Darkwing Duck

Darkwing Duck is an American animated action-adventure television series produced by The Walt Disney Company that first ran from 1991 to 1992 and then continued airing as reruns until 1995 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. It featured the eponymous anthropomorphic duck superhero whose alter ego is suburban father Drake Mallard. It was a spin-off of DuckTales.

Premise
Darkwing Duck tells the adventures of the titular superhero, aided by his sidekick and pilot Launchpad McQuack. In his secret identity of Drake Mallard (a parody of Kent Allard, the alter ego of the Shadow), he lives in an unassuming suburban house with his adopted daughter Gosalyn, next door to the bafflingly dim-witted Muddlefoot family. Darkwing struggles to balance his egotistical craving for fame and attention against his desire to be a good father to Gosalyn and help do good in St. Canard. Most episodes put these two aspects of Darkwing's character in direct conflict, though Darkwing's better nature usually prevails.

It was the first Disney Afternoon cartoon to emphasize action rather than adventure, with Darkwing routinely engaging in slapstick battles with both supervillains and street criminals. While conflict with villains was routine in earlier Disney Afternoon cartoons, actual fight scenes were relatively rare.

Darkwing Duck was also the first Disney Afternoon property that was produced completely as a genre parody. Prior shows would contain elements of parody in certain episodes, but would otherwise be straight-faced adventure concepts, this in the tradition of Carl Barks' work in the Disney comics. By contrast, every episode of Darkwing Duck is laden with references to superhero, pulp adventure, or super-spy fiction. Darkwing Duck himself is a satirical character. His costume, gas gun and flashy introductions are all reminiscent of pulp heroes and Golden Age superheroes such as The Shadow, The Sandman, Doc Savage, Batman, The Green Hornet and the Julius Schwartz Flash, as well as The Lone Ranger and Zorro. The fictional city of St. Canard is a direct parody of Gotham City.

Production
Darkwing Duck was initially developed as a spin-off of the very successful DuckTales series. Darkwing Duck entered production roughly one year after DuckTales ended. Darkwing Duck was inspired by a specific episode of DuckTales: "Double-O-Duck", starring Launchpad McQuack as a secret agent. Tad Stones was directed to come up with a series around the premise, as an executive liked the title Double-O Duck; Stones was initially reluctant as he felt this would have "no heart or a sense of family" but created a pitch, with GizmoDuck, a character from the final season of DuckTales, as the sidekick (Gizmoduck would end up as a recurring guest star).

The first pitch was rejected but Stones was ordered to try again, and decided this time to take the job more seriously. Taking the idea back to basics, he left the James Bond pastiche idea behind and ended up thinking more of The Shadow and Doc Savage; "suddenly I was engaged and enthusiastic about the idea". Double-O Duck became a separate character to Launchpad (who was kept as the sidekick) and made into an egotist 'man of mystery' and given an array of duck-headed vehicles after Batman and a motorcycle based on Judge Dredd's Lawmaster bike. Gosalyn was introduced in order to "complicate his life" and "play havoc with his ultra smooth and sophisticated self image".

When it turned out that the title "Double-O Duck" could not be used as the Ian Fleming estate owned the 'double-o' title, Disney TV Animation held a competition to come up with a replacement. Alan Burnett, who would soon after leave Disney to work on Batman: The Animated Series, contributed the name "Darkwing Duck". This name would result in a new look (Double-O Duck was to wear a white tuxedo and black domino mask). Other elements of the show, such as Darkwing's habit of coining new catchphrases every time he announced himself, would be invented during production. (As an in-joke, the episode "A Duck by Any Other Name" would have Drake suggest Double-O Duck as a new secret identity and Launchpad remark it "sounds kinda silly".)

Where most prior Disney Afternoon series included at least some characters from classic Disney animation, Darkwing Duck featured a completely original cast. Even the DuckTales characters it reused had no counterpart in early Disney shorts or even the Carl Barks comics. The only exception was the episode "In Like Blunt", which featured cameo appearances by the Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold and Magica De Spell.

