Uncle Scrooge

Context

This is the version of Uncle Scrooge that appears in Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck and Ducktales.

As often with Disney continuity, this is different from other portrayals, particularly licensed ones.

Background

Powers & Abilities

Scrooge McDuck is an expert in all fields connected to running any kind of business successfully.

His years of gold digging and regular swims through his “petty cash” enabled him to defeat an entire prison population at arm wrestling in two seconds apiece.

Scrooge is also an accomplished treasure hunter and archaeologist, in the vein of Indiana Jones, Annja Creed, and Solomon Motou.

He’s also displayed considerable expertise in fighting crime when it was directed at him. And is not above subterfuge to claim restitution for robbing him.

History

Scrooge McDuck began his first job at ten years of age, shoe shining. He used a kit for that purpose given by his father. He earned his first dime from Burt the Ditchdigger. Being an American dime, Scrooge never had anywhere to spend it. So he hung on to it, even when he was otherwise broke.

Scrooge continued his shoe-shining job until he could afford a horse and cart. From there he began his second job, selling firewood and peat. This lasted until the ghost of Sir Quackly McDuck convinced him to relocate to the United States.

To that end, Scrooge, at 13, took a job as a cabin boy on the Queen Mary of Scots. From there he continued working for his uncle Angus “Pothole” McDuck until Pothole’s death two years later. Which left the boat, the Cotton Queen, to Scrooge.

Scot on the range

Two years later, Scrooge tried to thwart a train robbery. But he found himself thrown off the train, and met Murdo McKenzie and his cowboys. Scrooge proved his worth to Murdo by riding his worst tempered horse. Scrooge named this animal for his similarly tempered sister, Hortense.

Scrooge learned the science of prospecting from Howard Rockerduck. He used it at the Klondike some years later, where he found an egg-shaped piece of gold. This was a sizable contribution to his first million which he amassed there.

He also met singer Glittering Goldie O’Gill, who he later caught trying to steal from him. He made her pay by digging with him at his claim.

After two years in the Klondike, Scrooge bought a bank in Whitehorse. The next three years saw him amassing his first billion.

If I were a rich duck

Scrooge then returned to Scotland to retrieve his two sisters, Matilda and Hortense, upon their father’s death. At that point they chose Duckburg, Calisota as their final residence.

At age 42, Scrooge left the center of his fortune in the hands of his sisters. This freed him to expand his business empire across the entire Earth, one community at a time.

At 63, Scrooge, now Earth’s wealthiest resident, fell out with the rest of his family. They abandoned him. It was then he met his then ten year old nephew Donald and niece Della for the first time, but he never saw Della again. She was reportedly stranded in an outer space mishap.

17 years later, Donald returned to introduce his then eleven year old nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They subsequently joined Scrooge on occasional archaeological quests, along with pilot Launchpad McQuack, whose crash record makes Hal Jordan green with envy.

Description

(From DuckTales Wiki). Scrooge is a white feathered Pekin duck about four feet tall, wearing a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats.

He also speaks with a thick Scottish accent resembling Montgomery Scott’s. He was chiefly voiced by actor Alan Young  .

Personality

Scrooge got where he is by being “smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies”.

His drive to amass wealth is only blunted by the sense of justice he learned from finding that his first dime, being American currency, could not be spent in Scotland.

He is considerably loyal to his family and friends, however. At least so long as they remain honest, too.

Quotes

“No man is poor who can do what he likes to do once in a while ! And I like to dive around in my money like a porpoise ! And burrow through it like a gopher ! And toss it up and let it hit me on the head !”

“That’s the trouble with you young scallawags of today… You expect to start in at the top instead of working up from the bottom, like I did !”

DC Universe Adaptation

(This section proposes ways of using this character in DC Universe stories).

Apart from being a duck, Scrooge would fit in well with DC’s wealthy denizens. He’d see through Lex Luthor in a heartbeat and join the Daily Planet’s quest to expose him.

By Robert Marcum.

Source of Character: Uncle $crooge comics, Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck, DuckTales TV Series, particularly “Once upon a dime”.

Helper(s): Kevin Berger, Ethan Roe, Pufnstuff.

Writeup completed on the 3^rd of April, 2019.