Of course I went with the homage cover by the comic’s artists. Do you not know me?
Marvel & Disney: What If…? Donald Duck Became Iron Man
Marvel Worldwide (July, 2025)
(what happened to Marvel Comics?)
“Iron Duck Is Born!”
PLOT: Steve Behling
SCRIPT: Luca Barbieri
ARTIST: Donald Soffritti
COLORIST: Lucio Ruvidotti
LETTERER: Laura Tartaglia
EDITOR: Mark Paniccia
Donald goes to Gyro’s to get plans for Uncle Scrooge’s new drilling machine, and he’s in a hurry because he has a date with Daisy. The Beagle Boys try to steal the plans and force Donald to make the machine, but he finds other plans on the disk Gyro gave him for his landscaping armor (it’s Gyro Gearloose, folks) and builds that instead to capture the Beagle Boys and make his date with Daisy. Now if he could just take the thing off.
What they got right: The Iron Man homages are well used. Donald being forced to make the armor comes out of the first Tales Of Suspense and movie backstory, and they come up with a proper (by comedic standards) reason for making him go Tony Stark on it, just without the heart problems. The cover homages that first issue even though the armor is his formerly “classic” armor, whose debut on the cover of Iron Man #126 was itself an homage to Tales Of Suspense #39, which has been used in other Iron Man comics.
What they got wrong: Still, an Iron Man/Duck armor seems unnecessary in a world that should have Gizmoduck in it. That’s already an armored suit Tony would be jealous of with gadgets that Dynomutt would be jealous of (and has it’s own malfunction issues like Dog Wonder). Also, no Uatu The Watcher, not even using the Spider-Ham stand-in. Great, now I have myself wishing for that Spider-Ham/Darkwing Duck crossover again.
What I think overall: It’s my favorite of the Mouse Club homaging my favorite Marvel hero, and it’s done well. I really liked this comic. I’m glad it was one of my FCBD purchases. (The stores have to pay for those free books so I feel bad not buying something.)
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