Dragonlords

Dragonlords is a fantasy-themed Disney comic written by Byron Erickson and penciled by Giorgio Cavazzano. It places the characters of the Disney Ducks Comic Universe into an epic fantasy setting in a way similar to Wizards of Mickey, and tells the story of Donald Duck, his nephews and Uncle Scrooge getting captured into Another Dimension and their attempt to save it from the invasion of the warmongering Morg and find a way home. It was originally created to boost the declined sales of the Disney comic book Micky Maus in Germany, where it was serialised in eleven parts in 2003. It was later released as a trade paperback, which was called World of the Dragonlords in the US.

The plot begins as the ducks are on the countryside outside Duckburg on a family-bonding picnic that Donald has organized. He wishes to strengthen the bonds between him and his nephews and his uncle after reading a self-help book on the subject. The others couldn't care less as the boys have other plans for the day and Uncle Scrooge is more interested in inspecting the nearby wood, which he happens to own. The picnic turns into a family fight, as Donald feels he is not listened, when all is interrupted by a magic portal opening right next to them. Out jumps a pair of humans dressed in medieval apparel, Brendon the Warrior and Hintermann the Mage. They come from a fantasy world, that has been taken over by the dragon-riding Morg, and they are revealed to be the leaders of the human resistance movement. They tried to escape the Morg chasing them by using the magic portal, but the bad guys follow and a battle ensues, where the ducks get accidentally struck by a stun ray cast by Hintermann. The humans manage to escape and as they have no choice, they leave the stunned ducks behind for the Morg to capture. They are brought as slaves to Toom, the capital of the Morg, where Huey, Dewey and Louie are separated from others. The rest of the plot follows the nephews as they join the resistance movement, escape from slavery, save three baby dragons from being trained to be war machines and in the end return with the resistance to have an epic battle to defeat the Morg. And in the end they all learn the importance of family. Meanwhile we cut to Donald and Scrooge who have their own plans in Toom to defeat the Morg, and to Duckburg where Daisy and Gyro Gearloose try to find out what happened to their friends and where one of the Morg warriors got left behind.

Dragonlords is an exceptional Disney comic as it has a well-structured plot with a very distinctive theme and some epic artwork, scenery and battle scenes.

Tropes used in Dragonlords include:

• Disney Death - Sniffles the Dragon
• Dragon Rider - The Morg use dragons as mounts.
• Family-Friendly Firearms - Instead of bows for example, the primary weapon used by the Morg is a lightning-shooting magic wand. They do carry around swords and other melee weaponry, but are hardly ever using them, as a Disney comic can't really have any hacking and slashing in it.
• Long-Lost Relative - Jute and Silia
• Magical Land
• Our Dragons Are Different - In Dragonlords, the dragons are peaceful vegetarian creatures, who are cruelly exploited by the Morg because of their ability to breathe fire. They are captured when they are little and are trained to be the flying mounts of the Morg warriors. Their appearance is also different from the norm, as they resemble green pterodactyls with two yellow chicken legs.
• Our Orcs Are Different - The Morg.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter - The dragons, just the dragons.
• Taking the Bullet - This leads to a Disney Death though, this is a Disney comic after all.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics - Eyelashes on the mother dragon.
• Trapped in Another World