Characters / Paperinik New Adventures: Paperinik

Paperinik (Donald Duck)
Friends and Allies (Xadhoom)
Villains (Evronian Empire | The Organization | Other Villains)
Other Characters

Donald Fauntleroy Duck / Paperinik / Pikappa / Duck Avenger I

"By day, this is my city. By night, this city is mine."

Donald Duck, the classic cartoon character who originated in the 1930s, has now become the titular superhero Paperinik (the origin is different in older Italian stories and the reboot of this series), protector of Duckburg and in this series pretty much protector of Earth, going up against alien invaders among his adversaries, which also include time pirates, mad scientists, terrorists, corrupt businessmen and evil machines.

For more tropes about Donald in the comics outside this series, see Duck Comics universe.

First appearance: Paperinik New Adventures #0 "Evronians" (in this series)

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• Adaptational Badass: Probably the most badass version of Donald Duck bar Kingdom Hearts. However before PKNA, his level of competence in the classic stories varied a lot Depending on the Writer. Even at his most badass, however, classic Donald never got to the point of fighting of alien invasions, demonic incursions, the US military, time travelling thieves and rampant AIs. At least not in the same continuity.
• Adaptational Intelligence: While he is nowhere near as smart as Xadhoom or One (he even jokingly said he got out of elementary school only because of seniority), in this series Paperinik/Donald Duck is very intuitive, clever and able to make plans on the spot.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Donald Duck is usually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and some serious anger issues. In PK, his Jerkass tendencies manifest more as a Deadpan Snarker, and his anger issues are rarely present.
• Alliterative Name: Donald Duck. Subverted with his rarely-used middle name Fauntleroy.
• Almighty Janitor: Literally for the first few issues as the janitor of Ducklair Tower. Later, he's an errand boy at Channel 00, and in PK2 he gets a job as a security guard in a big mall. In Pikappa, he lands mostly modest jobs.