Main characters

 * Darkwing Duck / Drake Mallard (voiced by Jim Cummings) – Average citizen by day and St. Canard's resident superhero by night. He possesses a mix of courageous altruism and a gigantic arrogance and ego, two drives that constantly clash during his adventures – in the episode "Just Us Justice Ducks", he was initially mortified that he'd be getting help against the Fearsome Five. Darkwing's origins are rather fuzzy. On one hand, he frequently claims to be a superhero on the day he became Darkwing Duck after his teenage days. On the other hand, during his childhood and teenage days, Drake was a complete dork; by his high school days, however, he'd already developed an obsession with crime-fighting ("Crash Reunion"). He's been an active superhero for an unknown number of years. In his earliest days of crime fighting, he was more focused on the headlines from his career, to the extent that in "Darkly Dawns the Duck Part 2" he laments that he has no life outside his showboating and no friends to turn to. Launchpad McQuack and Gosalyn gave him a life and help keep him grounded. In the dystopian future of the episode "Time and Punishment", losing Gosalyn causes him to become obsessive about crime-fighting and devolve into a supervillain. His two recurring catchphrases are "I am the terror that flaps in the night", followed by an improvised metaphor before he gives his name, and the battlecry of "let's get dangerous". Because of loose continuity in the show, as well as Darkwing's self-aggrandizing habits, there's more than one origin story for why he became Darkwing Duck – including "Paraducks" (inspired by his own time-travelling adult self), "Crash Reunion" (a random disguise so he could defend his high school prom from Megavolt, and the true origin at least continuity wise), "The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck" (a Superman parody, which is obviously not meant to be taken as his true origin, it's revealed at the end of the episode that it's just a future Drake spouting out nonsense to make his origin seem cooler due to his ego), and "A Star is Scorned" (which is a "what if" episode and not in continuity).

Personality-Wise, Darkwing is initially described as vain, egotistical, self-centered and short-tempered but well-meaning, courageous and extremely competent crime-fighter when he finally decide to focus on the case: his transition from bumbling egomaniac to a true superhero was always announced by the famous phrase "Let's Get Dangerous". Also, his infamous "I'am the terror that flaps in the night" quote usually use words in relation with the situation became just as popular as "Suck gas, evildoer!". The main problem in the series is that no matter what DW accomplish, he's still underestimated by the population of St Canard and overshadowed by super-powered heroes like Gizmoduck: he has often show (and proved) that "You don't need superpower to be a super-hero!!!". In fact, DW always relies on his intelligence, his martial arts skills and his technology to fight the villains: while being "a lone hero", he finally became the leader of the Justice Ducks and a free-lance agent of SHUSH.


 * Launchpad McQuack (voiced by Terry McGovern) – Darkwing Duck's sidekick, originally from DuckTales. He refers to Darkwing as "DW" and Darkwing sometimes refers to him as "LP" in return. He's Darkwing's self-proclaimed biggest fan, even spending a year designing the Thunderquack just out of fanboy urges; the hero originally found him annoying but quickly came to see him as a friend. As GizmoDuck also appears in the show, it's confirmed that Launchpad is no longer working for Scrooge. In the episode "Tiff of the Titans" when Fenton comes to visit Launchpad, he explains to Drake Mallard that "Fenton and I used to work for the same guy".
 * Gosalyn Mallard (née Waddlemeyer) (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh) – Drake Mallard's 9-year-old adopted daughter. An unstoppable bundle of energy and spunk, which Darkwing has said is more of a handful than fighting evil ("Getting Antsy"). Her grandfather was a famous scientist, murdered by Taurus Bulba ("Darkly Dawns the Duck Part 1"). She's an occasional crime fighter - "Yucky Duck", then the "Crimson Quackette", the "Quiverwing Quack", and finally "GosmoDuck" in the BOOM! Studios comics - and often getting involved in Darkwing's affairs as herself. Gosalyn being hurt or worse is one of Darkwing's few fears. This applied to the Negaverse version of Gosalyn too, as he intended to leave the alternate reality until he learned that her guardian was Negaduck.

