Darkwing Duck #2 - The Fearsome Four!

[goggle_kid]

While Darkwing Duck investigates the mysterious Quackwerks corporation and rescue Honker, a familiar group of villains starts to strike back against the city of St. Canard. Only one member of this team is missing, and another is more dangerous than ever.



One demolished warehouse and a change of clothes for Megavolt later...

Comments

[terrykun]

...sweet christmas when did Darkwing Duck start having this much Nightmare Fuel?

[goggle_kid]

Rewatch some episodes of the old series. It got surprisingly dark at times.

[terrykun]

I know that, and yeah, the series had its moments, but I think it's the absolute STILLNESS of that grin and dilated gaze that comes across in comics, as opposed to the movement in animated form, that cranks up the NF level.

[goggle_kid]

I know it's awesome isn't it? I think the words and tone also are what amp things up. This Quackerjack is through playing around.

Note to prospective writers*THIS* is how you make a villain scary.

[crinos]

Did.... Did the Fearsome four just take down an army of Daleks?

[goggle_kid]

No Quackwerks "crimebots." As seen in the previous issue.

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2067291.html

[icon_uk]

Though there's an in joke here. "My vision is impaired" is a well known Dalek quote from Doctor Who.

[thandrak]

Odd how much they look like Gizmoduck.

[darkblade]

"I'm full of hate and wires."

Thats almost Machine Man level glorious.

[goggle_kid]

Particularly if you imagine Michael Bell reading that line.

[falseaesop]

Soooo... what did happen to Negaduck?

[goggle_kid]

We don't know yet.

Word is apparently he's going to be playing a key role in the next story-arch: Crisis of Infinite Darkwings.

[falseaesop]

Nice. Since you're answering.... how about Launchpad?

[goggle_kid]

Launchpad's been mostly missing due to some thus-far unexplained falling out he and Drake had. Thankfully he shows up to save DW at the end of this issue.

[skjam]

Is alive.

[dejadrew]

We had a glimpse of Launchpad in the first issue which was either heartbreaking or hilarious, depending on your frame of mind. It was also, well...

Me: ...Huh.

My Sister: What huh?

Me: I'm trying to decide if this is the most homosexual scene I have ever seen in a Disney comic, or if my mind is just hopelessly corrupted.

Sis: So, scene is what?

Me: You know the part of the movie where the hero is alone in his bedroom, and he calls his ex, and he listens to their voice on the phone for a minute and then hangs up without saying anything and just sits there on the bed, alone and despondent?

Sis: ....Yeees?

Launchpad: Hello?... Hello, is anybody there? Hello?

Darkwing: *click*

Sis: Wow... that's... Yeah, that'd do it.

[falseaesop]

They were such a cute couple too.

[lonewolf23k]

Wow. Quackerjack's been taking a few levels in Badass lately...

[goggle_kid]

TV Tropes noticed. ^_^

[shale]

This comic is SO DAMN GOOD. They really got the right guys to do more DWD.

[silverzeo]

You think after teaming up with Negaduck those four would have given up the evil racket. Surprise they had Quacker go... quackers on the bots by saying that name. I always thought of that jester bird as more as a big immature kid, not another Joker clown. Love the new bannabrian doll, really scared the jeepers out me.

Ditto

[roguefankc]

It's funny, and when I was a kid, Quackerjack was considered the weakest of the five villains. But geez, that menacing glare of his on the last panel of the first scan...

*shivers*

When even the other villains are a little wary of Quackerjack freaking out, you know this isn't going to end well. And I'm surprised Quackerjack has so much strength to punch through metal like that.

Re: Ditto

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, he IS a master toymaker, and those robots aren't THAT much different from the sorts of things he used to make - presumably, he knows EXACTLY where their weak spots are.
And I only just got this (and perhaps I'm misreading it), but do you think I'm correct in assuming that Mr. Banana-Brain is somehow a vital part of the robots' operating systems? I mean, I had originally assumed that Quackerjack just quickly assembled MBB from bits and pieces of robot while his back was turned to the others, but now that I think of it, it could well be the case that, having smashed the robot's body open, he simply removed MBB from inside it, where it had been fulfilling whatever its function was.

[goggle_kid]

According to an interview with Disney Afternoon producer Tad Stones, Quackerjack was originally supposed to be a darker character but ended up a bit more wacky in the final product.

[shadowvalkyrie]

Well, he is Darkwing's Joker expy, so of course he can go either way on the silliness to menace scale!

[dejadrew]

Third panel, last scan: His TEETH. Good God Quackerjack's TEETH are LOOKING INTO MY SOUL.

[stretchdude]

Can't sleep, Quackerjack will eat me...

