Flintheart Glomgold

Flintheart Glomgold is a character created by Carl Barks for the Uncle Scrooge comic series. As Scrooge McDuck's long-standing arch-nemesis and business rival, Glomgold strives to usurp the title of "World's Richest Duck". He will attempt any possible underhanded deed in order to defeat Scrooge, and occasionally hires such thugs as the Beagle Boys to do his dirty work.
Glomgold was originally depicted as a diamond miner of South African descent. Some later incarnations have altered his ancestry to that of Scottish descent, to better reflect Scrooge's own heritage. Though the character was seldom used during Barks' tenure, Glomgold rose to prominence due in part to usage by comic artist Don Rosa, and a recurring role as a villain in the DuckTales franchise.
==Background==
===Personality===
Selfish, sneaky, and incredibly greedy, Glomgold strives to become the world's richest duck. He hates being second only to Scrooge and often uses immoral methods, to get around him. But the thing that makes him such a cruel is the fact that he will cross every line to achieve his goals, even to the point where he might try to murder Scrooge. However, this often leads to his downfall what into Glomgold's bitterness and intensifies his hatred of Scrooge.
Like Scrooge, Glomgold also has a love for money and gold, however, unlike him, he is dishonest and often resorts to cheating, or using other unfair tactics to increase his fortune. He also cares for no one other than himself, acting as a loner at some points. While Scrooge has his nephews and friends, helping or advising him, Flintheart often faces situations alone. This hardened him, he became more ruthless than Scrooge, but also leaves him vulnerable to being simply outnumbered by his rivals.
In DuckTales (2017), Glomgold can rather bluntly be described as "dumb as dirt", as he constantly does idiotic things to make himself look better and ruin Scrooge. Each time he is defeated and ignores his own idiocy caused him to fail.
===Physical appearance===
Many of Glomgold's appearances are centered around the fact that he is similar to Scrooge in so many ways (even having a Money Bin that is nearly identical to Scrooge's), both in appearance and personality. However, unlike Scrooge, who does not believe in obtaining money through dishonest methods, Flintheart makes un-smart immoral decisions, which often leads to his downfall.
Glomgold, like Scrooge, is a slender duck with glasses, but he is depicted with a bushy beard, a black or purple coat instead of Scrooge's red or blue, and a dark bonnet instead of Scrooge's top hat. In the comics, he wears an ascot, a black coat, and a Scottish bonnet.
==History==
Glomgold was created by Disney Legend Carl Barks, and made his first appearance in his 1956 comic The Second-Richest Duck (Uncle Scrooge #15). Under Barks authorship, Glomgold hailed from South Africa, where he made his fortune in diamond mining. He was appearance as an elderly duck with a short beard and wearing in a black coat and a bonnet and was depicted as a ambitious miser and plutocrat, which made him ready to break the law in order to fulfill his goals.
Glomgold next appeared in The Money Champ (Uncle Scrooge #27) in 1959, in which he and Scrooge partake in a rematch, only this time on the grounds of Duckburg. Within the story, Glomgold, through internal monologue, expresses that his crooked methodology stems from insecurities regarding his ability to obtain success through honest means. He laments his choices, self-condemning them as a betrayal to his "dear old mother's fondest hopes!"
Barks' final use of the Glomgold character came in So Far and no Safari (Uncle Scrooge #61) in 1966, wherein Scrooge and company travel to South Africa to purchase a potentially lucrative mine, only for Glomgold to interfere with the expedition. Glomgod, as depicted in this story, is considerably more villainous and cutthroat relative to his previous stints. While the rivalry between Glomgold and Scrooge had largely been portrayed as comical battles of ego, Glomgold's schemes in So Far and no Safari are tailored with the intention of outright killing Scrooge.
Renown "duck" writer and artist Don Rosa, considered to be Bark's true successor, brought the character back in his 1987 story The Son of the Sun (Uncle Scrooge #219), wherein Glomgold and Scrooge compete to decide who is the greatest adventurer and treasure hunter. In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, written by Rosa, Glomgold first meets Scrooge while Scrooge is prospecting for gold in South Africa. Glomgold, however, is caught attempting to steal from a diamond miner's pit claim and runs off, thus showing his dishonest tendencies immediately. In his initial introduction, he says he's a Boer (a descendant of Dutch-speaking settlers in South Africa). He later steals everything from Scrooge's camp (including his campfire) and when Scrooge later confronts him, he declares Glomgold "made him mean". Rosa also created Glomgold's coveted "Number One Rand", which is said to be the first coin that Glomgold had ever earned (or stole) and acts as a counterpart to Scrooge's "Number One Dime".
