Mickey Mouse Comic Universe

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The universe in which the Disney comics based around Mickey Mouse and his friends takes place. Major contributors to this Verse include Floyd Gottfredson, Romano Scarpa and Paul Murry.

See also Disney Ducks Comic Universe, and the Modular Franchise they both form, the Disney Mice and Ducks Comics. Since this is such a long-running series, you're likely to find more than a few Dead Horse Tropes.

Character list can be found here.

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The Mickey Mouse Comic Universe includes examples of the following tropes:

• Accidental Aiming Skills
• Alliterative Name - Most characters have one. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Peg-Leg Pete, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow...
• All Just a Dream
• Animal Superheroes - A good portion of the main cast have superhero identities. Donald Duck has Papernik/Super Duck/The Duck Avenger. Goofy has Super Goof. Even Mickey gained superpowers and dressed up as a superhero, although in his case the superhero antics caused quite a bit of trouble.
• Applied Phlebotinum - Romano Scarpa mastered this trope. One of the wackiest examples is a supercriminal with a flying saucer... that has a magnet that attracts tomatoes... which he refines into an extremely potent explosive substance. Don't try to think about it too much.
• Arrested for Heroism
• A-Team Firing - These being Disney comics for kids, you can't really expect anyone to get hit. Actually a common tactic Mickey uses is to bring nothing to a gunfight, disarm the crook by some improvised means and then arrest him using his own gun.
• Bang Bang BANG
• Bank Robbery
• Bat Family Crossover - Occasionally, there will be some of these with the Disney Ducks Comic Universe.
• Beneath Suspicion
• Big Ball of Violence
• Big Damn Heroes
• Bond Villain Stupidity
  • The Phantom Blot in Mickey Outwits The Phantom Blot, but it's actually justified. Near the end of the story, he reveals that he's too soft-hearted to actually watch someone die, so to make up for it, he'd composed elaborate Death Traps to try and kill Mickey off instead.
• Bound and Gagged - Whenever someone gets kidnapped somehow. It also tends to happen whenever Mickey gets played for a Distressed Dude. Which means that it happens quite often.
• Boxed Crook
• Bungled Suicide Mickey himself - seriously! In one of the earlier daily strips of the comics back when it was first starting, Mickey got into a depressive spell because he thought Minnie loved someone else instead of him. And for several weeks worth of comic strips, he tried and failed to kill himself. Over and over and over again. Then he finally decided that life was worth living and stopped trying. Cracked.com's 6 Insane Disney Comics You Won't Believe Are Real shows a few examples.
• Captured by Cannibals - More so in the older stories, before that kind of thing became politically offensive.
• Cardboard Prison
• Cassandra Truth
• Cave Behind the Falls
• Click Hello
• Clear My Name - You'd think Mickey's help in catching criminals in the past would somehow stop this from happening. But it's a fictional comic book we're talking about here.
• Cloning Blues
• Comic Book Time
• Continuity Creep - Mickey's comics started out as daily gag strips for a newspaper, but as he began to have longer-running adventures, the following stories often referred to previous stories when using a recurring villain or character.
• Continuity Drift
• Contrived Coincidence
• Conveniently Placed Sharp Thing
• Convicted by Public Opinion
• Cool and Unusual Punishment
• Curiosity Killed the Cast
• Curse of the Ancients - Everyone was using these way before the Comics Code even existed, so it's never really caused much awkwardness in the way that Gosh Dang It to Heck tends to. Besides, can you honestly picture Mickey Mouse or any typical classic cartoon character using normal swear words while remaining in character?
• Death Trap
• Decoy Leader
• Descriptive Ville
• Distress Call - At times, the beginning of a plot, or a major point in it. Mickey's also been suckered in by Fake Distress Calls more than once.
• Double Entendre: several times in Love Trouble.

(while canoeing) Mortimer: "Hi there, Millicent ! Your boyfriend [Mickey] is kinda slow, isn't he ?" Millicent: "He's not as slow as you think... and he's very smooth !"