[sir_mikael]

Damn, this is actually scary. Even in that panel where he starts talking about that corperation just before throwing toys at the others Quackerjack is depicted in an eerie way. And he's not doing anything!

I think I'll look into this comic. Even tho I loved the show I wasn't that interested before but okay this looks like good stuff.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I have mixed feelings about this. While I have no particular problem, per se, with Quackerjack going crazier - he was, after all, basically the craziest villain on the whole show, along with Megavolt - and I have no problem with his gaining a dark side, which he's ALSO always had (remember the scene in that one episode where his toy factory is manufacturing GRIM REAPER dolls? "Quackster, babe - seriously, get help", indeed), I DO have an issue with his creating 'toys that aren't meant to be played with'. I mean, that was Quackerjack's whole THING - all the crazy, deadly toys he created WERE meant to be played with, and he was a villain primarily out of frustration at the fact that no one was buying them. (Well, that and the whole 'Whiffle Boy' thing - but that only lasted one episode.) He's convinced that he is a genius in the field of toymaking, that there is a genuine demand for his products somewhere, and if he can just get people to BUY the damn things, they'll see the light. Even the toys he uses to commit his crimes are basically ones he'd be perfectly happy to put on the shelves of a toystore - there's a scene in 'Just Us Justice Ducks' where Stegmutt naively picks up one of his lethal toy soldiers and babbles on about oh, what a nifty toy, and ol' Quacky seems genuinely flattered. Of course, he goes back and forth from doing that sort of thing and just acquiring toys for himself ("When you've got ten million dollars in your savings account, you can buy all the toys you waaa-ant!"), but then, he IS crazy, after all. I have no problem with Quackerjack using toys to blow up a store, but he should have made some sort of comment about how 'these'll replace the Barbie doll as the new favorite!' or something like that - basically, that they ARE meant to be played with; he's just using these particular ones to get his revenge. Quackerjack just isn't Quackerjack unless he's convinced his toys are the best things since sliced bread and that kids will LOVE them once they get past the whole 'painful, messy death' thing.
Incidentally, one of the reasons I think the dude is a great villain is because he IS so nutty and wacky while still retaining a dark edge. I remember reading a bit of the interview mentioned above, where the guy expressed frustration that the character wound up sounding like such a goofball, instead of being voiced with slightly more sinister tones, as had been originally planned. For me, though, that's what MAKES the character. He's got this hyper-cheerful 'LET'S HAVE FUN, KIDS!' voice, an outfit that looks like a demented jester's, and all the while he's doing stuff that has a genuinely creepy edge to it, once you get past the wackiness. It's the contrast between what he looks and sounds like and what he actually DOES that makes Quackerjack so fascinating - he's basically a maniac obsessed with forcing his erroneous vision of things on the general public, but at the same time, he's just so goofy and off-the-wall that it's difficult not to sympathize with him at times. If he looked and sounded scary, it wouldn't really work as well.

[thandrak]

I think the point here is that the bosses have drained his soul. He knows that none of his toys will get to market until they pass through five million product reviews and focus groups, until all the fun has been sucked from them. There's not even the chance of hope of someone playing with something of his anymore. And if it were to get through, it'd just look like something of his, not be something of his, after all the changes.

Where do you go when your dreams have all been killed?

Clearly, Negaduck is the one running the whole city, right?

[psychopathicus_rex]

I suppose - but really, he's in exactly the same predicament he used to be in, right? I mean, he started out as the HEAD of a toy company (or so he claims, anyway) and got driven out of business by Whiffle Boy, a bigger, flashier competitor (and, one would presume, one that didn't make things like cute toy clowns that sprout eight axe-wielding legs when you press a button - but to him, that would be besides the point). Now he's ALSO being, more or less, driven out of business by a bigger, flashier 'competitor' - Quackwerks. In both cases, his plans are being foiled by the Big Boys showing disapproval - the only difference is that in the first case he started out at the top, and here he's starting out at the bottom. There are still people over him who are censoring what he wants to do - Whiffle Boy may not have been actively censoring Quackerjack Toys, but it was basically going 'hey, look at me! I'm fun, safe and cool! Don't play with the other (i.e, Quackerjack's) toys - play ME!' And Quackerjack is reacting the same way he did the first time - by going crazy and taking revenge. So why is THIS time so much more personal? After all, he lost much more the first time, right, and he still managed to get his toys into stores, if only through illegal guerilla-like actions, and only for brief periods. Here, however, he started at ground zero - he has only upwards to go, and the same tactics to try. His dreams haven't been KILLED, just deferred, and now he has a chance to pursue them again, free of his bosses' oppressive influence. You'd think he'd be ELATED, not turning psycho.

[eggcrack]

This.. disturbs me so much more than I expected it to. D: