Look, don’t ask me why, but Disney used to freakin’ love putting ducks on TV: DuckTales — an action cartoon starring anthropomorphic ducks; The Mighty Ducks — an action cartoon starring anthropomorphic alien ducks (not the movie about the alcoholic hockey coach); Quack Pack — a teen angst cartoon starring slightly older anthropomorphic ducks. And somewhere in the mix: Darkwing Duck—an action cartoon straight outta the ’40s starring, yes, a vigilante anthropomorphic duck. It might have been the finest of the bunch.
Darkwing Duck launched in the wake of DuckTales’ cancellation in 1991 and ran for 91 episodes over the course of the next year. Created by Tad Stones (who now works on Bob’s Burgers), it was a pulpy tribute to heroes like the Shadow and the Green Hornet, down to his domino mask, gas gun, and askew fedora.
Juggling whimsical comedy with serious action and suspense, Darkwing Duck dropped in on the airwaves a full year before Batman: The Animated Series hit the tubes, and it’s not hard to see as a logical bridge between the darkness in that show’s tone and the more family-centric antics on DuckTales.
Of course, Darkwing could never be as dark as all that. He was a single dad caring for a daughter, as creator Stones recently reminded us in an excellent Hollywood Reporter story by Aaron Crouch on the show’s 25-year legacy:
Most importantly, [Stones] injected a healthy dose of heart thanks to the endearing relationship between Darkwing and his daughter.
“I get told at conventions how important that relationship was to people,” says Stones. “I’ve I had people near tears saying they had a rough family life and the father-daughter energy of that show was super-important to them.”
Which is kinda the coolest nerdy thing I’ve read all week. It’s more satisfying than finding out — in the same piece — that DuckTales and Darkwing Duck are not set in the same continuity. The whole story’s worth your time, diving into the fandom and Stones’ excellent, Julius Schwartz-inspired idea of not giving a crap about continuity. (Schwartz, you may recall, also presided over Batman stories in the ’70s that became some of BTAS’s finest moments.) It’s another reason Darkwing Duck remained accessible for years of afternoon syndication on Toon Disney and elsewhere. It’s also a reason this crazy idea will totally work…
Here’s a free idea for Disney
You’re bringing back DuckTales, reclaiming your legacy as a Duck-obsessive entertainment giant. So bring back Darkwing too, but I mean Batman Beyond–style. Not just as a comic book, but as a full series, with a grown-up Gosalyn Mallard as the new Darkwing. It worked for Star Wars, after all, and continuity is, like, the last thing you have to worry about.
As Obi-Wan told Rey in The Force Awakens, “These are your first steps.”
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