Inconsistently Heinous Proposal: Steelbeak (DuckTales 2017) (2024)

This will be my next proposal. I think this candidate may do just enough to count.

What’s the work?[]

This series is the 2017 iteration of the franchise, which follows Scrooge McDuck going on a variety of adventures with his grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, as well as their other friends and family members.

Who is he and what has he done?[]

Steelbeak is a supporting antagonist in the series. He is an agent of FOWL, a criminal organization dedicated to taking over the world. At some point before the series began, he was arrested and put in prison until Black Heron, the co-founder of the organization, broke him out and recruited him.

In the series, Steelbeak’s first major role had him working with Black Heron in a secret laboratory underneath Funso’s Fun Zone, hoping that it would keep them hidden from Scrooge and his family. But Scrooge and a few of the other protagonists ended up entering the building anyway, so Bradford ordered them to get rid of them without attracting any suspicion. Black Heron expressed her concern over them discovering her “Intelli-Ray,” a device meant to enhance the intellect of whoever it’s used on. She showed him how she tested it, explained how it worked, and stated that she planned to reverse the ray’s effects so that it would greatly lower Scrooge’s intelligence.

After getting annoyed by Steelbeak’s reaction and questions, Black Heron sent him to get rid of the heroes. Meanwhile, Launchpad and Dewey were immersed in a virtual reality game, which they had to put on special glasses in order to play. Steelbeak put the glasses on as well, and Dewey and Launchpad thought he was part of the game when he approached them and competed against them in a card game. Launchpad and Steelbeak proceeded to pull out random cards and call out moves from different, unrelated games, much to the confusion of everyone else around them. Once that was over, Steelbeak attacked them and locked them in two different cells in FOWL’s laboratory.

He then went to meet with Black Heron, who successfully reversed the ray’s beam. She then asked what Steelbeak did with Dewey and Launchpad, and she was furious when he told them he imprisoned them in their lair, since she knew Scrooge would come looking for them and find their secret base. She then went to deal with them herself, and Steelbeak followed her and stated that he didn’t appreciate her lack of respect for him. In response to Steelbeak referring to himself as her partner, she proceeded to insult him even more. Having had enough of her insults, Steelbeak snatched the Intelli-Ray from Heron and used it on her.

Dewey and Launchpad managed to escape the cells with the help of the rodents Heron had uplifted earlier, but Steelbeak found and cornered them. He ordered his two minions to attack them, and during the battle, he accidentally reversed the ray again so that it would make people intelligent. He then tried to use it on Dewey, thinking it would make him dumb, but Launchpad pushed him out of the way and got hit himself. With Launchpad now unconscious, Steelbeak kidnapped Dewey and left the base. Launchpad regained consciousness shortly after that and soon realized that his intelligence had been significantly enhanced. With his new intellect, he was able to use FOWL’s technology to track down Steelbeak, who had Dewey tied up and was moving towards a lighthouse in his speedboat. Said lighthouse was actually one of FOWL’s old lairs.

Launchpad caught up to his boat and tried to stop him, but Steelbeak got rid of him long enough for him to reach the lighthouse. He revealed that he intended to place the ray inside the lighthouse’s beacon, which would turn everyone in Duckburg “dumb.” He then stated that he wanted to do the same to the entire world after he was done. Fortunately, Launchpad managed to reach the top of the lighthouse, where he confronted Steelbeak. After fighting him again, Steelbeak activated the device and aimed it at the city. Launchpad warned him that the ray was far too powerful now, and if he used it on the city, the inhabitants would lose so much of their intelligence that they’d forget how to breathe. This didn’t stop him from attempting to use it, and he pretended that was his plan the entire time. He attacked Launchpad once again, but the rodents from earlier flew in and electrocuted him. Launchpad couldn’t fully deactivate the ray, so he sacrificed his intelligence to save everyone. Despite their victory, Launchpad forgot that Steelbeak was an actual threat, so he wasn’t able to warn anyone about him.

Later, he seriously injured Darkwing Duck and stole the Solego Circuit plans from him. He then accompanied several other agents to attack Scrooge, his family, and his friends, who were looking for the pieces of the mystical Sword of Swanstantine. He specifically confronted Huey and Lena and charged at the former to forcibly take the piece from him. But Lena was able to stop time so that they could come up with a plan to stop him while inside Huey’s mind. For a while, none of his ideas worked. He tried running different simulations, and all of them ended up with him getting attacked by Steelbeak and losing the piece of the sword. Lena then noticed a secret door in Huey’s mind and went to open it. A feral, aggressive version of Huey exited the door, which he shoved back in. He explained that the feral version of him was a representation of deeply repressed aggression and emotion that was against his actual beliefs and values. But he ultimately embraced those emotions and balanced them with his more logical side in order to defeat Steelbeak. The heroes seemingly chased him and the other agents away, but it turned out that their attempt to prevent the protagonists from retrieving the sword pieces was a distraction so that they could steal one of their feathers.

