I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the Pringles at the bottom of the can you reach in for but can't get to without dumping out the wholeꦰ thing! I am the guy writing this article you're reading at this very moment! And he is DARKW🔜ING DUCK! The Masked Mallard himself!
If you're like me, a fair amount of your childhood was spent watching Disney's Afternoon lineup. Shows like DuckTales, TaleSpin, and Goof Troop, to name a few, are synonymous with my childhood. Watching these shows on a daily basis was an essential part of my ten-year-old life. I can almost taste the bowl of Lucky Charms or whatever other junk I stuffed in my face before my folks got home from work just from hearing the names of these shows. ꧟It was truly a golden age for kids animated entertainment, and while there are some great new animated kids shows, nothing will ever replace the Disney Afternoon for this nngou365.com writer. So please join me for this trip down memory lane, which, as luck would have it, goes through Duckburg and ends in a little town called St. Canard. This is 20 Crazy Things You Didn't Know About Darkwing Duck!
Know something about the caped quacker we left off? Don't be shy! Dro⛦p a comment and let us know!
20 Quack Attack Comes𒁃 Back? 𝄹
Forꦡ a brief moment, nay, an instant, there was hope the purple crusader would return to the small screen. In April of 2015, a rumor spread like wildfire on the internet that Disney had plans to reboot the s🥂eries and bring it back in 2018. But alas, these rumors were proven to be just that, and Disney instead brought the franchise back in comic book form, published by Joe Books. The comic premiered in April of 2016.
New Darkwing episodes would have been a dream come true for tons of die-hard fans, and while it remains to be 𒁏seen if they'll ever see the light of day, there is one thing we know: . At least somebody still wants to get dangerous around here.
19 Life Is Like A Hu🌟rricane, But Not In St.🅺 Canard
Even though DuckTales and Darkwing Duck share characters like Launchpad McQuack (Scrooge himself is even mentioned in the Darkwing Duck episode "Tiff of the Titans," creator Tad Stones maintains the two shows exist in separate universes. This is sort of bizarre, right? Does that mean the Scrooge and Launchpad who appear in Darkwing Duck are actually different ones from the ones we've seen in DuckTales? Maybe it's some kind of multiverse thing, you know, where there are tons of different universes and subtly different characters. Basically, what I'm saying is, we need an Injustice style video game with charaꦐcters from the Disney kids TV animated universe. Dibs oꩲn Kit Cloudkicker.
18 🥂 Who Knows? Darkwing Knoﷺws!
While Darkwing Duck is a show that parodies various specific comics and pulp fiction tropes (more on that below), Darkwing's secret identity, Drake Mallard, is a specific parody of Kent Allard, secret identity of 1930s comic book legend The Shadow. Fans may remember The Shadow from the 1994 film of the same name that starred Alec Baldwin. The film was an absolute critical flop, scoring a 35% on . Makes you wonder, why haven't we gotten a Darkwing Duck movie yet? The closest thing I found to s༒uch a cinematic endeavor was this starring Darkwing himself, Jim Cummings. While the video is obviously🔴 a joke, it is very worth your time, if for no other reason than the words "Veronica the Martian."
17 🔴 Homer Simpson Lit Up Darkwing 𓆏
Ever listen to Megavolt speak on an episode of Darkwing Duck and think he would probably be right at home sitting on a couch drinking a can of Duff Beer? There's a reason for that: Megavolt was actually voiced by Homer himself, Dan Castellaneta. Castellaneta has voiced a plethora of well-known characters, including Arnold's Grandpa from Hey Arnold and video game legend Earthworm Jim. He's also had a pretty 🌱substantial on-screen ca♒reer. Talk about the best of both worlds.
It's too bad we never got to see💟 Homer on Darkwing, considering it would have been so easy to do. Maybe they could have done an episode where Darkwing chases a villain all the way to Springfield. Although I'm not sure the episode would have ever made it past the folks at Disney.ꦐ..hey, a guy can dream.
16 ꦍ Darkwing's Comic Book Art Is AM♍AZING
I mean will you LOOK AT THAT? Come on, how cool is that? In an obvious homage to Frank Miller's 1986 classic, The Dark Knight Returns, Darkwing Duck was brought back in comic book form to tell a new story the events of which took place a year after the show ended. In the comic, 👍Darwking is convinced by daught༒er Gosalyn to don his cape and mask once more to take on the evil Quackwerks corporation.