The animated series DuckTales premiered on television in 1987 and featured Flintheart as a major antagonist, cementing his place within Scrooge McDuck's mythos. However, some drastic changes came to the character, mainly, touched on his nationality and design. He became Scottish, just like McDuck and appearance in a traditional Scottish kilt about with a much longer beard and his voice actor Hal Smith gave him an unmistakable Scottish accent instead of an Afrikaans accent. The success of DuckTales launched a long-running franchise, of which Glomgold is a staple figure. Among notable derivative works, Glomgold has reprised his role as an antagonist in comic adaptations, Capcom's DuckTales video game in 1989, and an animated reboot in 2017.
==Appearances==
===DuckTales===
Glomgold serves as the main antagonist of the series, making recurring appearances. As in the comics, Glomgold tries his best to become the world's richest duck.
Under Carl Barks comics, Glomgold hailed from South Africa. However, when he made his animated debut in the TV series DuckTales (1987-90), the U.S. government had tensions with the Republic of South Africa. Wishing to avoid controversy, as South Africa had been associated with apartheid and not with diamonds at that time, the Disney animators changed Glomgold's domicile from South Africa to Duckburg, and further accentuated his Scottish origins. Another departure from the comics was that Glomgold is also just as notoriously stingy as Scrooge, but even more so, whereas Scrooge will at least be generous with his money on occasion. The animated Glomgold was shown as a big spender. This may have been an amalgamation of another one of Scrooge's rivals, Rockerduck, who did not appear in the show itself (though he would appear in the reboot); Glomgold's debut episode even ended with him eating his hat after being beaten by Scrooge, much like Rockerduck often does (Rockerduck, would, however, appear in the 2011 DuckTales comic arc "Rightful Owners")
He makes his series debut in the second part of the pilot movie "Treasure of the Golden Suns", in which Scrooge and his nephews find a map to a sunken treasure. Glomgold teams up with a villain named El Capitan to stop Scrooge and gain the treasure for themselves.
He would go on to the scheme and battle Scrooge in several episodes. Some of his evil deeds include framing Scrooge for theft and having him arrested, banishing Scrooge to a remote island through the power of a genie, and even having Scrooge's own employees work for him.
===Darkwing Duck===
Glomgold makes a cameo appearance in the Darkwing Duck episode "In Like Blunt", along with the Beagle Boys and Magica DeSpell, among the bidders for the secret S.H.U.S.H. agent list.
Outside of the show itself, Glomgold also had a silhouetted cameo alongside Rockerduck in the final issue of Joe Books' short-lived Darkwing Duck revival comic.
===DuckTales (2017)===
Glomgold returns in the rebooted DuckTales as an antagonist and, once again, Scrooge's sworn enemy. He is aggressive, cruel, unhinged, and generally more bumbling than his original 1987 version. This incarnation of Glomgold is also rather hefty in weight and has a fake beard. In a reference to the way the 1987 series changed his nationality from South African to Scottish, this incarnation of Glomgold outwardly appears Scottish, but is really South African, affecting the Scottish persona as a way of outdoing Scrooge by being "more Scottish" than him.Frank Angones on Tumblr
As revealed in a flashback in "The Ballad of Duke Baloney!", his birth name is Duke Baloney (a reference to the Duke of Baloni, a different "second richest duck" character that appeared in one of Barks' comics before Barks created Glomgold). As a young duck in South Africa, Duke was a shoeshiner who shined Scrooge's spats. Impressed by the lad's drive, Scrooge attempted to replicate the lesson in self-reliance that he had learned as a boy by paying the young Duke a single dime for his services, but Duke didn't take the lesson well. Instead, he felt cheated and pickpocketed Scrooge's money clip, then used the cash to invent himself as "Flintheart Glomgold", beginning a lifelong quest to outdo Scrooge in every way, becoming richer, more successful, and even more Scottish.
He first appears in "Woo-oo!", where he seeks to become the world's richest duck by acquiring the Jewel of Atlantis. He inadvertently grabs a cursed gem and is dragged off by a giant squid. In "The Shadow War!", Glomgold grabs onto his rogue shadow, brought to life by Magica De Spell, and is pulled away from his office. His fate is revealed in "The Ballad of Duke Baloney!" having been thrown into the water and is later found by two fishermen, Fisher and Mann, suffering amnesia, and thus takes on the identity of Duke Baloney. At the climax of the episode, as Glomgold swims to save Webby Vanderquack and Louie Duck from a freak storm, he regains his memory. Immediately afterward, he retakes his company, he taunts Scrooge with his personalized money clip that he swiped from him back in South Africa and makes a wager over whoever becomes richer than the other can seize the other's company.