Steelbeak made his next appearance in the final episode of the series. He and the other agents were spying on the heroes, who proceeded to destroy all their cameras. Bradford then informed the agents that it was time for them to enact their final plan. The heroes then infiltrated FOWL’s latest base, with them splitting up into different groups who ended up in different locations. Launchpad, Darkwing, and Gizmoduck were confronted by Steelbeak, who overheard them talking about the location of the kids. He informed Don Karnage where they were before attacking the three heroes. In the middle of their battle, Steelbeak decided to use the Intelli-Ray on himself, which made him a more competent opponent. He successfully deactivated Gizmoduck’s suit and locked both him and Darkwing in one of the many cells in the base. He then brutally beat up Launchpad, only to be attacked by Gosalyn and B.O.Y.D. They managed to temporarily drive him away, and B.OY.D. was able to reactivate the armor. Steelbeak, however, returned and managed to modify the Intelli-Ray so that it could brainwash people. He then used it on several of the heroes’ old enemies. The brainwashed villains attacked and imprisoned all the heroes in the room, except Launchpad, who, with the encouragement of his allies, was able to put on the Gizmoduck suit and fight the villains. Steelbeak was scared away by one of the suit’s weapons, and it’s unknown what happened to him after that.

What makes him heinous?[]

The series actually does have a rather high heinous standard, with numerous villains committing surprisingly awful crimes.

Bradford Buzzard, the leader of FOWL, was responsible for several of the terrible events in the series, attempted to erase hundreds of innocent people from existence, and killed a few of his allies onscreen. And he still fails the heinous standard due to his high resources.

General Lunaris invaded Earth and began to freeze it. He later attempted to destroy the entire planet out of spite, not caring that he would be killing his own people in the process.

Taurus Bulba was the most heinous of all the villains in the series since he nearly destroyed all of reality itself so that he could remake it in his own image.

Ponce De Leon, despite relying on Fridge Horror too much to count as PE, was indicated to have drained the life of one of his crew members and later proceeded to drain the youth of many innocent people.

Even villains who fail the standard to Bradford committed heinous crimes. For example, Magica De Spell enslaved an entire village before killing most of its inhabitants when she got bored of them and later tried to destroy all of Duckburg. Black Heron went along with Bradford’s plan to kill many innocents and was implied to have influenced Bradford into becoming more evil.

So, how does he stand out? The majority of his crimes don’t pass the heinous standard or even the general baseline. However, there’s one crime that might be just bad enough for him to count, which was his attempt to use the ray on all of Duckburg, which would render them incapable of breathing. It’s made even more clear that this would be fatal by Launchpad stating that “no one could survive” being hit with the ray.

At first, Steelbeak didn’t know that the ray would be lethal. However, even after he was told that it would kill everyone in the city, he still tried to use it on them, just to make it look like that was his plan the whole time. So, he was perfectly willing to kill at least hundreds of people just because he didn’t want to admit that he didn’t know how dangerous the device was when he first activated it.

Now, does he stand out from the other villains enough? I think he does, since he didn't have the vast resources that Bradford and Lunaris had. He also didn't have any devices that could threaten all of reality. He was pretty much just a minion. He was a high-ranking one, but still just a henchman to a much more powerful villain. Now, like him, Magica was a threat to an entire town and actually succeeded in destroying a village. And yet, she fails the heinous standard. But she fails because she had extremely powerful magic, yet villains with equal or less resources did worse. Steelbeak had nothing close to her powers. He just had that one weapon and did the worst he could with it. So, I think he stands out just enough to qualify.

What makes him inconsistent?[]

Mainly, I think he’s a bit too comedic to count as NPE. In his first major appearance, he was constantly played for comedy, with both the narrative and the characters not really taking him seriously until the climax of the episode. In his subsequent appearances, he was pretty comedic as well. Now, his plan to kill Duckburg’s population was taken more seriously than his other actions. He was also a bit less comical after using the Intelli-Ray on himself. But I’m not sure that’s enough, since he still had detractingly comedic moments even during those scenes.

He also appears to have some insecurities about being viewed as “dumb.”

Conclusion[]

Not completely sure, but I think he has a chance. What do you think?