Also, HOW COOL IS THAT COVER? If you're a huge fan of the original Frank Miller story, like myself, there's no way to not totally nerd out over it. While Darkwing Duck could of course never take as dark a tone as a Batman comic can, it's cool to see an older, wiser, and more weather-beaten Darkwing take up the mantle once more. If you can find it, this one is very𓂃 worth reading.
15 The Duck Always Goꦦes Commando ﷽
Look, I'm going to keep this short, but have you noticed Darkwing Duck doesn't wear any pants? His costume literally has no pants. Upper body, totally covered, the guy even wears a hat. But when it comes to covering up his legs and uh, you know, Darkwing takes a hard pass. Seemᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs like ෴a pretty massive oversight to make when creating a superhero costume, right? I mean, what happened, did he run out of purple fabric?
At least Darkwing is consistent: even when out of costume as his secret identity, Drake Mallard, he still wears no pants. Come to think of it, Gosalyn Mallard doesn't wear any pants either. Must be a family thing. Hey, I'm not🃏 judging.
14 Launchpad Almo🎀st Wasn't In the Show
Originally, the show's creators saw Darkwing as having a backup team rather than a sidekick. However, this idea was eventually scrapped in favor of having DuckTales character Launchpad McQuack serve as Darkwing's sidekick. One major tweak was made to Launchpad's character when he joined the Darkwing cast: he suddenly became a good pilot. While in DuckTales he was known to crash constantly, this was by no means the case in Darkwing Duck, which makes sense. If Launchpad was consistently crashing before Darkwꦏing could even get to a crime scene, one has to think he would be let go pretty quickly.
It's also kind of a nice homage to the Double-O-Duck episode that served as inspiration for Darkwing Duck, which featured Launchpad in the title role, that🐭 the character was given a recurr🙈ing role.
13 🅷 Inspired by Two DuckTales
While the show's creator maintains DuckTales and Darkwing Duck exist in completely separate universes, the initial idea for Darkwing Duck actually sprouted from two episodes of DuckTales, The Masked Mallard, an episode in which Scrooge McDuck himself dons a cape and cowl and goes out superhero-ing, and Double-O-Duck, and episode that saw Launchpad McQuack take center stage as a James Bond sort. In fact, the Masked Mallard later became a name Darkwing used to refer to himself. I mean come on, that's way too good to just use in one episode an then drop. Double-O-Duck was a big hit with the Disney execs, and nearly ended up getting a spin-off of its very own,🔜 if not for...well, see below.
12 🦩 🍰 Duck, Darkwing Duck
Originally, the Double-O-Duck episode of DuckTales was so popular, Disney wanted to make it its own spin-off. However, once again, some execs didn't do their homework and therefore didn't realize the "Double O" name is owned by the Broccoli family, who own all things James Bond. Yes, the words "double" and "o" when placed back to back are technically under copyright. Thus, the original idea of a Double-O-Duck series with Launchpad in the starring role had to be totally scrapped, alth༒ough this paved the way for the creation of a new main character, Darkwing Duck.
It's kind of amazing that with the roadblocks the team kept running into during the creation of this show (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Double-O🍷-Duck), that they were able to create something that turned out so good. Just goes to show you that you should never give up. I mean, unless something seems really hard. Then, give up for sure.
11 ꦦ A Classic All Its Own
In a fascinating bit of trivia, Darkwing Duck is the only Disney Afternoon series to not include any classic Disney characters (i.e. Goofy in Goof Troop, Baloo in TaleSpin, Scrooge in DuckTales). Instead, Darkwing Duck created a roster entirely made up of original characters, and the few DuckTales characters they did feature did not appear in any early Disney shorts or classic material. Pretty impressive feat for a show that was thrown together after that Rocky and Bullwinkle fiasco. Seriously, for a kid's animated show made up of entirely new characters to succeed, it has to be nothing short of terrific, and Darkwing Duck definitely check💛ed that box. Although a cameo from "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" wouldn't have killed anyone.