Pleasure that dissolves – review of the comic book “Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge: Universal Solvent”

Pleasant and useful

Have you ever wondered how you can learn hated physics and chemistry? Of course, thanks to the comics! And if these are comics with Donald, his relatives and friends, then this science will be even more interesting. Rosa revealed his rich knowledge of nature in a comic book entitled Universal Solvent. This short science-fiction story shows us how dangerous experiments commissioned by some multi-billionaires can be. In this case it is about a certain substance that can break through almost anything (even a thankless contract with Disney)! When things get out of hand, however, the Scrooge must take responsibility and prepare an expedition to the center of the Earth to avert a global catastrophe.

One would like to say that the story with the universe ™ is a display of the author’s knowledge. Natural knowledge, of course. Various types of professional terminology, thoughtful drawings like technical sketches, as well as plot consistency with physical phenomena make us follow the adventures of ducks with bated breath. Of course, you can guess how this story will end, but nevertheless it is completely different from what we are used to.

In the sixth volume of the collection we can also find other “scientific comics”. Hence to Smallness is a story that the filmmakers with Scott Lang from the Marvel Cinematic Universe probably modeled on. The problem of the quantum world has been presented in such an interesting way with the help of numerous drawings inducing the illusion of increasing and decreasing that we get a really solid ride without a hand in the world of the smallest elementary particles.

History, history and history again

Most of this volume is adventure-history comics. Why? Maybe because the Scrooge is a treasure hunter and a character characteristic of the age of a couple. Observing him as a young duck, traveling the world in the late nineteenth century, we can see the efforts of himself or other members of the duck family (after all, they have it in their genes!), Whose aim is to find mysterious treasures.

Among the stories, we can find a story about the adventures of the Scrooge and the Canadian horse police or the subsequent activities of the Young Scouts organized in order to find valuable artifacts that give power over America.

However, I liked the other stories. The first one is about finding the treasury of Croesus. As it turns out, not everything that Scrooge finds belongs to him, because he must take into account the cultural heritage of the countries whose treasures he finds. Have you ever wondered that no one approached the billionaire duckling for the return of historical cultural goods? This time she asked for Turkey, and the boards presenting the detailed bloodless clash between McDuck’s and the Ankara army can make you feel like Spielberg’s war paintings.

My second favorite story is Kaczor, which wasn’t there. The comic in a humorous way introduces the reader to the convention of time manipulation, depicting a significant problem (everyone on earth is in a specific place and time). In short: nothing happens without a reason. Donald found out about all this on his sixtieth birthday, Friday, June 13 (although he claims that six nozzles are too many for his age).

Is it worth buying more volumes?

This question should only have one answer: of course! The quality of the release of this series keeps the level from the very beginning, and the opportunity to see the completely new works of the legendary Don Rosa only increases the appetite for more. Of course I could fault the fact that I would like to see more additions… I am writing this with my hand on my heart. Such unknown covers as the one showing Donald as Superman or interesting historical commentaries only deepen our knowledge about the author’s behind-the-scenes inspirations. Therefore, I have no choice but to wait for the next edition to come out!