Review by Frank Plowright

Conflating the worlds of Disney’s primary cartoon characters with Marvel superheroes is an idea unlikely to have come to fruition before Disney’s purchase of Marvel. The credits would suggest the project originated in Italy, where the Disney standbys have never lost the following they once had in the USA.

The idea may seem a little twee, but buy into it and it’s a lot of fun. Anyone unable to appreciate the joy in Giada Perissonoto’s spread of Donald Duck as Wolverine in assorted costumes has surely lost the lust for life. You’ll also see Donald taking turns as Thor, the Thing and Iron Man; Goofy as the Hulk, Human Torch and Spider-Man; Minnie Mouse as the Wasp, Invisible Woman and Captain Marvel, and Mickey as Hawkeye, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic. While some of the Marvel characteristics transfer, at heart the Disney characters retain their own personalities, which makes Donald prone to losing his temper a good fit for Wolverine, and the plucky Mickey a good fit for any hero.

We don’t just see the nice guys, though. The Beagle Boys appear as both classic and modernised versions, Magica DeSpell is her usual self, while the all-round villain formerly known as Peg-Leg Pete has his leg restored when standing in for the Red Skull. He’s actually seen at his best as drawn by Lorenzo Pastrovicchio as a monstrous Mole Man.

Writers Luca Barbieri, Steve Behling and Riccardo Secchi know their Marvel history and build their stories cleverly around it. Minnie’s Captain Marvel appearance is an accurate mirror of Carol Danvers first becoming Ms. Marvel, yet managing to substitute Magica DeSpell as the power source; The Fantastic Four’s powers are bestowed on a fairground spaceship ride when Gyro Gearloose messes with cosmic rays; and Gladstone Gander as Loki (with a cameo for Uncle Scrooge as Odin) inadvertently brings the Avengers together. The more tragic elements of origin stories are avoided, so there’s no Uncle Ben when Goofy becomes Spider-Man.

The cartooning is excellent throughout, having the energy common to European Disney comics and supplied in several styles. The sample page combines the relative delicacy of Perissinoto’s Captain Marvel and Donald Soffriti’s work on Iron Man, which isn’t that far removed from US underground comics. Everything here is lively and expansive.

What’s surprising throughout is just how adaptable the Disney characters are, so easily slotting into the Marvel stories. Even in the weakest outing, a more or less straightforward shoehorning of Donald Duck into Thor’s origin, Donald inhabits the role.

This is a thoroughly entertaining collection, given a bizarre meta twist with the realisation that this is likely to be the first exposure of most American kids to the likes of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.