPET SHOW titles). Mickey, Donald, and Goofy probably could use the help of "Team Diamond Moon" on this mission, but, alas, Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle were left behind (along with "Team Jinx," which got surprisingly little to do in the wrapup of the latest completed chapter). Contrary to Boom!'s blurb for WOM #3, the dragons have not yet officially declared war on the "scaleless" over the theft of the egg, but the fires will be stoked if Wizards of Mickey do not succeed in their mission.

Comics Reviews: DISNEY'S HERO SQUAD #2 and WIZARDS OF MICKEY #2 (Boom! Kids, February 2010)

I'm probably encouraging slovenly "sack thinking" by bundling together reviews of each of these comics for the second issue in a row, but the issues' high points and flaws are pretty much identical to those seen in last month's "collector's editions." We do seem to get a "turning point" of sorts in WIZARDS OF MICKEY, but the "moment of truth" is snatched back almost as quickly as we progress into the next phase of the story line.

For much of its Ultraheroes-themed length, HERO SQUAD #2 seems like a rehash of the battles of issue #1: Fethry "The Red Bat" and The Phantom Blot continue their tiff over Ultrapod-5, while John D. "Roller Dollar" Rockerduck strains to get some sort of reaction out of a slumbering Iron Gus (even resorting to cybertronic solicitors and collection agents!) as he hunts for Pod-6. Writer Giorgio Salati's characterization of the shape-shifting Blot -- that of a supercilious wordsmith and lint-picker -- is the highlight of the affair and one of the funnier takes on The Blot that I've seen to date. Example: as The Blot attempts to escape with Pod-5, he hectors Fethry for still calling himself "The Red Bat" even though he's wearing the Ultraheroes' standard-issue blue costume. The 12-page installment ends with the Ultraheroes holding the short end of the lollipop, though a battle in the sewers between Duck Avenger and The Blot looms. DA and The Blot are styled "the two team champions" -- though a couple of the Ultra's (especially Super Daisy, despite her recent warming-up to Donald's heroic i.d.) might debate the former point -- so I'm figuring that the end of the Ultramachine story arc may finally be upon us. The fact that the first HERO SQUAD reprint book, SAVE THE WORLD, is being solicited for next week also suggests that we're getting close to some sort of "end." But where is Mickey, and will the Beagle Boys ever let Scrooge escape from prison? So many subplots, so little time... The conclusion of "The Thief of Zanzipar" from SUPER GOOF #1 rounds out the issue, and my guess is that we'll be getting the origin of Duck Avenger next, unless Boom! decides to devote the entire length of #3 to wrapping up the Ultramachine saga.

WIZARDS OF MICKEY #2 has a fair amount going for it. The artwork, by Marco Mazzarello and Vitale Mangiatordi, is some of the series' best -- and, in the wrap-up to part #5, both "The Lord of Deception" and Mickey's erstwhile master, Nereus, appear to meet a "final fate" of sorts. Unfortunately, one of these characters is apparently slated for another one of those "we were only kiddin', folks!" comebacks that DC and Marvel fans know so well. Sigh. At least "Team Diamond Moon" (Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle) make their comeback at the beginning of part #6, "Witches at the Palace" (sounds like a sequel to Wicked to me), as they join "Wizards of Mickey" in the "Great Flower City" of Arborea for the next stage of the sorcery tournament. A new threat soon emerges in the person(s) of "Team Jinx," a trio of evil female magicks that features Magica De Spell (about time the writers went there, don't you think?). The next battle, the biggest one yet, will feature "team captains" only. Mickey (who's now received the official blessing of his "dearly departed" master to go for the tournament title) and Princess Minnie (who's still trying to bring her stone subjects back to life) are locks for the honor, but the squabbling "Team Jinx" may have a spot of trouble picking a champion...

Comics Reviews: DISNEY'S HERO SQUAD #1 and WIZARDS OF MICKEY #1 (Boom! Kids, January 2010)

Last week's Boom! releases marked a watershed in American Disney comics history. The company's decision to shift the ongoing Ultraheroes and Wizards of Mickey story lines into their own eponymous titles may not appear to dramatically tempt fate, but it definitely represents a gamble. "Themed" books with familiar Disney characters assuming unusual roles have long done well in Europe, but never have they replaced traditional titles in the manner that WIZARDS OF MICKEY has now supplanted MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS in America. Should these new books outsell MM&F and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES, will Boom! shift en masse to a "themed" approach, revamping even the "classic" titles and limiting "classic" material to its pricey hardback collections? That would be a "sea change" surging beyond even Disney Comics' introduction of TV-based titles and ROGER RABBIT releases in the early 90s.

