Magica De Spell

Magica De Spell is a major villain from the Scrooge McDuck comics, created by Carl Barks. She is an evil sorceress who first appeared in Barks' 1961 comic The Midas Touch with the goal to obtain Scrooge's Number One Dime, in order to be able to make an amulet that will give her the Midas Touch.
==Background==
Magica lives on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, next to Naples, Italy. Her primary motivation is to steal Uncle Scrooge's Number One Dime and melt it in the fires of the volcano to turn it into a powerful magical amulet, capable of granting the Midas Touch to whoever wears it and allowing them to turn anything into gold.
Unlike other people who think the Number One Dime to be a lucky charm, Magica doesn't believe it to be the source of Scrooge's wealth, but Scrooge's wealth to be the source of the dime's powers, as she only tries to steal it because it's the first coin ever earned by the richest duck on Earth, and has been touched frequently by him.
On more than one occasion Magica has successfully stolen the dime, but in the process her actions cause the dime to lose its status as the first coin owned by the richest duck on Earth. Examples of such stories are Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies when she travels back in time and ends up in Glasgow to steal the dime. She finds Burt the ditchdigger, the man who originally paid Scrooge the dime for shining his boots, and offers to buy the dime from Burt for ten pence. Burt, realizing American money is unspendable in his native Scotland, easily agrees to Magica's trade (he is also unaware of her sinister nature as she is in disguise), but Magica suddenly comes to the conclusion that if Burt pays Scrooge's shoeshine bill of five pence, one of those shillings would become his #1 coin instead of the dime. Another realization about the dime was A Little Something Special when she teams up with Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys in a plan made by Grandpa Beagle. She gives the dime back after realizing Scrooge wouldn't be the richest man on Earth after the Beagle Boys steal his money. In Carl Barks' Ten-Cent Valentine, it's revealed she believes the dime must stay in one piece until she finally melts it or the spell won't work.
She sometimes teams up with the Beagle Boys or her good friend and sometimes housemate Madam Mim. She also has a raven named Ratface in the comics. Other characters closer to Magica include her grandmother, Granny De Spell, who, although claiming to be one of the most powerful of witches, has been no more successful in obtaining the Number One Dime. Magica even has an apprentice, the bungling no-hoper Samson Hex. There's also Rosalio, a dim-witted goose, who claims to be her fiancé. He is supported in this by Magica's relatives but is always rejected by Magica. Magica has an odd relationship with Scrooge, to the point of sometimes even manifesting itself in mutual attraction.
She has on more than one occasion used disguises to get closer to Donald Duck and even Gladstone Gander so she can access Scrooge's dime, only for it to backfire when she inadvertently falls in love with them and chooses to retreat.
===Powers and abilities===
Magica is a very powerful witch and has a number of magical powers, such as the ability to teleport herself over far distances, the power to conjure and transmute matter on a sub-molecular level, and the ability to turn herself into any animal that she wants. She is also fond of using "foof bombs", a trait she has had since her first debut in the comics, and she uses hypnotic versions of them to trick the Phantom Blot in the Darkwing Duck/DuckTales crossover arc Dangerous Currency.
In the comics, she is often portrayed as having a weakness for garlic, as it wards off witchcraft and therefore makes her lose her magical abilities when she is near it. As such, Scrooge will often use garlic to try to shield his money bin from Magica during one of her attacks. Also, even if she has a young and youthful look, many instances see her and other characters, usually fellow witches and wizards, comment that she is actually some centuries years old.
*Master Sorceress: Magica De Spell is a powerful sorceress who is well versed in many forms of magic, from Sumerian to Demogorgon. She carries a staff with a Sumerian medal as its headpiece, which amplifies her powers. She has more abilities than your average magic-user.
**Magic: As a sorceress, she is well versed in many forms of magic from Sumerian to Demogorgon, she possesses extensive knowledge of magic, and with the usage of the Sumerian Talisman, she has more abilities than your average magic-user.
***Telekinesis: Magica can lift heavy objects with her mind as seen in the episode, "The Shadow War!" she levitates her staff towards her, and forms a claw out of gold coins.
***Levitation: One of the few powers she was seen using before obtaining the Sumerian Talisman back from Lena, she is capable of hovering a few feet in the air on her own.
==Appearances==
===DuckTales===
Magica was a recurring antagonist in the TV series DuckTales, where she was voiced by June Foray (using an Eastern European accent similar to that of Natasha Fatale from Rocky & Bullwinkle, who was also voiced by Foray).
She appeared mostly in the first season of the series, with her only appearance in the third season being in the episode "The Unbreakable Bin".
Although she appears as one of the show's major villains, she is frequently a source of comic relief: in Magica's final scene in the series, for example, she attempts to send Scrooge's "tin man back to Oz", but is sent elsewhere herself in a whirlwind when a Quackenyeeken Yeeker bird yeeks in fear, causing her jar of magic dust to break open and carry her away. Scrooge exclaims, "One thing about Magica―she always knew how to make an exit." On more than one occasion, her plans to obtain Scrooge's Number One Dime backfire so spectacularly that she is forced to work together with Scrooge to prevent greater disaster.
According to the show, her brother, Poe De Spell, was transformed into a raven and serves as her magical familiar — this is an obvious reference to Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven. Poe replaces Ratface from the comics. A similar reference had already been established in the German versions of Magica comics, where her raven is called "Nimmermehr" ("Nevermore"), referring to the most recognizable keyword from Poe's famous poem.
===DuckTales (2017)===
Magica appears as the main antagonist of the reboot's first season, although she was first revealed at the end of "The Beagle Birthday Massacre!" This incarnation of Magica speaks with a British accent instead of a Russian accent, as well as having green-blue feathers (due to the effects of magic), slit slice-like pupils, and a more lanky design in a callback to her first appearance in the Carl Barks comic The Midas Touch. Fifteen years prior to the start of the series, Magica and Scrooge engaged in a bitter battle in which Magica attempted to banish Scrooge to another dimension within his Number One Dime. Scrooge manages to repel the magic, however, trapping Magica instead. Before she is sealed completely, Magica enchants her shadow which takes the form of a young duckling (eventually named Lena) who calls her "Aunt Magica", with the jewel from her staff becoming Lena's talisman. In all of her appearances up until the finale, a shadow Magica appears through the shadow of Lena to contact her from the dime. Motivated by personal scorn towards Scrooge and his family, Magica yearns to steal the Number One Dime, which Magica intends to use during a lunar eclipse to increase her power and have her vengeance.
She forcefully enlists Lena into her scheme through the talisman Lena wears that allows Magica to control her. Although Lena is at odds with her "aunt", she obeys Magica in order to achieve her freedom, and Magica constantly urges her to abandon her growing friendship towards the McDuck children, especially Webby, who forms a strong bond with her. She also had to keep her mission a secret to avoid having anyone finding out about the plan too soon. When the eclipse begins to draw closer, Magica's power grows to the point she is able to possess Lena at the end of "The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!". By the time of "The Shadow War!", Magica uses Lena's body to enter McDuck Manor, where she successfully steals the dime just as the lunar eclipse takes place. Magica's form is finally released, allowing her to encase Scrooge within the dime and take over Duckburg. Magica casts a spell on the citizens' shadows and creates an army of followers. She then establishes Scrooge's Money Bin as her domain and takes time to relish in her victory by delivering a long-awaited monologue. Magica's plot is foiled, however, when the McDuck children infiltrate the bin and challenge Magica for the dime. The battle results in Scrooge's freedom and the loss of Magica's magic, turning her into a normal duck and a mere practitioner of witchcraft. Foiled, Magica swears vengeance before making an awkward exit.
Months later in "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!", Magica begins hounding the dreams of Lena and her friends in an attempt to regain her magic powers and rebond Lena with her. In Lena's dream, she is imprisoned in the castle of Magica's image. Magica then tries to seduce Lena back to the dark side and makes her in the former's image to fight Webby's party. Taking possession of a mirror, Magica still attempts to rebond Lena with herself until the friendship bracelets wake the kids up. In the waking realm, an insane Magica is shown using a telepathic helmet and a drone to enter Lena's dreams and pressure her back to her side. When Lena magically destroys her equipment, Magica pathetically reaches for Lena but cannot because of the gate and rails.
In "GlomTales!", having lost her magic powers, Magica is stuck with work at Funso's Fun Zone holding lame birthday party shows using conjuring tricks. She was recruited by Glomgold as the Webby of his villainous family in an attempt to take down Scrooge and his family. A running gag in this episode is that she is clearly more respected than Glomgold as Scrooge's most feared enemy and is mistaken for the one pulling the strings behind the villain's plot, which results in a mutual distaste between her and Glomgold (mainly on Glomgold's side). With Louie being the only one at the manor, he convinces the villains he can help Glomgold win the bet against Scrooge by combining all of their fortunes together, which actually makes more money than Scrooge, thus ensuring Glomgold's win. However, since Flintheart Glomgold is a fake identity and not his real name, Louie becomes the owner of Scrooge's, Flintheart's, and the other villains' money. Magica scolds Glomgold about how he lost all of their fortunes to a child and declares she has enough hate in her heart for two Scottish billionaires. After Flintheart escapes, the villains take their leave in the Iron Vulture.
In "The Phantom and the Sorceress!", the Phantom Blot desires to destroy Magica De Spell because she destroyed his village years ago after she grew bored with the villagers trying to placate her. As such, the Phantom Blot had grown to despise magic of all kinds, regardless of whether it is used for good or evil. Meanwhile, Webby and Violet convince Lena to seek out Magica to help her control the amulet after being attacked by him, after which they track her down living by herself in a swamp. Magica initially doesn't want anything to do with them, but once she sees that Lena has the amulet, she agrees (although she makes it more than a little obvious that she really just wants to take the amulet back when she gets the chance, so she can regain her powers). She also agrees because, of course, the Blot is one of her own enemies, albeit as a result of her own actions, and is still powerless, leaving her defenseless. Despite Lena making some progress from their training, the Blot overpowers them and drains the amulet when he tracks them down, causing Lena to fade away. However, Lena uses her own magic, powered by the bonds with her friends, to defeat the Blot and return the stolen magic and luck. In the aftermath, Magica regains her amulet and powers and tries to betray the girls, but is beaten by Lena, who pledges to use her powers to battle dark magical forces.
She later appeared in "The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck!", where the origins of her long hatred for Scrooge and Clan McDuck were revealed. Many years prior, she and her twin brother, Poe De Spell, used their magic to terrorize a village into worshiping them, where Magica used her magic recklessly and relied on Poe to talk sense into her. One day, Scrooge McDuck showed up fighting their shadow army when they tried to steal his Number One Dime and pointed out the reliance on each other, infuriating Magica to the point of turning on her brother and stealing his magic. Magica tried to use the power of both of their amulets to turn Scrooge into a raven, only for Scrooge to reflect the spell back at her. However, Poe sacrificed himself by pushing her out of the way and was hit by the blast instead, thus transforming into a raven. Remorseful over her actions, added to the fact that their last moments together were filled with anger and that she did not know how to turn him back, Magica tried to help her brother, although he had already lost his sentience and mindlessly headed for an open window. Unable to reach him, she begged for Scrooge's help, but Scrooge refused as he was more focused on collecting their stolen treasure, added to the fact that they had attacked him earlier. Poe ended up escaping, and thus began Magica's long hatred for Clan McDuck.
She unsuccessfully tried to find the raven that was her brother. While she doesn't find Poe by the time the series ended, she does end up finding another familiar in "The Last Adventure!". In the finale, she is among those captured by F.O.W.L. She is later brainwashed by Steelbeak along with Glomgold and the Beagles. After recovering from the Intelli-Ray, she and the other villains confront Bradford Buzzard and she uses her powers on him as payback for capturing her and turns him into a buzzard after remarking that he was definitely not a good villain, having witnessed his failure. She then uses her powers to transport herself and the other villains away from the scene rather than facing Scrooge and his family. It is most likely she returns to her swamp.
