{"id":22256,"date":"2016-09-12T13:32:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T17:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=22256"},"modified":"2016-09-12T22:00:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T02:00:10","slug":"the-pc-thug-in-the-90s-darkwing-duck-is-the-superhero-we-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/12\/the-pc-thug-in-the-90s-darkwing-duck-is-the-superhero-we-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"The PC Thug: In The 90\u2019s, \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d is the Superhero We Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PCThug-logo\"<\/a>The nineties were a peculiar time. The comic book industry was coming out of the huge success of Alan Moore\u2019s \u201cWatchmen,\u201d and Frank Miller\u2019s \u201cThe Dark Knight Returns,\u201d while a bunch of young artists formed Image Comics and gave us a slew of new superheroes and avengers, all of whom were dark, bloody, brooding, and hairy. All the clean cut awe of Superman and Captain America went out of style giving way to a decade of muscle bound heroes with pouches, giant guns, massive swords, and a lot of angst that came with their back story. Even a very nineties hero like Spawn was made even more nineties being transformed in to a gun toting bad ass in his own movie. For a decade where superheroes were all doom and gloom, Disney seemed to play off of that trend by offering up a goofy satire called \u201cDarkwing Duck.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Twenty five years ago, \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d premiered on television and had a good time not only playing up the dark superhero tropes, but lampooning it as best as possible. \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d was the duck version of \u201cThe Shadow\u201d basically who, by day, was a single father named Drake Mallard. By night, he\u2019s a dark, theatrical, and self serious superhero who begins every crime foil with his mantra of \u201cI Am the Terror that Flaps in the Night\u2026!\u201d What was to be a play on James Bond eventually became a satire of superhero tropes with \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d celebrating the golden age of superheroes and comics, as well as pulp heroes like \u201cThe Shadow.\u201d Though the continuity was very loose, \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d was a part of Disney\u2019s obsession with ducks and mice that took them from \u201cDuck Tales\u201d to \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d and right in to \u201cMighty Ducks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The writers of \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d were well ahead of their time with the narrative, as their series featured a look in to the life of a single dad who raised an adopted daughter. Though he brought her up in a traditional suburban background, alongside neighbors of the typical nuclear household, Drake was an unconventional parent. What\u2019s more, Gosling, his daughter, was an unconventional child whose spunk and sass made her not only Drake\u2019s daughter, but Darkwing Duck\u2019s recurring sidekick and straight man. Almost always, Gosling was pulled in to Darkwing\u2019s adventures, and he always had to bring her along or save her from whatever devious foe he faced that week. The series had the advantage of voice work from the legendary Jim Cummings and the late great Christine Cavanaugh, both of whom gave spirited turns as the lovable father and daughter thrust together by fate and circumstances.<\/p>\n

\"darkwing-duck\"<\/a>\u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d is often linked to \u201cDucktales\u201d by fans of both series, but the creators insist the latter is from an alternate universe, much in the way \u201cTalespin\u201d works in another universe from \u201cThe Jungle Book.\u201d*<\/strong> That doesn\u2019t stop the show from featuring two of the most likable supporting players from the aforementioned series: Launchpad McQuack and Gizmoduck. The most striking redo was Launchpad McQuack who became the kato to Darkwing\u2019s Green Hornet. He manned Darkwing\u2019s jet and often aided him in his quests, serving as a much more competent aide than we originally saw in \u201cDucktales.\u201d Launchpad McQuack has always been one of the most underrated animated heroes of all time, and here he\u2019s just as charming and funny, and given a larger platform and bigger screen time than \u201cDucktales,\u201d which was more concerned with spotlighting the child heroes.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d was only one in many animated shows that didn\u2019t talk down to its audience and offered up some fun action and comedy with references that would appeal to broader audiences. There\u2019s even one entire episode that serves as an homage to \u201cTwin Peaks.\u201d and \u201cInvasion of the Body Snatchers\u201d all wrapped in one fun package. \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d along with its colorful title hero brought with it a ton of fun super villains and rogues that made Darkwing\u2019s life interesting. There was even a bizarre Darkwing called Nega-Duck, who was the evil equivalent of Darkwing. The show was also never afraid to get meta, as one episode sees Darkwing warped in to an alternate universe filled with humans where \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d is a fictional series and popular toy line. Teamed with \u201cChip \u2018n Dale: Rescue Rangers,\u201d \u201cTaleSpin,\u201d and \u201cDuckTales\u201d weekday afternoons were something of an event as Disney often offered up some bang up entertainment for kids before the Warner takeover in 1995.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a surprise that \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d is a series that continues to be in demand by nineties kids alike, since the character and his universe is so colorful and fun while also tapping the nostalgia sweet spot so many of us nineties kids love. It\u2019s also a testament to the quality of Disney programming that the series still holds up to this day and is still consistently funny, charming and exciting. Jim Cummings has such a distinctive and memorable voice, but still makes Darkwing Duck one of his most unique heroes whose thirst to thwart evil often compensated for his over the top theatrics and melodramatic manta. In a decade filled with doom and gloom superheroes and comic books that were not only the norm, but were celebrated, \u201cDarkwing Duck\u201d is still such a great antidote.<\/p>\n

* Many fans are currently disputing these claims.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nineties were a peculiar time. The comic book industry was coming out of the huge success of Alan Moore\u2019s \u201cWatchmen,\u201d and Frank Miller\u2019s \u201cThe Dark Knight Returns,\u201d while a bunch of young artists formed Image Comics and gave us a slew of new superheroes and avengers, all of whom were dark, bloody, brooding, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[58,99,240,290,580,737,1005],"class_list":["post-22256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pcthugs","category-tv-tomb","tag-action","tag-animation","tag-crime","tag-disney","tag-kids","tag-nostalgia","tag-superheroes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22256"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22279,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22256\/revisions\/22279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}