• Anti-Hero: In the early stories, Paperinik wasn't actually a superhero, but a Pragmatic Hero, avenging wrongs that had been done to Donald, sometimes in blatantly illegal ways. The writers toned this aspect down later and turned him into a superhero instead. The character's methods did not change much but he started targeting the criminal population of Duckburg. This still remains his main mission today, although he occasionally faces higher profile adversaries and finds missions which require him to travel away from Duckburg.
• Arch-Enemy: To quite a few people, but namely the Organization and the Evronian Empire. To the Organization, he's a thorn in their side they'd be happy to throw in a Limbo ("So boring you'll long for your worst schooldays"), and though he's not quite as dangerous as Xadhoom, he's still the sole reason Evron hasn't conquered earth.
• Aside Glance: Tends to look towards the readers. May even have something to say to them.
• Awesome, but Impractical: It transpires that he spent most of the Missing special in deep meditation at Dhasam-Bul, during which he learned how to levitate about half-a-foot off of the ground. This ability never shows up again due to how much effort and time it takes to activate in proportion to how useful it is.
• Badass and Child Duo: The badass to Trip's child in PKNA #34.
• Badass Boast:
  • Subverted in the very first issue.
    Paperinik: (while defending a woman from the Coolflames) Don't worry! When the game gets tough... I wish I was somewhere else.
  • Played straight with the narration monologue in issue #10:
    "By day, this is my city. By night, this city is mine."
• Badass Cape: Even if its length depends on who is drawing him.
• Badass in Distress: Naturally in the stories where he's in distress.
• Badass Normal: He only has his wit and gadgets to compete in a world of aliens, artificial intelligences, magicians and more.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Resorts to this whenever he needs, and is so good that even secret agents who knew he's prone to this ended up falling for it (he expected them to question his story and took advantage of being working with the Time Police to prepare fake evidence). His greatest hit so far has been in the PKNE story "Chronicle of a Return", where some quick words put him in command of an Evronian mobile planetoid.
• Big "NO!":
  • Right when he breaks through Trauma's powers.
  • Donald is assigned to be Angus' bodyguard in PK2 #11. His reaction is quite literally earth-shattering.
• Book Dumb: By his own admission. He makes up for it by being quick on his feet.
• Boring Yet Practical: He favors these kind of solutions:
  • The Extransformer Shield is a formidable Swiss-Army Weapon. Most of the time, Paperinik limits himself to the extensible punch, the paralysis beam, a laser, the rocket for flight, and the shield, for the simple reason most of the time there's no need for anything else.
  • He carries a ray gun in his belt. Why? Because sometimes you just need to shoot someone.
  • He still carries some of his old gadgets, such as the rocket belt, flash grenades, the perfect masks, and the memory-erasing candies. One could probably procure him superior high-tech alternatives, but these ones work well enough-and the masks actually allowed the Raider to get in a place where he was always detected with more advanced disguises.
  • On occasion he just punched out low level enemies.
  • The time he needed to pass Angus some anonymous information he just had One print it out and he put it on his desk in an anonymous folder. One protested he had never lowered himself to such a primitive solution, but Paperinik simply pointed out it worked.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: He uses Xadhoom's "Let's Dance" in PKNA #29.
• Brains and Brawn:
  • Paperinik and Xadhoom, with a very interesting twist: while Xadhoom is a Genius Bruiser, her preferred tactics are almost Alucard-like in their complexity, meaning that PK is the one who must calm her down and formulate a plan.
  • And of course, Paperinik and One.
• Brought Down to Badass: Apart from the X-Transformer and Duckmobile, Everett's manipulations in PK2 essentially leave him in a similar position to the one he was in at the start of his career; that is, a gutsy and intelligent vigilante flying by the seat of his pants while at odds with law enforcement.
• Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: In PK2 #3, the brainwashed Hobey Robson held a group of people in Duckmall hostage, demanding to speak to Paperinik. The problem was that Donald was one of the hostages.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The Organization has the means to easily kill him, but won't try unless severely provoked because he's such an important historical figure that the repercussions on the future they live in would be catastrophic.
• Catapult Nightmare: In #10, coupled with a Big "NO!" when he wakes up from a dream about his bullied childhood.
• The Chosen One: In the Pikappa alternate universe where is recruited by One as a "Guardian of Galaxy", fighting the Evrovian army commanded by Gorthan.
• Clark Kenting:
  • It should be easy to tell who Paperinik is... Except for him being a Master of Disguise with Latex Perfection who has disguised himself as Donald Duck on multiple occasions. There's also the fact that, even in pre-PKNA stories, many people think Donald is too much unlike PK to possibly be him. It's implied that Donald managed to shape out an effective alter ego in PK, showing parts of himself he normally wouldn't in his civilian identity.
  • In PKNA the only people who saw through Paperinik's disguise and couldn't be fooled into thinking it was an error are Everett Ducklair, Lyla Lay and the Griffin and bypass Paperinik's usual tricks: Everett has Psychic Power and read it out of Paperinik's mind, while Lyla and the Griffin have technology that allows to see through Latex Perfection, and saw that Paperinik doesn't wear a Donald mask with a domino mask on it but only the domino mask (at which point it was easy).
