The Duck Avenger

The Duck Avenger in American comics (also known as Paperinik, Phantomias, Superduck, PK, Super Donald, and Phantom Duck), is a comic book superhero who is Donald Duck's alter ego. Donald originally created his superheroic identity as a means of secretly getting even with relatives, such as Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander, but soon found himself fighting other menaces. The character is an Italian invention and, though dominant in stories in which he appears, is very much absent from all others not starring him.
==Original version==
Born after the approval of the comic-book character Diabolik, the first idea of a superhero based on Donald came to the author Elisa Penna. It was after the then executive director of the Topolino comic book Mario Gentilini asked for a "'Superman' version of Mickey Mouse" that the cartoonist Guido Martina instead suggested to make Donald a superhero, taking the original idea by Penna, and revising and perfecting it, thus creating Paperinik (whose name is a combination of "Paperino", the Italian name of Donald Duck, and the suffix "-ik" from "Diabolik").
In the French version, he was called Fantomiald, in the German version Phantomias, Patomás in the Spanish translations, and the Greek version Phantom Duck (Φάντομ Ντακ), all of them based on the master-criminal Fantômas. In Denmark his adventures have mostly been published in small books called "Jumbobøger", or "Jumbo books" (Due to being several hundred pages long, not for their size). He is known in Denmark as "Stålanden", meaning "The Steel-duck" and in Sweden as "Stål-Kalle", meaning "Steel-Donald". These names are understood to be based on Stålmanden/Stålmannen, local translations of Superman's title, the Man of Steel. In Finland, Papernik is published in "Aku Ankan Taskukirja", "Donald Duck's Pocket Book". The Finnish name for Papernik is "Taikaviitta", meaning "Magic Cape". In Estonia, the character appears in a monthly comic magazine known as "Miki Hiir", that is the Estonian name for Mickey Mouse, and also in a collection of comics, that release every two months, known as "Koomiksikogu", that translates to comics collection. The character name there is "Super-Part", which translates to "Super-Duck". In Norway he is called "Fantonald", contracting word for phantom (Norw. spelling: "fantom") with the name Donald. This alludes to another (non-Disney) comic-book hero, Lee Falk's "The Phantom", or in Norwegian Fantomet. Duck Avenger resembles The Phantom in that he is a masked hero with no actual superpowers. 
The newborn Paperinik made his debut in "Paperinik il diabolico vendicatore" (lit. "Paperinik the Diabolical Avenger", printed in English as "The Diabolical Duck Avenger"), a two-part 60-pages story published on June 8 and June 15, 1969 respectively on issue #706 and #707. This story never saw an American release until 2015, when it was printed in Donald Duck #5 (legacy number 372) and #6 (373) under IDW Publishing.
The debut story featured Donald receiving the ownership papers of Villa Rosa, an abandoned villa outside of Duckburg ("Paperopoli" in the original Italian version) 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 special equipment 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 the second volume of Fantomius's diary in the anniversary story "Paperinik e il ritorno a Villa Rosa" ("Paperinik and the Return to Villa Rosa") 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.
The Avenger would come to a conflict with his female counterpart Super Daisy (known as She-Duck Avenger), Daisy Duck's ego form. They were at a heated rivalry until it turned into a partnership alliance and friendship as well as a romantic relationship, aware of each other's identities, believing to be cheating on each other's respective lover. They would have the feeling that they've actually known each other already as seen in Topolino # 2986 The Romantic Avenger. While under the trance of the Romantic Avenger's (Brigitta MacBridge's ego form) glue potion, they felt in love literally and snapped out once they kissed each other's lips, getting the feeling they've already known each. After they completed their mission, the Duck couple, in their main clothes/forms, kissed each, causing them to get back the feeling they've recognized each other's egos', only to just shrug it off. Nevertheless, they've still had their love-hate relationship/partnership while both working together while having their rivalry on trying to prove one's better than or as the other, often sometimes they believe to themselves that they could've done better on their own even though they make a great perfect team and couple.
==Retool into a superhero==
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.
The "old style" stories and characterization eventually fell out of favor, and Paperinik emerged as the main defender of Duckburg, keeping watch on the city with his high-tech and always nonlethal weapons and gadgets, in a fashion much reminiscent of the Batman. The American hero is given explicit tribute in some stories where the Mayor or Police Chief of Duckburg are seen requesting Paperinik's assistance with a kind of Bat-Signal which projects the outline of a bat "wearing" Donald's trademark hat.
