What I Bought 3/22/2023 - Part 1

One of my coworkers is leaving next week. To focus on being a parent, which, OK, kids need parents. Just means more work for the rest of us until we hire a replacement and train them up. I already got enough work as it is. Where's that recession to stifle this economic growth?

Darkwing Duck #3, by Amanda Deibert (writer), Carlo Lauro (artist/colorist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) - Darkwing took to riding outside the Thunderquack, because it was easier to bail out when Launchpad started to crash.

Drake takes Gosalyn to visit Morgana, and gets a cool reception from her family. He also finds out Launchpad's acting as sidekick to Morgana's dad. But Morgana's game to try the suburban life, which allows the opportunity for puns like her making "ghoul-ash" for breakfast and accidentally turning Honker into pudding when trying to make a dessert for Gosalyn's lunch.

His attempt to be a volunteer at the elementary school community garden gets him suspended, because his inventions are untested and dangerous. Well, how do you expect to learn if they're dangerous without testing? This is the problem with schools now, everything has to be by the book. Drake and Morgana leave, just as Bushroot causes the garden to attack the school, and that's where the issue ends.

Lauro's still doing that thing where Drake's eyes are colored red instead of black with no pattern I can clearly discern. He's drawing Drake as looking very sad for not being a superhero any more. Lots of slumped shoulders and glum expressions. If you figure he doesn't really want to give it up for being a responsible parent, I suppose it makes sense. But I figured he'd look a little more happy than he does.

I did actually chuckle at one panel. When the school gardener goes missing, but his uniform is left behind, the mayor remarks, 'Poor Earl! He must be so cold!' And Jeff Eckleberry seems to be having fun with the goofy sounds effects. So that's something. Not enough, but it's something

Tiger Division #5, by Emily Kim (writer), Creees Lee (artist), Craig Yeung (inker), Yen Nitro (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - Welcome to Doom's Palace, where the odds are 100% the DOOM always wins! Unless you cheat like the Accursed Richards.

To Min-Jae's complete surprise - but not to anyone with a functional brain - Doom intends to take the power of the Psylot Gem for himself. Min-Jae goes ahead and throws in with Doom anyway, until Tae apologizes for turning away from his past and his friend. That would ignore the fact Min-Jae became a bigger and more ruthless criminal by the time Tae got back home to his aunt. There was a whole flashback about Tae's aunt pointing out his old crew was threatening the local shopkeepers with violence if they didn't pay up. Was Tae just supposed to show up and go back to committing crimes with his old friend/brother?

I guess we're meant to be believe that in some timeline where Tae both decides to stop being a crook and goes back to his friends, he convinces them to clean up their acts as well. Because Min-Jae is touched by this heartwarming speech and switches sides again. Doom jobs out to him, because he apparently didn't even design a backdoor into Min-Jae's shitty robots to control them. Nobody half-asses as completely as DOOM! Tae gets his powers back, gets chewed out by Lady Bright for keeping secrets, tells everyone about his past. Min-Jae slinks off into the shadows somewhere.

This rather obviously didn't work for me at all. I at least conclusively know I don't find Taegukgi an interesting enough character for him to headline a five-issue mini-series. Especially when he's part of an entire team of characters that all seem more interesting. Kim could have spent issues on a different character, or on how Taegukgi assembled this team. Something. Anything!

What I Bought 2/26/2023 - Part 1

So, we made it back alive. The gig went very well - capacity crowd and they were into it - but everything else was kind of a wash. We stopped in another town on the way, intending to sightsee, then Alex slept for 6 hours as soon as we checked into the hotel. Then we didn't really get around to any sightseeing when we reached Cincy, although we drove around enough to conclude it has the most horribly laid out streets we've ever seen.

I also thought I briefly broke my computer trying to connect to the hotel wi-fi, but it seems OK, so let's get to the remaining comics from February. First up, a couple of books I wasn't sure about going in and, frankly, remain unsure of.

Liquid Kill #1, by Max Hoven and Aaron Crow (writer), Gabriel Iumazark (artist/letterer) - Down in front, I'm trying to read the mass-spectrum advertising!

The lead character appears to be a woman named Kai, who is looking for the man who raised her after killing the drug lord/human trafficker that kept her locked in a cage. The circumstances of their meeting are detailed in a flashback that covers half the issue. The colors are extremely grey and dusty, except the blood, which is a sort of faded pink that spurts and jets like geysers.

The characters and their surroundings are a mixture of rundown and high tech. Almost like a sci-fi movie thatThe trafficker's office may look like poorly lit and furnished, but some of his men have eyewear that look like Cyclops' visors, or eyes that are drawn as bright empty voids. Although on the latter, I don't know if that's meant to signify the character is blind, that they have some sort of implant, or it's just a trick of the light.

Quite why Kai is questioning men working for the United States Geological Survey, I don't know, but they are somehow aware of what she's talking about, but don't give her much information before dying, other than the kidnappers are not men. Indeed, there's a mysterious masked woman in some sort of undersea cave/grotto eagerly awaiting Kai and her team's arrival.

One thing I find odd is a lot of panels with dialogue, we either can't see the speaker's face, or it's at a distance or angle that makes it indistinct. So it's rare to be able to match the expression with the words, and, combined with the video-game text box approach to the speech balloons, it makes the dialogue come off flat. When one of the characters says, "How fortunate! 'Cause you're going to guide us face first into the inferno!", I don't know if it's meant to being angry, defiant, arrogant. It mostly comes off as silly, tough guy posturing. It isn't as though Iumazark can't draw facial expressions, so I don't know if it's a scripting choice, an artist choice, a fluke.

Darkwing Duck #2, by Amanda Deibert (writer), Carlo Lauro (artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) - Is that the equivalent of being buried alive under a bunch of Barbie dolls?

Darkwing, Gosalyn and Launchpad visit a toy store. Quackerjack shows up, somehow able to multiply his toys. Not sure how, but more and more rubber ducks kept popping up. Gosalyn almost gets hurt trying to help, so after Darkwing wins - actually capturing the villain this time - he decides to retire. Maybe get a real job. But if he's not superheroing, then he doesn't need a sidekick, so Launchpad leaves.

Something I didn't mention in my review of the first issue was Lauro was frequently drawing characters so they were looking at us as they made some sort of comment. Which is on point for cartoons of the era, but was kind of distracting. It doesn't happen as often in this issue - maybe one or two panels - so that's good.

I can't quite figure his periodic tendency to give Darkwing red pupils, though. It isn't strictly in scenes when Darkwing is angry. It happens in consecutive panels when Quackerjack (who gets red pupils in almost every panel) makes his appearance, then is gone in the next panel when Gosalyn's been grabbed by some angry Winnie-the-Pooh knockoff. It's an especially weird choice to use in the panel where Darkwing's freaking out because he thinks Gosalyn's hurt. Why red pupils for fear?

This issue was an improvement over the first. The plot was straightforward but the tight focus allowed for attempts at gags or jokes. I didn't really laugh at anything, but I appreciate the effort. The closest was probably when Gosalyn asks why he keeps Launchpad around if he doesn't want help, and Darkwing looking over at a tied-up Launchpad and saying he asks himself that. Lauro's got the look of the characters down, although there are times it feels like he's trying too hard to match or use a particular posture or expression, to the point it makes the character look unnaturally posed in the panel.

