Darkwing Duck #2

History

The Boom! Studios Darkwing Duck series was announced on March 13, 2010, at Emerald City Comic-Con, originally conceived as a four-issue miniseries. Written by Ian Brill (with Aaron Sparrow serving as Disney editor and, by multiple accounts, contributing meaningfully to the plotting of the first arc) and drawn by James Silvani — whom Sparrow recruited specifically for his lifelong enthusiasm for Carl Barks-era Disney art — the series sold out its first two issues and prompted Boom! to announce a transition to an ongoing series before the arc even concluded. Artist Silvani has publicly noted that for the first issue he worked primarily from screen captures of the cartoon, and that it was only around the time of the second issue that Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones provided original model sheets and Disney opened its archives to the creative team, meaningfully improving on-model accuracy across the arc's remaining chapters. The question of creative credit between Brill and Sparrow remains publicly disputed, with Brill claiming sole authorship of the scripts and Sparrow and Silvani both asserting Sparrow ghost-plotted much of the run's first year; Stones has publicly credited Sparrow with spearheading the character's return.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published July 28, 2010, by Boom! Studios (under the Boom Kids! imprint); cover-titled 'Disney's Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns, Part 2.'
• Written by Ian Brill; interior art by James Silvani; colors by Andrew Dalhouse; letters by Deron Bennett; edited by Aaron Sparrow (with Christopher Burns as assistant editor).
• The issue is Part 2 of the four-part opening arc 'The Duck Knight Returns,' set approximately one year after the end of the animated series, in which St. Canard is under the corporate control of Quackwerks and its robotic Crimebots.
• Issue #2's story features the Fearsome Four (Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot, and Liquidator) pursuing Darkwing, Launchpad, and Gosalyn through the skies of St. Canard before all seven are captured by Crimebots and delivered to Quackwerks HQ, where Taurus Bulba is revealed as the corporation's CEO — a cliffhanger payoff that occurs in the subsequent issue.
• A key character beat in the issue is a flashback that explains why Darkwing retired and why he and Launchpad had a falling out: Negaduck discovered Drake Mallard's secret identity through Launchpad's carelessness, after which the Quackwerks Crimebots arrested Negaduck and Darkwing concluded his family was in danger.
• The first printing of #2 shipped with two covers in a 50/50 split (Cover A and Cover B by Magic Eye Studios) plus a 1-in-10 retailer incentive variant; the issue sold out at Diamond Comics Distributors, triggering a second printing announced August 28, 2010, with a wraparound cover by James Silvani.
• The second printing of issue #2 arrived in comic shops on or around September 15, 2010, as both #1 and #2 went to second printings simultaneously — only the second time the series had reprinted an issue, following the rapid sell-out of #1.
• The 'Duck Knight Returns' arc (issues #1–4) was collected in a trade paperback released December 2010, later reprinted in its original form in Disney Afternoon Giant #5–8 (IDW, 2019), and again in revised form in the Joe Books omnibus Darkwing Duck: The Definitively Dangerous Edition (2015).

Full credits

Key issues in Darkwing Duck

★

#1 1st appearance — Darkwing Duck

Variants (3)