Fanboy Madness: Scrooge Mcduck and Batman

Scrooge Mcduck and Batman: From Comic to Screen

Scrooge Mcduck and Batman are possibly my two most favorite characters of all time. Regardless of how much time has passed I always find myself enjoying either one of their old books, games, movies, or any other medium at least once a year. The two of them aren't exactly similar, one is a brooding billionaire genius who uses his money to beat up criminals while the other is a self made quadzillionaire duck who uses his money to make more money. I think it's because in their own ways they are these larger than life characters. Of course it's easy to see Batman as the larger than life character, the man battles the worst of humanity every day and fights beside and against gods with nothing but his brain and a few gadgets. But Scrooge is larger than life because despite his age there is a certain air about him and it may be because of his age. He is an adventurer as much as he is a businessman and lives by a certain degree of principles but at the same time, This will be more a fanboy's rant about the two characters and maybe some compare and contrast.

Differences Over Different mediums

Scrooge and Bruce have undergone a variety of changes over the years since their original debuts in their respective comics and it has helped them survive the test of time. Scrooge himself started out as a rather grouchy, and a bit spiteful character though not inherently evil if anything he was just a businessman. Batman started out a a guy who went around solving crime with next to no help and carried a gun around. But over the years these characters have been fleshed out and expanded on a time passed. Carl Barks never really directly gave a solid origin for Scrooge to exactly how he got where he is but he did have Scrooge mention events in his life that Don Rosa would later expand on. Batman's universe constantly expanded, getting darker and fleshed him out more as a character. While Scrooge's origin is like any comic origin; one of a few the origin provided by Don Rosa has largely been accepted to be the definitive in the same way that possibly Zero Year and all it's tie in's for Batman as his origin or Batman Begins, Year One, or even Gotham.

An Origin of Promises

Scrooge and Bruce have very unique origin stories in that there is a bit of irony to them and maybe that's the point or I'm thinking about this the wrong way. Scrooge starts his life as a poor boy living with his mother, father, uncle, and two sisters. The last of of a once great clan, Scrooge doesn't see a lot for himself though he hopes for it. Scrooge gets his big break as a shoeshine boy and after his first grueling job cleaning a ditchdiggers boots, the young Scottsman is paid with an American dime. This lesson teaches him that there will always be tough jobs and people out to cheat him thus he swears to be tougher and smart than them and to always make his fortuen square. He later leaves at the tender agoe of 13 to seek his fortune, learning not only about himself but about life. The journey changes him though, turning him from a bright and happy youth to a cynical and broken down old man who after becoming the undisputed richest man in the world, finds himself with no more challenges, goals or even family. This is somehwat similar to the "Once Upon a Dime" episode where Scrooge says he didn't feel truly rich until he me Donald again and the boys as well as all of his friends.While these origins aren't always accepted, in a way they do show the change of his character across different mediums. But the general agreement between both Rosa and Bark's work and the cartoon is that meeting the boys did improve his life more, just in different varieties.

Where Scrooge grew up poor and made a promise to be better than the man who cheated him, Bruce grew up rich and made a promise to strike out the man who killed his parents and the system that created him. Where Scrooge's life was about finding success the honest way, Bruce's was ultimately about learning to cope with a dark thing that happened to him while not becoming that. For the most part Bruce has dealt with the sadness of losing his parents as best he can through normal means like therapy. However he still has the feelings of rage, helplessness, and guilt over what had happened, that ultimately took over for the sadness. Bruce, the prodigal son of Gotham and from a family as old as Gotham itself wages essentially a war against the cities madness. He's turned his body into a weapon, spent possibly billions of dollars on equipment, and essentially traded any thoughts of a normal life so no kid has to go through what he did. He sets rules and disciplines for himself such as no killing and no guns (though that rule is rather vague and up to the writers on exactly what that means), Batman is all about looking like he is as crazy as what he fights but doesn't go down to their level. Where Srooge's honesty and sense of doing his own work cost him opportunities, the promise to never kill his enemies has cost him greatly to such as Barbara Gordon's legs and the life of Jason Todd. Their lives have left them alone and bitter at the world because of what it has become. Where Scrooge sees a world of lazy freeloaders unwilling to work and expecting handouts, Bruce sees a world where people are not afraid to break the law and pray on the weak despite his own best efforts. As he pushes his body beyond it's limits in old age, one bad night is all it takes to get him to quit being Batman, until a young man with a lot of anger and potential shows up, giving Bruce purpose, drive, and hope once again.

Family

Having left home at a young age, spending little time at home, and further severing times with his family later on, Scrooge does admit in one form or another that he misses not have a family. Even in the EU stories Scrooge has never been shown to have many friends, if any that are left alive. When he meets and Donald and the boys for the first time he is instantly cold and a little hostile to them, more than likely seeing them as unnapreciative of anything or that he just doesn't see them as family or is hesitant to admit or accept. While his relationship with Donald isn't exactly 100% familial and friendly the two do care for each other but I would say it's more of a generational gap as Donald seems to the generation after WWII which was called the greatest generation. Donald is very much an opposite of Scrooge in that he doesn't like to work hard, he spends his money quickly and he isn't very bright. But they do care about each ohter a lot regardless. Donald does seem to have a lot faith in Scrooge's character and Scrooge is always ready with a job for Donald. When it comes to the Huey, Dewey, and Louie however it is the opposite. Scrooge seems to have embraced his grandnephews as possibly his sons, in a lot works Scrooge says they will inherit his fortuen whe he's gone. He regards Webby in a way similar to a grandfather would a granddaughter, doting on her and playing. In the crossover comic with Darkwing Duck, Scrooge admits that he takes the kids on adventures not just because he feels they'll learn more from him than at school but because he loves spending time with them. This kind of goes the same way with Misses Beakley, Duckworth, Gyro, and Launchpad who aren't just employees but people Scrooge trusts and considers family.