What I Bought 1/25/2023

I wasn't sure if the store in town would have both the books I wanted last week, but I lucked out. Even had the cover I preferred for one of them. I don't think that was the high point of last week - I got in a good run on Sunday with no major issues, and the feared Snowmaggedon turned out to be another dud - but it was at least in the running. Things are kind of at a low flow right now. Nothing terrible, but not much groovy either.

Sgt. Rock vs. the Army of the Dead #5, by Bruce Campbell (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist), Kristian Rossi (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer) - That is quite the neck he's rocking there. Probably bust his tie if he swallows.

Having discovered Hitler's bunker at the end of last issue, Rock and Easy Company. . . withdrew to their Command Center? I guess you want to plan and outfit a mission like this appropriately, but this is the third time they've had a sit-down to make plans. Where's the urgency, especially considering they blew up the factory that was producing the re-gens? Doesn't this offer more time for the Nazis to dig in and prepare?

It does at least match Allied doctrinaire for the war, at least. Slow to move unless there's a shitload of airpower or artillery backing them up.

Anyway, Easy parachutes back in, and Campbell starts giving Rock internal monologue for the first time. Odd shift this late in proceedings, but it feels more like the character I'm accustomed to. The bunker gets bombed, but there are still plenty of re-gens, so Easy has to fight in. The sniper takes out Hitler's doctor while Rock, Jackie and Bulldozer confront a amped up Hitler and Eva Braun (who Jackie gives a shotgun blast to the gut.) Rock's fighting Hitler, and tells the rest of the guys to call in another bombing run and then get out.

I don't really follow that decision. Hitler's demonstrating he's pretty tough, but he's not bulletproof, and the few re-gens acting as bodyguards were in the process of being killed. Why do it this way? Rock's got at least one grenade, cram it it down Hitler's mouth and call it a day. Just kinda odd plot arc there.

Risso gets the chance to draw some more gore and severed limbs with the fighting here. There's also one panel where Eva pounces on Jackie and her outline is entirely filled in with black, except for her underwear, which are white. Not sure about the point of that, either. But there's also a panel of a green outline of a doorway, with the re-gens dark outlines in it, and the black space on either side of the door is filled with their laughter, colored red. That was a nice panel.

Darkwing Duck #1, by Amanda Deibert (writer), Carlo Lauro (artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) - I went with the Mirka Andolfo cover. The blur effect of the cape on the right side of the cover seems unnecessary, but it's a nice image anyway.

So nostalgia won out for at least one month. St. Canard's dedicating a statue to Darkwing, but as everyone goes to take a picture of the unveiling with their cell phones, Megavolt somehow takes control of them and sets them after Darkwing. He escapes, pursues Megavolt, the jet crashes, Gosalyn tries to lure in Megavolt by using a lot of electricity pretending to be a band singing about Darkwing. Darkwing gets electrocuted saving her, but this overloads the city's power system and frees everyone from Megavolt's control.

It sort of recaptures the feel of the cartoon. It's a done-in-one, Darkwing's got a big ego that is punctured by certain circumstances (the first person to talk about how Darkwing helped the city is Herb Muddlefoot, who spends 2 hours on Darkwing helping him find a tupperware shipment he left under his bed). Gosalyn tries to help, there are some bad puns. Lauro's art is a little inconsistent but mostly on model, although he seems to struggle keeping eyes lined up. There's a couple where Launchpad in particular appears to be looking two different directions simultaneously. He's very good at giving the characters - especially Darkwing - expressive body language. He doesn't do the huge eyes or limbs stretching to comical degree approach, but they do visibly react to things in decently wide range.

No one actually captures Megavolt, though. He tries to electrocute the kids, Darkwing rushes to help them, gets fried, everyone is free of the mind control and Megavolt. . .just isn't there? No one even comments on if he got away or someone caught him. The issue ends with Darkwing reaserting to Gosalyn she can't have a cellphone, the mayor thanking Darkwing for saving the city again and him restating to the people preparing to take photos that every side is his good side. That ending isn't that out of place, bringing things back around to his ego and the dedication ceremony, but the villain of the week seems to have slipped through the cracks.

Sunday Splash Page #130

"People Who Want to Beat You," in Darkwing Duck (vol. 2) #1, by Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani (storytellers), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist), Andworld Design (letterers)

Five years after the previous volume ended, Darkwing got another series, this time written by the character's creator, Aaron Sparrow, with James Silvani still handling the artist duties.

The previous volume ended, in Brill's version, with Darkwing rescuing his girlfriend Morgana from some other dimension she wound up in while banishing Duckthulu, but also bringing Negaduck back in the process. Well, Negaduck's here, but Morgana's MIA, so I guess that was at least one of the differences in opinion Brill and Sparrow had.

This one starts off with the classic "face a gantlet of all your foes" story when Darkwing ends up trapped in the new high-security prison. Which is all part of some larger plan Negaduck has. A larger plan we never learned anything more about. After the first four issues, there was a one-off about fighting an immensely powerful gnat, what was basically a remastered version of a story from the old Disney Adventures magazine, and a two-parter about zombie vegetables. Then the series ended, and that was that. So it goes.

Sunday Splash Page #129

"How Do You Pick Which Building Gets Which?," in Darkwing Duck (vol. 1) #9, by Ian Brill (writer), James Silvani (artist), Lisa Moore (colorist), Deron Bennett (letterer)

This was originally solicited as a mini-series, but apparently had enough positive response it became an ongoing by the time the second issue actually shipped. Which made it the first ongoing series from outside Marvel or DC I bought regularly (meaning not for just one arc, ala Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I don't retain affection for everything I enjoyed in my childhood, but Darkwing Duck? Yeah, apparently.

Ian Brill and James Silvani took the "time jump" approach, in that the series starts with things at an unfamiliar place, and advances from there, revealing what happened as things progress. In this case, that Darkwing's retired from crimefighting and taken a soul-crushing cubicle job for the monopolistic company that's taken over the city. His sidekick is gone, his arch-foes are either missing or also working for the same company as him. It gives the reader a few different mysteries to wonder about, and lets the creative team do the "hero comes out of retirement" story.

(More than a couple of the covers are Dark Knight Returns homages/parodies).

After that, there's a general return to the status quo, but it gets shaken up by bringing a lot of mystical elements into play. Which isn't something entirely foreign to Darkwing stories - his girlfriend was a witch or sorceress, I'm not sure which is the more accurate term - but it's not his typical setting. Darkwing getting tangled up in FOWL's attempts to raise "Duckthulu" didn't work for me as much as Negaduck and Scrooge's old enemy Magica having themselves a temporary team-up, but Lovecraftian horrors are maybe a little too metaphysical for me? I prefer a horror you can punch back at.

Silvani is able to capture the characters and the look of St. Canard perfectly, as well as keeping up with the action sequences and adding all sorts of little Easter eggs. They create a couple of new villains, including One-Off, a former pitcher who can throw any object with unerring accuracy, but he has to throw something different every time. Lots of opportunity for fun there. The second story involves a bunch of mind-controlled Darkwings from different universes running amok, and Silvani nails the various references, from Doctor Who Darkwing, to Optimus Darkwing.

