Darkwing Duck Issue 7 and 8

[eastofthemoon]

Yesterday, I finally got around to picking up Darkwing Duck issues 7 and 8 (which is the conclusion to the Crisis on Infinite Darkwings Arch) and oh my gosh is it ever awesome!



First off the art is still top notch and you can tell the artist had fun with this. There are so many geeky references with all the multiverse Darkwings you can spend ages trying to list them all.

To give a general idea of what I mean, here's a list of JUST A FEW:

Dr. Who Darkwing (I can now hear dqbunny squealing)
Optimus Prime Darkwing
Mario Darkwing
Tron Darkwing
Sailor Moon Darkwing (ACK! MY EYES! MY EYES!)
Mad Hatter Darkwing
Blues Brothers Darkwing

And to top if off, a Where's Waldo Darkwing! (And just like where's Waldo, you really have to look for him to see him.)

As for story, you can tell the writer knew the show well, since these issues have a lot of call backs to episodes in the series, they even bring back a one shot villain that I had forgotten about till now. I'm also enjoying the Darkwing and Morgana interaction, it's just as sweet and funny as it was in the series. The plot seems to be hitting there might be more going on with Negaduck, but it's hard to tell if he'll come back considering the ending.

My only complaint is that Darkwarrior Duck didn't have a bigger role, but I forgive this since it appears he's role in the story was to provide ominous foreshadowing. This is a big spoiler for the comic. So if you haven't read it and don't want to know about it yet, just skip over the next paragraph
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First off, we get some back story on the Quiverwing Darkwing duck. While fighting in Darkwing's house, he sees some photos of Gosalyn and we get a flashback that snaps him out of the brain washing. Turns out, in the Quiverwing's universe, similar to Darkwarrior, Gosalyn died. However, instead of doing down the path Darkwarrior did, he instead became the Quiverwing Duck to honor her memory. (I really wanted to hug the guy at this point.) If that wasn't enough to pull your heart strings, it gets better.

Later on, while Quievrwing is trying to stop the other Darkwings, he runs into Darkwarrior Duck. Turns out, Darkwarrior isn't brainwashed and came of his own freewill. This is where we get a very, VERY worrying quote from him.

Darkwarrior Duck: "Don't bother. Go save Darkwing Prime. We both saw inside the timestream when arriving here. Help him have one of his last few victories. Before he loses her."
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......Needless to say, I exclaimed a big "OH CRUD!" at that quote.

So I think it's safe to say that we can expect a much darker plot to be appearing soon. This was a bit surprising, but it's not a bad thing. I think this just proves that doing a comic Darkwing Duck was a great idea because you can take the story into darker areas then you could in the original cartoon. (Granted, when you rewatch the series, they were able to get way with a lot more stuff then you could in a cartoon today.)

Overall, I'm REALLY curious to see where this comic plot goes. I've started to read the Rescue Rangers comic, so hopefully that will be as equally good. Now, if only we could get a Tale Spin comic too.

Comments

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

Oh cool!! I can't wait to see the Dr. Who and Sailor Moon ones. ;)

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

There are a ton of cameos in this, you have to look a bit to see the Sailor Moon one but she...uh he is there. Anyway, it's definitely worth a read.

[sensitivinferno.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is why ALL the Darkwings at the end seemed surprised to see Gosalyn. I mean, is she always dead in every world besides the normal one? And besides that, I had a problem with the pacing of the story and how they could have done SO MUCH MORE with some of the darker villains like Taurus Bulba and Paddywhack. I feel like they squished all the good villains into this one story arc and wasted them. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it and will definitely keep spending my money on it, lol.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wasn't sure about that either. Granted, in an episode when Darkwing goes to the Negaverse, he gets attached to the Gosalyn there. So, it could be a case of, "I'll love my daughter no matter the universe". It's hard to tell if she dies in each universe at this point. This might become clearer later on. Granted, if it's Goshalyn, Darkwarrior could have been refering to Morgana for all we know.

They could have done a lot more with the plot, I totally agree with that and the pacing can be too fast at times. (I wanted to see more with Quiverwing). However, I imagine part of the problem is that they're limited in how many issues they can do with one arch. It seems to me there's more the writer would like to do, but he's limited to wrap it up in four issues.

It probably would have been better if they saved Paddywhack for later, but hey, maybe he and Tarus Bulba will come back at some point. Heck, maybe they'll team up or something. Anything is possible in comics.

Despite its fault, I so want to keep reading the comic.

[parareality.livejournal.com]

Oh shoot, I never did get my reviews for these up! I'd better get on that!

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

I hope you didn't mind me making a review. I would love to compare notes with you. ^_~

(By the way, for the craft meme, how does a cute felt fox sound to you? ^_~)

[parareality.livejournal.com]

Oh no, not at all! I'll try to get mine up tomorrow- I keep intending to do them, and then getting distracted with my new dolls. (I haven't liked *dolls* since 1996, but I've become a fan of Monster High!)

Ooooh! Darling! What can I do for you?