In its opening 14 pages, HERO SQUAD #1 bravely faces the "New World" -- and quails ever so slightly. Though described as a "super-slugfest," the latest chapter in the "Ultramachine" saga features hardly any violence at all, super or otherwise. Indeed, "Iron" Gus Goose foils the attempt of John D. Rockerduck (aka "Roller Dollar") to locate Ultrapod-6 by doing nothing more than falling asleep and discombobulating Rockerduck's "cyborg-miners" with his snoring! Fethry "The Red Bat" shows a little more initiative, scandalizing the Pod-5-seeking Phantom Blot by tromping on The Blot's obsidian instep after all manner of "Bat-repellers" have failed to foil the villain. (I thought The Blot's most recent appearance had established that his body is liquid in nature? Fethry's folly is nicely reminiscent of a Warner Bros. or Darkwing Duck gag, regardless.) Elsewhere, The Beagle Boys again screw up Scrooge's attempt to escape The Sinister 7's clutches, while Donald and Daisy, still clueless to one another's crushingly obvious secret identities, meet in Duckburg and bicker in approved Duck Avenger/Super Daisy style. Really, that's all there is to this "collector's issue" insofar as Ultraheroes material goes. Even the artwork, by Roberta Migheli, falls well below the series' genially disheveled, eminently surmountable standard. Boom! probably could have picked a better moment at which to launch HERO SQUAD than this.

The ish's big surprise comes after the Ultraheroes segment, when the "powers-that-edit" abruptly decide to provide some much-needed historical perspective and announce a new subfeature detailing "the secret beginnings of your favorite Ultraheroes!". Better late than never! Taking the first bow is Super Goof in Bob Ogle and Paul Murry's "The Thief of Zanzipar", from SUPER GOOF #1 (1965). Actually, SG had made a couple of appearances before this "origin tale," but this story firmly establishes the Super Goobers as the one true source of Goofy's powers and gives SG his first "official" adventure. The amusing script and first-class Murry artwork are pleasant reminders of Gold Key's golden years. Two problems "grody" up the Goobers, however. First, we only get the first nine of the story's 16 pages, meaning that we'll have to wait an extra issue before another Ultrahero gets his or her chance to shine. Second, Goofy's face is, I kid you not, a light purple in color!  I suppose that's better than Goofy the Genie's entire body being colored blue for the WDC&S #584 reprint of the 1960s story "A Lad 'n His Lamp," but it still looks really, really peculiar, especially since no other character in the story gets a mauve makeover. Colorist Eric Cobain needs to look into this before worried fans begin to write in offering to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on Goofy.


If HERO SQUAD stumbles a bit out of the gate, then WIZARDS OF MICKEY -- once you get past the well-designed logo -- tromps on the reader's face and laughs in the process. Well, at least for a brief moment. The narrative quickly wraps up the "Team Diamond Moon" subplot in fairly slick fashion, giving "Princess Minnie" a back story and permitting Mickey a moment of true nobility to boot, but then hoots with derision in the faces of those who've complained of Boom!'s awkward handling of splits in its chapter arcs: "Stay tuned for the next episode... See you here soon! Like now! No, seriously, turn the page!" Then follows the title page of the next chapter, "The Dragon's Nest." The only good thing about this remarkably inartful editorial decision is that it doesn't involve any misspellings. "The Dragon's Nest" itself is fine, with "Wizards of Mickey" outpointing a team of... erm, they kinda look like Muppets, I guess... for a "light diamagic" and forging ahead to isolated Crow Fortress to fight for the "sleep diamagic" (though Goofy's lullabies may work just as effectively, at least on animals). The "Lord of Deception," meanwhile, thinks that he may finally have a lead on the location of the Dragons' Kingdom, thanks to the imprisoned Nereus' unwitting assistance. I must admit to being surprised by the speed with which "Team Diamond Moon" was discarded -- I had expected them to become steady allies of "WOM," at the very least -- but perhaps Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle will reappear in later chapters. Frustratingly, the inside front cover of the book boasts what appears to be a map of the setting for these sorcery stories, but it's too small and faint to read. Why not create a fold-out version as a keepsake of this first issue? That would have been a great way to attract attention from the casual rack-browser. Leaving aside the painful editorial leg-pulling, WIZARDS OF MICKEY continues to rival the "Double Duck" arc in DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS as the best of Boom!'s "New Direction" material.

