The Quarter Bin

It’s been over ten years since the terror that flaps in the night has been involved in any form of entertainment. Darkwing Duck’s 91-episode run came to a close in 1997, without a full-fledged comic book for many years before that. No games, no movies, nothing. That changed in 2010, when BOOM! Studios announced “The Duck Knight Returns,” a four issue miniseries that planned to bring DW back into the public spotlight. For fans of the character, it’s more than anyone could have ever hoped for.

DARKWING DUCK, VOL. 1: THE DUCK KNIGHT RETURNS
Written by IAN BRILL
Art by JAMES SILVANI

Darkwing Duck’s absence from the spotlight is actually the starting point of the comic. Taking place over a year after the television show’s finale, much has changed in St. Canard. Darkwing Duck has hung up his cape, settling for a desk job at the Quackworks megacorporation as his alter ego, Drake Mallard. With security cameras, spyware, and giant robots, Quackworks keeps St. Canard “safe,” even if it means taking the people’s protection out of their hands entirely. This mysterious corporation’s rise to power is the focal point of the four-issue run, setting the stage for Darkwing Duck’s epic return.

Re-watching the show over the past few months has revealed something interesting about Darkwing Duck: while some episodes are well-written, genuinely exciting, and legitimately strong, others are simply not very good. They’re all entertaining, at the very least, but there are many that definitely struggle to provide anything original. The comic, on the other hand, doesn’t have this issue, and feels as though it was cut from the same cloth as the great episodes, with a deeper storyline and more character development than any ten episodes of the show’s run.

It manages to do this without retreading old ground, instead moving things forward in a way that makes sense in the series. Now, Drake works a job he hates to pay for Gosalyn to attend an expensive prep-school, while sharing an office with villains like Megavolt who are forced to work in cubicles to serve their punishment. Watching Megavolt try and place where he knows Drake from is simply clever writing, especially considering the Clark Kent/Superman transformation that Darkwing Duck goes through in order to assume his alter ego.

Ian Brill also does a great job at presenting a strong story, with actual drama that wasn’t really attempted regularly on the show. Finding out why Darkwing and Launchpad haven’t talked in a year is interesting, as is learning why the Fearsome Four refuse to talk about what happened to their fifth member, Negaduck. When it comes to comedy, the comic brings plenty of laughs. Likewise, when it shoots for action, it fires on all cylinders. As a fan of Darkwing Duck it was hard to contain my excitement from time to time, something usually not experienced when reading a comic book about anthropomorphic mallards. It even manages to pull in some emotional segments, another shocker considering how infrequently the original show attempted to water eyes.

The art, too, is worth commending. It appears to effortlessly emulate the show’s artistic style, while filling each panel with wonderful details that the original animators likely never would have bothered with. This feeling stretches to every element of the comic. The writing, the pacing; it’s all stellar. In many ways, it’s better than the show ever was, and that’s high praise.

It feels as though “The Duck Knight Returns” isn’t made for the same age group the original television show was aimed at. Instead, it’s targeting fans of that original show—adults with fond memories of Disney Afternoon television. It’s darker and more serious, while never straying away from the elements that made the show popular. When it ends, it does so with a bang, and it’s no wonder that it was popular enough to relaunch a full-blown Darkwing Duck monthly comic. If you’ve ever considered yourself a fan of the series I can’t recommend it enough.