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!)
Dynamite Comics’ fourth comic series featuring the Terror that Flaps in the Night has arrived. Today, we will take a look at Darkwing Duck #1.
Release Date: May 21st, 2025
Writer: Daniel Kibblesmith
Artist: Brandt&Stein
Colorist: Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer: Fabio Amelia
Editor: Nate Cosby
Covers by: Tad Stones, Brandt&Stein, Ciro Cangialosi, Mark Bagley, Nicoletta Baldari
Official Synopsis:
LET’S GET DANGEOUS…LY SMALL!
In this issue: Darkwing and Launchpad return to the serious business of thwarting crime, only to run afowl of yet another nefarious nemesis – this time in the form of Quackerjack, who enlists the help of Lilliput and his shrink ray to cut the two Defenders of St. Canard down to action-figure size and trap them in a family fun arcade!
My Recap
*STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS*
The first two pages gifts us with a bonus classic Darkwing villain appearance of Steelbeak, Steelbeak had chained Darkwing and Launchpad to a rocket. It is a good thing that Darkwing remembered to swallow a lockpick this morning in case he would be in this exact situation. A swift kick to the face takes Steelbeak out. I love that Daniel Kibblesmith worked Steelbeak into this story even though he is not one of the featured villain(s) of this is issue.
Launchpad has been feeling unsure about his sidekicking lately. He fell for Steelbeak’s ice cream man disguise. Darkwing wants to celebrate his victory over Steelbeak with a family outing. Gosalyn votes for Jack and Quacker’s Family Fun Arcade while Darkwing wants the family to attend a three hour lecture on fingerprint analysis. Darkwing always wins so they venture to the fingerprint analysis place.
Quackerjack and Lilliput Gooney decide to from a villain team up built on their common interest of hating Darkwing Duck. Quackerjack runs the arcade and Lilliput runs the mini golf establishment next door. Lilliput shrinks Quackerjack’s arcade and his ants moves the building to connect to his mini golf. Their plan is to kidnap an innocent family to lure in Darkwing Duck. That innocent family just so happens to be on their way to watch some fascinating finger print analysis. Drake changes into his DW attire during a hostage bathroom break.
IT’S PLAYTIME!
Lilliput shrinks Launchpad and Darkwing with his ray and Quackerjack keeps Gosalyn preoccupied with a bucket of quarters for an arcade game. Quackerjack and Lilliput torture DW and LP inside games of Skee Ball and Air Hockey. They escape their captors by having Launchpad crash a toy car into the opening of a claw machine. Gosalyn shrinks Quackerjack and Lilliput with the shrink ray while they are distracted looking at Darkwing and Launchpad in the claw machine game. Darkwing decides to punish the shrunken villains by bringing them to the fingerprint analysis place.
We get silhouette previews of the villain that Darkwing will face in the next issue, Darkwing’s “maybe” arch nemesis is back.
Review
We get three classic Darkwing villains with Steelbeak, Quackerjack, and Lilliput Gooney in this issue. It will be great if Steelbeak gets his own featured issue, but it was great that they got him into the beginning of this issue. The whole series so far has been very consistent with being genuinely funny and authentically Darkwing Duck. Every issue feels like it could be a new episode of the animated show. There are a lot of Quackerjack fans out there that will love this issue, and the story will can hear Michael Bell’s voice as you read his dialogue.
We get another dynamite cover from Darkwing legend, Tad Stones. Ciro Cangilaosi’s cover is always a must have cover for me each issue. This Darkwing Duck series is definitely my favorite Disney series from Dynamite Comics so far.
This comic series brings the danger, the laughter, and the heart. Let’s Get Dangerous!
The next dangerous adventure from Year One of the Daring Duck of Mystery and the Champion of Right will be available at your local comic book shop tentatively in June. Preordering your books at your comic book shop is always recommended. Be sure to check out the other current Dynamite Comics Disney releases: DuckTales, Zootopia, and Gargoyles Demona.
You can read our interviews with the Darkwing Duck creative team below:
Let us know what you thought of Darkwing Duck #4 in the comments below. What cover(s) did you get?
Don’t forget to follow @DuckTalks and @DynamiteComics for all of the Disney comic news.
DuckTalks 
I haven’t read this issue, but from the preview scans that were released for the first few pages, I can see that Daniel Kibblesmith apparently doesn’t realize that Steelbeak is supposed to have a Brooklyn accent.
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