Comics Review: DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #350 (Boom! Kids, January 2010)

The two women in Double Duck's life finally meet in the opening pages of this issue, and the effect is not unlike that of two ships passing in the night. Catching Kay K giving Donald a buck-'em-up hug, Daisy pitches the jealous rage that we had been expecting and brains Donald with a flowerpot, but we don't even get to see the details; the pot simply appears on Don's head. Personally, I would've preferred for Daisy to tear into Kay, but perhaps they're saving that for an even "tetchier" part of the story. Given that Kay seems to be legitimately attracted to Don (or at least his Double Duck persona) -- and Don responds to the "challenge," showing bouts of actual competence when he's around her -- Don's inevitable return to Daisy seems almost unfair. Don should get a chance to enjoy some quality time with a babe who actually appreciates him.

The "distaff-assault-that-wasn't" is a good table-setter for an issue with virtually no action and lots of palaver about trust, double-agentry, treason, and such. Indeed, the plot is getting so thick that I expect someone to let loose with a Xanatos-style rant about a "Master Plan" -- or a Jack Bauer-esque roar of "Who are you working for?!" -- any time now. This much we know: (1) Donald's erstwhile partner B-Black may actually be a double agent in cahoots with the missing B-Berry; (2) another spy, the as-yet-unidentified "Red Primrose," may actually be pulling everyone's strings behind the scenes. Having stumbled upon the conniving B-Boys, Don is in some peril at chapter's end, but a newcomer then arrives on the scene to upset everyone's applecart. I see no reason to abandon my theory that B-Berry may actually be an anti-hero of sorts and "Agency" head Jay J is hiding something big, but how does B-Black fit in? And why do I get the uneasy suspicion that Kay K may be the big brain? She certainly seems intellectually capable of such a gambit. If she is, then Don may actually hanker after the shrewish Daisy for a touch of "normalcy" before all is said and done.

.

.

.

Collector's Edition Alert: The first issues of the new DISNEY'S HERO SQUAD (aka Ultraheroes) and WIZARDS OF MICKEY are slated to be released this coming week.

Comics Review: UNCLE $CROOGE #387 (January 2010, Boom! Kids)

And the bottom finally drops out. I've been somewhat hard on Boom! for the decision to lead off its stewardship of UNCLE $CROOGE with what I've previously referred to as a "distressingly mediocre" cycle of European-based Ducks-vs.-Magica Egmont stories. Would that this issue had reached the level of distressed mediocrity! The conclusion of "The Gold Hunt" and the serial's final chapter, "The Fateful Hour," aren't just poor, they're almost transcendentally awful in places. The last page, in particular, is one of the most absurd windups to a Duck story that I've ever read. Writer Per Hedman deserves much of the blame for concocting the scenario, but Boom!'s pedestrian dialogue didn't even try to put the best face on what had become a pretty bad situation. Who would ever have thought that UNCLE $CROOGE, of all the Boom! titles, would be in such a shambolic condition at this point?

We know we're in trouble right away when the opening recap of #387 mentions that Magica had disguised herself as a rabbit to track the gold-mine-hunting Ducks, yet all we see is Magica transforming herself back into her normal form at the top of page 2. A more judicious "cut" between issues #386 and #387 would have fixed this problem and given newcomers a chance to see Magica in her (admittedly cute) bunny disguise. The sojourn ends up pretty much as you'd expect -- Scrooge outwits Glomgold and gets the rights to the Finnish gold field -- but not before Magica, now disguised as a bear, mauls Scrooge a bit. The point of this isn't explained until the start of "The Fateful Hour," when the gang realizes that Magica took advantage of the situation to steal the Old #1 Dime. The problem is that this revelation is provided in a caption. Where's the "omigosh scene" in which Scrooge realizes that Old #1 is missing? Having Scrooge run off a plane, fretting that "my birthday will be ruined!," doesn't pack as much of a punch, does it? Hedman has had some trouble connecting the parts of his narrative from the beginning, but this transition is particularly weak. (To make matters worse, we get the aggravating "To Be Contined" (sic) message once again, at the end of "The Gold Rush.")

