What do you think of the Ultraheroes??

[marco996]

Hey guys, there's this ultraheroes series. I did not start it yet, I need your opinions.

Is is good and entertaining? Is there a good reason that all characters are superheoes (I like Super Goof and Duck Avengers stories, but I don't think every character needs a secret identity).

[Hyaroo]

Eh. It's... not all that great. Granted, I'm of the opinion that superheroes should be used sporadically in Disney comics, and to be frank the Ultraheroes don't really offer anything new here. There's nothing in this comic that hasn't been done, and done better, elsewhere.

Though, it must be said that only Gladstone and Gus actually got original superhero identities for this series; Daisy and Fethry already had their own established masked identities which have appeared at least sporadically in stories for years, so it makes sense for them to be on a superhero team.... and I can see the temptation to try a "Justice League" or "Avengers" thing with the established heroes who have generally operated solo.

There are some mildly enjoyable bits. Fethry's generally good for a chuckle (his igloo-salesman job in the first story was pretty funny), and I like the interplay between Donald and Daisy and their secret identities -- in older comics, Super-Daisy was pretty insufferable, but here she's actually put to good use; it's a pretty fun dynamic where Donald and Daisy are romantically involved in their normal identities but their masked personas hate each other's guts even if there is an attraction there that they don't really want to deal with.

Surprisingly, though, the highlight of the story doesn't involve the superheroes at all. The absolute best part of at least the initial story arc involves Scrooge and the Beagle Boys. Scrooge has been taken prisoner by the supervillains, and the Beagles (who were trying to rob the money bin when the supervillains attacked) have been captured along with him. There's an amusing running gag going on with Scrooge successfully escaping only to get captured again thanks to the blundering of the Beagles.

All in all, though? It's by no means a classic. Certainly doesn't hold a candle to PKNA, which is still the best "Disney-character-as-superhero" comic out there, in my opinion.

[squeakyboots]

It's quite honestly the most generic and cliche ridden superhero story I've ever seen. It's that kind of story where you know exactly where the plot and subplots are going to lead to at all times and there isn't any charm to it that makes up for that.

-Eega Beeva gathers all the heroes together to fight a team of super villains and collect all the pieces of some maguffin that the villains can rule the world with if they got it first.
-There's a subplot where Donald and Daisy's superhero identities fall in love with each unaware of the other's real identity.
-There's a subplot where Mickey who isn't a superhero tries and succeeds to prove that you don't need super powers to do stuff.
-I think Gladstone did something to betray the other heroes at one point. Can't remember for sure because it's been years since I've read this.
-The villains have a leader that betrays the other villains when he gets the maguffin and the heroes and villains team up to stop him in the end.

Hopefully that gets the idea across. Like Hyaroo said, the whole story is just stuff that's been done better in other places.

Also, the way this series was released is dumb and confusing. The first four issues of this story were actually printed in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #'s 699-702 (I think) and Ultraheroes #1 is actually part 5. I have no idea why they ended up releasing it that way. They did the same thing with Wizards of Mickey. It just confuses people who want to read this later on in the future.

This was also the first appearance of the Duck Avenger in the US comics to my knowledge so there's that too I guess.

[Hyaroo]

Well said. ^_^

Come to think of it, there was one small moment I kind of liked: When the heroes are first gathered. the Duck Avenger is annoyed with all the other heroes -- with Super Daisy because they have a history of antagonism, with Red Bat (Fethry) because he's a loon, and with Cloverleaf and Iron Gus (Gladstone and Gus) because they're total rookies and the first impression isn't very good... but when Super Goof shows up, he does express his relief that "at least they called in someone else with a little experience."

It's a very short moment, but I liked that. Super Goof is the only superhero in the comicsverse that's been around longer than Duck Avenger, and while I can't remember them ever interacting before (if they have, it was a story I never read) it feels right that Super Goof is the one hero on the team that the Duck Avenger would instantly approve of.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Nov 24, 2017 16:57:10 GMT Hyaroo said:

Come to think of it, there was one small moment I kind of liked: When the heroes are first gathered. the Duck Avenger is annoyed with all the other heroes -- with Super Daisy because they have a history of antagonism, with Red Bat (Fethry) because he's a loon, and with Cloverleaf and Iron Gus (Gladstone and Gus) because they're total rookies and the first impression isn't very good... but when Super Goof shows up, he does express his relief that "at least they called in someone else with a little experience."