===Other appearances===
Magica makes a cameo appearance in the Darkwing Duck episode "In Like Blunt", along with the Beagle Boys and Flintheart Glomgold, among the bidders for the secret S.H.U.S.H. agent list.
Magica appears briefly during the prologue of Black Widow, as footage from the opening of the original DuckTales plays on a TV in the house where a young Natasha Romanoff and other spies lived under the guise of being a family.
Magica made a cameo appearance in the Broken Karaoke short "Evil as Can Be" having a drink with Jinx and Megavolt.
Magica makes a cameo appearance in a portrait owned by Poe De Spell in the Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life episode Eye Spy. Notably, Magica appears holding a staff resembling the one she owns in the Ducktales reboot.
==Printed media==
===Topolino===
Magica is a major character in Disney Italy comics, where she's called Amelia, "la fattucchiera che ammalia" (literally, "the bewitching witch"): redesigned with a new appearance that makes her look younger (longer hair, rounder eyes, shorter eyelashes, and no eyeshadow), she keeps pursuing her dream of richness trying to steal the Number One Dime. In her adventures, her primary companion is her raven Ratface, here called Gennarino, but occasionally other witches help her, like Roberta the techno-witch, a magic scientist friend of Magica. Many of these stories see her as a protagonist, instead of strictly being a villain, and more of her personality is developed, thus making her more sympathetic.
Due to her being a canonically Italian character, many sport-themed stories see her in a central role as a supporter of the Italian National Team (most commonly, soccer). She is also featured in many Disney Parodies, in the role of the witch or the dark lady.
Across the years, Italians cartoonist had introduced various supporting characters in Magica's stories. Depstite the techno-witch Roberta, the more frequent character is Nonna Caraldina (Magica's grandmother) a rebooted version of Granny De Spell, created by Lello Arena and Francesco Artibani in the '90s. In Artibani and Arena stories, Nonna Caraldina is often showed in company of Minima (Magica's niece, originally created for a Ducktales comics) and Rosolio (Magica's offical fiance, according Carladina). The 2022 story Amelia e le sette streghe vulcaniche (lit. Magica and The Seven Vulcanic Witches) - wrote by Bruno Enna and illustrated by Roberto Vian - a new group of previously mentioned gruoup of seven withces (called Grilla, Kara, Bruja, Circe, Rangi and Irma) has been introduced as Magica's friends (or rival as in Irma case) and supporting characters. 
===Wizards of Mickey===
In the Wizards of Mickey series, Magica appears as an antagonist and member of the spell casting Team Jinx. Her teammates are Neraja and Garma, but their alliance suffers from the fact that all three claim to lead the team.
===Darkwing Duck comics===
In the Darkwing Duck comics published by Boom! Studios, she is a recurring villain. In Crisis on Infinite Darkwings, she breaks Negaduck out of jail after his failed attempt to attack Drake Mallard (whom he figured out was Darkwing Duck) a year earlier. She sends various Darkwing Ducks from alternate universes to the normal St. Canard and plans to force Launchpad to lead her to Scrooge's dime. She later has a sorceress duel with Morgana Macawber. Magica flees from the battle after the sudden arrival of Paddywhack.
However, at the end of the "Campaign Carnage" arc, it is revealed that she didn't leave St. Canard. She, along with the Phantom Blot, is shown to be the real masterminds behind the new villains as Suff-rage was just a pawn.
Magica is one of the three main villains of the "Dangerous Currency" arc, along with the Phantom Blot and Negaduck. At some point prior to the arc, Magica had earlier kidnapped Fenton Crackshell (the original Gizmoduck) and plans to use the Gizmosuit for her own purposes. Magica then uses the slime (actual particles of Negaduck that were created from the Tron-Splitter hitting him at the end of "Infinite Darkwings") to take control of St. Canard and forms her own group called "The League of Eve-ill", consisting of Ammonia Pine, Camille Chameleon, and Cinnamon Teal. (Warren Spector had actually planned to use the League of Eve-ill for a different story arc within the DuckTales comic, but the comic's impending cancellation led to that arc being shelved and the idea being incorporated into the crossover.)