(Although the best Darkwing is Bowling Ball Darkwing, obviously. )

The last few issues are a crossover with a Ducktales series that had just started, but I think there were some disagreements between Brill and Darkwing's creators, maybe. I know when they released  the big collected edition of the whole series, Brill stated some of it had been changed from what he wrote originally. All my copies are in single issues, so I had to infer some of the changes from the next Darkwing series, which didn't show up until 2016.

Random Back Issues #36 - Darkwing Duck #2

In his defense, there haven't been that many found footage superhero movies. Chronicle I guess, but yeah. And now they're four years further out of date as a reference than they were when this comic was published!

Negaduck's pulled the old bit where he gets all the villains out their cells and takes over the prison, with their archfoe locked inside with a bunch of people who want to kill him. Meaning Darkwing spends the issue working his way through one enemy after another.

Liquidator falls by getting a bunch of dish soap mixed in with himself. Darkwing goes from the laundry room to the garbage chute and runs into Muckduck, who I don't recall at all. He doesn't actually stop the giant, sentient pile of trash, but does use him to defeat at least one other enemy, the evil cleaning lady Ammonia Pine.

Three of the Beagle Boys get captured off-panel, and we learn you get 5 to 10 years in the pen in St. Canard for stealing candy from children. Darkwing beats the shapeshifter Camille Chameleon with a bunch of medicated heating pads (and an impressive amount of alliteration), but gets captured by a bunch of mind-controlled prison guards.

While Darkwing's busy fighting mostly small-time, one-off villains, Negaduck's trying to get Megavolt access to the power lines as part of his plan, but gets distracted by two kids. One is Mortimer, a cat who had a brief stint as a villain in a giant powered armor suit in the previous Darkwing Duck series, and claims he wants to learn to be bad. The other is Gosalyn, who is sneaking around, taking out any villains she can quietly. Not quietly enough to avoid being caught on camera, and Negaduck might miss his universe's version of his daughter, so why not take the one readily available?

I'm pretty sure Negaduck does end up successfully escaping by the end of this story, but we never see his larger plan, because the book got canceled at 8 issues.

{3rd longbox, 220th comic. Darkwing Duck (vol. 2) #2, by Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani (storytellers), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist), Andworld Design (lettering)}

What I Bought 3/15/2017

Four comics I wanted this week, and I've only managed to get one of them so far. On the upside, an issue of Darkwing Duck came out at some point recently, so I have that to add to the mix.

Ms. Marvel #16, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Takeshi Myazawa (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - And this is what happen when you use cheat codes so you can deflect annoying axes rather than dodge them like you're supposed to: The game gives the boss a tank to hunt you down with.

The virus, created by some imbecile game designer with delusions of grandeur (who will probably end up recruited by HYDRA Cap), wants Kamala to upload it into SHIELD's systems. Or it'll reveal her secret identity, and Zoe's crush on Nakia, which Kamala was blissfully unaware of. Kamala almost goes along with it, but ultimately refuses, warns Zoe, and calls Bruno for help. And she has a plan to win, which I assume will be exposing the virus to more positive influences so it's less of a dick.

It's a "set-up" issue, getting the pieces in place for the conclusion. It does bring the subplot about Zoe's crush on Nakia to a head, although we'll see what happens with it going forward. They're going to still be friends, but nothing romantic, that's fine, but I am curious if we'll see the awkwardness Kamala was so afraid of. Also if this is going to be the push for her to finally tell Nakia her secret identity, so it's on her terms. That feels like what this is building towards, though what's wrong with having a secret? Not everything has to be shared.

This issue did give Miyazawa a chance to draw expressions and postures he doesn't normally. Kamala's nervous, hair-grabbing stance as she frets about the awkwardness isn't something I've seen get used in the book. Or some of Zoe's more shocked and panicked reactions. Not responses characters have often in this book. Anger, yes, smiles, yes, sad, sure. But this kind of comically nervous or worried, not so much. But it was fun, nice to see.

Darkwing Duck #8, by Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani (storytellers), Paul Little (colors), DC Hopkins (letters) - I'm not sure any of those are proper implements for dealing with vines.

The villain responsible for the zombie potatoes is the dean who drove Bushroot into becoming a plant/duck hybrid. He stole Bushroot's work, got some funding from various nefarious sources (including an old rival of Scrooge's), and found the secret to giant vegetables (that lack nutrition) by unearthing Bushroot's old vampire potato bride. Who is calling all the zombie spuds to her aid. Fortunately for our heroes, Gizmoduck shows up to help. I guess that's fortunate, depending on how you feel about him. It's ultimately Bushroot who defeats his would be potato bride.

The parts I was most interested in were all the future plots they set up. Quackerjack has something planned for the toy expo. Negaduck's got something planned for new resident of St. Canard prison, Splatter Phoenix. Steelbeak made off with the research on giant vegetables. Someone helped themselves to Quackwerks' Herobots. Morgana is still MIA. I don't know when Volume 2 will come out and possibly resolve any of those threads, though.

Darkwing admitting he's sustained a lot of cranial trauma as part of this job made me laugh, though. It was funny in context. Also, Gizmoduck using the power of shadow puppets to try and call Darkwing, and just winding up with determined haberdashers. But, Dean Tightbill as the villain is lacking. The idea of someone taking Bushroot's ideas and focusing solely on profit makes perfect sense, but it feels flat. Partly because he's obviously a patsy villain, being used by Steelbeak and others, and because so much of the story is still about Bushroot. Tightbill helped create Bushroot, taking a guy who wanted to make the world a better place for people, and making him love plants and hate people instead, but that doesn't necessarily make him an interesting character in of himself.

Also, Darkwing's distaste for and jealousy of Gizmoduck gets tiring, so I'm not particularly thrilled to see him. Which adds up to a two-part story that isn't the sum of its parts on the writing side. The art side of things is still solid. Silvani can sell the physical humor, and he can do the expression work to sell the dialogue jokes. The Quackerjack page is colored almost entirely in grey, except for the television screens. It gives a nice ominous feel considering the character in question is usually so brightly attired and gaudy. Creates that sense of him lurking, readying himself. And it's an odd contrast, wedged in between a page of a vampire potato using Darkwing to bludgeon Launchpad into the ground, and one of Gizmoduck fending off said vampire potato with buzzsaws. A different kinds of threat.

What I Bought 1/31/2017 - Part 2

It's not a new complaint, but I hate it when channels interrupt cool action scenes with commercial breaks. John Wick was on USA last week, and they went to commercial right in the middle of the cool night club shootout. Yeah, I have it on DVD, I can watch it whenever, but it's still nice when I come across something I like to watch on TV by good timing.

Darkwing Duck #7, by Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani (storytellers), Andrew Dalhouse, Paul Little, and Matt Herms (colorists), Brandon DeStefano (letterer) - I don't know what's up with Darkwing or Gosalyn's eyes. Darkwing rarely does the "no pupil" look a lot of other masked adventures do, and Gosalyn looks like she's possessed by Duckthulu.

