Under Siege!

Under Siege!
First page of the story.
INDUCKS	I TL 3224-1P
Writer(s)	Pietro Zemelo & Vito Stabile
Artist(s)	Federico Franzò
Dates	September the 6th, 2017 (release date)

Under Siege! is a comic story written by Pietro Zemelo and drawn by Vito Stabile for the 70th anniversary of Scrooge McDuck's debut, and later also used to mark the 50th issue of IDW's run of American Uncle Scrooge comics. It features Scrooge McDuck, Gyro Gearloose, Albert Quackmore, Grandpa Beagle and the Beagle Boys (including Intellectual-176), John D. Rockerduck, Jeeves, Magica De Spell, Mayor Hogwilde, the Little Helper. In their debuts, Phil, Mary and their son, Rob the Ruthless, Tight-Lipped Tom, Ratface, Gyro Gearloose's Coffeemaker Pouring Soda For People Who Hate Coffee and Edmund McEdil appear and Tony Sweetstealer is mentioned.

Plot

When he was a young boy, Scrooge McDuck slept in the lower drawer of a cupboard. As his fortune grew, so did his beds' sizes. Taken to its logical extreme, this means that the bed Scrooge sleeps in now is as large as a ballroom (and made of the best springs around). And one night, his bed begins to quiver and shake, and Scrooge draws the conclusion that an intruder (a thief?) is walking on the other end of the acre-wide mattress. He calls "the world's greatest detective", Sir Surelock, to guard him. Surelock is fast to find out the answer, and it is far from what Scrooge expected…

References

• The Base Coin was the first coin Scrooge put in his newly-inaugurated Money Bin, a silver dollar. The same process which gave the Number One Dime its mystical properties has also empowered the Base Coin to a similar extent.
• Scrooge's fortune is nearing "seventy bajillion".
• Gyro has invented the Piggybank-Battery which converts a few coins into pure electrical energy.
• Thug's Worth Magazine published "up-to-date rankings of the best criminals out there".
• One scene features the Grand Duckburg Hotel and its concierge and lobby-boy.
• Rob the Ruthless is president of Greedy Gangsters, Inc., which also employs Tight-Lipped Tom.
• Magica De Spell and Albert Quackmore recollect that the witch has now tried to steal the Number One Dime 10,846 times exactly.
• Quackmore's "salary" (aside from room and board at the Bin) is established to consist of "two meal vouchers every three years".
• Gyro uses a Levitating Ray to bring the armored Money Bin back from the depths of the crevice.

Continuity

• The story opens with a two-page flashback to Scrooge McDuck putting the first coin in his newly-constructed Money Bin, taking place shortly after the end of The Invader of Fort Duckburg (1994). The past Money Bin is correctly depicted without its dome.

  

  The many faces of the Money Bin.

• The sign outside Gyro Gearloose's lab advertises "phenomenal cosmic inventions… in a tiny living space!", ironically referencing the Genie's description of his fate in Aladdin (1992).
• References are made to the many strange forms the Bin has taken over the years: a pyramid in Mummy Fearest (1977), a large "Money Ocean" in The Money Ocean (1974) and a giant fishtank.
• When the new Bin immediately begins to shake and collapse after Scrooge throws in the last coin of the 70 bajillion, he mutters "Oh, no! It can't be like that time when—", clearly alluding to A Christmas for Shacktown (1952).
• Scrooge's disappearance alongside the Money Bin at the end of Part 1 sees an anguished Donald Duck asking "Whatever Happened to Uncle Scrooge?".
• Cape Quack from Carl Barks's Northeaster on Cape Quack (1962) appears on the map of Duckburg procured by Donald Duck in Part 3.
• When looking for a new place to put the Money Bin, Donald Duck and Fethry Duck briefly consider the very spot where the Money Bin of the 2017 Continuum is located in DuckTales 2017.

Behind the scenes

First published in September of 2017 in Topolino #3224, #3225, #3226 and #3227, the four parts of Under Siege were printed in English with localization by Erin Brady in Uncle Scrooge #451 through #454.