View source for The Once and Future Duck

{{Short description|1996 Donald Duck comic book story by Don Rosa}}
{{refimprove|date=December 2010}}
{{Infobox comic
| name = The Once and Future Duck
| image =
| image_caption =
| code = D 95079
| title_orig =
| hero = [[Donald Duck]]
| appearances = [[Donald Duck]]<br>[[Huey, Dewey, and Louie]]<br>[[Gyro Gearloose]]<br>[[Little Helper (Disney)|Little Helper]]
| pages = 24
| layout = 4 rows per page
| story = [[Don Rosa]]
| ink = [[Don Rosa]]
| date =
| first = [[Kalle Anka & C:o]] #1996-21-22<br>May 17, 1996<br>and #1996-23<br>May 31, 1996
}}
"'''The Once and Future Duck'''" is a 1996 [[Donald Duck]] story by [[Don Rosa]]. The title is a pun on [[T.H. White]]'s Arthurian novel ''[[The Once and Future King]]''.

The story was first published in the Danish ''[[Anders And|Anders And & Co.]]'' #1996-21; the first American publication was serialized in ''[[Walt Disney's Comics and Stories]]'' #607-609, in January-March 1997.

==Plot==
Donald Duck is testing [[Gyro Gearloose]]'s new [[time travel|time machine]]. The machine is so unpredictable that [[Huey, Dewey, and Louie|Donald's nephews]] warn their uncle 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 [[millennium|millennia]].

Donald, Gyro, and the boys travel to the [[United Kingdom]] to test the time machine at Stonehenge. The machine sends them [[century|centuries]] into the past, during the time of [[Sub-Roman Britain]]. There, the ducks meet "[[King Arthur]]"&mdash;Artorius [[Riothamus]], the last descendant of [[Lucius Artorius Castus]], and find out that he 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 [[Saxons|Saxon]] invaders, Arthur has Donald and his nephews imprisoned. He is just about to execute Donald, but at the last moment, Gyro sounds a car horn, which scares the [[Celtic Britons|Britons]] off.

Arthur goes after Donald, intending to finish him off, but a combination of Gyro's technology and the mystical power of 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 (Disney character)|Little Helper]], imbued with the mystical power, pulls it out and drives the Britons off, giving Gyro time to transport the ducks back into the present.

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

==External links==
* {{Inducks comic|D+95079}}

{{A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Once and Future Duck, the}}
[[Category:Disney comics stories]]
[[Category:Donald Duck comics by Don Rosa]]
[[Category:1996 in comics]]
[[Category:Arthurian comics]]

{{Disney-comics-stub}}