Muddlefoots

 * Herb Muddlefoot (voiced by Jim Cummings impersonating Andy Devine) – The father of Tank and Honker Muddlefoot, next-door neighbor of Drake Mallard (Darkwing Duck). Drake finds him very irritating, but they do work together well in at least one episode. Herb sells Quackerware (the Darkwing Duck universe's version of Tupperware) as a salesman for a living. He is extremly good at this job and even won the salesmen of the decade award. Despite Drake's obvious hatred of him and his wife, Herb seems to not notice it due to his low intelligence and sees Drake as his best friend. At the end of "Life, the Negaverse and Everything", Drake sees Herb and his family in a better light, since the Negaverse versions of them are MUCH worse.
 * Binkie Muddlefoot (voiced by Susan Tolsky) – A yellow canary housewife who is invariably overbearing, yet ditzy. Competent in housework and doing her chores, she is often the foil to Herb's fun. Basically she's a parody of a 50's housewife. In "Comicbook Capers", she's the second person to add onto Darkwing's revision of his comic book, which earns more anger towards her from him. It appears that she and Herb are destined souls; there have been many incarnations of them seen in various timelines and dimensions and they always find each other and fall in love.
 * Tankard H. "Tank" Muddlefoot (voiced by Dana Hill) – The eldest Muddlefoot son, Tank is a bully who often makes life difficult for his younger brother, Honker. His full name is revealed in the episode "Life, The Negaverse And Everything"; his negaverse counterpart is much like Honker, only more confident.
 * Herbert "Honker" Muddlefoot Jr. (voiced by Katie Leigh) – The Mallards' next-door neighbor and Gosalyn's best friend. His full name is revealed in the episode "Jurassic Jumble". Unlike the rest of his rather dim-witted family, Honker is massively intelligent, and demonstrates a mastery of sciences more akin to a laboratory professor than an elementary school student. He is also one of the few characters to know Darkwing's true identity, as he can be trusted to do so. Unlike Launchpad, who refers to Drake as DW in public, Honker makes sure to address him as "Mr. Mallard"; he calls Darkwing "sir" to make sure he doesn't slip up.

The Justice Ducks

 * GizmoDuck / Fenton Crackshell (voiced by Hamilton Camp) – Launchpad's old friend and Darkwing's rival super hero who was originally from DuckTales. The most aggravating thing about GizmoDuck for Darkwing is that he completely overshadows him in fame and attention whenever they team up; however, Darkwing comes to appreciate his own lack of powers after he saved GizmoDuck from Megavolt.
 * Morgana McCawber (voiced by Kath Soucie) – A sorceress who was originally a villain, but later reformed and became Darkwing's girlfriend. Though very powerful, Morgana has some trouble using her powers, since she forgets which spell she must use on a specific occasion. She is usually accompanied by her pet bats Eek and Squeak and her pet spider Archie (all of whom are voiced by Frank Welker). In the episode "Ghoul of My Dreams", she used magical sleeping sand to make St. Canard citizens sleep-steal for her because she wanted to use the loot to pay off her student loans. In Boom!'s comics, she sacrificed herself to save Darkwing from the monstrous Duckthulu; Darkwing believed she was still alive and lost in another reality, but was unable to find her. It turned out she was trapped in the same reality that Negaduck had been sent to: Darkwing brought her back to reality in the final issue (#18) and was able to defeat Negaduck with a spell Morgana had secretly planted in him.
 * Neptunia (voiced by Susan Silo) – A mutated humanoid fish who is the self-appointed protector of the sea. Like Morgana, she was originally a villain until she became a hero.
 * Stegmutt (voiced by Joey Camen) – Stegmutt is a Stegosaurus-type dinosaur who was originally a duck working as a janitor. He was turned into a humanoid dinosaur by a mad scientist named Dr. Fossil. Despite Darkwing being returned to normal along with other victims of Dr. Fossil, Stegmutt remains devolved.

S.H.U.S.H.
S.H.U.S.H. (expanded name unknown) is an intelligence agency that deals with international affairs that regular authorities cannot. Darkwing Duck often works freelance for them, but he is not an official employee. S.H.U.S.H. is a parody of Marvel Comics' S.H.I.E.L.D.