Gyro Gearloose remained the only citizen of Duckburg to know about Donald's secret identity: this, however, happens just when Donald has to reveal him his secret identity for some motive. Gyro later forgot his alias by eating a Car-Can (read below). Gyro became his first and most important ally, dependably providing him with a vast array of powerful (though still often humorous) weapons and sometimes helping him in his adventures. Some other characters discovered Donald's secret time and again, but he always protected himself by erasing their memories with Gyro's "Car-Can Sweeties" or by leading them onto a false trail. The name "Car-Can" is a contraction of the Italian "Caramelle Cancelline" (lit. the "Eraser Candies").
To explain his knowledge of Paperinik's activities, Donald made the public believe that he is "Paperinik's best friend", a fact that utterly perplexes Uncle Scrooge and the other characters.
Many of these stories were much more light-hearted than the first ones, and the theme of revenge was usually absent, although it is still occasionally used, especially against Scrooge McDuck.
==Paperinik New Adventures and PK2==
In the mid 1990s the then-director of Topolino Paolo Cavaglione launched various new magazines in an attempt to expand the themes of the stories and attract new readers. These magazines, which included titles, like I Maestri Disney (containing stories from famous Disney authors like Floyd Gottfredson), PaperFantasy (which contained stories with a fantastic theme), and Paperinik e altri supereroi (which contained superhero stories), more often than not only contained reprints of older, often decades old, stories, making them unpopular with the young authors, writers and artists that worked for Disney Italy. Of these magazines, the most loated by them all was Paperinik e altri supereroi due to it lacking any new content outside of the covers, something that made them unhappy since they felt that the character was stagnating due to the low quality of the stories that were published at the time. In 1995 Cavaglione chose a group of young writers, artists and authors (later dubbed the PK Team) and asked them to retool Paperinik in a fresh new way, taking inspiration from Marvel's comics in order to modernize the character and help him escape the stagnation he was in. Despite the series was intended to be the official continuation of the previous Paperinik stories, the PK Team made many drastic alterations to the core formula:
*The various characters from Donald Duck's comics, with the exclusion of Scrooge McDuck who has a minor role in the story, either aren't present or are limited to short cameos. In their place, a brand new cast of original characters is introduced.
*Duckburg is turned into a metropolis with skyscrapers and a hidden dark underbelly rather than the pacific city that it was before.
*The tone is more serious than in the previous stories, featuring morally ambiguous characters and darker themes, with a major focus on action (a first for a comic made by Disney Italy).
*Rather than one-shot stories with a tenuous continuity, the series featured a strong continuity with various story arcs with frequent callbacks to previous events.
Because of these drastic changes, both the PK Team and the management feared that it would flop, and so they initially decided for that the first three issues would have been published as a limited series, published bimonthly with numeration 0, 0/2 and 0/3 (issue 0/1 was published a few years later as a summer special), and if it would sell well enough it would have continued with a regular numeration. Eventually, the series was released in 1996 under the name Paperinik New Adventures (also known as PKNA) and thanks to a great ad campaign and the interesting concepts and characters, it quickly became a success and was allowed to continue.
When Uncle Scrooge buys the Ducklair Tower, Donald finds there's one floor more than there's supposed to be. The Duck Avenger investigates the secret floor and meets Uno, the building's artificial intelligence, who becomes his new ally and provides him with the inventions of the disappeared Everett Ducklair to fight villains, such as the aliens Evronians, the time traveler known as the Raider, and others. During their adventures they also meet new allies, like the vengeful Xadhoom, an alien scientist that gained a vast array of superpowers following an experiment she made on herself that wants to rescue her race from the Evronians, and Lyla Lay, a droid and agent of the Time Police from the 23rd century that poses as a journalist of Channel 00 and is the main female lead of the series.
PKNA had a successful 56-issue run (3 "test issues", 49 regular issues and 4 summer specials), ending in 2001 with a "what if" double issue numbered #49/50 that set the stage for the sequel series PK2. Before its publication, a survey was published in an issue in order to find out what fans wanted to see next in the comic and, after the publication of the results a few issues later, the various articles of the magazine began to be removed and replaced with a countdown. Finally, in issue #49/50, the sequel was officially revealed to readers, who got to see a glimpse of what was planned for the next series. The sequel begins with Everett Ducklair returning to Duckburg and, much to Donald's shock, deactivating One and attempting to bribe him into abandoning his Duck Avenger's persona. Confused of his sudden shift in personality and deducting that he's attempting to hide something important, Donald decides to continue being the Duck Avenger and discover what Everett is hiding from him, making new allies and enemies, including a mysterious cult leader who is connected with Everett's mysterious past. The sequel drastically changed the status quo of the previous series, and some of these, like the deactivation of Uno and the diminished role of certain characters, like Lyla, were poorly received by fans and this, combined with the surprisingly dark themes for a series aimed at kids, led to lower sales than the ones of its predecessor. PK2 ended in 2002, after 18 issues and a special, due to Disney Interactive and Ubisoft working together to make a video game inspired by the comics, which prompted Disney Italy to cut short the series and create a reboot in order to better introduce the character to American audiences.
