The Sceptre and the Kingdom (El Cetro y el Reino in Spanish) is a short 12-page comicbook based on the Kingdom Hearts franchise, drawn by famed Disney comicbook artist Fabio Celoni and written by Alessandro Sisti of Paperinik New Adventures fame.
It was featured in the Kingdom Hearts Official Game Magazine, an official magazine (duh) released to promote the first Kingdom Hearts game in Italy and was then translated to Spanish and released as a pre-order bonus with the game. Sometime later, it was translated to English and sold in Australia.
The premise is very simple; A Mysterious Creature (possibly a Heartless) steals a powerful magic scepter from Disney Castle and plans to use it to conquer all the worlds. Sora and Riku are then called to retrieve the scepter and they chase the creature through worlds based on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney) and The Sword in the StoneNote
Despite the series’ popularity, this comic is incredibly obscure even amongst fans of the series as it was never reprinted. To date, there have been no more attempts to make more official Kingdom Hearts comicbooks.
Surprisingly, despite the series’ infamous habit of making everything related to it canon, this comic is very much non-canon as it features a completely new story that doesn’t fit anywhere in the events of the first game.
If you want to read it, you can find a fan translation of the Spanish version (though with some added Woolseyism here and there) in decent quality here.
The Sceptre and the Kingdom contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Riku is decidedly a more heroic figure here, whereas in the first game he was more of an antagonist due to being seduced by the darkness and manipulated by Maleficent.
- Adapted Out:
- Despite being a central figure in the game and Sora’s Love Interest, Kairi doesn’t appear at all.
- King Mickey is completely absent. While the game had an explanation as to why he didn't appear until the very end, here he isn't even mentioned.
- None of the game’s Disney Villains make an appearance, not even Maleficent.
- No Heartless ever appear aside from maybe the Mysterious Creature (assuming he is a Heartless, anyway).
- While it’s probably because the creators didn’t know about him as it was meant to be a twist in the game, Ansem is also absent despite being the game’s actual Big Bad.
- Most likely because of legal reasons, none of the Final Fantasy characters appear in the story.
- With the sole exception of Disney Castle, none of the worlds featured in the game, Disney and original, are featured, and the Disney worlds shown here are completely new.
- Riku's main weapon in the game, the Soul Eater, is completely absent, possibly to hide the fact Riku becomes an antagonist in the game given its dark apperance. This has the odd side effect of making Riku look like he fights bare-handed.
- The Cameo: Merlin makes an appearance in the very last panel to show that he was the one who brought Sora and Riku back.
- Canon Foreigner:
- The Mysterious Creature who steals the titular Sceptre was created specifically for this comic.
- While Merlin is a supporting character in the games, both Arquimides and Wart have yet to make any appearances in the games.
- Frollo's guards only appear in this comic and not the world based on the movie that was featured years later.
- Demoted to Extra: Despite being the main protagonist (and title character of his movie), Quasimodo only appears in silhouettes and once in a very small panel with Esmeralda doing most of the job and shown more clearly.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Due to being a completely new story made during the development of the first game, there are some odd details for anyone even remotely familiar with the first game:
- Sora is shown wielding the Keyblade not by the handle but more like a spear. He’s also shown carrying it on his back rather than dematerializing it.
- Both Sora and Riku are shown going to Disney worlds and fighting together. In the game, Riku never joins Sora’s party and is more of an antagonist and the idea wouldn’t be revisited until 10 years later.
- Sora and Riku are able to visit worlds via Donald magically teleporting them and via different doors hidden in each world which seemingly connect all of them. This is in stark contrast with the game where worlds could only be visited with the Gummi Ship.
- The Ghost: The Princesses of Heart are mentioned in one panel where Queen Minnie says that she must warn them about the Mysterious Creature.
- Oddball in the Series: The only piece of Kingdom Hearts media that doesn't have Kingdom Hearts in the title (though it does have Kingdom in it).
- We Will Meet Again: Quoted almost verbatim by the Mysterious Creature when he loses the Sceptre. Since this is a one-off non-canon story, it never came to pass.