"The Fateful Hour" strains valiantly, but not too successfully, to build suspense as Magica, back in Rome, entrusts the dime to Ratface the raven, only to have a couple of generic dogface baddies nab the crooked corvus in hopes of making a fortune from this "talking crow." With parrots and similar birds having long since cornered the gabby-game market, I fail to see why this would be such a big deal, but whatever. The Ducks, Magica, the two bird-nappers, and a cohort of gladiator actors that Magica has "mind-zapped" for the nonce scamper around the ruins of the Roman Forum and then get mixed up with... wait for it... a band of soccer fans. The Riverside Rovers never looked so appealing. Magica escapes from the scrum with Old #1 and, tracked by the Ducks, gets to Mount Vesuvius with designs on dime deliquescence. Here's where things get really painful. By shouting (!), Scrooge causes Ratface to brain Magica with Magica's melting pot, and the sorceress drops both the dime (down the slopes of Vesuvius) and her magic bag (into Vesuvius). The volcano erupts, and Scrooge and the boys, having recovered the dime, cheer victory as they walk away (!), not twenty paces from Magica's sorcery shop, where the sorceress is pitching a fit (!!). Why doesn't Magica pull herself together and try to stop Scrooge and recover the dime, even if she can't melt it right away? And... uh, guys? There's an erupting volcano nearby, and no one appears to notice or care?! Admittedly, I have high standards when it comes to $CROOGE stories, but I just can't accept this on ANY reasonable level.

Boom!'s lineup will soon be changing as Wizards of Mickey and Ultraheroes spin off into their own titles. To replace the Wizards story, WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES will feature a new continuing story starring Mickey. I certainly hope that its quality tops that of the Hedman opus, or all the good work that Boom! has done to make the "New Direction" titles interesting and enjoyable will have been negated by its poor handling of the "classic" titles. My advice to those responsible for $CROOGE? Take some advice from The Princess and the Frog's Mama Odie and "dig a little deeper" into the massive Egmont archives. You're bound to find something better than what you gifted us with in this opening effort.

Comics Review: MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #299 (Boom! Kids, December 2009)

The blurb-writer at Boom! needs assistance, stat! Here's the innocent-on-the-surface plot summary for this issue, per Comic Book Resources:

Student of the great wizard Grandalf, Mickey Mouse, along with friends Donald Duck and Goofy, must face off against the Phantom Blot and his nefarious Team Black Phantom!

The same aggressively genetic blurb was used for MM&F #298, but, since "Wizards of Mickey" is a continuing story with a single general theme, no big deal, right? Er, not so much...


(1) The Phantom Blot, aka "The Lord of Deception," does appear here for a two-page rant of little consequence, but Peg-Leg Pete and the Beagle Brothers are nowhere to be found; "Wizards of Mickey"'s only thaumaturgical tiff in this relatively uneventful issue is with "Team Tapestry" and its "knitted warrior" come to life.

(2) Another team on the side of the magical "angels" makes its debut here: "Team Diamond Moon," consisting of our old friends Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle. (No, they don't dress in schoolgirl pinafores, though Minnie, somewhat to my dismay, sports the unbecoming "lipstick look" that various comic-book artists gave Mickey's girlfriend in the 50s and 60s.) The distaff diviners claim a victory of their own in the ongoing sorcerers' tournament, do the character-interaction "thang" with the boys, and then conveniently vanish from the scene during the battle with "Team Tapestry." They'll no doubt appear again soon enough, given that Donald is enamored with Daisy (even to the point of enlisting Goofy's help in an attempt to serenade her) and Minnie, the self-described "Princess of Moonland" (hm, maybe she and Usagi Tsukino have more in common than I thought!), appears to be something of a "big cheese" in this still-rather-nebulously-defined "universe."

(3) Who is this "Grandalf" they blurb of? Mickey's master Nereus is still imprisoned by "The Lord of Deception" but finds time to perform another "information dump" on Mickey through the medium of a magical medallion. Apparently, The Blot's minions all wear medallions bearing the letter M. Unless M stands for "Magic" -- which seems rather silly in this world, given the pervasive use of sorcery -- this ranks as the most mystifying use of that initial since the English translation of Go Mifune's name was not accompanied by a similar updating of his clothes.


Hopefully, Boom!'s PR people will catch up with the actual story in time for the next issue. Lest you think that I'm dissing #299, it's actually not that bad, despite the relative lack of forward plot movement. I even got an extra laugh out of Clarabelle's magical shtick of divining fortunes; it reminded me in a weird way of her House of Mouse role as "cast gossip." Needless to say, the shtick does come with something of a catch...