===Foreign editions===
In the years following its initial publication, PKNA and PK2 were officially translated and published in various foreign markets, like Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. Despite the interest of American fans, the two series were never translated in English, possibly due to the lack of knowledge of the character among most Disney fans, but eventually a fanmade translation of both series was made. Eventually, in 2016, PKNA received an official English release by IDW Publishing under the name of Duck Avenger, but it was cancelled after six issues due to low sales.
==PK - Pikappa==
The reboot, which was named PK - Pikappa in Italy, was launched the 20 August 2002 alongside the video game PK: Out of the Shadows. Before its publication, its existence was teased in the last issues of PK2 and, just like its predecessor, it was officially announced in the last issue, revealing to readers that it would have brought back various elements from PKNA that weren't present in the sequel, most notably the Evronians and One, but it would have added new twists to the formula. Disney Italy did an extensive marketing campaign, with ads teasing the series in all its magazines and a contest to create "heroic catchphrases" that the Duck Avengers would say in the comic, in an attempt to attract new readers and bring back old fans that dropped out of PK2 due to its darker tone.
Rather than following the same formula of the previous series, various changes were made to the comic:
*The main stories' number of pages was reduced from 62 to 48, while the short stories, which previously were 8 pages long, were made 12 pages long. Another big change from its precursors is that, except for some subplots, most stories were self-contained rather than being part of story arcs or sagas.
*The target audience of the series shifted from older, more mature readers to children in an attempt to extend the potential audience after the previous series were criticized by some parents to be unsuitable for kids due to the dark themes some stories had.
*Rather than continue from the previous continuity or even from the original Paperinik comics, PK is set in its own continuity, where the events of "The Diabolical Duck Avenger" never happened and Donald became PK (how the Duck Avenger is known in this continuity) after meeting Uno, who recruits him into the Guardian of the Galaxy (unrelated to the Marvel ones), an organization that protects the galaxy from the Evronian Empire. Other changes feature the elimination of most of the cast of the previous series, changes in the backstory of the returning characters and the introduction of some new allies and enemies, most notably the mad scientist Vulnus Vendor.
The series, inspired by Marvel Comics' imprint Ultimate Marvel, received a negative reception from older fans due to the removal of popular characters, numerous personality and backstory changes, the additions of new story elements that were considered unnecessary or poorly thought and low quality of most of the stories and artworks, which led to them giving the series the mocking nickname Pk - Frittole (in English PK - Wastes). Despite this, the initial sales were better than those of the preceding series, but as time passed even new fans grew increasingly disappointed of PK, which led to some attempts in the second half of the series to fix the issues of this series by adding more call-backs to previous stories, reintroducing fan favorite characters from PKNA, reusing some previously established characters and making the authors of PKNA and PK2 write new stories. While some of these changed were appreciated by fans, they kept growing increasingly disappointed of the comic, to the point that in the mail slot of an issue the authors revealed that the negative fan mail severely outnumbered the positive one and in one issue they printed a letter that asked them when the series was going to be cancelled. In the end, due to the terrible reputation the series had and both Disney Italy and the authors having grown disillusioned of the comic, the series ended in 2005 with issue #32, in which an Evronian general travels back in time in order to erase the Guardians of the Galaxy from existence, reconnecting out of existence the events of the entire series and, ironically, turning the Evronians into a pacific race that helps other species feeling better by eating their negative feelings. PK was then replaced by a new reprint of PKNA named PKNA Reloaded which ended in 2007 with a reprint of issue #21.
===Foreign editions===
Just like PKNA, PK was released in other countries, like Brazil, France, Norway, and Germany. The main stories of first 13 issues were also officially translated in English as Superduck for the short lived Disney Digicomics app for iPod and PSP in 2012, and later fans translated the remainder of the series (both main and secondary stories) in English.
==Foreign adaptations of the Duck Avenger==
The Duck Avenger's first appearance in an American comic was a 3-part story titled The Secret Origin of the Duck Avenger, where Ludwig Von Drake has Donald becoming the Duck Avenger and has him working alongside Spike the Bee against the Evronians, who are renamed the Zondarrians in this story. This comic was published in Disney Adventures in the summer of 2000 and was the first use of "Duck Avenger" name. The "Duck Avenger" name was used as a way of giving the character the same initials as the magazine and would remain as the character's official English name even after Disney Adventures was canceled.
