In 2023, Marvel released special Disney 100 variant covers for their Amazing Spider-man comic series. The Disney 100 variant cover featured a Mickey and Friends tribute take on legendary Marvel covers. The special variant covers ran for 12 issues, but it was so popular and sold so well that Marvel decided to extend the special Disney variant covers into 2024. As both a huge Disney and Marvel nerd, I totally bought into the hype and added all of the Disney Marvel tribute covers to my pull list. I know that I was not the only fan that wished that the special edition cover was for a full issue of Disney Marvel goodness instead of just the cover. We have finally been granted our wish with a full Disney comic published by Marvel and featuring Scrooge McDuck titled “Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime”.

The comic was starting to feel like a major summer event like waiting for the next major MCU movie. Marvel announced that the comic would feature many variant covers. How many covers? There are at least thirteen variant covers for “Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime”. Covers are by Alex Ross, Lorenzo Pastrovicchio, Gabriele Dell’Otto, Pepe Larraz, J. Scott Campbell, Walt Simonson, Elizabeth Torque, Ron Lim, Steve McNiven, Peach Momoko, John Romita Jr., and Skottie Young. You will see all of the covers in this review. I am not going to critique each one, but I will tell you which covers I added to my pull list. Upon hearing news of what is being called the story of the ¢entury, I immediately went to my local comic book shop and preordered the Alex Ross (Cover A) and Lorenzo Pastrovicchio (Cover B) covers as those were my favorites from my first viewing of the covers. I later added the Skottie Young cover because I am a big fan of his covers. I would have ordered the J. Scott Campbell cover, but it was a 1:50 incentive cover so the price was way too spicy for me. Did I need multiple covers? Yes, I did because Scrooge comics are a big part of my life, and I already had a good feeling about this one. After actually reading the issue and enjoying it, I may even add the 1:10 incentive Gabriele Dell’Otto cover.

Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime retails for $7.99 which is a few dollars more than a standard Marvel comic release, but the issue has some great bonuses. The issue is made up of sixty pages. The main event story, “Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime”, is thirty pages in length. It is followed by a reprinting of the classic Carl Barks story that started it all for Uncle Scrooge, “Christmas on Bear Mountain”. This sacred story of the debut of Scrooge from Dell Comics Four Color Comics #178 was originally published in 1947. It is a holy grail and dream of mine to own the original comic. The story has been reprinted in Fantagraphics’ The Complete Carl Barks Library and a few other collected editions from Fantagraphics. “Christmas on Bear Mountain” is very appropriately included as a bonus in this issue as it is the pivotal point in Scrooge’s life where he stops being so miserly and welcomes his family into his life which changes him for the better. This is a major plot point for “Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime”. I am really excited for Scrooge fans that may have never read “Christmas on Bear Mountain” that will get to experience it for the first time and have it in their collection. Another included bonus is Marvel and Disney Publishing employees sharing their love for Scrooge as well as their favorite Scrooge comic covers. The last bonus is character designs of Donald as Wolverine and Thor from the next big Disney Marvel collaboration issues “What If…? Donald Duck Became Wolverine” which releases in July and “What If…? Donald Duck Became the Mighty Thor” which releases in September. The Donald character designs are followed by two preview pages from “What If…? Donald Duck Became Wolverine”. The preview pages look amazing, and I am hyped for the release of that comic.

Here is the part of my review that I must urge you to stop reading if you haven’t read the issue yet to avoid all spoilers. The spoiler filled review will continue after this picture of the Alex Ross cover.

*STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS*

*STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS*

My Review

“Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime” consists of three chapters and an epilogue. The whole story is written by Jason Aaron. Jason is a huge Scrooge McDuck fan as you can read about in the Why I Love This Duck page before the story. The guy knows his stuff and he references how big of an influence and adoration he has for both Barks and Rosa. I don’t know this guy, but I can already tell we would get along. Anyone that mentions Don Rosa’s work always gets bonus points from me. You can really tell that this was a passion project for Jason.

Each chapter is illustrated by a different artist. The artists all do a really great job of matching the action style and tone of the story. If I wouldn’t have read that it was multiple artists beforehand, I would have thought it was the same artist throughout the entire book. Great job artists! Chapter 1 was drawn by Paulo Mottura. Chapter 2 is penciled by Francesco D’Ippolito and inked by Lucio De Giuseppe. Chapter 3 is illustrated by Alessandro Pastrovicchio and Vitale Mangiatordi. Pastovicchio also has one of the best cover art for this epic tale. Giada Perissinotto masterpieced the epilogue. Colors for the issue were done by Arianna Consonni. Lettering was done by our good friend Joe Caramagna.