  • Justified in the PK - Pikappa continuity: the domino mask of the Guardians of the Galaxy holographically alters the face of the wearer. It's a slight change, but it's implied to be impossible to dispel or see through as long as the mask stays on.
• Cool Car: The Pi-Kar that replaces his old and iconic 313.
• Cool Plane: Rarely used, but the Pk-jet is this (aside from a somewhat goofy design). It can even turn invisible.
• Crazy-Prepared: Still carries some of his old gadgets, just in case they can be useful again.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His costume is mostly black, but he's one of the good guys.
• Deadpan Snarker: Too many examples to count. His quips could rival Spider-Man.
• Determinator: Just try to keep this guy down. Just try. He's broken through the Mind Rape of an alien Super-Soldier and fought on despite being stranded on an alien planet in deep space.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He literally punches Moldrock and knocks him out.
• Domino Mask: Just look at his picture.
• The Dreaded: The beatings he inflicts are so violent that most people who have gone through them or even heard of him are too scared of a repeat to fight him again. Even emotionally-crippled Evronian warriors crumble in fear at facing him a second time]].
• Dressing as the Enemy:
  • In the "Xadhoom Trilogy" he disguises himself as a Coolflame twice. On both occasions, he betrays himself by talking, something the Coolflames are no longer able to do.
  • In Might and Power he uses his new nanomachine-based suit to disguise himself as an Evronian general. Unfortunately for him, he's soon dragged into a reunion between Nebula Faraday and a lot other generals, and one of them realizes he's too short compared to himself and the others.
• Enemy Mine: He has a knack for it: over the course of the series he had to ally with both the Evronians and The Raider multiple times.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: Defied: he went at Dhasam-Bul specifically for those and was well on his way to reach Enlightenment and the associated powers, but realized it would have changed what he was and cut the meditation short. He manages to levitate for a while afterwards, though forgets the technique, and is resistant against psychic influence.
• Evil Costume Switch: In a What If? story in the last issue of PKNA, Paperinik dons a different costume when he turns evil.
• Experienced Protagonist: With the previous Paperinik adventures being Broad Strokes canon to the comic, Donald has already being operating as a superhero for quite some time at the beginning of the comic, although he has at this point mostly fought petty criminals and the occasional gimmicky supervillain, whose greatest villainous ambitions were on the level of large-scale vandalism or heists against the local bank or jewellery store. This comic sees him getting thrown into deeper water when he is faced with beings from the higher end of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil, such as alien invasions and villains capable of time travelling and dimension hopping, and having to adapt.
  "The first time I wore the costume, this tower hadn't even been build yet, and everything was simpler. Latex masks, spring boots, memory erasing candies, and a lair in the basement... My adversaries were the Beagle Boys or some everyday crook... Or my own uncle and cousin. Then everything changed, but I've stayed the same."
• Face–Heel Turn: In the above-mentioned What If? story, Paperinik becomes an agent of The Organization after the destruction of Duckburg, striking out against the Time Police that did nothing to prevent it.
• Friendly Enemy: With the Raider who rarely ever gets into direct conflict with Donald. In fact, he's more like a criminal that Donald has to ally himself with from time to time than an outright enemy.
• Genre Savvy:
  • He's well aware that Badass Boasts are part of being a superhero.
  • He's aware that most superhero universes have Casual Interstellar Travel as a permanent fixture. He was wrong on that count, though, as One tells him.
  • He's aware that Two always returns, regardless of the outcome.
• Grand Theft Me:
  • In ''PK2 #12, the virtual copy of scientist Cormack Trentor takes over Paperinik's body and leaves his mind in the virtual world. Paperinik finds a way to escape the virtual world by taking over the now empty body of Cormack.
  • Happens in one of the What If? stories of the last issue of PKNA.
• Guile Hero: Especially in the early stories, he was much more prone to trick and out think his opponents than overpower them. Even in the series, while lacking the raw intellect of One or Xadhoom he is still smart enough to come up with plans of his own and quickly get a handle on the situation.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: His civilian persona's always half dressed. Becomes more unnatural when nearly everyone in this series is fully clothed. Subverted when he puts on the superhero costume.
• Hand Blast: He's able to do this with the suit he gets in the 2014 relaunch.
• Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Donald often balances his full-time jobs and his full-time superheroing. Exacerbated after it's revealed Double Duck is canon with PK, since he doesn't even get paid for his job as a secret agent too.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Downplayed. He's viewed negatively by some people in the city, thanks to Angus Fangus and later other reporters, but most people think he's a hero.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Downplayed. In PKNA he has One to help him with those, but still doesn't know how to use the full potential of his Extransformer shield and when One gets deactivated he finds out he has no idea how to fuel the PKar... Or what the fuel is.
• I Always Wanted to Say That:
  • Used jokingly with a variation of a cliché line.
    "Driver, follow that mass of water. I've always wanted to say that."
  • Also when he and Lyla end up in medieval times:
