THE GREATEST ENEMY OF DARKWING DUCK GETS HIS OWN SERIES – FINALLY!
I am the screeching fingernail on the chalkboard of justice. I am the sour ball in the candy jar of goodness. I am NEGADUCK!
He’s the exact opposite of DD in every way… evil, nefarious, dedicated to stealing lollipops from kids and not helping grandmas across the street! And now, he’s ready to begin a reign of crime and terror the likes of which St. Canard has never seen – except… dang it, all of the other villains are ripping off his ideas! What’s a criminal mastermind to do when the city’s thick with other criminals, stealing his shine? Why, take his villainy on the road, of course!
Written with fiendish glee by arch-author JEFF PARKER and illustrated by the suspiciously talented CIRO CANGIALOSI, Negaduck features a regular rogues’ gallery of cover artists, including JOSHUA MIDDLETON, JAE LEE, TRISH FORSTNER, and a special Whiteout homage cover by that series’ co-creator, STEVE LIEBER!

Negaduck will be available in comic shops on September 13th. It is 32 Pages and costs $3.99

Spider-Man has Venom, The Flash has Reverse Flash, and Wolverine has Sabretooth. There is just something fun about an evil version of our favorite heroes. When I was a kid there was no better example of this than Darkwing Duck’s evil counterpart from a parallel universe, Negaduck. Where Darkwing was daring, courageous, and a little egotistical Negaduck was diabolical, homicidal, and VERY egotistical.

There is no doubt the character is a fan-favorite from the Disney Afternoon series. His first appearance in the two-part story “Just Us Justic Ducks” is often cited as afavorite episode of longtime fans. In that episode he was introduced to the audience as the leader of villainous cooperative made up of Darkwing Duck’s rogues gallery. Negaduck bossed around Quackerjack, Megavolt, Bushroot, and Liquidator. He was too cool to hang out with them, and he only wanted to see his doppelganger (Darkwing, duh) humiliated and destroyed. We would go on to learn that Negaduck stems from the “Negaverse” and that he is an evil version of Darkwing Duck who ruled St. Canard.

Dynamite Comics recently relaunched a Darkwing Duck comic series, and this new series titled “Negaduck” is the first spin-off from that book. It is interesting that instead of a Gizmoduck, Morgana, or Launchpad spin-off we are seeing a Negaduck series. It honestly has me very intrigued and I’m looking forward to seeing where the series goes. The first issue was fun, and set up events to lead our her-, our titular character to create the greatest scheme St. Canard has ever seen. The only problem is he is a a little out of practice, and everyone seems to be beating him to the punch.

Ok, there’s an introduction. Now let’s review this book.

Story

Jeff Parker offers an all-ages story worthy of a Disney villain. The issue does include a lot of exposition that informs the reader of Negaduck’s recent detention that has removed him from the streets of St. Canard. Luckily the warden did not consider allowing the diabolical mastermind access to the workshop a bad idea.

Negaduck bursts onto the scene with explosive results. He explains where he has been and he confronts his disdain for St. Canard’s resident hero, Darkwing Duck. Parker’s storytelling is creative and things quickly pace across the page in a way that shouldn’t lose the young readers Dynamite hopes will pick up this comic.

Spoilers *** There was only one connection to Dynamites’ Darkwing Duck comic series that I noticed, and that was perhaps the DW statue that was never unveiled in his own comic. Additionally, we do see many of the villains who have already made appearances in the recent DW comics. Negaduck’s evil plans are constantly upstaged by Darkwing’s various rogues. He even has to deal with the embarassment that the Fearsome Five (excluding him of course) have come up with a plan similiar to his before he did! The story ends with a little tease that a certain magic wielding sorcerous will be featured in the next issue as Negaduck seeks help in finding a mystical artifact that would give him the power to terrorize St. Canard.

My biggest complaint about this issue is that we have 32 pages and not one chainsaw.

The Art

Ciro Cangialosi’s art is very complimentary to Carlo Cid Lauro’s art on the current Darwking comic. It’s cartoonish enough to feel that it belongs to the material, but Ciro has been able to add his own aesthetics to the designs of the characters and settings. The pages are very colorful and the story is well paced panel to panel. I like that these artists are adding their own styles to the characters instead of always sticking to on model versions of the characters. That artistic expression adds a lot of character to these type of books.

The Verdict

I very much enjoyed reading Negaduck #1, and I am looking forward to the second issue. I think the spin-off is an interesting directino for Dynamite to go, and I hope the series is a fun adventure with many laughs along the way. I LOVE many of the older Disney Comics from my childhood and before. I want more Disney comics that adults and children can enjoy.

Fun read, but needs more chainsaws!