Paperinik

Paperinik (also known as Duck Avenger, Superduck, PK, Superdonald and Phantom Duck) is a fictional 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.

History

Original version of Paperinik

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, and "Paperino", Donald's Italian name. In the French version he was called Fantomiald, in the German version Phantomias, both based on the master-criminal Fantômas.

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.

The debut story featured Donald receiving the ownership papers of Villa Rosa ("Villa of Roses"), an abandoned villa outside of Duckburg 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 gadgets 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 the Villa of Roses") 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.

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. 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.

Modern versions of Paperinik

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's. The adventures were mainly science fiction and in addition to the story featured in every issue were published sketches, special files, analyses and more.

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.

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 just a code created by some aliens (who're "Galactic Defenders") who 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 Paperink 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 Out of the Shadows. In the game, Donald Duck is transported into the future and tasked with saving the world from aliens. 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:

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. For more on Rocambole see: Rocambole
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 vigilante 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. For more on Lupin see: Arsène Lupin
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" is presumably taken from this character. 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. For more on him see: Fantômas
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
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.
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.

Paperinik in other languages

Danish: Stålanden ("Steel duck")
Dutch: Presently Superdonald, formerly Fantomerik
Finnish: Taikaviitta ("Magic cape")
French: Fantomiald ("Fantomius" + "Donald")
German: Phantomias
Greek: Φάντομ Ντακ (Fantom Dak)
Hungarian: Fantomkacsa ("Fantomius" + "kacsa (duck)")
Icelandic: Stálöndin ("Steel duck")
Indonesian: Super Donal
Norwegian: Fantonald (inspired by The Phantom)
Polish: Superkwęk ("Super" + "Quack"; "kwękać" also mean to complain about something)
Portuguese: Super Pato ("Super Duck") (Superpato in Brazil)
Spanish: Patomas (a blend of pato, "duck" and Phantomas; also, mas -strictly speaking, más- is Spanish for plus)
Swedish: Stål-Kalle ("Steel Kalle", Kalle is Donald's Swedish name, the name is based on Stålmannen, "Man of steel", the old Swedish name for Superman)
Turkish: Maskaldi

English language editions Published in 1980's by toy company called Remus very hard to find

External links