In "GlomTales!", with only two days to win the bet, Glomgold begins recruiting Scrooge's enemies, including the Beagle Boys, Mark Beaks, Don Karnage and, reluctantly, Magica De Spell, for the purpose of forming his own family to defeat Scrooge's. But when the villainous alliance invades McDuck Manor, they find only Louie Duck present, resulting in Glomgold being criticized for failing to check if Scrooge was home. Louie proposed the villains all contribute their fortunes to Glomgold, making him more wealthier than Scrooge with Louie as a partner. But as Glomgold's name is fake, by their contract, all their combined fortunes go to Louie. Glomgold was soon the focus of the villains' anger for being duped by a child, forcing him to flee.
In "Moonvasion!", however, Glomgold returns to help Scrooge defeat the Moonlanders with one of his insane schemes, since General Lunaris had a counter for all of Scrooge's plans. While he uses the scheme to trick him into returning his company to him, he otherwise doesn't double-cross him, and his scheme actually succeeds in derailing Lunaris' plan to make the Earth revolve around the Moon, which he happily takes credit for afterwards.
In "They Put a Moonlander on the Earth!", he's still taking credit for defeating Lunaris and has hired a Moonlander named Gibbous as his new assistant. He has since opened up a new amusement park, during which he unveils a new Ferris wheel that he secretly hid a cannon in to destroy McDuck Manor and get rid of Scrooge. Like most of his schemes though, it fails miserably due to the shoddy condition of the wheel.
==Video games==
===DuckTales===
Glomgold made brief appearances in both of the NES DuckTales video games.
At the end of the first game, after Scrooge defeats Dracula Duck, Glomgold shows up, being airlifted by a vulture (presumably a transformed Magica De Spell), and Scrooge must climb a rope up to the five treasures in order to win the game. If Glomgold reaches the treasures first, the player loses a life and has to fight Dracula Duck again. The HD remake, DuckTales Remastered, appears to expand on Glomgold's role in the game, adding in a sub-boss fight against him midway through the Himalayas level. It's also later revealed that he is the main antagonist alongside Magica. He and Magica teamed up sometime prior to the events of the game and manipulate Scrooge into collecting the five treasures so Magica could use them to summon Dracula Duck.
In DuckTales 2, after Scrooge finds all of the treasures, Glomgold takes Webby hostage and holds her for ransom on the pirate ship in the Bermuda Triangle. Scrooge gives Glomgold the treasures, only to discover that this "Glomgold" is actually a shape-shifting robot called the D-1000, programmed to destroy him. After the D-1000 is defeated, the real Glomgold sinks the ship and tries to take Scrooge and the treasures with it.
===DuckTales: The Quest for Gold===
In this game Glomgold appears as the main antagonist. In the intro scene, he barges into Scrooge's office, lamenting about he is tired being the second richest duck in the world, and challenges Scrooge to a wealth contest sponsored by Dime Magazine: in the next 30 days, the one who collects the most treasure shall be the Duck of the Year. The contest is held in the Isle of Macaroon, which is a homage to the four-parter "Catch as Cash Can" episode, except that the contest gives 30 days, not 10. As in the episodes, Glomgold hires the Beagle Boys against Scrooge and his nephews, and will constantly try to race Scrooge to the treasure locations, or snatching treasure from other locations. The ultimate goal of the game is to collect more money, thus, beating Glomgold and becoming Duck of the Year.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*In DuckTales, Glomgold has a larger beard than in the original comic books.
*Glomgold's birth name in the DuckTales reboot, "Duke Baloney", is a reference to the Carl Barks story Turkey With All the Scheming, which features a character known as the Duke of Baloni, whom Scrooge describes as being the Second Richest Duck in the World. Having debuted in 1953, this character predates Glomgold by several years.
*Glomgold is one of five characters of The Walt Disney Company to make the Forbes Fictional 15 list, with the others being Scrooge, Oliver Warbucks, Cruella De Vil, and Tony Stark (who's now a Disney character after Disney acquired Marvel).
==References==
==External links==
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ar:دهبان الطماع
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ru:Флинтхарт Гломгольд
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