Zombie potatoes attack St. Canard on Halloween, leading to an extended series of Walking Dead, riffs, I think. I'm positive Herb Muddlefoot carving a bunch of the spuds up with a spatula wrapped in barbed wire while wearing a leather jacket was a reference to that Negan guy I see people talking about. Gosalyn wearing Darkwing's hat and having her hair over one eye makes her Carl, correct? Anyway, DW suspects Bushroot, who has escaped from prison, but was drawn here by the call of his one-time would-be vampire potato bride, Posey, who is being used in dastardly experiments by some character I can't place. Oh, and Gizmoduck's in town. Not looking forward to Darkwing getting snippy because he feels inferior to Gizmoduck.

Teaming the heroes up with Bushroot works better than I would have expected, since his reaction to all Darkwing's usual stuff is so different from Gosalyn or Launchpad's. And Bushroot's point that, 'You have a sidekick who's carrying around my disembodied head for. . .well I don't even know why. . . and you want to talk about normal?' cracked me up. On a different note, the scene where Gosalyn and Launchpad discuss how each of them thought they were going to be the one to take over as Darkwing some day was kind of cute.

Silvani really likes drawing Darkwing wielding two gas guns. It's been coming up a lot in this series so far, and I'm not sure why. I guess the response would be, why not, and I don't have a good answer. Also, I know black is supposed to be slimming, but somehow wearing that black jacket made Herb Muddlefoot's head shrink. It looks far too small for his admittedly large frame. But Gosalyn's Halloween costume is appropriately grotesque, so good work there. Silvani mostly works within a six-panel grid, but modifies as necessary. Mostly by going to a five panel setup, with one panel that covers a third of the page when he needs more room for impact. Either to give us a better look at something shocking, or to layout the setting of the next scene for us. On the opposite end, he opts for going to three panels across the page for a specific sequence. The Ratcatcher going amphibious. Gizmoduck taking care of a bunch of zombie spuds. Setting something up, basically.

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #14, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Not a very good plan by Felicia, to control all these non-powered folks, and leave Patsy the Wolverine-trained vampire and the telekinetic.

Zoe tries to help Patsy and Ian get close to Felicia, who has swelled the ranks of her organization considerably by now. It doesn't seem to work, but it's really all a ruse to give Jubilee the chance to get the drop on Felicia. Which works for getting the magic claws away, but then Jubes loses her after Felicia headbutts her? Really, vampire strength and that works on you? But all the friends are saved, and Patsy has magic sneezes now.

The main current running through is Zoe possibly realizing how lousy she was to Ian, and that whatever fond memories she has of their relationship are not shared by him. Which is nice, and it was pleasant to see Ian stand up to her and lay it all out so she couldn't ignore it or bulldoze over what he was saying. The panel where we see Ian as he was, in a blank space with shadows stretching away in different directions was an effective attention-getter. Up to then, all these relatively sedate panels of two people in a living room, having an argument, and then here's a panel of someone feeling terribly lonely and divided.

I'm not sure if it was Williams or Rosenberg, but the art team seemed to be having some trouble with Felicia. Maybe it's just her costume. Drab grey is not really a visually arresting costume choice, and there were times it just didn't look great. But the art looked a little rushed in places. Not everywhere, but there were some places Williams was skimping on details, or shading. I did lie how tall she drew Felicia. Maybe it's just the perspective, where characters are being pushed down to loo up at her, but she seemed much bigger than the other women in the issue. Especially Jubilee. I had never pictured the Black Cat as being particularly tall (about the same as Spidey, and I think Peter is 5 foot 10 or 11), but then Jubilee is 5-5, something like that, so comparatively, Felicia would be big. And it lets her loom over people, which is a prerequisite if she's going to play a crime boss.

Overall, the weakest story so far for the book, but I'm hopeful things will pick up with Patsy's magical sniffles.

What I Bought 11/18/2016

My plan to pick up this week's books partially foundered on the rocks of not being able to find 3 out of 4 I was looking for. Minor consolation that I didn't even realize the latest Darkwing Duck was out, but I found a copy. That's two books.

Deadpool #22, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Matteo Lolli (artist), Guru-eFX (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I know some people are a fan of Tradd Moore's work, but it's just a little off in ways that bother me. Like Deadpool's thighs are strangely proportioned compared to everything else.

I skipped the previous issue because it was another of those $10 ones, and most of that was "Deadpool doing Shakespeare", so I missed the first part of Wade vs. Madcap. Wade lost, and wakes up partway through his own autopsy. Makes his way back to his HQ, finds he's got bills to pay, goes and robs a racetrack while wearing a Spider-Man costume. But things are looking up, Ellie manages to invite him to dinner. Then things look down, because it turns out Madcap is using Wade as a carrier for some hemorrhagic disease and Wade's just infected his daughter and Preston's family.

So Wade got booted off the Avengers, but the "unity squad" is sticking together to stop the Red Skull? So just Wade, or Johnny and Rogue and the rest got the boot? And on whose authority? Hydra Steve Rogers? I hate that's a thing. Can not wait for it to be erased, along with a lot of things in the current Marvel Universe.

Lolli's artwork is solid, if not spectacular. I can't decide if I wish he had gone a little more gruesome with the autopsy scene. It feels like that should be horrifying, waking up to people dissecting you, but then again, for Wade it's probably not that unusual. Still, I feel like it would have provided a better contrast to his blase response if things were a little more visceral. On the positive side, I got to see Deadpool (dressed as Spidey in a suit with the tag still on it) smack a horse with a sack full of money. That was funny. Not quite "Punisher punches a polar bear," but not bad.

Darkwing Duck #6, Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani (storytellers), Paul Little (colorists), Greyson Orlando (digital art on page 14), DC Hopkins (letterer) - I think it's because they did a black and white variant, but there's a white outline around Drake and Gosalyn, which makes them seem like they aren't part of the whole mess. Or like a sticker book. "What is Drake trying to keep from corrupting his daughter? A bazaar? The awful work conditions in Santa's workshop?"

The crew attend a comic-convention, in a bizarre universe where people revere comic creators as gods and they correspondingly make tons o' cash. Drake is horrified by all the people dressed as villains, and almost grateful when one of the artists (which I assume is Silvani in duck form) does a sketch with ink that turns out to be the angry artist, Splatter Phoenix. Which leads to Darkwing chasing her through a series of different comic books, giving Silvani a chance to draw in other styles (as well as scenes parodying various stuff). The fact that several of them last for one panel kind of mutes it, makes it feel like they did it out of some sense of obligation. "Better do a Batman v. Superman gag, I guess." I'd have preferred more of Silvani doing a sort of Frank Miller than the sort of Rob Liefeld.

That part was OK, you've undoubtedly seen other comics doing that same bit, so not much new there.  But the recurring gag about Darkwing being angry Launchpad cosplayed as Gizmoduck (and his distaste for Gizmoduck in general) worked for me, and forcing Darkwing to pair up with Honker (because Goslayn and Launchpad are busy trying to win the costume contest) was a nice change of pace. Honker is around a lot, but he's usually interacting with Gosalyn, who gets Darkwing to pay attention to whatever he's trying to say. And Darkwing is used to having a kid tagging along he has to hold back from getting involved, not one who can barely keep up and is trying to stay out of the fray.

All that said, the scene where we get to see who Gosalyn dressed up as was sweet. Sparrow and Silvani seem to be really emphasizing how important Gosalyn and Darkwing are to each other, as people who don't seem to have any family other than what they've cobbled together. Which makes me suspect there's something bad waiting for Gosalyn in the near future. And it's not a possible grounding for hiding one of Bushroot's plant raptors.

