Daring duck of mystery
Champion of right
Swoops out of the shadows
Darkwing owns the night
Somewhere some villain schemes
But his number’s up

(3-2-1)

Darkwing Duck (When there’s trouble you call DW)
Darkwing Duck (Let’s get dangerous!)
Darkwing Duck (Darkwing, Darkwing, duck!)

Today, we will take a look at Darkwing Duck #5 published by Dynamite comics.

Release Date: May 24th, 2023

Writer: Amanda Deibert

Artist: Carlo Cid Lauro

Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry

Editor: Nate Cosby

Main Covers by: Mirka Andolfo, Leirix, Jacob Edgar, Trish Forstner, Carlo Cid Lauro, George Kambadais, Ken Haeser, and Cat Staggs

*STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS*

Official Synopsis: Darkwing Duck has returned to saving St. Canard, but in just the brief time that he was attempting to be a boring civilian, F.O.W.L., led by Dr. NoGood, has decided to make the entire city their new headquarters of villainy! Darkwing is determined to clean up this mess-and Goslyn is ready to help him. But as a good parent, Darkwing sends her to school where she will be safe…or so he thinks!

Covers

This is a Dynamite Comics release. So you know that there is going to be a dangerous amount of covers. In this section, I am going to highlight some of the dangerous covers for Darkwing Duck #5. The Liquidator makes an appearance in this issue.

We get a tribute to Quack Pack in the form of Huey, Dewey, and Louie from their designs in that show on Trish Forstner’s cover. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are not in this issue.

I am collecting the action figure variant incentive covers for this Darkwing Duck comic series. Darkwing Duck #5 features the Liquidator on the cover. Negaduck will be featured on the action figure cover for Darkwing Duck #6.

My Review

*STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS*

Let’s get relaxed as Darkwing and Launchpad enjoy a spa day awarded to them by a secret admirer/anonymous fan. When DW and LP go for a dip in the pool, they notice a familiar statue near the pool. The statue resembles Liquidator when Darkwing trapped him in cement in the Liquidator origin episode, “Dry Hard.” That episode is definitely one of my favorite episodes from the original Darkwing Duck animated series. If you haven’t watched it yet, go launch Disney+ and give it a watch. You can come back to this review later.

Liquidator breaks free from his statue disguise and goes on to attack Darkwing and Launchpad. It’s a trap! Out of all of the battles that Darkwing has had with his villain foes during this Dynamite Comics comic series, this one does the most justice with many pages dedicated to Liquidator. In the end, Darkwing uses his homemade x-ray vision scope invention to find a freezer at the day spa to trap the Liquidator. He also finds a funny Pirate Steven cameo. Liquidator’s assets are successfully frozen.

Meanwhile, the Nourishing Organic Good organization has been taking over businesses all over St. Canard. Gosalyn’s school is even being renamed Nourishing Organic Good Elementary School. The new principal is announced at a school assembly, and it is none other than F.O.W.L.’s Dr. No Good. He has turned the kids from the school into his army with mind control courtesy of Nourishing Organic Good Candy which was inspired by Megavolt. Gosalyn and Honker are also under Dr. No Good’s control. Dr. No Good was inspired by Megavolt’s mind control from the first issue. This also explains why Bushroot was after the school. Liquidator helped with the Nourishing Organic Good marketing. This issue definitely helped answer some questions that made me want to reread the previous issues. Darkwing is able to wake Gosalyn up from her mind control daze, and her and DW speed off on the Ratcatcher to devise a plan to take down Dr. No Good. Hopefully Launchpad was able to escape as well. I could here the closing Darkwing Duck show sax outro music in my head as this issue ended. We will find out in the next dangerous issue of Dynamite Comics Darkwing Duck.

Writing for Liquidator is not an easy task, but Amanda did a great job with his marketing jingle lines. I laughed a few times in this issue and especially at Darkwing’s egotistical dialogue. “Finally going to name it Darkwing Duck Elementary, huh?”. I do like that this issue tied a few things together that we had seen in the previous issues. We also get a “Keen” from Gosalyn. We are half way to a full “Keen Gear”. The art from Carlo Lauro was eccezionale as usual! This issue was the best of the series so far and the opposite of No Good.

Dr. No Good’s only other appearance was the classic DuckTales episode “Double-O-Duck which is currently streaming on Disney+. You can check out that classic DuckTales animated gem if you want some more Dr. No Good before the final issue of this story arc.

The Dynamite Comics Darkwing Duck series has been extended due to strong sales and support. Additional dangerous issues past the initial order of six issues will kick off in July with a Justice Ducks theme. Please make sure to support the Dynamite Comics Gargoyles, Disney Villains: Scar, and Disney Villains: Maleficent series while you are out buying Darkwing Duck.

The first six issues of Dynamite Comics Darkwing Duck will be re-released as a special collection in August. It will be titled F.O.W.L. Play, and come in three collectible editions of a trade paperback, trade hardcover, and trade hardcover signed by Amanda Diebert. Buying the individual issues definitely make the trade collections and series extension possible. Keep getting dangerous every month when new issues are released.

Darkwing Duck #6 is tentatively scheduled for June 21st, 2023.

It feels great to get dangerous again with this new Darkwing Duck comic series.

Let us know what you thought of Darkwing Duck #5 in the comments below. What cover(s) did you get?

Don’t forget to follow @DuckTalks and @DynamiteComics for all of the latest Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck comic news.