It's a very short moment, but I liked that. Super Goof is the only superhero in the comicsverse that's been around longer than Duck Avenger, and while I can't remember them ever interacting before (if they have, it was a story I never read) it feels right that Super Goof is the one hero on the team that the Duck Avenger would instantly approve of.

Indeed! It's a nice little touch. And Brazil being Brazil, they must have appeared together at some point.

————

Anyway, my thoughts… it was a nice concept (bringing together all the superhero identities, from Super Goof to the Masked Top Hat), the art is pretty good (love me some Turconi, even if Ulatraheroes isn't his best effort), and some of the character interactions are good too (including the one Hyaroo pointed out)… but the real problem is that the story tried to feel too big and ended up falling flat, much like Donald Quest in my opinion (though Quest fared a bit better). From the very first story it tried to trick you into feeling like it was a "big" alternate-series sort of thing on the same level as Wizards of Mickey and PKNA… even though when you get right down to it it was rather short-and-dry. 

Iron Gus and Cloverleaf were… I mean, I'm fine with them, but they didn't need to exist. There are enough Disney superheroes around. I mean, instead of those original characters, why not have established characters like Super Gilbert or the Red Wasp or Purpleterfly? And heck, call me crazy, but how awesome would it have been if they'd gotten Darkwing Duck into the mix! The Masked Top Hat is exactly the sort of character they should have been looking for, but they couldn't be bothered to look further, apparently. 

The same issue, except worse, was seen again with the supervillains. Rockerduck has little business being a gadgeteered supervillain, and is clearly just there to fill a slot — a slot that could have easily been taken up by classic Disney supervillains, of which there are certainly no shortage. Why couldn't we have Zantaf in the villains' team? Or the the Mysterious Mister X? Or Doctor Vulter? Or… hell, you know who should by all means have been in this story? Portis. But no… gotta make Pete a Doctor Octopus ripoff for no clear reason, or, which I find even less excusable, somehow make the Phantom Blot, the closest character to a supervillain in the main cast, even more… supervillainier. He doesn't need a new gimmick. He's already a costumed supervillain. It's gilding the lily, and what's more the gilding is asphyxiating the poor flower. Casty got away with it in Darkenblot because it was the entire premise of the story, but here it feels like an afterthought.

That being said, I did enjoy the return of Spectrus, Zaphire and Intoxman… I just wish they'd stuck with that policy of bringing back old one-shots like that instead of running out of ideas halfway through. 

And the reveal of the Ultramachine's power… good god, that twist was M. Night Shyamalan-bad! And that's saying something! Lyth is not a bad character (I could imagine the likes of her being introduced by Walsh and Gottfredson as a sidekick for Eega, albeit in a completely different sort of story), but she never gets a chance to shine and be a character of her own before she's abruptly turned into a Chekhov's Gun. But Eega Beeva's Hulk transformation is really the kicking point here. It's never friggin' explained. It makes no sense whether you take Eega as a man of the future or an alien — just… why? Why does assembling the Ultramachine turn him into a monster? Could the story… adress that? 

There's some smaller continuity issues, of course, not least of which how the hell Eega Beeva could have entirely redesigned the Villa Rosa behind Phantom Duck's back even though he uses it as his second-most-used lair and has it rigged with traps… and the costume redesigns were probably unnecessary… but these are the main issues. 

Again, I have nothing against the concept of this series, the execution just wasn't good enough.

[marco996]

Yep! Brazil did it first indeed! In the 80's.
A proto-ultraheroes if you want:
inducks.org/story.php?c=B+850125

[Spectrus]

Nov 24, 2017 19:44:37 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Nov 24, 2017 16:57:10 GMT Hyaroo said:

Come to think of it, there was one small moment I kind of liked: When the heroes are first gathered. the Duck Avenger is annoyed with all the other heroes -- with Super Daisy because they have a history of antagonism, with Red Bat (Fethry) because he's a loon, and with Cloverleaf and Iron Gus (Gladstone and Gus) because they're total rookies and the first impression isn't very good... but when Super Goof shows up, he does express his relief that "at least they called in someone else with a little experience."

It's a very short moment, but I liked that. Super Goof is the only superhero in the comicsverse that's been around longer than Duck Avenger, and while I can't remember them ever interacting before (if they have, it was a story I never read) it feels right that Super Goof is the one hero on the team that the Duck Avenger would instantly approve of.

That being said, I did enjoy the return of Spectrus...