Some issues of Darkwing Duck are stronger than others, but every issue has at least a few genuinely funny or touching bits, and I appreciate they're mixing in some done-in-one issues with the larger arcs.

All that said,

What I Bought 10/12/2016 - Part 3

I kind of hate holidays which dominate all the channels that show movies. Halloween and Christmas are the two biggest offenders. Judging by some of the tumblr sites I see this may qualify as heresy, but I don't want to see nothing but scary movies all October.

Ms. Marvel #11, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa (artists), Ian Herring (colorist), Joe Caramanga (letterer) - So we've progressed from defacing posters to smashing, um, emblems. Durn disrespectful teen heroes.

So Hijinx makes a fake threat to blow up a salvage yard to draw out Becky, who Kamala fights until Danvers shows up. At which point Kamala tries to make her case for predictive justice being stupid bullshit, except a) she mentions Rhodey, and b) she invites Tony Stark. Because when you're trying to have a reasonable conversation, bringing condescending cocky asshole Tony Stark along is a perfect idea. So everyone goes away angry, but Bruno is awake, so surely there will be good news. No, Bruno is thoroughly pissed and planning to go to Wakanda, which is where the only engineering college left open to him is. So everything is awful.

Not that I'm sorry to see Becky in jail, but I question arresting her for impersonating an officer. She was part of an officially sanctioned team, and Danvers had no problem with her imprisoning people up until the moment after she fired her, sorry court-martialed her. Which seems like it should be under an entirely different jurisdiction from the police.

Danvers is mad at Kamala, Bruno is mad at her. I can't wait to see who reads her the riot act next, he said sarcastically. I feel I should have more to say, and once we see the remainder of the fallout I will hopefully have some sort of reaction, but I can't avoid feeling tired of this tie-in. Because Civil War II is stupid as hell. Wasn't rooting for a big event to come along and trash all the things I liked about this book. I do enjoy the Canadian ninjas, and their attack method of throwing random crap at people. No wonder the Maple Leafs can't win a Stanley Cup. Something I didn't notice until now: When Kamala rushes to the hospital at the end of the issue, she's wearing one rubber boot, and one red sneaker. I feel I should make some joke about that one Tom Hanks movie, but I don't know the movie well enough. Something something, Jim Belushi going crazy over vanishing corpses.

Darkwing Duck #5, by Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani (storytellers), Paul Little (colorist), DC Hopkins (letterer) - I'm not going to question the cat holding an anvil on the basis of physical strength, but I do question it's ability to grip without thumbs.

Out of the case files, Darkwing tries to track down a missing cat from an experiment, the theft of which may be connected to many other mysterious thefts. As it turns out, the experiment made the cat, Fluffy, super-smart, and it's co-opted dozens of other cats into an army of thieves for it. Which Darkwing defeats by virtue of a passing street sweeper. Fluffy is the Hannibal Lecter-like criminal that was able to escape the prison with Mortimer's help in the first story arc, and the two are currently building themselves some sort of suit.

Reading this, I kept having a feeling of deja vu. Especially when Darkwing's attempt to disguise himself as a street vendor ended with some bulldog knocking his block off while calling him a, 'vicious and contemptible beast.' And again when he bursts into a hotel room to apprehend what he thinks are the foes behind the thefts, and finds a bunch of his arch-enemies all chipped in on pay-per-view for a beauty pageant. And then in the backmatter, it was explained this story originally appeared in the second issue of Disney Adventures magazine (though not presented as a flashback) in 1992. A magazine I happened to have (I think I got Disney Adventures for at least three or four years).

Can't quite tell if I feel ripped off or not. Isn't like the story was etched firmly into my memory prior to this. And Silvani had some fun with it, judging by the ridiculous face he gave Launchpad while he whispers, 'so cuuuute'. Or the glower DW gives him when he thinks Launchpad is messing with him. And there were a couple of gags in there that, if they weren't new, I'd completely forgotten, so that's a plus.

What I Bought 8/28/2016 - Part 2

Not a fan of Comic Book Resources' recent redesign of their website. I was only interested in the Comics Should Be Good blog, and it went poof! I'm not even sure what's the effective way to find anything there now.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #11, by Ryan North (writer), Jacob Chabot (guest artist), Erica Henderson (drew one panel), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - No Squirrel Girl, don't venture onto the Internet, it's a horrible place!

Squirrel Girl is attacked in her dreams by Nightmare, who keeps throwing versions of super-villains at her, which Doreen keeps defeating with computer science knowledge. She's helped by the fact she has no idea who Count Nefaria is, and therefore doesn't have any idea that his powers don't involve counting. I mean, he tries to pass himself off as some landed aristocrat, right? He probably didn't even get schooled in mathematics, just horse-riding and beating peasants.

That's pretty much it. The computer science stuff is largely lost on me, but that's OK. Kraven's one-panel appearance in Doreen's entirely reasonable approach to taking finals in a class she hasn't attended was good for a chuckle. Chabot's a good choice for a guest artist. His art definitely falls in that range I'm very fond of. Clean, expressive, a bit exaggerated but not overly so. Conveys all the important information even in the small panels, and includes some nice additional touches. Example: As Doreen works out how to escape the "finals she didn't study for" problem with Tippy, Chabot keeps Dream-Nancy visible in the panels, looking on somewhat flummoxed by Doreen's attitude. She doesn't really need to be there, but she had been previously established there and it's nice as a reminder the nightmares aren't going to fade away simply because Doreen knows that's what they are. She still has to deal with getting out of this final, and she still has to deal with Nightmare wearing the Venom symbiote.

Also, Doreen rocking the Dr. Strange fingers as she commands the squirrels to defeat Nightmare was a good visual.

Darkwing Duck #4, by Aaron Sparrow (writer), James Silvani (writer/artist), Andrew Dalhouse (colors), D.C. Hopkins (letters) - I originally figured the villian was Lilliput, the short guy Gosalyn defeated in one page in issue 2, because he wears a hat with the dangly things on it, but no.

In fact, the villain is a tiny, super-powerful bug calling itself Gnatmare, who repeatedly thrashes Darkwing until he borrows Megavolt from prison to make a giant bug zapper. In plot terms, it's very much how I remember someone describing (probably Scipio at the Absorbascon) Silver Age comics. First meeting between hero and villain, villain wins handily. Second meeting, hero does better, but still fails to catch bad guy. Third meeting, hero is prepared for villain, wins the day. Darkwing doesn't really get any closer to catching Gnatmare the second time than he did the first, but its otherwise accurate. Which is fine, as an occasional thing. It seems clear Sparrow and Silvani have longer term plots in mind (the weird ink the Phantom Blot was using in the Brill/Silvani volume comes back into play at the end of the issue), but a one-shot a nice change of pace.

I think my favorite page is the one of Darkwing, in his civilian identity trying to find Gosalyn and blowing off the Muddlefoots' offer to watch the "Pelican's Island" series finale. I don't know who does the dialogue, since Sparrow and Silvani are sharing writing credits, but the 'Er, you know, I would, Herb, but wouldn't you know it. . . That's on the night that I don't want to.' cracks me up. I think how Silvani draws Drake in the scene helps, where Drake is already trying to get the hell out of there, but still has a relatively friendly look on his face. That plus his look of complete disgust once he's got his back to them in the next panel, combined with the muttered, 'I hate the Muddlefoots.' Probably a nostalgia aspect to that, since he said it all the time on the cartoon, but it works.