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I can forgive the pacing issues because this book was originally planned to be a short mini-series (the plans changed when the early issues sold like gang busters).
And considering how many characters from both Darkwing AND Ducktales were crammed into this story, I think they did a good job giving appropriate amounts of screen time to the characters that really needed it.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I just finished issue 8, too. And I absolutely LOVED this story arc. James Silvani (the artist for this book) outdid himself here and identifying all the alternate Darkwings was a ton of fun.

Here's some I noticed:
-Simba Darkwing (with Launchpad Pumbaa and Morgana Timon *GAG*)
-Harry Potter
-Roger Rabbit
-Bob's Big Boy (a restaurant mascot for a US burger chain)
-Rorschach
-Lady Gaga
-Popeye
-Robocop
-Beer-bong Darkwing (seriously, one of them is just Darkwing with some drinks strapped to his hat!) XD


You have to read this thing multiple times to catch everything! God, I love this comic! ^_^

[brendala.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite parts of the story was when Magica decides to help Morgana and Darkwing because she's pissed at Negaduck. Only to say "screw this!" and fly away when Negaduck gains the upper hand! It was a great subversion of the whole "villain teams up with heroes to fight the bigger bad" trope. XD


My only quibble with Darkwarrior's statement is this:
In the Darkwarrior episode, Gosalyn wasn't dead in that universe. Darkwarrior was created because Gosalyn screwed around with Quacker Jack's time machine and went to the future. And, since she left her time entirely, Darkwing assumed she was kidnapped/killed and spent years looking for her before going crazy and becoming a dictator.

But, then again, the writers could know this and simply be pulling a bait and switch. The "she" he's referring to could easily be Morgana (we never did see Morgana in the Darkwarrior episode and losing her after Gosalyn could have easily been what sent him over the edge).

While this plot does have me intrigued, I really hope the story doesn't get too dark (no pun intended). At the end of the day, this is still a Darkwing Duck story and Darkwing Duck is primarily remembered for brilliantly spoofing dark heroes like Batman, not wallowing in angst alongside him.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

*nods* That's true, the company executives underestimated how well love Darkwing Duck is. ^_^

I will be curious to see if Scrooge makes another cameo and maybe even explain why Launchpad doesn't work for him anymore. (My theory is that Scrooge's insurance wouldn't cover launchpad anymore so Launchpad left to make things easier for him. XP )

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

He he! Picking out all the different Darkwings is fun. (There's a Lady Gaga one? Where, I missed him.)

I hope James Silvani is the artist for this series for a long time because he captures the mood and the characters so well.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I don't think the show gave ever gave an explanation for why Launchpad quit working for Scrooge and moved to St. Canard. So it would be cool if the comic delved into that.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

Oh for sure, I wouldn't want the story to get too dark either, but it's nice for them to have the freedom of being able to do a bit more complicated stories than the tv series did. (By the way, it looks like the next arch is going to involve Steel Beak. ^_^ )

I have two theories regarding Darkwarrior duck. It could be that in Darkwing Duck's world two time lines were created, one with him staying as Darkwarrior and the other one where Gosalyn came back, so he didn't. (I'm thinking DBZ here of how there was the adult Trunks future, but his world didn't change by going into the past.)

The other theory is, as you said, he's referring to Morgana or perhaps someone else we haven't thought of yet. Man, who knew we would theorize this much regarding Darkwing Duck. I love it! ^_^

[brendala.livejournal.com]

The Gaga Darkwing is on the splash page where all the Darkwings are fighting giant Negaduck and spouting off variations of the classic ("I am the ___ that ___" catchphrase).
He (she?) says "I am the romance that always ends bad". XD

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

*ponders* Well, I've always loved your drawings, but if you feel an urge to sew/make something, that's always cool too.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

Ow, ow. The badness of that pun. OW! XD

[brendala.livejournal.com]

Since we're dealing with alternate universes, there's no way to say for sure what the Darkwarrior in this book lived through. He could have easily been plucked from a dimension where Gosalyn really did die.
And the reactions of the other Darkwings are probably just due to him loving her no matter what dimension she came from. Because, honestly, I find it hard to believe that NONE of the other Darkwings would try to warn "Darkwing Prime" if they knew that his Gosalyn was in danger.

I also could never imagine going into this much dorky analysis over Darkwing Duck of all things. It's neat! This coupled with the Ducktales and Rescue Rangers comics is making my inner child go wild with happiness! :)

Speaking of the Rescue Rangers book....it kicks ass, too! You're gonna love it!

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

I did read the first issues of Rescue Rangers actually and I'm enjoying it. I love how we're learning more about Gadget's dad (and Zipper's family is adorable.)

I was surprise to see Foxglove so soon, but man I did not seeing us meeting her dad (and also hinting that he may have died. I'm hoping that it turns out he's alive. Poor Dale. ;_; ).

[brendala.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I still can't believe that they introduced us to Foxglove's father and then almost immediately killed him off! I bet Dale is not looking forward to telling her about that.

I figure that he'll turn up alive later on. But, even if he does, that scene is pretty brutal for a canon Rescue Ranger's story! O_o