Book Review: Darkwing Duck/DuckTales - Dangerous Currency by Ian Brill

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Great characters and a satisfying conclusion

Cons: Too much to conclude, so things are rushed

The Bottom Line: 

Does conclude Darkwing

But so much crammed into book

Could have been more fun

Darkwing Teams Up with Scrooge McDuck but It Needed More Time

Over the last year, I've enjoyed reconnecting with Darkwing Duck via new adventures in a series of comic books.  These stories have done much to develop his character and tell a coherent story with cliffhangers tying things together.  Just as things were set up for a crossover with DuckTales, Disney decided not to renew the license, so Dangerous Currency not only became that crossover but also had to tie up all the plot threads that we'd been following.  It suffered as a result.

I can not emphasize this enough - don't expect to jump in with this book and understand what is happening.  You need background on at least some of the characters so you'll have an anchor to hold you to the story.  Otherwise, you'll give up in frustration.  I'm glad I was able to sample DuckTales recently so those characters made sense to me as well.

Quackwerks, the leading business in St. Canard, is actually a dummy company as set up by Scrooge McDuck.  So when an evil force takes it over, he heads out to find out what is happening.  He's looking for Launchpad, which naturally takes him to the door of Darkwing Duck.  But when evil ink/slime starts to turn the city evil, can they figure out the cause and stop it?  And will retreating to Duckburg give them a chance to regroup?

The story is fast paced - I'll give the book that.  There isn't a wasted frame.  And it does tie things up and leave us with a conclusion that will make long term fans smile.  And since Darkwing was a spin off from DuckTales, seeing them together is a treat.

However, they are so busy trying to cram stuff in that they have too much story.  At times, this leads to some strange jumps in scenes and panels that threw me for a loop.  Yes, they are explained, but I often felt like I was missing something as I turned a page.

While the book is more story driven than character driven, we do get to see a couple moments of character building.  In fact, in addition to concluding the story arcs, we also see the end of a character arc involving Darkwing himself that leads directly to the climax.  It's a moment that all fans will appreciate.

Unfortunately, the rapid pace leaves little room for the humor I've loved in these books.  I truly missed it.

The art works is great, and you can spot some cameos from other Disney movies and shows in the background at times.

Still, it's a shame to see these books go out with a whimper instead of a bang.  Given a bit more time, we could have gotten a conclusion worthy of what came before.  Dangerous Currency is good, but it's not going to leave fans begging for more.