• Dramatic Ellipsis
• Drill Sergeant Nasty
• Elseworld - Wizards of Mickey, for one. And in a Bat Family Crossover with the Duck Universe, the Disney's Hero Squad: Ultraheroes Miniseries is this as well...
• Dude, Where's My Respect? - Mickey has solved numerous baffling mysteries, rescued many victims of kidnapping, caught countless crooks multiple times, returned stolen goods worth millions to their rightful owners, worked for the government, and even caught malicious spies from other countries. And yet no one thinks he's ever done anything special at all, and the stories themselves go to great lengths to point out how little he's thought of. He hardly gets any respect; given all he's accomplished, you'd expect him to be at least a little famous, but it's pretty rare for anyone to actually recognize what he's done. Mickey's too nice to really be concerned about it, but to readers it can be incredibly frustrating.
  • Some of the Italian strips indicate that he is at least somewhat famous, and actually has a movie made of his exploits, but prefers to remain as anonymous as possible.
• Enemy Mine - It's almost to the point of Friendly Enemies or Rivalry when this happens with Pete. Almost.
• Era Specific Personality
• Everyone Is a Suspect
• Everyone Knows Morse
• Evil vs. Evil - In the Orb Saga, the plot's Big Bad and the Phantom Blot get in a squabble over the MacGuffins.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink
• Fauxreigner - Pete has done this on occasion while in disguise.
• Fictional Counterpart
  • Here's one from the 2010 story Mickey Mouse and the Orbiting Nightmare:

Reporter: ...And actress Bella Breakhearts, star of every vampire movie this year!

• Firing in the Air a Lot - In the Western-themed Sheriff of Nugget Gulch (1937), Goofy does this on the back of a train and gets him and Mickey stuck in the jailcar for the rest of the trip. They get taken to the sheriff's office at the next stop, and Mickey manages to persuade him that they aren't actually outlaws and that it was just a mistake. They walk out the door, and out of excitement, Goofy shoots around in the air again. Hilarity Ensues.
• Frame-Up
• Freeze Ray
• Funetik Aksent - Goofy. And Eega Beeva.
  • In the early Floyd Gottfredson strips, most of the characters, including Mickey, talked with a Funetik Aksent. This was toned down after a while, and Goofy became one of very few character who didn't completely lose his accent.
• Funny Animal
• Fun with Acronyms - Mickey Mouse and the World to Come (2010) has ABROAD - the American Bureau of Really Outlandish and Astonishing Developments.
• Furry Comic
• Furry Confusion
• Gone Horribly Right
• Goofy Print Underwear
• Gossip Evolution - A key point in Sheriff of Nugget Gulch, where Goofy's ridiculous misuse of Firing in the Air a Lot on the back of a train gets him and Mickey a reputation as dangerous & gutsy Outlaws in the next town before they even arrive, complete with their own gritty bandit names.
• Got Volunteered - In Mickey Joins The Foreign Legion. He gets "volunteered" because someone jabbed him from behind with their spear. Causing him to yelp out in pain, which was of course taken as an act of volunteering.
• Great Detective - Sometimes Mickey's hobby of solving crimes is raised to this level of skill (and sometimes also made his profession), particularly when he goes up against a similarly elevated Phantom Blot. A couple of stories also point out that he'd be a great criminal if he wanted to due to that same ingenuity.
• Gun Twirling - Mickey does this in Sheriff of Nugget Gulch right after shooting a hole through the middle of a coin someone flipped into the air.
• The Greatest Story Never Told
• Harmless Freezing
• Harmless Voltage
• Hey, Wait!
• Hope Spot
• Identical Stranger - It's almost ridiculous how many times Mickey's discovered that someone looks exactly like him or similar enough that they could be mistaken for each other with a few adjustments or disguises.
  • The Monarch of Medioka (1938): This is used for Prince and Pauper switch.
  • Mickey's Dangerous Double (1953): Mickey's got a Criminal Doppelganger and has to clear his name.
  • Pete himself had one of these in one story, in the form of the benevolent ruler of a small foreign country. Naturally, he took advantage of this to try and seize control of said country by swapping roles.
  • Then there's all Goofy's identical relatives. One of them, the adventurer archaeologist Arizona Goof, even stars in numerous strips of his own.
  • A rare Mickey story by Carl Barks used this trope on Minnie for disturbing and hilarious results.
• I Have Your Dog - Surprisingly enough, when Mickey's being blackmailed somehow, it isn't with Minnie being the one to protect - it's his dog, Pluto. It's actually really sweet how much Mickey is willing to do to save his canine pal.
• Indy Ploy - Mickey's notorious for using these.
• Inevitable Waterfall
• Inn Security
• In Spite of a Nail
• Inspector Javert - Mickey tends to act like this towards Pete, never believing he's mended his ways and sometimes suspecting him on principle. He's nearly always right, but it's still more prejudice than intuition.
• It's Personal
  • From Fatal Distraction (2003):