 * J. Gander Hooter (voiced by Danny Mann) – A goose who is the head director of S.H.U.S.H., and whose name is a play on J. Edgar Hoover. He regards Darkwing very highly and often calls him in on cases, where he feels that a certain element of surprise, which only Darkwing is able to create, is needed. When he appeared in DuckTales (in which Launchpad was mistaken for an identical F.O.W.L. spy), J. Gander appeared much different, being bigger with brown feathers.
 * Vladimir Goudenov Grizzlikof (voiced by Ron Feinberg) – A grizzly bear and S.H.U.S.H.'s top agent. He is depicted as very strong and adheres to S.H.U.S.H. standard procedure very closely. He and Darkwing have a longstanding rivalry which stems from Gryzzlikof's by-the-book procedure to the different style of Darkwing, which relies heavily on instinct and spontaneity. Darkwing Duck saved his life a few times which irritates Vladimir. Eventually, the relationship changes to mutual respect.
 * Dr. Sarah Bellum (voiced by Jodi Carlisle) – A S.H.U.S.H. scientist, whose name is a pun on cerebellum. She appears only in a few early episodes featuring S.H.U.S.H.
 * Derek Blunt (voiced by Peter Renaday in a British accent) – A hawk who is the greatest agent in the history of S.H.U.S.H. and the only person to ever bring down master criminal Phineas Sharp. His untrue life story has been dramatized into a movie, which annoys him greatly. When Sharp returns however, Blunt is brought out of retirement by J. Gander Hooter and partnered with Darkwing — a relationship he hates, despite Darkwing's gimmicks, even though he is admired by Darkwing, who claims Blunt was his inspiration. He only appeared in the episode "In Like Blunt" (the title itself is a parody of In Like Flint). He is apparently one of the few people who has been to Darkwing's secret hideout.
 * Femme Appeal – A statuesque fox who only appeared in the Boom! comic story "F.O.W.L. Disposition". She initially appears as an agent of F.O.W.L. who operates with Steelbeak. At the end of the story, it is revealed that she is a double-agent sent by S.H.U.S.H. to investigate F.O.W.L. and stop them from summoning Duckthulhu. Prior to this, Femme's true nature is briefly hinted at when she helps protect Gosalyn and Honker (who sneaked into the base as Quiverwing Quack and Arrow Kid) from Ammonia Pine. Her name is a reference to Emma Peel.

Other heroes

 * Comet Guy (voiced by William Callaway) – An alien humanoid superhero from the planet Mertz who possesses numerous superpowers (shoots fireballs, flies, water freezing, super strength, super speed). However, he is dull-witted and has a weakness: the sound of a bell makes him dance, and he cannot stop dancing until he hears a whistle. A failure on his planet, Darkwing trains him to turn his weaknesses into strengths. Darkwing later learns he comes from a planet where everyone is a superhero. He appears in the episodes "Smarter Than a Speeding Bullet" and "Planet of the Capes".
 * The Friendly Four – A fairly inept superheroic version of the Fearsome Five (minus Negaduck) native to the Negaverse who appear in the episode "Life, the Negaverse, and Everything". Its four members consist of parallel versions of Bushroot, Quackerjack, Megavolt, and the Liquidator. They were retrained by Darkwing Duck into "Darkwing's Ducks". As this new team, they were able to restore their St. Canard and defeat Negaduck and his thugs, who were evil versions of the Muddlefoots and Launchpad McQuack. They became the guardians of the Negaverse counterpart of Gosalyn Mallard after Darkwing returned to his reality.
 * Posiduck (voiced by Jim Cummings) – The embodied good half of Darkwing Duck made entirely of positrons, and created by Megavolt's tron-splitter device when it split Darkwing's positrons from his negatrons in the episode "Negaduck". Posiduck was exceedingly kind and gentle, as well as lenient and generally pacifistic. He was purely positively good and possessed a friendly nature which the negatronic Negaduck could not stand. He later became galvanized (becoming a powerful being of positive energy) in order to battle the identically galvanized Negaduck. This also had the effect of giving him the ability to project beams of pure positronic energy (which he used to repair damage done by Negaduck), as well as the ability to walk on air.

