Disney Just Accidentally Made Scrooge McDuck WAY Less Rich (In a Way Almost No-One Will Notice)

The newest Scrooge McDuck adventure from Disney, Scrooge McDuck and The Infinity Dime, may have made a huge alteration to the explorer’s grandiose fortune, which could easily go unnoticed. A cover for the special has taken a staple of his moneybin and brought it to the modern day in comics. However, this illustration does not account for one crucial element of economics.

In the 1980s, Don Rosa’s work on Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck established much of the titular hero’s lore and characterization. This Disney Comics era revealed how rich Scrooge really is while setting his money bin at 99ft. It also established how long it’d take him to be broke if he lost a billion dollars each minute.

The Life and Times of Uncle Scrooge (1992) presented him as having five multiplujillion, nine impossibilidillion, seven fantasticatrillion dollars and sixteen cents. This increased from the 1990 minimum of three hundred and fifteen quadrillion dollars, presented in Donald Duck Adventures #16 by Carl Barks, S. Rockwell, and G. Leach.

Disney’s Richest Hero is Losing Money Every Year

Marvel has shared the variant covers for Scrooge McDuck and The Infinity Dime, which has the creative team of Jason Aaron, Paolo Mottura, Francesco D’Ippolito, Vitale Mangiatordi, Alessandro Pastrovicchio, and Giada Perissinotto. One of the variant covers by Walter Simonson shows the titular hero fishing for dollar bills in his money bin, showing a depth of 99ft. This is a fun throwback to Scrooge’s older comic adventures, as well as his animated ones. However, it also implies that his money bin hasn’t increased its value since the 1980s, nor has it had any improvements in size. In fact, it decreased by a foot while its contents have depreciated in value thanks to inflation.

By seemingly maintaining Scrooge’s original money bin levels, the richest duck in the world has effectively lost a large sum in terms of value in thirty to forty years. The depth gauge during Don Rosa’s runs has been illustrated as being 100ft., with “Depth Gauge” being written above the numerical value. This new cover removes a foot of Scrooge’s wealth. Additionally, $1000 in 2024 would have been worth approximately $2900 dollars in 1985. Maintaining that ratio would mean Scrooge’s money bin has had its contents’ value cut by almost two-thirds. Nonetheless, he’s still the richest duck in Duckburg.

Scrooge’s Money Bin is Similar to His Number One Dime

While the money bin’s overall value can only depreciate in time monetarily, it still serves as an important symbol for Scrooge McDuck. Like his number one dime, the money bin is not just a coin or collection of coins but a reminder of his feats and a trophy of his accomplishments. In many ways, this gives them increased value since they have been mainstays in his Disney mythos. Scrooge keeps up with his finances very tightly, so it’s likely that he has investments in other areas as well as holdings in other facilities apart from his personal vault. Though his wealth still stands, realistic measures placed upon this Disney comic icon’s fortune reveal a depreciated picture of Scrooge McDuck’s money bin.

Scrooge McDuck and The Infinity Dime #1 will be available June 19 from Marvel Comics.

Source: Marvel