The Once and Future Duck

Infobox Comic
name = The Once and Future Duck


image_caption =
code = D 95079
title_orig =
hero = Donald Duck
appearances = Donald Duck,
Huey, Dewey and Louie,
Gyro Gearloose,
Little Helper
pages = 24
layout = 4 rows per page
story = Don Rosa
ink = Don Rosa
date =
first = Kalle Anka & C:o #1996-21-22
May 17, 1996
and #1996-23
May 31, 1996
inducks_id = D+95079

"The Once and Future Duck" is a 1996 Donald Duck story by Don Rosa.

Plot

Donald Duck is testing Gyro Gearloose's new time machine. The machine is so unpredictable that Huey, Dewey and Louie warn Donald that he might end up at any time in the past, and thus advise him to do the testing at the Stonehenge, which has remained unaltered for millennia.

Donald, Gyro, and the boys travel to the United Kingdom to test the time machine at Stonehenge. The machine sends them centuries to the past, to King Arthur's time. There, the ducks find out that King Arthur is nowhere near the glorious benevolent ruler history has made him to be - instead, he's a common warlord without much morals to speak of. Fearing the ducks are Saxon invaders, Arthur kidnaps Donald and his nephews, and is about to execute them, but at the last moment, Gyro sounds a car horn, which scares the Britons off.

Arthur goes after Donald, intending to finish him off, but a combination of Gyro's technology and the mystical power of the Stonehenge gives Donald awesome powers. An epic duel ensues between Arthur and Donald. In the end, Arthur strikes his famous sword into a stone, but is unable to get it out. Gyro's Little Helper, imbued with the mystical power, pulls it out and drives the Britons off, giving Gyro time to transport the ducks back to the present.

This comic is based on the "Pertwillaby Papers" adventure "Knighttime", and makes the "Pertwillaby Papers" adventure seem incomplete.

The story's name is a parody of T.H. White's Aurthurian novel, "The Once and Future King".

External links

*Inducks comic|D+95079