    "I've always wanted to say this... Men, chaaaarge!"
• Instant Costume Change: Starting from "Might & Power", he can do it with his new super suit.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: He says he hates keeping his superhero life a secret from his loved ones.
• Legacy Character: Technically started out as one to Fantomius, though it's never brought up in this series. After his death in "Might and Power", the Raider took up the Duck Avenger mantle, though the original was soon resurrected through time travel.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When push comes to shove, PK gets way more serious.
• Line-of-Sight Name: In the rebooted series, when debuting as a superhero and asked who he is, Donald comes up with the name "Pikappa" after seeing the letters P and K on his new Extransformer shield.
• Love Redeems: The story "History d'une Disparition" thematically bridges the gap between Paperinik being a self-serving vigilante to a heroic protector with the revelation that Donald made the switch because he wanted to keep his nephews safe by making Duckburg (and eventually the world) a less dangerous place. That they were also fans of his alter ego didn't hurt either.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His weapon of choice is his all-powerful shield. While he mainly uses it aggressively, it has saved his tailfeathers multiple times.
• Master of Disguise:
  • Though he doesn't do it as often as in other stories, he can put on some very convincing masks to resemble other people. His Extransformer shield also has a function that lets him disguise himself into whatever he wants, including inanimate objects, thanks to a holographic projector.
  • His new costume in Might and Power seems even better in this regard but it quickly reveals a flaw: being based on shapeshifting rather than holograms, it means that PK's size is always the same - and he has the bad idea of disguising himself as an Evronian general, although they don't notice for a while.
• Me's a Crowd: With the new suit he acquires in the 2014 relaunch, Paperinik can create solid holographic duplicates of himself, though doing this consumes a lot of power.
• Morph Weapon: His Extransformer shield is capable of all kinds of transformations.
  • Flight: It grants its user the ability to fly.
  • Gravity Master: It can increase or reduce the weight of a target.
  • Megaton Punch: The extensible hand of the shield is one of its most used weapons.
  • The Paralyzer: It has a ray, called the "Bradionic Paralyzer", that "stops individual time".
  • Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Since it can transform in a boomerang and come back.
  • The suit donned in Might and Power is a Morph Weapon in itself and includes an Extransformer. It ditches the punch for a "Percussion Ray" that has a similar effect.
• Neighborhood Friendly Criminal: As Angus often points out, Paperinik is a criminal with a huge record at the expenses of multiple Asshole Victims. He's also considered a superhero because he brings in thieves, robbers, con artists and supercriminals and takes on alien invasions.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: In contrast to his Hero with Bad Publicity status in Duckburg, he has quite the good reputation worldwide.
• Never Bareheaded: He is almost never seen without his hat (he even keeps it while wearing a space suit). It helps that for some reason it almost never falls off despite everything Paperinik does.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Not him, but his Extransformer Shield. Said powers are usually forgotten about soon after.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: He's prone to go for the most pragmatic and effective mean of taking down an opponent as long as it doesn't causes unnecessary collateral damage. In a variation, his sheer pragmatism means his first action with a new potential opponent is to try to talk, as he'd rather not fight unnecessarily.
• Official Couple: Him and Daisy Duck. Even though she never really appears, the relationship is mentioned frequently.
• Paradox Person: In the Days of Evron timeline, since the timeline was altered so that Everett never created One, meaning that the version of PK who travelled in time could not exist. Yet he does.
  Raider: And in this corner, the walking talking paradox. "The Duck that shouldn't be", the Duck Avenger!
• Parental Substitute: To his nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey. According to the Raider, himself a single parent, he's just plain amazing at it, especially for succeeding honestly, without turning to crime.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Can easily take down guys many times his size with his bare hands.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Is this with Lyla Lay. She clearly trusts Donald more than anybody else (after all, he is one of the few that know her secret to not think she is just a machine, while the hero is worried that Daisy might become jealous of all the time they spend together.
• Primary-Color Champion: His costume is mostly blue and red, with yellow boots and beltbuckle for contrast.
• Psychic Block Defense: To some extent, after receiving training from Everett Ducklair.
• Read the Freaking Manual: Subverted: he read it off-screen, and while he may forget about some of the less-used features of his gadgets he keeps it around so he'll be able to refresh his memory as needed.
• Real Men Cook: A superhero and veteran of galactic wars, and noted to be an amazing cook.
• Red Is Heroic: PK's primary colors are red and blue, with yellow for contrast.
• Refusal of the Call:
  • During the first pages of the 2014 relaunch story "Might and Power". He's understandably confused by the return of both the Raider and the Evronians, and none too happy about donning the costume and cape again.
  • It's also revealed that his brief stay at Dhasam-Bul would have led him to Englightenment... But he threw it away because he already had a call.
• Retired Badass:
  • In the Bad Future shown in PKNA #34.