After Darkwing, Scrooge, Launchpad, Gyro, Gizmoduck, Webby, Gosalyn, and Fenton's mother have fled to Gyro's lab, Magica and the Phantom Blot follow them with the slime in order to steal Scrooge's dime (as she doesn't consider this a real victory without it). Magica orders the Fearsome Four to attack Darkwing while she went to see an "old friend". Magica then uses the slime to take control of Scrooge's Money Bin. After Negaduck returned, she, along with the League of Eve-ill, the Phantom Blot, the Beagle Boys and the rest of the gang get trapped in a prison-like body of Negaduck. It is also revealed that Magica had used a smoke bomb with the slime in it to make the Phantom Blot do what she said. When Donald manages to tell all of Duckburg to release their "inner Donald", the Phantom Blot convinces Magica to merge with the Slime, saying he will try to get revenge against her if she doesn't. Along with the Beagle Boys, Magica then teleports to the Money Bin and has another battle with Morgana (who was taken hostage by Negaduck after she disappeared at the end of "F.O.W.L. Disposition"). When Darkwing tricks Negaduck into activating a spell Morgana secretly placed on him, Magica and the other villains end up getting sucked into the wasteland along with Negaduck.
Because "Dangerous Currency" was never approved by Disney and was retconned by the comic's continuation by Joe Books, Magica's role in the arc is now considered non-canon. However, the Phantom Blot is still shown teaming up with her at the end of the revised version of "Campaign Carnage" found in Darkwing Duck: The Definitively Dangerous Edition; this implied that Magica and the Blot would still play a prominent role in the Joe Books continuation. Unfortunately, the Joe Books title was canceled by Disney before any more of Magica's role in the story arc could be shown, and with writer Aaron Sparrow being replaced by Amanda Deibert for the next Darkwing Duck comic by Dynamite Entertainment, it is highly unlikely she will make any further appearances.
==Video games==
===Mickey's Racing Adventure===
Magica serves as an assistant in Mickey's Racing Adventure (along with Ludwig Von Drake, but in another part of the game), casting spells to help the racer (rather being Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, or Goofy) in races to get advantages over Pete's cronies. There are various spells to choose from that cost certain Disney Dollars. This is the only time that Magica is depicted as a friendly character.
===DuckTales Remastered===
Her most recent video game appearance is in DuckTales Remastered, the remake of the first video game she appeared in. In the game, her role was expanded to being the main antagonist, alongside Glomgold, when they manipulate Scrooge into acquiring the five treasures for her so that Magica can summon Count Dracula Duck.
===Other games===
Magica's first appearance in a video game was as the boss of the Transylvania level in the DuckTales NES game. She was next featured as the main villain in The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck and later appeared as a secondary villain in Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers!.
Magica was later included as the second secret playable character in the 2008 trivia game Disney TH!NK Fast.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Barks based Magica's appearance on Italian actresses Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, along with Morticia Addams in The Addams Family,
*In her first story, Magica explains that for her spell any coin belonging to Scrooge can be used: his Number One Dime is simply the most powerful due to their prolonged contact over the years.
*Despite being depicted as weak against garlic in the comics, she herself used them as a weapon in her debut.
*Magica has lots of different names in other dubs. In the Spanish dub, she was renamed Bruja Amelia or Mágica de Hechizo. Bruja means Witch in Spanish. In the French dub, she was renamed Miss Tick. In the German dub, she was renamed Gundel Gaukeley. The Italian dub decided to use the same name used for the comics: Amelia . In the Portuguese dub, Maga Patalógika. In the Dutch dub, she was renamed Zwarte Magica, Zwarte means Black in Dutch. & In the Russian dub, she was renamed Magika de Gipneuse.
*Magica's voice in the original series was based on Natasha Fatale from Rocky & Bullwinkle, another character voiced by June Foray.
==References==
==External links==
*
*Disney's HooZoo - Magica de Spell
*Comic Vine - Magica De Spell
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de:Gundel Gaukeley
es:Mágica De Hechizo
fr:Miss Tick
fi:Milla Magia
it:Amelia
nl:Zwarte Magica
pl:Magika De Czar
pt-br:Maga Patalógica
ru:Магика де Гипноз
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