Book Review: Darkwing Duck - The Duck Knight Returns by Ian Brill (Darkwing Duck #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Return of a great character

Cons: A few pages hard to follow

The Bottom Line: 

Fun of Darkwing Duck

Moves to comic book pages

Sure to please his fans

I Am the Cartoon Character that Comes to Comic Books.  I Am Darkwing Duck!

Back in the day, I stumbled upon an episode of Darkwing Duck.  This was an animated show from Disney in the early 90's.  Unlike most of their other TV shows from that time, this one wasn't based on any of their other properties, although it was spun off from Ducktails.  It was a spoof of comic books, and I loved every minute of it.  The show lasted a couple of years.

Fast forward almost 20 years, and suddenly I find out that they've revived Darkwing Duck, this time in true comic book form.  Naturally, I had to learn more, and it wasn't long before I was buying the two stories that have been completed so far.  The Duck Knight Returns reintroduces the character.

In Darkwing's world, it's been a year since the city of St. Canard last saw their caped hero Darkwing Duck.  That's because the city has been taken over by Quackwerks.  Not only do they employ everyone in the city, but they also have robots who patrol the city and keep crime down.  Even Drake Mallard (Darkwing's mild mannered alter ego) have gone to work for them.  He even shares a cubical with Megavolt.

But Darkwing's old villains are growing restless.  Soon, the Fearsome Foursome, Megavolt, Liquidator, Bushroot, and Quackerjack, have teamed up to once again take over the city.  Will Darkwing don his disguise to take them on?  And what other secrets lurk in the night?

Fans of the old TV show will be thrilled with this story.  It includes appearances by many of the major characters from the TV show.  There are some surprises along the way, and some changes to the universe are set up here, however they all feel like an outflow of what has come before.  Although I can't judge for sure, I feel like those unfamiliar with the character will be able to follow the story as well.  The humor from the show is intact, and there are some fun action sequences.

Those action sequences do provide my only real complaint with the book.  A couple of times, it's hard to tell exactly what is happening based on the pictures.  One reason why I never got into reading comic books was because I often had a hard time with the pictures, so maybe it's me more than the artist.  I could always get the gist of what must have happened, so I could still move on and not be confused.

For the most part, the art is great, however.  The characters all look like they did on the TV show, which will definitely please fans.  Even though most of the story takes place at night (just like on the show), the pages are still very colorful.

This book is a collection of smaller issues, and at the end we get copies of the original covers, including some rarer releases.  There's also a few pages from the creator of the series talking about just how Darkwing came to be.

I think I'm going to be buying some comic books from here on out.  And if they keep to the level of The Duck Knight Returns, I'll enjoy every one of them.