Creation and Origin

Donald first appears in the newspaper comic strip The Little Wise Hen on June 9, 1934. His first comic book appearance was in The Adventures of Mickey Mouse released in May 1931. And finally first appearance as Paperinik/Super-Duck: Topolino #706 (1969)

Donald is widely known as have first appeared in the short film The Wise Little Hen from 1934. The plot of the story was turned in to a Silly symphonies-story (a newspaper comic-series). Therefore making it the first comic book story where Donald appeared. However, a prototype version of Donald appears named as early as may 1931 in The Adventures of Mickey Mouse.

History

Donald has two different origins. According to the first one, he was a duckling who hatched form an egg. After that, he walked away to the big, wide world. According to the other one, his parents (Hortense McDuck and Quackmore Duck) got together, and had a boy named Donald.

For reasons unknown, his parents couldn't keep him. He became his Grandmas (Grandma Duck) foster child. There has been various stories chronicling his time as a boy.

In the story , it`s learned that Donald's bad luck originates from an encounter with Gladstone Gander, when they were children.

Eventually, Donald moved away from Grandmas farm, and started living on a sail boat (there`s not a story where this incident can be found). His first appearance is from this time.

Donald started to appear in Mickey mouse comics, and worked as a comedic relief. He became so popular, though, that he got his own short movies and newspaper comic-series. The strip told of Donald as a man from the street, with the problems of a regular Joe, in a comedic way. It was made by Al Taliaferro, Ted Osborne and Bob Karp.

In the strip, Huey, Dewey and Louie became a part of Donald's life. The first time he met them, they came for a short visit. After a while though, Donald became their permanent foster parent. either due to their parents not tolerating them anymore, or due to some other reason, which has never been explained.

A few years later, they moved to Duckburg. There they met most of the most important persons of their lives (Uncle Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose, Beagle boys...). From that moment on, they started to have small and big adventures. Go to the edges of space, fight against crooks on a monthly basis, meet magicians, save the world, journey to distant places all around the world searching for lost treasures and so forth. Donald and his nephews have remained this way for decades.

In the seventies, he found the accessories of a master criminal, and became the hero Super-duck. Acting as a superhero became a hobby to him. His arch enemies are the Beagle boys.

Main characteristics and character evolution

At first he was quite one dimensional. A cowardly loud mouth, who acted as a comedic relief, mostly because of his bumbling nature.

During the years to come, Donald changed greatly. He became more responsible, more complex and sympathetic. But he still kept his less savory attributes, too. He could go to extremities, often for nothing. And he still does.

Sometimes Donald suffers of low self esteem.

Due to his bad luck, the consequences will mostly bite him to the tale feathers. Often, he hasn't even done anything harmful, but is still met by a disaster. His ill fortune has also made him constantly indebted. The fact that most of the jobs he does, don`t give him all that much money, doesn't help at all.

But, he must have a large storage of good luck, too, because he has stayed in this status quo for decades, and it still hasn't crushed him completely.

One of the most interesting aspects of Donald, is that even if he often causes disasters due to his carelessness and bad luck, and even if he isn't a good worker, mostly...he has an enormous amount of talent. He has shined as an artist, food critic, hair stylist etc. etc. Usually his bad luck and megalomania drop him from the highs of fame and fortune.

Other Media

Video Games

Kingdom Hearts

Donald Duck is Disney Castle's greatest mage and a loyal friend to King Mickey. When King Mickey went missing, Donald and Goofy went to Traverse Town where they met Sora. The three of them teamed up to find Sora's friends and King Mickey. During their travels Donald and Sora seemed to have arguments over driving the Gummi Ship and leadership decisions. During their adventures Donald would change them if they needed to fit in. For example, He changed himself into an octopus, Goofy a sea-turtle, and Sora a merman when they visited Atlantis. Sora, Donald and Goofy together destroyed Ansem and brought peace to the worlds.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Donald along with Sora and Goofy go into a castle called Oblivion. There they start forgetting things. When entering, Donald forgets all of his magic along with any abilities he knew. There is a point in the story when both Donald and Goofy forget that they were looking for King Mickey. Donald got worried that he would forget Goofy and Sora so the three of them made a promise that they would be together. Together they beat Marluxia, the king of the castle, and to recover their lost memories a memory witch named Namine puts them in buds were they would sleep and wake up with their old memories but forget their adventures in the castle.

Kingdom Hearts 2

Sora, Donald, and Goofy wake up to find themselves in another world and they can't remember what happened. They wander off into Twilight Town and find 3 kids: Hayner, Pence, and Olette. They tell Sora, Donald, and Goofy about someone who wanted to see them at the train station so they go. They find themselves ambushed by Nobodies. They defeat them one by one but they just kept coming so then, The King (Mickey) comes in and helps them out and tells them to take the train it knows the way and then their adventure begins.

Powers And Abilities

In Kingdom Hearts, Donald has the power of magic.

As Paperinik/Super-Duck, he has access to various high-technological gadgets, weaponry and vehicles.