Unlike Scrooge who kind of put having a family off until it was too late, Bruce never thought he would or could have one. He was prepared for it to just be him and Alfred and eventually just him. But then Dick Grayson happened, then Barbara, Jason, Tim, Cassandra, Stephanie, and Damian, all of a sudden Bruce had a family. A group of kids from different walks of life, all dedicated to serving a cause of justice in a city that didn't seem to want justice. The Bat Family isn't perfect, far from it. Not only is Bruce himself still closed off and secretive but they each all kind of have something to prove either to him or themselves. They don't really like how obsessed Batman is how secretive he is but they can usually deal with it save things like Death of the Family where Batman reveals that years ago Joker may have gotten into the Batcave. There is also a sort of divide between them, very few of them want to do this for the rest of their lives, they don't have Bruce's obsession or "heart of the mssion" as Bruce called it.  In the animated series there was a moment when Bruce said that the darkness he feels from losing his parents is still there but there is also a light made of Alfred, Dick, Tim, and Barbara. They make Bruce, the man behind Batman happier and whether they will all admit it or not, they do love and admire Bruce. Regardless of how they started, Bruce took them in and gave them the tools they needed to survive, and even adopted some of them like Tim and Cassandra, one of the reasons he does it is so they won't turn out like him or worse. Ultimately Batman sees himself as expendable and that each of them are qualified to protect Gotham should he fall. 

Enemies

Scrooge and Batman don't have enemies that are similar to each other, like at all but they do have things in common in that they are all similar to their respective enemy. Batman's villains usually reflect one aspect of him (Riddler/Brains, Two-Face/Justice, Joker/Chaos) and they do reflect those darker intentions of what he is. His rogue's gallery is usually motivated through tragedy or some sort of trauma and like Batman, can't really function in normal life. Earlier I mentioned that Batman is waging a war against the madness that is Gotham City, well Joker, Penguin, Scarecrow, they are all soldiers poised against Batman's attempts to save the city from itself. With Scrooge it's usually a bit obvious but still interesting. Overall, all of Scrooge's enemies are manifestations of greed and a desire for success through dishonest means. Magica wants his #1 dime to create the Midas Touch making her rich, the Beagle Boys want to steal his money, they don't want to do the actual honest work and would rather take the shortcut. John Rockerduck (the duck with the big glasses) really just wants to ruin Scrooge along with Glomgold just so they can be richer by comparison. Glomgold in particular is a lot like the Joker to Scrooge's Batman; both are very similar in that they are businessmen, are cheap and like to make profits over giving stuff away but Glomgold is willing to go through more illegal means and is willing to cheat people.

Romance

Romance is something I like with characters like Scrooge and Bruce and I thin it's because at the end of it all they don't really have anyone that can keep up with them, and that they don't have a large interest in it. Scrooge and Batman are both men who live for what they do, the work isn't something they can turn off nor is it a piece of clothing they take off so whichever woman they choose has to be able to at least accept that. Glittering Goldie and Selina Kyle are essentially the perfect women for their respective males. Both women are hard working, tough, adventurous, and can keep up with the best of them. The problem is the circumstances of their lives that keep them from being together. With Scrooge and Goldie th eproblem is that Goldie is perfectly at hom in theKlondike where the two first met and Scrooge has a world empire to run, as much as the two of them would like to be together, they just can't and for them it's ok because there will never be another one for them. With Bruce and Selina it's actually more complicated and I mean that. Selina and Bruce don't really want to admit hey could be more a lot of times and often the problem of Selina being a criminal has created tension. Regardless of Tahlia or Diana, no woman has ever left an impact on both Bruce and Batman but like Scrooge and Goldie, the lives they lead put a hamper on their future. Catwoman, to Batman represents the thrill of the job to him, that there is something fun about what he does and with Catwoman, she finds everything about Batman attractive, not just his looks but his character. In another time or even another Earth (wink wink) they would probably be married.

A Standard of Voice

When you do an adaptation of anything for film, you have to cast a person who not only sounds the part but looks the part, luckily animation only has to deal with the latter. But that doesn't necessarily make it easier. Voice Acting isn't as simple as putting you're voice over something, you have to sell to the audience that the voice coming out of that character isn't someone else speaking into a microphone. That voice has to sound like it is coming from a duck or some rich guy dressed like a bat. I'm not alone when I say that the late Alan Young was the definitive Scrooge Mcduck and Kevin Conroy is still the standard in which a lot of Batman actors are held to. For Alan Young, it's not that he was just Scottish but that he was able to show the entire range of Scrooge's character. He was able to showcase Scrooge not only as a bit of a miser, but a businessman, adventurer, happy uncle, and every other thing that made Scrooge what he is. Conroy as a voice actor even to this day has showcased not only Batman but Bruce Wayne in a way that no other voice actor has ever done let alone actors actually playing the character in film. They have done such a great job that even when reading the comics you still hear their voices.

At the end of it all

Scrooge Mcduck and Bruce Wayne are both different kinds of people though similar. Both are men with a large amount of wealth and live lives that would't be chosen for most men of fortune. But where Scrooge is motivated by a sense of adventure and riches, Bruce is motivated by a desire to avenge the memory of his parents, and neither of them can imagine a life without that. Both lived lives primarily alone, often with nothing but a butler but then their lives are changed, for the better through the introduction of young people needing direction and focus for their energy. Both have enemies that are reflections of what they could be and both are considered to be the life blood of their respective city.

And they both have dressed up in costume and beat up criminals at least once

Tune in later this week for Comic Book Case! Keep the Cool Ducks of Gotham!