Silvani doesn't do a lot with page layouts, which is something that was true in the previous volume, but he's still pretty good at telling the story and conveying emotion. He's good at knowing when to go really cartoony with their expressions or the figurework, and when to reign it in and keep things relatively realistic. In one panel, Gnatmare hits DW in the stomach hard enough to basically fold him over, and also the force makes his limbs appear longer, like he's stretching. It works because it's only used sparsely, when appropriate. That's an obvious thing, but it seems like an important one.

What I Bought 8/6/16 - Part 2

One of these books actually showed up yesterday, but whatever. There will be no crossovers in today's books, hooray!

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #10, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (penciler), Tom Fowler (inker), Rico Renzi (color artist), Kyle Starks (flashback artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Still makes me kind of sad fedoras now signify douchebags. At least they're always wearing narrow-brimmed fedoras, I liked the wider brimmed ones, like Indiana Jones' hat (although the fact it was Indy's hat was the driving factor in that).

People have opinions, mostly that Squirrel Girl should just go on a date with this guy she is not interested in at all. Because people are awful. At least she has Nancy on her side, which is good, because Doreen can't get near the Mole Man's hideout to talk things out because of all the media, so Nancy goes instead. Which doesn't actually work any better, and he tries to abduct her, so now is the time for punching. In the process of that, we learn the three-headed subterranean creature that's been near Mole Man is practically every panel loves him, and so Doreen throws the fight so Tricephalous and Moley can be together. Although he only seemed to grow interested in her because she won, so what happens the next time the FF - er, the All-New, All-Different Avengers show up and she loses the fight? Does he lose interest? I sure hope not.

I am entirely on board with 'Get fancy and watch Nancy' as a new phrase. I'm also OK with the joke at the bottom of the page about Nancy maybe learning necromancy, since it's about the only other word that rhymes. Could Nancy perhaps use forbidden computer science language to reanimate old, obsolete equipment, and use it against Doreen's foes?

Nice touch, in the silent panel of Mole Man looking at the "defeated" squirrel Girl, that Doreen's eyes are still open. She's not really beat, after all, just playing, and waiting to see if it works or not. As to that panel of Mole Man and Tricephalous swapping spit, I don't need to see that or think of it ever again.

Darkwing Duck #3, by Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani (storytellers), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist), D.C. Hopkins (letterer) - That confirms pretty closely to how I imagine rope-climbing in gym class.

Launchpad's failing completely to break into the prison, so DW and Gosalyn are on their own. They're captured eventually, but Negaduck offers Gosalyn a chance to become his protege, which she flatly refuses. She she gets hoisted up in front of the enormous railgun Negaduck is going to use to bust out of the prison. Fortunately, whatever the young cat Mortimer's designs of being a villain, he wasn't willing to see our heroes get killed, and helped them escape, and thwart Negaduck's plan. Or maybe not, since Negaduck is distinctly unconcerned about being imprisoned. Although given the blithering idiocy of the warden, that's understandable.

I was going to say things fell apart rather quickly for the villains, but given that there's clearly more going on that'll play out down the line, it doesn't bother me as much. The story handwaves, or I guess delays, explaining how Negaduck was able to return from being split into a bunch of microscopic particles in the previous volume. I'm guessing they'll address it eventually, and I wonder if the answer will play into his long-term plan, and whether his offer to make Gosalyn his heir is related somehow. I hope Sparrow and Silvani aren't going to overuse Derp Derfson, idiot TV reporter. Impressed as I am with his ability to mangle Launchpad's name in increasingly ludicrous ways, he could get old in a hurry. I did laugh when Darkwing made a final request to Suff-rage for her to give him the sword, and it almost worked. It's a classic, stupid gag, but it still works.

Silvani's art is still excellent. He draws a very good Negaduck, which maybe isn't a surprise since he's mostly a color-swapped Darkwing, plus pointy teeth. But the sort of constant, seething anger he gives him is well done. Even when he's not actively raging about something. He's still usually gritting his teeth, snarling, just generally looking foul, and yes, the pun is intended. I debated it, and left it in there. The panel of him in shadow, eyes red, while he contemplates unleashing all the villains at once, that was pretty good. It was such a different way of presenting him compared to the rest of the time, it made his menace seem like something very different from standard super-villainy. Which plays back into the question of how he came back, and what his long game is.

The book is nothing revolutionary, but it's an enjoyable superhero comic with a fair amount of humor. I'm fine with that.

What I Bought 6/21/2016 - Part 3

Long day on Monday, thus no post then. But here's a post now!

Darkwing Duck #1 and 2, by Aaron Sparrow (writer), James Silvani (writer/artist), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist), Deron Bennett and D.C. Hopkins (letterers) - Poor Launchpad, he got left off the first issue cover.

The way I understand it, this is picking up somewhere after the end of the second story arc of the Ian Brill/James Silvani volume BOOM! published 6 years ago. But it's ignoring the last arc, where the book crossed over with their Ducktales comic, for reasons I'm unclear on (I'm guessing some powers that be didn't like how that story went, but I don't know).

St. Canard is celebrating opening a new supermax prison for all their super-villains, the Mayor brings a bunch of schoolkids to the celebration, because he's an idiot. Darkwing crashes the party because he's incensed he wasn't invited, which works exactly as Negaduck planned, as he gets the prison to go into lockdown, trapping everyone inside as he releases the prisoners from their cells. Issue 2 is Darkwing trying to recapture the villains while they all try to kill him, as Negaduck watches. There's a few other possible subplots, including Mortimer, a classmate of Gosalyn's who was briefly a super-villain in the earlier volume, enlisting the help of a Hannibal Lecter-themed cat villain, but it's unclear if they're going to end up helping or harming. Probably one, then the other.

There are some decent one-liners, and the dialogue feels about right. Silvani was always good at the action sequences, but I think he's more willing to loosen up his style some. Really embrace the cartoon aspect of the series he's working with. I might be wrong, it's been a few years since I reread the earlier volume. Either way, he's still doing a good job with expressions and body language. There's something a little different about the colors, but I'm not quite sure what it is. The art has this slightly, greyed out looked to it, like things aren't quite as bright as they ought to be. I think the inking's different, a softer line being used, but again, not sure about that (or whether that would have anything to do with this). It's not awful by any stretch, it just feels more subdued. Maybe it's something about the printing process.

I'm not sure about starting the book by having Darkwing fight his entire rouge's gallery right off the bat (that always seems like it makes a hero's enemies look kind of incompetent), but that misgiving and whatever it is about the shading that's throwing me, I'm enjoying the book.

Dangerous Currency

Having failed to find Ducktales #5 & 6 in my various back issue hunts, I broke down and bought the Dangerous Currency trade, even though I already had the issues of Darkwing Duck (17 & 18) that make up the other half. Only having half the story when it came out last fall left me feeling lost. Certain things were happening for no explanation I could find, and I figured with both halves, it would make more sense.

(For the record, that's not the cover they used for the trade. I just happen to like that one, which Darkwing artist James Silvani did for issue 17, more than the X-Men #101 homage he did for issue 18, which is what they used.)