  • Also at the beginning of "Might and Power". He explicitly says that he has abandoned the PK identity for quite some time.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: In an issue of Pikappa, in a possible future, Paperinik's mind was transferred to a robot body, and would be transferred to another one again and again when he got himself destroyed.
• Sad Clown: He says he uses humor as a coping mechanism for him being scared and nervous
• School Bullying Is Harmless: Averted. PKNA #10 shows that Donald still has nightmares about being bullied as a kid.
• Second Super-Identity: The crossover story confirmed that PKNA and Double Duck are set in the same universe and include the PIA stories (spy stories where Donald works in Scrooge's Private Intelligence Agency), so here Donald Duck has to deal with three alter-ego identities. Lampshaded in a omake where he accidentally take his superspy tuxedo (Double Duck) instead of his superhero costume (Paperinik).
  "Sometimes I envy other super-heroes who have to manage ONE single DOUBLE identity!"
• Secret Identity: He is a superhero. What do you expect?
• Secret-Identity Identity: Donald has to make a conscious effort to not act as Paperinik while in civilian identity, even letting go of bullies that, as Paperinik, he'd normally handle without even using his gadgets.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: With all the time traveling that goes on in this series, he's had to go through this on several occasions, even sometimes undoing something someone else already changed for the worse.
• Ship Tease:
  • Mostly with Xadhoom, but happens with Lyla too sometimes.
  • And in PK2 With Tempest. But as Donald Duck, not Paperinik.
• Signature Headgear: Just had to make his iconic sailor hat part of the superhero outfit.
• So Last Season: His original kit was useful against mad scientists and ordinary criminals, but is of poor utility against the more dangerous threats he faces in this series.
• Species Surname: You know his civilian name, right?
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Wears a cape despite the Omega Chamber's objection and Double Duck saying he really needs to reconsider wearing a cape.
• Superpowers for a Day: Gets telekinesis in PKNA #40.
• Terror Hero: Downplayed compared to the classic comics, but he's still terrifying to the point an Evronian warrior had an instantaneous Villainous Breakdown at their second encounter.
• That Was Objectionable: Objected for the sake of objecting during Lyla's trial in PKNA #22. Subverted as he is removed from the trial for being a disturbance.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: In PKNA #1:
  Evronian and Angus Fangus: PAPERINIK!
  Paperinik: My friends call me PK! You can however simply call me Mr. Paperinik!
  Angus Fangus: You're a godsend! Save me, Paperinik! Savemesavemesaveme!
  Paperinik: That goes for you too, Fangus!
• Thou Shalt Not Kill:
  • From "Might and Power" onward he is completely against taking a life, even if it would be for the greater good (compare to the normal Paperinik stories, and especially the early ones, where he shows no compulsion against killing and in fact we see him committing attempted murder).
  • Seems to no longer be the case now that he is back at having his own comic book: in "Danger Dome" he has no hesitation in blowing up a bunch of Evronians who were about to born, or use the energy of the Galaxy-Gates to destroy the Evronian base with all its crew. Tuiroon survived, but not for lack of trying from PK.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Life usually doesn't go well for Donald, especially when it comes to getting a job. Though in PK2, all his years of working for Uncle Scrooge finally pay off as he earns a position in the city's biggest security company Starcorp.
• Took a Level in Badass: At the beginning of the series, Paperinik finds that his usual kit of goofy weapons and tools are largely useless against an invading armada of inter-stellar aliens. When he stumbles on the 151st floor of Ducklair Tower, he finds that the resident AI, One, is more than willing to supply him with the necessary weapons and gear necessary to combat not only aliens, but also rogue time-travelers, high-level space-time anomalies, malevolent AIs, suicide terrorists... in short, his competence level goes up significantly.
• The Unintelligible: This is naturally averted in the comics, though it's also subverted in the video game based on the series. Donald still has his classic voice at the start of the game, but once he puts on the costume, his voices changes to something far more understandable.
• Villain Respect: Most villains grudgingly respect him for his abilities and prowess. Most notably, the Organization knows he's the only person in the explored timestream to match the Raider in terms of skills (and the Raider is noted to be their best agent ever), Trauma has learned to consider him a Worthy Opponent, Moldrock openly admires his prowess, and the Raider praises his ability to raise three children without stealing.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Is this with Xadhoom. Donald sometimes tries to have Xadhoom not so obsessed on her revenge, and jokingly nicknames her "beauty eyes" due to her monochromatic green eyes.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: He gets his wonderful gadgets and weapons from the secret floor of the Ducklair Tower.
• You Fight Like a Cow: Quite a formidable quipper.
• Your Costume Needs Work: In PK 2, he and a few others was held hostage by a terrorist demanding to see Paperinik. He used a few available supplies to make an impromptu Paperinik costume, hoping to calm the perp down. It did actually work, until the terrorist noticed the low quality of the costume. What gave Donald away was that his cape still had a price tag on it.
• Your Mom: Or rather, aunt, though the US print changed it back to mom.
  The Raider: I didn't think there were any mutants in this time period!
  Paperinik: Your aunt's a mutant, big guy!

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