Mickey: It's never about the jail time, Pete! This is personal! It always has been, and you know it!

• Just Between You and Me - In The Mail Pilot, Pete shows us how it's done:

Pete: Tell 'im de rest, Shyster! He'll never live t'tell nobody! Haw! Haw! Haw!"

• Laser-Guided Amnesia
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone
• Like Reality Unless Noted
• Loads and Loads of Characters - Hey, it's one of those Print Long Runners, what did you expect?
• Locked Room Mystery
• Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard - Or someplace where it's possible to find a Conveniently Placed Sharp Thing.
• MacGyvering
• Mad Scientist - These have been staple villains from the earliest times.
• Matchlight Danger Revelation
• Mecha-Mooks
• Mental Time Travel
• Mind Manipulation - There's a bunch of this in various forms throughout the comic's run.
  • Hypno Ray
  • Manchurian Agent
  • Mind Control Conspiracy - Courtesy of the Phantom Blot.
  • Mind Control Device
  • Weak-Willed - Except it's typically not really a matter of willpower; anyone can be hypnotized successfully unless they use Applied Phlebotinum or are just too dumb to be hypnotized.
• Mirror Universe - In one series of comics, it's especially disconcerting in that the Phantom Blot, a Manipulative Bastard and trademark villain, is a superhero.
• Mistaken for Badass - Goofy, of all people.
• Mistaken For A Spy
• Modular Franchise - When paired with the Disney Ducks Comic Universe. The Orb Saga, for example, is set in it.
• Motive Misidentification
• Nazi Germany - Some of the comic's run was during World War II... so naturally, there were several anti-Nazi-themed stories. These were probably a slap in the face to Hitler himself, who happened to be a fan of Disney's works.
  • Adolf Hitler
  • Gratuitous German
  • Hitler Ate Sugar - Peg-Leg Pete, being the established villain by that time, was naturally portrayed in at least one story to have been an undercover high-ranking Nazi spy all along, giving off the message of "He's evil, so he must be a Nazi!"
  • State Sec
  • Those Wacky Nazis
• New Job Episode - In The Bellhop Detective (1940), Minnie forces Mickey to enter a contest where the winners get job positions. He receives a job as a bellhop, but inevitably ends up spending more time trying to solve a mystery at the hotel than actually learning to do his job right.
• No Export for You - There are hundreds to thousands of the comics created internationally that haven't been officially translated to English.
• No Fame, No Wealth, No Service
• Not Me This Time
• No One Could Survive That
• No One Gets Left Behind
• No One Should Survive That
• Not-So-Great Escape
• Official Couple - Mickey and Minnie. Horace and Clarabelle, too, but depending on the story.
• On One Condition
• Operation: Jealousy - Minnie starts this a lot, usually as an attempt to get Mickey to pay more attention to her instead of going off on adventures. In one story, Mickey manages pulled a Counter Zany on her before things get sorted out.
• Or Was It a Dream?
• Paper-Thin Disguise - And they usually work, too, no matter who's using them.
• Passed Over Inheritance - Played for Laughs with Dippy Dawg Goofy in an early strip.
• Petting Zoo People - Anyone that's not a normal critter or a funny animal is a Dogface.
• Poirot Speak
• Police Are Useless - Not in all stories, but it is in a great many of them.
• Premiseville - Mickey's hometown, Mouseton.
• Prince and Pauper - The Monarch of Medioka.
• Print Long Runners - Since 1939, folks! Early 1930's if you count when it was a newspaper strip and not in comic book format. Off and on at times, admittedly, but hey... it's still around!
• Purely Aesthetic Era
• The Radio Dies First
• Ransacked Room
• Reassignment Backfire
• Refused by the Call
• Ridiculously Average Guy - A recurring joke throughout the comics; Mickey is often selected for special opportunities because he's so average - in the eyes of everyone but his friends and the reader, of course.
  • In Mickey Mouse and the Orbiting Nightmare (2010):

Reporter: We chose him because a group made up of such staggeringly famous people also needs an utterly ordinary everyman!

• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory
• Robot Me - Take a look at Mickey Mouse: The World of Tomorrow (1944).
• Rogues Gallery
• San Dimas Time
• Save the Villain - Despite the fact that Pete's tried multiple times to rape his girlfriend, kill him horribly, hurt innocent bystanders, and other crimes, Mickey somehow feels obligated to save him if he's about to die. This doesn't often end too well.
• Secret Test
• Selective Obliviousness
• Shared Universe
• Ship Shape Shipwreck
• Sky Pirates
• Sneeze of Doom
• So Much for Stealth
• Species Surname - Mickey, Minnie, and Mortimer Mouse (none of whom are related to each other), Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar...
• Stay in the Kitchen - In earlier stories, when this kind of thing wasn't really frowned upon, Mickey would generally tell Minnie this. She rarely listened, though.
• Submarine Pirates: Doctor Vulter
• Supervillain Lair
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands
• Suspiciously Specific Denial
• Symbol Swearing - Especially in earlier comics.
• Talking Is a Free Action
• Technical Pacifist - The Phantom Blot cannot bear to watch someone die. Doesn't stop him from trying to kill Mickey, however.
• Ten-Minute Retirement
• Tickle Torture - Well... according to the story Mickey Joins The Foreign Legion where it's used, Mickey is apparently very ticklish.
• Timey-Wimey Ball
• Took a Level In Badass: Mickey himself, repeatedly. Over the decades he's Taken A Level In Badass more than once, though thanks to the fact that outside the comics he's still largely viewed as the cute, smiling mouse, he's been particularly subject to Badass Decay -- until a new generation of writers and artists show up and have him Re-Take A Level In Badass. The most consistent thing in the comics is turning him into a genius Amateur Sleuth (often with Goofy as his Plucky Comic Relief Sidekick), though some stories have presented him as a severe andrenaline junkie. The recent Kingdom Hearts representation of Mickey as a Badass Longcoat is really just one more instance in a long line of Badass levels for Mickey.
• Train Escape
• Train Station Goodbye
• Treasure Map - Used a lot, and is one recurring motive for Mickey to seek out adventure.
• Trojan Prisoner
• Tyrant Takes the Helm
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight
• Vertical Kidnapping - This happened to Mickey in the beginning of Mickey Mouse Joins The Foreign Legion, a non-fatal variant which was actually a legitimate kidnapping.
• Villains Act, Heroes React
• Villain Team-Up - in The Past Imperfect (1998) numerous Mickey enemies get together; in other stories, it's common for two to pair up.
• Waking Up Elsewhere
• Walk the Plank
• Water Wakeup
• We Need to Get Proof
• Whole-Plot Reference: Happened somewhat often, like in the Donald Duck comics: for example, one story was a Bowdlerized WPR of Misery (Mickey writes a novel series about an Expy of the Phantom Blot, decides to stop writing only for the Blot to kidnap him and force him to write one where he wins) and another was an equally Bowdlerized adaptation of Arsenic and Old Lace (with the old ladies being Robin Hood style thieves instead of murderers but with everything else remaining almost the same, down to the characters' first names)
• Why Won't You Die?
• Will - It's ridiculous how many rich relatives have died and left Mickey, Minnie, and even Goofy some kind of inheritance. It's started more than one story's plot, that's for sure.
• You Meddling Kids - If Mickey hadn't been so dogged in chasing him down, the Blot would've gotten away scot-free in his debut scheme. To quote:

Phantom Blot: I lost because of the most stubborn, idiotic, persistent little fool that ever lived! That pest! *points at Mickey*

• Young Gun - When Mickey goes out West in certain stories, he's one of these. Sometimes he advances to The Gunslinger, Improbable Aiming Skills and all.
• You Talkin' to Me? - Goofy does this in a Western story...
• Zeerust