The 2002 video game PK: Out of the Shadows (known as Chi è PK? in Italy and Donald Duck PK in the rest of Europe) by Ubisoft and Disney Interactive offers another version of the character's origin story: Donald, who is the warden of the Ducklair Tower, falls asleep at work and has a nightmare where Daisy and his nephews mock him for his bad temper and laziness, prompting him to claim that one day he'll become a superhero before waking up. Uno, who listened to him talking in his sleep, takes Donald to the secret floor of the Ducklair Tower and gives him a costume and the Extransformer Shield in order to stop an Evronian invasion. In this universe the Duck Avenger is named PK, a shortened version of the Latin words "Platyrhynchos kineticus" ("energized duck" in English), but rather than being chosen by Donald as in the other continuities the name is given to him by Uno at the beginning of the game. The game received a mixed to negative reception and was criticized by fans for failing to use elements of the series in a significant way.
==Relaunch==
Following the failure of PK and the closure of PKNA Reloaded it seemed that Disney Italy wouldn't publish no more stories set in or inspired by the PKNA continuity, especially after they decided to abandon the magazine format after the vast majority of them, with the notable exception of W.I.T.C.H. which lasted until 2012, either failed to last for more than a year or received a poor reception from readers. A small consolation came in the form of the series Double Duck, which premiered in 2008 and featured Donald Duck becoming a spy for a secret agency, which shared themes, style, and some authors with PKNA. Despite the authors claiming that the two series weren't connected, there were numerous callbacks to PKNA, with cameos of objects, like the Extransformer Shield and places, like the Republic of Belgravia, a reoccurring enemy of the Duck Avenger. Eventually, it was revealed in one story that both series are set in the same universe and the events of DoubleDuck are set an unspecified amount of time after PK2.
In 2012 Disney Italy, in collaboration with the editorial group RCS MediaGroup, launched the editorial initiative Pk - Il Mito (in English Pk - The Myth), the first integral reprint of PKNA, PK2, and PK - Pikappa with additional content, such as interviews with the authors and previously unpublished sketches. It was then followed by Paperinik Appgrade, a monthly comic book anthology of original and previously released Duck Avenger stories which, despite being centered around the original version of the character, had numerous callbacks to PKNA, which hinted a possible revival of that series. The same year, the authors of PKNA confirmed that they were working on two different projects centered around that comic: Universo PK and Paperinik New Era.
===Universo PK===
Universo PK (in English Universe PK) it's a 2014 miniseries published on Paperinik Appgrade. It is set in an alternate universe where neither One nor the Ducklair Tower exist, thus forcing the Duck Avenger to fight against the Evronians only with the help of the economic support of Uncle Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose's gadgets and his wits. Despite the more comical tone, the series it's a love letter to PKNA, featuring the appearance of various characters from the series (like Angus Fangus and Xadhoom) and some callbacks to its events. It was followed the same year by a sequel miniseries called Paperinik e la macchina del Fangus (in English Paperinik and the Fangus machine) which features the journalist Angus Fangus trying to ruin the Duck Avenger's reputation. Another miniseries, Paperinik e la trasferta astrale (in English Paperinik and the astral transfer), while not connected to the events of the previous two miniseries, can be considered a spiritual successor to them for its tone and elements that are clearly inspired by PKNA.
===Paperinik New Era===
In 2014, in Topolino #3058, PKNE - Paperinik New Era was released in four episodes. Francesco Artibani wrote PK - Might and Power story, and Lorenzo Pastrovicchio drew the graphics. In this issue, Raider and Odin Eidolon persuaded Donald to go back to his Duck Avenger identity, and prevent Evronian empire from rising again. In May 2015, has been published four-episode issue PK - The banks of the time, and the story focuses on the paradoxes of time and marks the return of Lyla Lay, the charming journalist of Channel 00. This venture is scripted by Alessandro Sisti, designed by Claudio Sciarrone and colored by Max Monteduro.
In 2016, Duck Avenger appeared again in a cross-over along with DoubleDuck, the other secret identity of Donald as a secret agent/spy, called PK vs DD - Timecrime. The series was created and scripted by Francesco Artibani, designed by Paolo Mottura, and colored by Max Monteduro (who is also the creator of DoubleDuck), and it was released in four episodes from April 27 to May 4.
==Gallery==
Paperinik vs Inquinator acid.jpg|The Duck Avenger facing Inquinator
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Paperinik Vs Raider.jpg|PK vs the Raider
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Pkna 12 geena dies.jpg|The Duck Avenger holds Geena in his arms during her last moments
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