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!)

When there’s trouble you call the Justice Ducks! Darkwing is now part of a bigger team in Dynamite Comics’ third comic series featuring the characters of the 1991 classic Disney TV animated show, Darkwing Duck. Dynamite’s first Darkwing comic debuted in January 2023 and ran for 10 issues. A comic devoted to Darkwing’s nemesis, Negaduck, launched in September 2023.

Today, we will take a look at Justice Ducks #1 published by Dynamite Comics.

Release Date: January 24th, 2024

Writer: Roger Langridge

Artist: Carlo Lauro

Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry

Editor: Nate Cosby

Covers by: Mirka Andolfo, Roger Langridge, Francesco Tomaselli, Trish Forstner

Official Synopsis: Darkwing Duck Is Teaming Up – Whether He Likes It or Not!

Foes of evil! Enemies of injustice! To the mighty heroes of the JUSTICE DUCKS, all bad guys are a total bummer and must be taken down – even if said bad-o’s are from OUTER SPACE!

In this thrilling maiden issue: Flying saucers descend from the skies, to (maybe) wreak (possible) havoc upon the (mostly) innocent citizens of St. Canard! All that’s stopping these aggressive alien agitators is STEGMUTT, GIZMODUCK, NEPTUNIA, MORGANA, and (most important, in his opinion) DARKWING DUCK!

My Review

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

This story is titled “Tales of the Strange”. A giant duck robot creature has mysteriously appeared in St. Canard. The creature’s objective is to find Ixekreme. In fact that is the only word that the creature can say. The members of the Justice Ducks are called into action to save St. Canard from destruction. That includes Darkwing Duck w/ Launchpad McQuack, Morgana, Neptunia, Stegmutt, and Gizmoduck. Each one gets their shot in on the giant to help take it down. There is no time to celebrate as a flying saucer appears along with four additional giant extraterrestrials who also seek out Ixekreme.

The Justice Ducks have their hands full trying to stop these giant beings from another planet and save the panicked citizens of St. Canard. They need to figure out who or what is this Ixekreme that the creatures are looking for. Neptunia eventually cracks the code as Launchpad mentions that he promised that they would bring Gosalyn back some ice cream. Ixekreme translates to ice cream. Morgana uses her magic to transform a garbage container into a tub of ice cream with four giant spoons. Gizmoduck uses a translator from his suit so that the Justice Ducks could have a conversation with the giant creatures who have calm down after their ice cream social. The creatures tell the story of their home planet and that ice cream used to be a natural resource. Their planet was stripped of their precious ice cream so they went out in the galaxy in search for more ice cream. Gizmoduck prints out a recipe so that they can go back to their planet to make their own.

Darkwing hands out signal devices that he made to the four members of the team so that they can communicate with each other as a real team when needed. DW did not make a device for himself because he is not a team kind of duck and he wants to continue to fly solo. We get a heartfelt ending when Darkwing returns to his secret hideout to bring Gosalyn some ice cream.

This comic was a lot of fun and provided the same vibe as the Darkwing Duck animated show. Both the script and the illustrations provided laughs. Roger Langridge’s writing debut with these characters definitely gave an impression that he is a fan of Darkwing Duck and understands each of the characters from the show. There was definitely more script in this issue than in the previous DW comic as each panel was filled with more dialogue that was faithful to the characters. Carlo Lauro has come a long way from his work on Darkwing Duck #1. Many of Carlo’s Darkwing Duck face expressions in this issue genuinely cracked me up. The amount of detail in the background art of his panels has also greatly improved. Justice Ducks delivered on story, danger, action, humor, and heart.

The classic Darkwing Duck episode “Just Us Justice Ducks” is definitely a fan favorite episode for many Darkwing Duck fans. If this comic team can continue to tap into the feels of that episode, then this series will have a Blathering Blatherskite dangerous run.

The next issue of Justice Ducks will get dangerous at your local comic book shop on February 21st, 2024. Please make sure to support the other Dynamite Comics Disney releases: Negaduck, Gargoyles, Gargoyles: Dark Ages, Gargoyles Quest, Lilo and Stitch, and Disney Villains Cruella De Vil.

Let us know what you thought of Justice Ducks #1 in the comments below. What cover(s) did you get?

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