Did it work as I hoped? Well, sort of. I still have lots of questions, but they don't appear to be ones that will be answered by having the entire crossover. For example, Magica's plan. She's after Scrooge's first dime, as always, because it has some property that will amplify her powers. To that end, she gathered up a trio of villainesses from the two series history, and formed her League of Eve-il (Except in four issues, I'm not sure we saw them do anything that demonstrated why she needed their assistance). She figures out Scrooge is using Quackwerks in St. Canard as a dummy corporation to hide certain assets. Given that Magica set up operations there - which is how she found the slime that's been creating the new villains bedeviling Darkwing for the previous several issues - one would assume the dime is among them. Especially when Scrooge mentions he wouldn't have needed to hide anything if he hadn't lost his top accountant, Fenton Crackshell (aka Gizmoduck) mysteriously. Turns out Magica abducted him because he could verify whether the dime was real or not.

OK, great, this all makes sense* from an evil plan perspective. By a little over halfway through, the villains have succeeded in taking over St. Canard. The entire cities been transformed, the Beagle Boys and the Fearsome Four are more powerful than ever, and Scrooge's nephews and Gosalyn's friend Honker have transformed into various Disney monsters (like the demon from Fantasia, or the whale from Pinocchio). The remaining good guys run back to Duckburg. But then Magica has them attack Duckburg, because she still doesn't have the dime. So where the hell was it? If it was in St. Canard, why didn't she get it already? If it was in Duckburg, why was she messing around in St. Canard in the first place? She had Fenton as a prisoner for a year, to authenticate the dime once she had it, except she never got around to getting it. Was experimenting on the slime's properties that critical?

There are a few other things, like how Fenton's mother's nagging counteracts the effect of the slime. I assume it's some play on Ghostbusters II, but I'm not sure how berating the slime makes something that turns people evil not do that. I'd think such treatment would produce resentment and anger that would amplify the effects. I'm not sure how Negaduck, having been hit with the Tronsplitter so many times his body was reduced to a mass of minute particles (which formed the slime), had a physical body at all when he reemerged on the regular plane of existence. And I didn't realize Launchpad was so apprehensive about his two sets of friends not liking each other. Not that I don't understand the concern; I was worried the first time Alex and Papafred met that it might not go well. It's just I hadn't seen any sign of it prior to this story.

I do wonder how much was ultimately a matter of not having much time. Boom! was about to lose the license to publish the titles, and so maybe they had to throw things into gear sooner than they expected. I can kind of see that in the two-page exposition dumps we get through the story. Fenton relating what happened to him. The slime that's still on the Gizmoduck suit (but has been affected by his mother's yelling) showing us Magica's plan. Negaduck telling us what he's doing here. It feels like they had more story than issues to tell it in, so they had to cut corners a bit so it would make some sense.

All that being said, Ian Brill and Warren Spector do an excellent job of fitting a lot of good character moments in amongst the action and exposition. Scrooge's nephews trying to impress Gosalyn, Launchpad reminding Darkwing these folks are his friends too, and Darkwing agreeing to play nice (and the fact Launchpad said this to DW, but not to Scrooge, who has done nothing but give Darkwing grief for three issues, says a lot about the differences in his relationships with those two). I think my favorite may have been when Scrooge and Darkwing make it into Quackwerks, and find Quackerjack, who, as Darkwing points out, was a villain of DW's who turned himself into a toy. Scrooge rolls his eyes and says, 'Oh good. I was worried when something weird didn't happen for a few seconds.' Those two do get to play off each other a lot, and it works well, given their different perspectives and priorities.

Jose Massaroli (who drew parts of the two Ducktales issues) and James Silvani (who drew everything else and inked Massaroli's work), are probably the real strong point of the collection. Their work with the expressions for the characters, the new designs for some of the villains, making the boys into recognizable monsters, while still having some aspect of their own looks. One of the things I like best about Silvani's work is his attention to detail. Not just on the background action, but also in how actions in one panel are usually set up in the panels before that. Rather than objects or characters just appearing seemingly out of thin air, you're able to see the set-up coming, and then it's a matter of waiting for the pay off. I will say, his double page splashes are not the most dynamic, though there aren't many. Silvani seems better at using a whole panel well when he has less space to fill, but that's fine. Double-page splashes are overused these days anyway.

* Except for the question of how she kept Fenton a prisoner for a year, only for him to somehow escape in time to bring dire portents to Launchpad and Scrooge (before being recaptured). I thought she meant to use Fenton as a lure to get Scrooge there - why she wants him around to potentially wreck her plans I don't know, except to gloat - but she seemed to think the slime overwhelming the Quackwerks building is what would draw him, so I'm not sure Fenton was supposed to get loose, and if that's true, I don't know how he did it.

What's The Coat Have For Him? How About A. . . Missing Friend?

I thought when Darkwing confiscated One-Shot's coat at the end of last month's issue, that was going to be the solution to Morgana going missing at the conclusion of the Duckthulu arc.

The bad guy's coat lets him draw any object once from some unknown dimension. Morgana, as far as we know, vanished into some other dimension in the process of banishing Duckthulu from theirs. When Darkwing started rooting through the coat I was sure he'd suddenly pull her out of the coat. OK, One-Shot hadn't thrown any people yet, but he had used a bird of some sort and a piranha, so living organisms can pass through from wherever the stuff comes from.

He could probably only pull one person through, though, since I doubt the coat would consider individuals to be different objects. In which case the odds are much better Darkwing accidentally drags one of his other selves back there, or some alternate dimension version of one of his arch-foes. Still, it's comics, improbable stuff happens all the time. Maybe we'll see Darkwing continue rummaging through the coat in his spare time. Can't see his ill-conceived attempt at becoming mayor leaving much time for it, though.

The Dangers Of Triple-Crosses And Distancing Oneself

While I don't doubt Steelbeak's serious about his bosses planning to raise Duckthulhu, I don't think that's the only reason he's enlisted Darkwing's help. I'd bet he plans to use Darkwing to bring down the higher-ups, so he can take control of F.O.W.L. himself. He did bring up the possibility of a triple-cross as a jest, but Steelbeak's arrogant enough to jokingly tip his hand and figure he can get away with it.

He's already playing on Darkwing's ego, complimenting him on his skill and fashion at every turn, emphasizing how fearful his bosses are of Darkwing's interference. If Darkwing has a weakness, it's ego. If he existed in the Marvel Universe, he'd have shown up in response to Lyra's search for the generation's greatest hero, probably even faster than the Sentry did.

And apparently frustrated by the damage to his rep done by all the alternate universe versions, Darkwing's opted to handle this mission on his own. It makes me wonder if this is Brill's commentary on the Batman we've seen up until recently. The hero who through charisma or the importance of his mission, draws people to his cause, but keeps them at a distance and out of the loop. Bruce Wayne seems to have learned his lesson (exclusion of Cass Cain from a recent family movie night being a notable exception), but Darkwing perhaps, has not.

Super-Villains Can't Seem To Ignore Their Natures To Have Successful Team-Ups

I'm shooting for more lighthearted fare today, villains potentially backstabbing each other, to be exact.