Chapter One: The Christmas That Never Was gets us started with a duck tale that gave me goose bumps as we get to see an alternate universe where Donald Duck and the boys get lost on their way to Bear Mountain. So the pivotal event in Scrooge’s life never happened which creates an origin story for a more evil Scrooge which will be known as the Scrooge-Above-All. This Scrooge is the richest of Scrooges and very bitter. He finds a magic mirror in his Money Bin which once belonged to Magica De Spell who he drove to ruin. In the mirror, he sees another Scrooge which he then grabs that Scrooge’s number one dime which sets him on the course to be the Richest Duck of All Worlds! This chapter plays out like a movie that I would love to see in theater or Disney+ and gave me literal chills.

Years later, in another world, we are treated to Chapter Two: Lord of the Dimes. Just like a big budget movie, we are thrown into what would be considered a mega action scene high above Duckburg. The Beagle Boys are descending on chains that they have attached to Scrooge’s Money Bin to lift it into a portal to another world. Scrooge leaps out of his airplane to fight the Beagle Boys in mid air. Tom Cruise and Scrooge McDuck do all of their own stunts. We don’t see Launchpad McQuack in this issue which is unfortunate, but I imagine he is flying the plane. Scrooge uses all of his fighting skills to defeat the Beagle Boys, but he is caught off guard when a mystery character hits him with a haymaker with knuckles made up of number one dimes. We see the new form of evil Scrooge-Above-All as he beats down our hero and takes his Number One Dime as a trophy. Scrooge-Above-All is a true bad ass. I absolutely love his character design. He wears all of the Number One Dimes around his neck from the Scrooges from other worlds that he has defeated. It reminded me of General Grevious’ collection of Jedi light sabers. It is definitely worth adding that Jason Aaron uses a lot of references to events that happened in Don Rosa’s The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck during the fight. More bonus points have been added to Jason’s total. The Money Bin gets lifted into the portal and now Scrooge turns to Gyro for assistance. Gyro finds our hero Scrooge’s version of Magica De Spell’s mirror which Scrooge uses to dive into another world.

Weeks Later in the story, we get Chapter Three: Assault on the All-Bin. Our hero Scrooge has teamed up with other Scrooges from alternate dimensions to go after Scrooge-Above-All. Scrooge-Above-All’s Money Bin looks like something out of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as it stretches way above the clouds in height. The Money Bins from the other Scrooges actually fit inside this money bin. Our hero Scrooge’s team of other world Scrooge’s include Shoeshine Scrooge, Laird of Castle McDuck Scrooge, Buckaroo of the Badlands Scrooge, Greatest Adventurer Scrooge, King of the Klondike Scrooge, and Space Scrooge. Again, more appreciation for Don Rosa’s The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck so more points added. They get into an action filled fight against the Beagle Boys. We see that behind the scenes all of the other world’s Gyros have come together for the Council of Gyros to put this multiverse plan to action. The Scrooges end up having an ego problem with each other that is finally broken up by the all powerful Scrooge-Above-All. Once again his design is amazing, and I want some merch. Evil Scrooge really Thanos up the other Scrooges in this multiverse fight. The art and action from these fight scenes are on another level. Again, am I watching a high budget movie or reading a comic? The Scrooges with Gyro’s help open the mirrors to all of the other dimensions for their ultimate weapon “The Berserker Horde”! Alternate versions of Donald Ducks flight out of the portals raged to take out all of the Beagle Boys in our Donald Ducks Assemble moment. This diversion gives the Scrooges time to grab the Scrooge-Above-All by all of the Number One Dimes around his neck to extract his powers. The Scrooges Money Bins are all returned to their proper dimensions.

Our hero Scrooge shows empathy for the defeated Scrooge-Above-All and changes his life for the better with the gift of family in the Epilogue: The Happiest Duck in the Multiverse. All of the other world’s Scrooges, Donalds, nephews, and more visit Scrooge-Above-All to celebrate Christmas and a page loaded with Easter eggs of other world’s ducks concludes the story. Have fun discovering each one.

Jason Aaron mentions in Why I Love This Duck that his main goal for this book is for readers to read it and be left wanting more. I wanted more. Mission accomplished Jason…mission accomplished. I loved this Duck Tale, and people that read this blog will too. Disney make the movie!

Every version of myself throughout the duck multiverse would buy this issue. I would own infinity copies of “Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime”.

A big thanks to Marvel for sending me an advanced copy for this review. After reading and loving this book, I went out and bought additional covers. It is not a move that Scrooge would have approved of. I am even more hyped for “What If…? Donald Duck Became Wolverine” and “What If…? Donald Duck Became the Mighty Thor”.