One of the few good things about it IMO as well - as you can tell from my username 

Is The Masked Top Hat Scrooge's secret identity? 'Cause that did get mentioned in one of the "bonus" episodes.

Yeah, overall it was a failed experiment, I think. That said, it's still relatively entertaining. The problem is that it feels like a game of football. Eega Beeva's position in particular is problematic, because he seems uninvolved for long stretches of time and not even bothered about failures in his own team. Knowing what was at stake, that doesn't seem logical.

And I would have preferred The Blot to be more than just a team member. He's a leader figure and a criminal genius in his own right.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Nov 28, 2017 18:38:49 GMT Spectrus said:

Is The Masked Top Hat Scrooge's secret identity? 'Cause that did get mentioned in one of the "bonus" episodes.

Yes, il Tubo Maschiatto is Scrooge's superhero identity in a couple of Italian comics predating Ultraheroes, and he was absolutely hilarious in those. And I think Ultraheroes should have had him as a full-on team member rather than the short cameo they gave him. That is what the original Masked Top Hat costume looks like (note how the top hat doubles as the mask, hence the name):



Way funnier than what they went for in Ultraheroes, I think. 

Nov 28, 2017 18:38:49 GMT Spectrus said:

The problem is that it feels like a game of football.

Now of all the weird metaphors--!! Whatever do you mean by that!?

Nov 28, 2017 18:38:49 GMT Spectrus said:

And I would have preferred the Blot to be more than just a team member. He's a leader figure and a criminal genius in his own right.

Oh, absolutely. When it comes to the Blot being involved with big villains team-ups without being the leader, I feel the Millenium Orbs Saga and Dangerous Currency did it best — either have the Blot pretend to be a subordinate, except with intricate plans to backstab everyone, or include a legitimate in-story explanation where he was tricked somehow into going along with the plan. 

[Spectrus]

Nov 29, 2017 16:47:09 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Nov 28, 2017 18:38:49 GMT Spectrus said:

Is The Masked Top Hat Scrooge's secret identity? 'Cause that did get mentioned in one of the "bonus" episodes.

Yes, il Tubo Maschiatto is Scrooge's superhero identity in a couple of Italian comics predating Ultraheroes, and he was absolutely hilarious in those. And I think Ultraheroes should have had him as a full-on team member rather than the short cameo they gave him. That is what the original Masked Top Hat costume looks like (note how the top hat doubles as the mask, hence the name):



Way funnier than what they went for in Ultraheroes, I think. 

Nov 28, 2017 18:38:49 GMT Spectrus said:

The problem is that it feels like a game of football.

Now of all the weird metaphors--!! Whatever do you mean by that!?

Well, a "team" of good vs. a "team" of evil instead of a serious fight about something serious - Wizards of Mickey did that thing far better, I think. Sure, it's mainly one versus one, but I just feel it would have been better with less "heroes" and less villains. Then again, the numbers were dictated by the seven Ultrapods (which were dictated by the format in turns). And of course, Scrooge couldn't become the Masked Top Hat (I'm familiar with some of his appearances, by the way - just wasn't sure about the name) because he was stuck on that bloody island. So most of the decisions make sense within the context, I guess.

[Deleted]

Well, PK’s first appereance in the US is actually somewhere in Gemstones Donald Duck Adventures, a story named “ Duck Avenger in Crisis”. Later he got another story published in the series mentioned above called “ Legacy” by a Daner named Mårdon Smet, if i am  correct.

[Ramapith]

Oct 15, 2018 11:06:28 GMT @ringoduckfan said:

Well, PK’s first appereance in the US is actually somewhere in Gemstones Donald Duck Adventures, a story named “ Duck Avenger in Crisis”.

Actually, we Yanks had the honor (?) of first meeting Duck Avenger in this story, a peculiarly retold origin made for Disney Adventures that mixed PKNA, Ludwig Von Drake, and details from old cartoon shorts (Spike the Bee, and the conceit of Donald being a farmer, which was almost incidental to the plot).

There was a second Duck Avenger story in Disney Adventures as well, not yet in Inducks—if my memory is correct, it may have featured Donald battling some kind of bad guys at a circus (?).

[Deleted]

Well,i guess there’s something right there..

[deb]

I try NOT to think of Ultra Heroes. It's better for my brain that way.

[Spectrus]

It helped for us Germans that it was published in a series invented for "special" things like these, alternate continuities etc., so it didn't impinge on the general canon too much.