Darkwing Duck

**Drake Mallard**, also known as **Darkwing Duck**, is the main protagonist from the *Darkwing Duck* franchise.

Drake is the egotistical yet clever hero of St. Canard. He works freelance in some episodes for the spy organization S.H.U.S.H., but otherwise seems to have no other job but as a crime fighter.

In the AWA fics, Drake is listed as a purchased slave from the Slave Fortress. He is later rescued and now attends the AWA Academy as a student.

In the XP4 fics, Drake is part of the Grand Empire and a member of Team B.

## **Appearance**

Darkwing is a short mallard duck with white feathers, a large forehead, and orange beak and feet. When in civilian attire, he wears a salmon-collared shirt and a green sweater over it.

Darkwing's costume consists of a gray fedora with an oversized brim and black band, a mask, a cape, and a long-sleeved coat over a turtleneck. The vast majority of his outfit is in shades of purple, with the exception of the turtleneck which is a teal color.

## **Personality**

Darkwing often demonstrates a lack of common sense that is hampered by his tremendous ego. However, unlike Inspector Gadget and similar cartoon crimefighting archetypes, Darkwing is actually extraordinarily competent as a superhero - once he puts aside distractions and ego and focuses completely on the case. This moment of transition was marked by Darkwing's catchphrase "Let's get dangerous".

When it comes to romance, Darkwing has a type. While not hesitant to comment on women that catch his eye, his biggest reactions have been for Morgana Macawber, Trudi, Femme Appeal, and Sharee Rock, all tall and conventionally beautiful women with an air of mystery or danger to them.

## **Abilities**

As a non-powered superhero, Darkwing utilizes a variety of gadgets in his fight against crime. His most used weapon is his gas gun which not only fires gas but a variety of weapons. It is also designed to function as a grappling hook. For transportation, he will either use the Thunderquack, a duck- head shaped plane built and piloted by Launchpad, or the Ratcatcher, his motorcycle.

While having no superpowers, Darkwing is still a toon, and seems virtually indestructible: he often gets defeated in a painful way, gets crushed, flattened, even blown away by explosions, but always rises back. He is not unstoppable, however, as he sometimes needs to wear bandages after being seriously injured. Darkwing suffers several injuries in a slapstick manner throughout the episodes.

Darkwing is an expert in martial arts, despite a large degree of clumsiness. It is mentioned that he was trained in Quack Fu by Goose Lee. From his great-great-aunt, who was a sideshow contortionist, he also learned a number of skills that would prove useful during his encounters with villains ("Calm a Chameleon").

In "Going Nowhere Fast", due to the effects of Negaduck's Particle Accelerator, Darkwing Duck temporarily gained the power of super speed, which caused him to age rapidly the more he used it, which could be reversed by running in reverse.

## **Trivia**

* Darkwing takes cues from various fictional crimefighters before him, but by far his biggest influence is the Shadow, a 1930 vigilante. His costume is an adaption of the Shadow's, his intro speech is inspired by his, both have a background of having learned crucial tricks while traveling through Asia, and the Shadow's civilian name of "Kent Allard" has inspired Darkwing's "Drake Mallard".
* The name Darkwing Duck was picked during a studio contest offering $500 as reward to whoever could think up a name Tad Stones liked. Alan Burnett won when he came up with the name "Darkwing", which positively reminded Stones of Nightwing and to which he added "Duck" to balance drama and humor.
* Darkwing was proposed as one of the protagonists of the unproduced *Justice Ducks* series.
* Drake Mallard shares a last name with Katie Mallard, an old friend of Scrooge McDuck from the 1964 comic "Mystery of the Ghost Town Railroad". He also does so with the Captain Mallard from the *DuckTales*episode "Merit-Time Adventure". Whether or not he is related to either is unknown.
* Darkwing Duck is briefly shown in the Ducktales reboot, chasing Megavolt, Quakerjack and Liquidator. It was hinted by Frank Angones, co-producer, writer, and story editor for the reboot of ***DuckTales***, confirmed there's far more to Darkwing's appearance than fans suspect. This lends credence that his appearance is more than just an Easter Egg.