Darkwing Duck is a middle aged superhero of St. Canard.
History[]
Darkwing Duck is the superhero alias of Drake Mallard, and St. Canard's resident superhero. He is also the adoptive father of Gosalyn Mallard, and a close friend of Launchpad McQuack, and appears as an ally of Scrooge McDuck in the comic book stories "The Legend of the Chaos God" and "Dangerous Currency".
Behind the scenes[]
Creation[]
Darkwing as he appears in Darkwing Duck
He originally made his debut along with Gosalyn through a cameo in the "Disney Afternoon" title sequence in 1990, before the Darkwing Duck series officially began airing the following year, ultimately including 91 halfhour episodes.
DuckTales connections[]
Darkwing never appeared on the original DuckTales, as his show premiered after DuckTales' original run ended. He was however alluded to in in the comic book story "Return to the Moon", where Launchpad says that "trapezium crystals" can be bought for a nickel in St. Canard, adding "I know this screwy duck and his daughter over there."
Outside of Launchpad being Darkwing's sidekick, and Gizmoduck's occasional appearances on Darkwing Duck, the first official crossover between the two shows was the Disney Adventures comic arc "The Legend of the Chaos God", which connected DuckTales with not only Darkwing Duck but also TaleSpin, Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers and Goof Troop.
Boom! Studios comics[]
When Darkwing Duck was revived as a comic book under Boom! Studios in 2010, it featured occasional guest appearances by DuckTales characters; Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Gyro appear in issue #4, Magica De Spell teamed up with Negaduck in the "Crisis on Infinite Darkwings" arc that made up issues #5-8, and Doofus showed up to help out Launchpad's mayoral campaign in issues #15-16. It is also mentioned that St. Canard is located fairly close to Duckburg, which is noted to be Launchpad's previous home city. Simultaneously, Boom! presented two Danish DuckTales stories in Uncle Scrooge – "The Everlasting Coal" and "Double Indemnity" – and added minor references to Darkwing in the dialogue (even though "The Everlasting Coal"'s original publication actually preceded Darkwing's debut).
In 2011, Boom! launched a DuckTales title, with Darkwing character Camille Chameleon as one of the villains of the first arc, "Rightful Owners". The Darkwing Duck–DuckTales connections culminated with the next serial, the full crossover arc "Dangerous Currency", which served as the finale to both the DuckTales title and the Darkwing Duck title. "Dangerous Currency" was however regarded non-canon by Joe Books when they picked up the Darkwing Duck license a few years later.
When the Darkwing Duck comic was revived by Joe Books a few years later, writer Aaron Sparrow had planned to write a new crossover with DuckTales titled "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Movie". In it, Darkwing would attempt to investigate a Scrooge McDuck biopic being produced by Tuskerninni, only to be cast as Scrooge when Tuskerninni sees through his disguise.[1] Unfortunately, Disney cancelled the comic before the story could be published, so it is unlikely the story will ever see print.