If Darkwing lets it get that far, I think Negaduck's going to regret being so dismissive of Magica's plans. He's downplayed her contributions, mocked her goals, and barely offered enough contrition to keep things from getting ugly. He figures because she's fixated on Scrooge McDuck's #1 dime that she has big-time power, but small-time ambitions. His ego (which is something I'd say he and Darkwing have in common) probably has him thinking he's got her on a string.

She wants the dime because she thinks there are properties to it that will either enhnce her power, or help her accumulate as much wealth as Scrooge. If she's right, that's a little more impressive than Negaduck's goal to conquer a city. If she wound up with that much money, soe could probably buy St. Canard and have it moved to a location of her choice, just to mess with her former ally. Which wouldn't be fun for the inhabitants, but would be fun for how angry it would make Negaduck that he'd been outmaneuvered.

Deciphering An Evil Duck's Taunts

There's this bit of dialogue in Darkwing Duck #3 that I've been mulling over for awhile. First I was trying to decide what about it was catching my attention, but I figured that out last night. So this morning was about how to describe it, and trying to sort it out.

The reason Darkwing fired Launchpad as his sidekick was because Launchpad took DW's dry cleaning (his costumes and his civvies, simultaneously) to the same place arch-foe Negaduck uses. Having observed Launchpad leaving one day with those clothes, ND used that as a starting point for finding Darkwing's secret identity, so he could attack him at home. Which he did, rather impressively*. Anyway, as he's explaining how he found them, he tells Darkwing 'I never cared for the whole secret identity thing. But you wanted to try having dual lifestyles. A home. A family. Too bad you couldn't keep your worlds separate.' That was the part that caught my eye, because it suggested a familiarity between the two. The best I can describe it is, Negaduck knew Darkwing, but he didn't know him specifically.

The only thin I could think of, with regards to their origins, was an episode of the cartoon, set in the future, where a janitor (probably the ghost of Darkwing) details his origin to a couple of kids at a super-hero museum. The origin was a mash-up of Batman and Superman's as Darkwing was sent away in a rocket by his parents before their homeworld exploded, and after arriving on his current home planet, grew up in a monastery, where he learned martial arts. In that story, Negaduck is Darkwing's cousin (their dad's are brothers), also sent rocketing away from their doomed homeworld, only ND wound up on a different world, where he assembled fearsome weaponry he eventually tried to attack DW's new home, prompting him to actually become a costumed hero.

Me of the early-90s always thought that origin was supposed to be a joke, since, well, I think I figured that if he came from another world, he'd have super-powers. Which he didn't, so he couldn't be an alien talking duck (as opposed to a regular talking duck, I suppose). It would have explained the familiarity between the two, since in that story, ND knew the masked guy opposing him was his goody-goody cousin. So he'd know who he was looking for, but not necessarily what he looks like (unless his dad included recordings with pictures of what they thought DW would look like in x years) or what name he was hiding under.

I was doing most of this pondering while working, but that meant there wasn't an opportunity to check anything. Assuming it can be trusted, and in meaningless stuff like this, it's usually OK, Wikipedia says Negaduck's the evil alternate universe version of Darkwing. You'd think with my fondness for alternate universes and evil opposites I'd have remembered that**. That actually simplifies things a little more, since, as versions of the same being from different universes they ought to look alike. No more trouble with what Darkwing looks like without the mask, just look in a mirror. There would still be the issue of finding a name and address, but it would be that much easier to confirm suspicions once that was accomplished..

* Though I didn't see the flaming-chainsaw-throwers he told Quackerjack he was going to purchase. Perhaps he was saving them for the grand finale.

** Though since I read that, I've been seeing these images that my mind's insisting are from that episode, but I'm not convinced it isn't just my brain filling in gaps based on other stories where the hero lands in an evil opposite universe.

Putting The Mask Back On

There's a scene in Darkwing Duck #3 where several of his old foes are taking their revenge on the shadowy organization that imprisoned them when they look up and see DW's jet fly overhead. The next panel is them gawking at it, but the panel after that, they all have these looks of maniacal glee on their faces. Then they all start talking excitedly for a panel, until they get their act together and set off in hot pursuit. I really like that silent panel of them all grinning, but that's not precisely what I wanted to discuss today.

Part of the reason Darkwing's villains are so happy to see him is because he vanished for a year and a half. They missed him. They were already back in action before they knew he was back as well, but that was more about revenge, not the same as the love/hate thing they had with Darkwing. But it got me thinking about other stories where the hero comes out of retirement after a spell. Dark Knight Returns, Spider-Man Reign, the JSA in Chase #6, to name three. There's plenty more. In the cases I'm familiar with, the hero dons the costume to deal with either a particular new threat, or just a rise in general crime. However, once back on the scene, the old arch-foes start crawling out of the woodwork*.

What I was thinking was, is that how it always goes? The hero sees new problems and it's only once they're active the old problems resurface? Or are there stories where the hero has to return because one of their arch-enemies has come back, and they're the only hero who can stop them? I imagine there have to be stories like that, but I wonder if they're more or less common.

With the villains following the heroes, it suggests that line of thinking demonstrated in comics sometimes that it's because there are costumed heroes that there are costumed villains. Which I is idiotic, because it's saying if there was no Spider-Man, then Max Dillon wouldn't have started robbing jewelry stores once he gained the power to become Electro, and I don't buy that for a minute. It also doesn't entirely work in these cases since the hero unretires because of something they find untenable. There's already crime, and the vigilante steps forth to try and do something about it themselves, although the crime more often seems to be the standard fare we see in our world, with muggings, gangs, petty theft. The costumed crime is less noticeable. But it does suggest that for some criminals at least, what they do is tied up in a competition with a particular hero. If the hero isn't there, they don't care enough to do what they do. Eluding cops is boring after tangling with Batman.

What does it say in the cases where the villains return first? It would suggest to me it's easier for people to find their motivation to resume evil than good**. The rewards are more obvious, be it material wealth or the enjoyment of the work. Fighting crime as a vigilante may provide a similar enjoyment, the thrill of moving through the city, being a figure that causes people to look on in awe or fear, but the material gains are less obvious. Save someone's life, and they may not even say "Thank you". The police may pursue them as doggedly (or moreso, if they think they're being shown up) than they did the robber/murderer/arsonist the vigilante captured. It's so much more of a thankless, difficult path, it's harder for the protagonist to work up the energy to go back to it, compared to the antagonist, who could simply grow bored, or have simply escaped from a lengthy incarceration. They're operating off some sense of entitlement or resentment, and those fuels are in larger supply than the inner drive to put one's life on the line against people working from those feelings.

That's where my mind's at today. If you've any examples of the villains reemerging first, I'd love to hear about them. Certainly doesn't have to be superhero comics. Any input into the difference in what the approaches might mean would also be appreciated.

* An exception would be the story in Chase, since there was no indication from Cameron that the JSA suiting up to capture Dr. Trap caused their enemies to come back. Perhaps they weren't active long enough, if it was for one case.

** I don't think it would be that it's easier for people to do evil than good, because that's frequently what spurs a hero to action, whether just starting out or coming back. There are people taking for themselves, unconcerned with others, and either no one is doing anything, or the people trying are ineffective, so here's a person in a costume, fighting crime how they like. But they're typically vastly outnumbered by the people who opted for the evil route instead.