Darkwing Duck #1

History

Dynamite had already published a prior Darkwing Duck series beginning in January 2023 — written by Amanda Deibert with art by Carlos Lauro — but approximately a year after that series concluded, the publisher announced a full creative restart with a new team. Disney's decision not to permit the Boom! Studios/Joe Books creative team of Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani to continue on the property meant that each Dynamite run has necessarily started fresh rather than picking up existing continuity. For this second Dynamite series, writer Daniel Kibblesmith — a self-described childhood fan of the Disney Afternoon block who had previously written Loki and other Marvel titles — was paired with artists Ted Brandt and Ro Stein, colorist Dearbhla Kelly, and letterer Fabio Amelia. Original Darkwing Duck animated series creator Tad Stones, who designed and developed the character in the early 1990s, contributed variant cover art and provided creative insights to the team, marking a notable collaboration between the show's originator and its new comic stewards.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published by Dynamite Entertainment; written by Daniel Kibblesmith, interior art by Ted Brandt and Ro Stein, colors by Dearbhla Kelly, letters by Fabio Amelia.
• Released in February 2025 (Dynamite's second distinct Darkwing Duck series; the fourth Darkwing Duck comic series in the character's publishing history, following Disney Comics 1991, Boom! Studios 2010, and Dynamite/Deibert 2023).
• The series uses a 'Year One'-style autobiographical framing: Drake Mallard narrates his own possibly embellished early adventures to his adopted daughter Gosalyn, deliberately playing on the show's tradition of contradictory, unreliable origin stories.
• Issue #1's primary villain is Megavolt, who attempts to steal a Max-Capacity Super Battery from St. Canard Energy Research; the closing pages preview Bushroot (Dr. Reginald Bushroot) as the antagonist for issue #2.
• Darkwing Duck animated series creator Tad Stones — who conceived the character in the early 1990s — provided variant cover art for the series debut and shared character notes with the creative team.
• Additional cover artists for issue #1 include Mark Bagley, Nicoletta Baldari, and Ciro Cangialosi, alongside a cover by the interior team of Brandt and Stein.
• The series is designed as episodic single-issue stories, each intended to feel like a new or 'lost' episode of the 1991 animated series, with every third issue dedicated to a chapter of 'The Secret History of Darkwing Duck.'
• The 2025 series does not continue the continuity of the 2023 Dynamite/Deibert run or the earlier Boom!/Joe Books run; fan wikis note it contradicts the animated series in several respects and is not treated as canonical to the cartoon.

Cast · 7 characters

Full credits

Variants (28)