The Gilded Man is a character who was first featured in Donald Duck comic, Donald Duck and the Gilded Man, first published on July 15, 1952. He is a giant man from the lost city of El Dorado that covered himself in gold serving as the city's guardian.
History[]
The Gilded Man first appeared in the Donald Duck comic book, Donald Duck and the Gilded Man (later simply titled The Gilded Man in later publications) created by Carl Barks. In the book, Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie go on an expedition of an ancient stamp at British Guiana that is worth $50,000, to which it is said that the letter where the stamp was placed at never reached its recipient and was confiscated by the Gilded Man. While on an adventure, Donald and his nephews arrive at a location where the Gilded Man was last seen, which is inside an Aztec-style temple as told by the Old River Man. As the four arrive there, the Gilded Man appears in front of them, to which upon encountering him and his men, they throw the four into an underground chamber where they recall about what the Old River Man told Donald and the nephews about this. The Gilded Man later crashes through the ceiling and encounters Donald and his nephews again, to which upon painting him with silver, he became thrilled by this just as Donald and the nephews manage to escape the temple with the stamp.
The Gilded Man also appears in the 1998 Don Rosa comic book, "The Last Lord of Eldorado" which is about Scrooge McDuck competing with Flintheart Glomgold finding the lost city of El Dorado. In the comic, the Gilded Man is seen briefly in a legend sequence where he is seen performing the ritual of dumping gold into a sacred lake as an offering just before the sequence fades to Donald and his nephews themselves with Scrooge continuing to use the bulldozer to haul for rare treasure on the area where El Dorado is supposed to be at.
Appearances[]
DuckTales (2017)[]
In his first animated appearance, the Gilded Man was introduced in the Season 2 episode, "Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!", though he was previously mentioned in the previous episode "The Golden Spear!". Unlike the original incarnation of the Gilded Man in the comics, this depiction is portrayed as a giant robot instead of an actual human and is shown to have a dislike to loud noises, unlike the one in the comics.
After Della Duck returns home to Earth at Duckburg, she encounters the Gilded Man at the McDuck Manor garage area where she sees the golden statue of him and when she kicks it, the Gilded Man's eyes begin glowing and comes to life, approaching Della. As the Gilded Man approaches Della, Scrooge furiously approaches Della for disturbing the Gilded Man inside the garage area just as Della attempts to look for a weapon that can deactivate the Gilded Man to which he breaks Scrooge's cane and attempts to use a large boat against Scrooge. Della accidentally knocks a pickaxe causing a ball to trigger a crossbow to fire an arrow that hits a knight helmet, a hanging lamp, and cutting a rope to drop down a pterodactyl skeleton on a car, causing the Gilded Man to hear the alarm to keep him distracted while Della devises a plan to Scrooge to get Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby to save their mother from the Gilded Man as she distracts him, to which the Gilded Man suddenly finds the two just as they escape from the house as he chases them outside.
As Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby, and Mrs. Beakley run outside and approach the Gilded Man, Webby fires a grappling hook on the Excalibur sword the Gilded Man is holding to dislodge it while Della attempts to find the core to disable the Gilded Man while Dewey uses an air horn can to distract him, causing him to chase the nephews while Huey is tasked to get some tape and place it on some air horn cans and then place the cans inside the Gilded Man's body, Della steps on the air horn cans to emit a loud noise inside the Gilded Man's body. Noticing Louie about to be crushed by the Gilded Man, Della manages to save him albeit leaving her robotic leg inside the Gilded Man's body, just as the Gilded Man falls on the ground, saving the nephew. Scrooge manages to find Della's missing robotic leg after disabling the Gilded Man in order to save the nephews just as Della happily reunites with them.
Gallery[]
_S02E012_-_Gilded_Man.png "DuckTales (2017-2021) S02E012 - Gilded Man.png (627 KB)")
External links[]
- Gilded Man on DuckTalks.
