Daring duck of mystery
Champion of right
Swoops out of the shadows
Darkwing owns the night
Somewhere some villain schemes
But his number’s up
(3-2-1)
Darkwing Duck (When there’s trouble you call DW)
Darkwing Duck (Let’s get dangerous!)
Darkwing Duck (Darkwing, Darkwing, duck!)
Today, we will take a look at Darkwing Duck #4 published by Dynamite comics.
Release Date: April 19th, 2023
Writer: Amanda Deibert
Artist: Carlo Cid Lauro
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Editor: Nate Cosby
Main Covers by: Mirka Andolfo, Leirix, Jacob Edgar, Trish Forstner, Carlo Cid Lauro, George Kambadais, Ken Haeser, and Cat Staggs
*STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS*
Official Synopsis: Bushroot has taken over the community garden! Newly retired from the crimefighting game, Drake Mallard refuses to become Darkwing Duck again, insisting that he can take out Bushroot as a civilian! But when Bushroot turns the garden into an immense, evil vegetable maze, can Drake stand idly by and not unleash the Terror Within Him That Flaps In The Night?
My Review
Let’s talk covers…
Darkwing Duck #4 features a solid collection of Bushroot related covers.
I am collecting the action figure variant incentive covers for this Darkwing Duck comic series. Darkwing Duck #4 features Bushroot on the cover. The interior artist Carlo Lauro illustrated the previous three action figure variants, but this issue’s Bushroot cover was done by Ciro Cangialosi.
*STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS*
When there’s trouble you call…Drake Mallard?
Darkwing is now just normal St. Canard citizen Drake Mallard as he made a quick decision at the end of issue #2 to give up crime fighting to be a good father and keep Gosalyn safe. Bushroot has completely taken over control of the school with his branches and trapped most of the students, but Gosalyn managed to escape to tell Dark…her dad.
Drake heads to the school with Morgana to school Bushroot, but after some quick back and forth between the two. We also find out that Bushroot was promised by someone that he could have the school which foreshadows to our main series villain for the last two issues. Drake realizes that this a battle more suited for Darkwing. So as quick of a decision it was to give up being Darkwing, we get a quicker decision after only an issue and a few pages to be Darkwing again. Darkwing pulls out his gas gun which has a new feature to “Autumn…ize”. Bushroot does what all leaves do in the Fall..turn to brown and fall. Drake could have probably just used that new invention, but at least Darkwing looked good doing it.
Darkwing is officially back…again! So that was certainly a brief retirement. Darkwing, Gosalyn, Morgana, and pudding Honker travel to Transylvania to get Launchpad back. It was pretty funny to see Honker as pudding for the entire issue. Morgana decides to go back to running her restaurant, and Launchpad agrees to go back to where he belongs as Darkwing’s sidekick again.
Carlo’s art continues to shine as he is now in his element drawing his version of Darkwing comfortably. Gosalyn’s eyes have returned to their natural green in the interiors of this issue. Bushroot and all of the DW villains that Carlo has tackled so far this series have looked flawless. I love the Darkwing rogue gallery of villains just as much as the hero, Darkwing. I wish that this issue had more Bushroot in it. I don’t know why Bushroot wanted the school or why the gardeners of St. Canard were abducted. Maybe that will be revealed in the next two issues?
We already know from reading the synopsis and seeing the covers for the next two issues that Darkwing Duck #5 and #6 will be a two parter with the main bad guy being Dr. No Good. Dr. No Good was the founder and original leader of F.O.W.L. who had his one and only appearance in the DuckTales episode “Double-O-Duck”. Launchpad McQuack was the spy hero in that episode, and he took Dr. No Good down. It was believed that Dr. No Good perished in that episode.
It would be a good idea to rewatch the DuckTales episode “Double-O-Duck on Disney+ before the next issue of Darkwing Duck releases next month to get refreshed on that character.
This Dynamite Comics Darkwing Duck series is currently limited to six issues. If you want more Darkwing Duck content and Disney Afternoon goodness in the form of more issues, then the best way to show your support will be with your wallet by subscribing to the series at your local comic book store. Also, please make sure to support the Dynamite Comics Gargoyles, Disney Villains: Scar, and Disney Villains: Maleficent series while you are out buying Darkwing Duck.
Darkwing Duck #5 is tentatively scheduled for May 17th, 2023.
It feels great to get dangerous again with this new Darkwing Duck comic series.
Let us know what you thought of Darkwing Duck #4 in the comments below. What cover(s) did you get?
Don’t forget to follow @DuckTalks and @DynamiteComics for all of the latest Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck comic news.
DuckTalks 
Well, unfortunately, we now know there’s an issue #7 coming, which means this series is now ongoing. Which means Disney is definitely NEVER going to rehire Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani and let them resolve their cliffhangers now. Sigh. (And yes, I KNOW that Aaron has said he’s likely going to post his unpublished stories online for free, but I just know that if he does, Disney will force him to take it down so it doesn’t ruin sales for Amanda’s comic. Besides, if he’s now calling it a fan project, can it even be considered canon?)
As for this particular issue, I again haven’t read it, but from this review, I can already say two things about it. 1) Is it me, or does that shrubbery on Trish Forstner’s cover look a lot more like Negaduck than Darkwing? That’s odd since Negaduck has yet to make a confirmed appearance in this comic. (Let’s hope he’s more in-character here than he was when Ian Brill and Frank Angones wrote for him.)
2) So, Dr. Nogood (who, as you mentioned, is SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD) promised Bushroot he could take over the school? Is this implying that Bushroot (and possibly the other members of the Fearsome Four) works for F.O.W.L. in this comic, which was NOT the case in the cartoon?
Okay, one more thing since it’s not mentioned in this review. I’ve read that the bottom image of Bushroot on Ciro Cangialosi’s action figure variant cover, as seen above, was traced from a piece of fanart. Fortunately, they apparently caught on to this and completely redrew Bushroot’s pose for the finalized version.
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I am glad the Bushroot drawing on the cover of the action figure cover was updated. Mine arrives in the mail tomorrow. That same artist drew the Neptunia cover for #7 which looks really good.
The Dr. No Good character being in the next two issues is intriguing to me. We don’t know anything about him except for that DuckTales episode which I need to rewatch. We haven’t really seen the motive from Megavolt, Quackerjack, and Bushroot which was always well defined in their animated episodes. Hopefully, their actions are connected to the next two issues. Hopefully, Negaduck and Liquidator are in the issues past issue #6. I do think Trish Forstner had the best cover for this issue.
I would still consider Aaron Sparrow and James Silvani’s DW project still canon no matter what they call it and how they release it. Doomface looks fun.
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