Disney's Uncle Scrooge Becomes Thanos in New Marvel Comic

Oh, snap! Scrooge McDuck becomes "Thanos" in Marvel's multiverse comic, Uncle $crooge and the Infinity Dime.

By Cameron Bonomolo

Uncle Scrooge may have to deposit his Number One Dime into the swear jar. It was the first coin he ever earned: in the classic Uncle $crooge comic books by Carl Barks, the world's richest duck — he sits on a fortune of five multiplujillion, nine impossibidillion, seven fantasticatrillion dollars and sixteen cents — started adding to his three-acre money bin with the precious dime he earned as a lowly shoeshine boy on the mud-caked streets of Glasgow, Scotland. Says the Scrooge McDuck mantra: he amassed his massive wealth by "being tougher than the toughies, smarter than the smarties, and sharper than the sharpies! And I made it square!"

But in Uncle $crooge and the Infinity Dime, the new Marvel comic from Thor and Avengers scribe Jason Aaron with the adventurous spirit of the comics by Barks and Don Rosa, a miserly Scrooge McDuck fusses about his misfortunes and grumbles a fowl-mouthed version: "I earned every last scrap of it! Me! And no one else! By being tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties and #$%& than the #$%&!"

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Duckburg's resident capitalist has plundered the planet and hoarded every trinket and treasure from Dismal Downs to the gold mines of Dawson City, but there's a hole that not even three-and-a-half cubic acres of cold, hard cash can fill. Inside his massive money bin is a relic he took from the sorceress Magica De Spell: the Mirror of Worlds, which opens a portal to another version of Uncle Scrooge with his own precious Number One Dime. "Why settle for being the richest duck in the world," he says, yanking it from alt-Scrooge's clutches, "when I could be the richest duck on ALL the worlds!!!"

As it turns out, this Uncle Scrooge is from an alternate universe that branches off from the money-diving duck's debut appearance in 1947's "Donald Duck's Christmas on Bear Mountain." In that story, the stingy Scrooge "bah, humbugs!" Christmas like his namesake in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol; and like Ebenezer Scrooge, Donald's cheapskate uncle has a change of heart that ends with him happily celebrating Christmas with his grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. 

Along with their Unca' Donald, the triplets would go on to have globetrotting adventures in search of treasure with Uncle Scrooge (as chronicled in Barks' Uncle $crooge and Rosa's The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck comics).

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Because that Christmas on Bear Mountain never came to pass, the embittered Scrooge became a dark wizard whose insatiable thirst for treasure turned him into The Scrooge-Above-All: like Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones, Scrooge scours the multiverse stealing other Scrooges' Number One Dimes. When The Scrooge-Above-All appears in the DuckTales universe, he almost kills Uncle Scrooge and strips him of his beloved dime.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie, citing the multiverse chapter of the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, explain that the alternate-reality version of Scrooge is from an entirely different universe, of which there are an infinite number spread across the multiverse. To access other universes, they'll need a multiversal constant: something that exists in all universes at once. With the help of Duckburg's gadget guru Gyro Gearloose, the adventurers realize that Scrooge's Number One Dime isn't a "number one" dime — it's a multiversal constant and a way of linking universes, explaining why Magica tried to steal Scrooge's dime and unlock the full power of the Mirror of Worlds.

Scrooge argues that the coin isn't lucky or magical. "It's only special because it was the first money I ever earned, and my inspiration for earning more," he shouts. "I made my fortune square! Earned every cent of it! Myself! Me! And no one else! Luck had nothing to do with it!" Gyro realizes that Scrooge's so-called "Infinity Dime" is just a symbol. The real multiversal constant is... Scrooge himself.

Their daring do bad and good luck tales take them across the multiverse to a dreary Duckburg where multiversal versions of the Beagle Boys gang roam the streets. This reality is ruled by The Scrooge-Above-All, the Lord of Dimes, whose massive money bin has blocked out the sun. Inside evil Scrooge's All-Bin — a money bin containing money bins looted from hundreds of Scrooge McDucks — DuckTales Scrooge has assembled a Scrooge squad to avenge their looted fortunes. 

Alongside Scrooge as a wee lad who earned his first coin from labor, the Laird of Clan McDuck, the King of the Klondike, and more alt-Scrooges, Uncle Scrooge fights the dime-stealers with Scrooges gathered from across the multiverse by the Council of Gyros (a nod to Fantastic Four's Council of Reeds).

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The Scrooge-Above-All reveals that this isn't the first time Scrooges from many worlds have attempted to reclaim their treasures from the All-Bin. As the Lord of Dimes, The Scrooge-Above-All has raided their realities and stolen the magical might of a thousand Magica De Spells to become the single Scrooge in all existence to unleash his greatest potential. "I am Scrooge, uncle to no one," he boasts.

Uncle Scrooge unleashes the Gyros' secret weapon to go to war with the Beagles: a Berserker Horde of furious fowls, Donald Ducks! Meanwhile, the Scrooge squad overwhelms The Scrooge-Above-All. He has all the money in the multiverse, but he's spent his whole life chasing treasure without realizing that the real treasure is the one that makes it all worthwhile: the joy of adventure and the bonds formed along the way. "They're just dimes," Scrooge tells Scrooge-Above-All, "and whether they like it or not, every Scrooge alive needs more than just money to be truly happy." Scrooge-Above-All can't control his magic without the Infinity Dimes, which then explode into worthless silver. In his defeat, the miser realizes: "I'm the poorest duck who's ever lived."

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The Scrooges return their wealth back to their respective universes — all nine hundred multiplujillion eight thousand impossibidillion seven billion fantasticatrillion and ten cents of it. In an epilogue, The Scrooge-Above-All – now just "Scrooge" — has rebuilt alternate Duckburg inbetween adventuring with Donald and the triplets. A changed duck, he's an uncle, after all: to the hundreds of Donalds who have migrated to Duckburg to celebrate Christmas.

Uncle $crooge and the Infinity Dime is on sale now from Marvel Comics.

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