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Magica De Spell is a villain from the Scrooge McDuck and Donald Duck comics and the DuckTales series. She is allied with Beagle Boys and Pete and her goal is to get Scrooge's number one dime.

Magica

Biography[]

According to Barks and his successors, Magica lives on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, next to Naples, Italy. Her primary motivation is to steal Uncle Scrooge's Number One Dime and melt it in the fires of the volcano to turn it into a powerful magical amulet, capable of granting the Midas Touch.

She sometimes teams up with The Beagle Boys or her best friend and sometimes housemate Mad Madam Mim. She also has a raven named Ratface in the comics(in the anime the raves name is Poe De Spell, and is actuly her brother she turned into a rave by accident). Other characters closer to Magica include her grandmother, Granny De Spell, who, although claiming be one of the most powerful of witches, has been no more successful in obtaining the Number One Dime. There is also her niece, Witch Child (Séraphine Sorcerette in French, Nocina Maghetta in Italian, Wanda in German) a mischievous little girl witch who can be a playmate and a thorn in the side of Huey, Dewey and Louie, depending on the story. Magica even has an apprentice, Samson Hex, a bungling no-hoper. There's also Rosalio, a dim-witted goose, who claims to be her fiancé. He is supported in this by Granny DeSpell, but always rejected by Magica. Magica has an odd relationship with Scrooge, sometimes even manifesting itself in mutual attraction.

Beliefs[]

Unlike other people who think the Number One Dime to be a lucky charm, Magica doesn't believe it to be the source of Scrooge's wealth, but Scrooge's wealth to be the source of the dime's powers, as she only tries to steal it because it's the first coin ever earned by the richest duck (or man) on Earth. It can be noticed when she steals the dime but gives it back when she realized she somehow caused the dime to lose such status. Examples of such stories are Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies, when she travels in time to steal the dime in the very same day Scrooge earns it and gives it back after realizing that by preventing Scrooge from owning the dime, she would turn it into a coin that never belonged to him, or A Little Something Special, when she teams up with Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys in a plan made by Blackheart Beagle. She gives the dime back after realizing Scrooge wouldn't be the richest man on Earth after the Beagle Boys steal his money. In Carl Barks's "Ten-Cent Valentine", it's revealed she believes the dime must stay in one piece until she finally melts it or the spell won't work. Huey, Dewey and Louie trick Magica into thinking it was destroyed by a meat grinder.

DuckTales[]

Magica was also a semi-regular on the animated television show DuckTales, where she was voiced by June Foray (using a similar Eastern European accent to that of Natasha Fatale from Rocky & Bullwinkle). Magica appears mostly in first season episodes of the show. Her only appearance in the second season is in the episode "The Unbreakable Bin". Although she appears as one of the series' major villains, she is frequently a source of comic relief: In Magica's final scene in the series for example, she attempts to send Scrooge's "tin man back to OZ", but is herself sent elsewhere in a whirlwind when a Quackenyeeken Yeeker bird yeeks in fear, causing her jar of magic dust to break open and carry her away. Scrooge exclaims, "One thing about Magica--she always knew how to make an exit." On more than one occasion her plan to obtain Scrooge's dime backfires so spectacularly that she is forced to work with Scrooge to prevent greater disaster. According to the show, her brother is Poe De Spell, who was transformed into a raven and serves as her magical familiar — this is an obvious reference to Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven." Poe replaces Ratface from the comics. A similar reference had already been established in the German versions of Magica comics, where her raven is called "Nimmermehr" ("Nevermore"), referring to the most recognizable keyword from Poe's poem.

Sometimes Magica antagonizes Donald Duck and his nephews when they are not with Scrooge. She has also antagonized Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone Gander, Daisy Duck and her nieces on occasion.

Magica appears as the second secret playable character in the 2008 trivia video game Disney TH!NK Fast.

DuckTales (2017)[]

Magica is portrayed in the modern DuckTales series as an incredible dangerous character working behind the scenes, possibly even building up to becoming the show's main antagonist in a similar fashion to Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls which many of the modern Ducktales creators contributed to. In this show, Magica's past is currently shrouded but it is known that she has some dark history with Scrooge which somehow ended with her being trapped in another dimension. Through unknown events, Magica obtained the soul of niece, Lena De Spell and as such uses her as a slave while communicating with the girl through the form of a demonic shadow. Magica used Lena to infiltrate the McDuck/Duck family by manipulating things so that Lena became best-friends with Webby Vanderquack who is the daughter of McDuck Manor's maid and who is best-friends with Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck. Magic motivated Lena by saying that if she served her well, she would give Lena back her freedom. To escape her prison, Magica needed Lena to steal Scrooge McDuck's lucky dime. When Lena eventually rebelled against her aunt and refused to serve her, Magica possessed Lena's body and forced her niece's soul out of power. This incarnation of Magica is played as a giddy but cold self-serving psychopathic sociopath who constantly walks the line of being horrifying and comical.

Family[]

A lot of Magica's relatives appear in Italian stories.

  • Lena De Spell, her enslaved niece (2018 only)
  • Poe De Spell, her brother
  • Nanny Calandrina (Nonna Calandrina), Magica's grandmother
  • Rosolio, Magica's cousin
  • Minima and Streghella, her nieces
  • Matilda, Magica's teenager cousin
  • Adelia, Magica's fairy cousin

Powers and abilities[]

Magica is a very powerful witch and has a number of magical powers, such as:

The abilities to teleport herself over long distances, flight, the power to conjure and transmute matter on a sub-molecular level, and the ability to turn herself into any animal she wants. There are also other spells she can cast (but she requires ingredients and preparation) like creating a shadow monster that makes people see their fears, bringing her one shadow to life, hypnotizing people, multiple instances of time travel, a bad luck jinx and the ability to turn others into animals. Though her power is great, she does not have 100% control over them and some time loses control. When Scrooge and the boys stood up to their fears, her fear monster turned on her instead. Her shadow betrayed her due to her cruel and abusive personality. She is not immune to the affects of her own bad luck jinx and when she cursed Gladstone with bad luck, he spread it to her, causing all of the other spells she cast to backfire. She also turned her brother into a raven by an accident and apparently doesn't know how to turn him back to normal.

References[]

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