The Fearsome Five

 * Negaduck (voiced by Jim Cummings) – Darkwing Duck's evil doppelgänger. Negaduck is virtually identical to Darkwing except that the colors of his costume are red, black, and yellow. Negaduck normally has no special powers or abilities, but can disguise himself as Darkwing to make the hero look like a criminal. He is very ruthless and has no problem with hurting people to get what he wants: great wealth and authority over the world, until he gets defeated by Darkwing. In "The Quiverwing Quack" he once went on a major crime spree after Darkwing reveals that Negaduck wasn't bad enough to be Public Enemy No. 1; another time when Darkwing turned himself into a copy of Negaduck, the two "negaducks" had a show-and-tell of who had more weapons to see who was the "baddest" duck of them all! In the episode "Life, the Negaverse, and Everything", it is revealed that he is an evil version of Darkwing from a parallel reality called the "Negaverse", a nightmarish reverse version of St. Canard in which he ruled. In the Negaverse, he was the guardian of the Negaverse Gosalyn – while the two never interacted in that episode, both the Negaverse-Bushroot and Darkwing were horrified by it. Negaduck is the leader of the Fearsome Five, a group he formed with Bushroot, the Liquidator, Megavolt, and Quackerjack; all of whom are somewhat scared of him and who he openly views as losers. In the Negaverse, their alternate selves (the Friendly Four) were an ineffectual resistance against him. In the comic "The Duck Knight Returns", he discovered Darkwing's secret identity and attacked him at home – an event that caused the superhero to retire for a year - and later teamed up with Magica De Spell to ruin Darkwing's reputation with brainwashed, alternate reality heroic versions of both him and Darkwing. An unrelated, prototype Negaduck was created in the episode "Negaduck" by Megavolt's tron-splitter device. This alternative version was the embodied evil half of Darkwing that was later "galvanized" into a powerful and malevolent being. In the comic "Crisis on Infinite Darkwings" (a parody of a DC Comics cross over series), the tron-splitter was used to stop the main Negaduck, reducing him to multiple microscopic particles of good and evil, which turned into a slime substance. As seen in the comic "Dangerous Currency", this slime turned all those who were exposed to it, into more powerful and evil versions of themselves. It was later revealed that after being split, his conscience was sent to a neutral dimension, waiting to be returned, where he used Morgana's powers to cross between the dimensions, where he had one last showdown with Darkwing, being sent back to the neutral dimension.

As being DW evil twin, Negaduck's personality is quite the opposite of Darkwing: he's is incredibly ruthless, cruel, sadistic, psychopathic and destructive. While sharing the same skills of Darkwing (Including intellect and fighting skills), he relies more on sheer mindless destruction to be recognized as public enemy N°1(ironically, his ego is quite affected when he learned that in fact, he's ranked n°2). Negaduck is often considered to be the most dangerous enemy of DW tied with Taurus Bulba but unlike the latter, his defeats are very humiliating. And last, his extremely violent personality is hinted through his use of shotguns, chainsaws and tank to destroy for simple amusement.


 * Negaverse Muddlefoots and Launchpad – In the Negaverse, Negaduck enforced his rule with the help of the evil and cruel versions of Herb & Binkie Muddlefoot, Honker and Launchpad. After Darkwing teamed up with the Friendly Four, these minions were swiftly beaten. They only appeared in the episode "Life, the Negaverse and Everything". Negaverse Tank, unlike the rest of his family, is the only one who is not evil and even helps Darkwing when he gets trapped in the Negaverse. Unlike his counterpart, Negaverse Tank is very smart and seems to care about others.
 * Dr. Reginald Bushroot (voiced by Tino Insana) – A scientist who tried to fuse animal DNA with that of plants in an attempt to give people the ability to feed themselves through photosynthesis (a possible spoof on the Batman villain Poison Ivy). The experiment was a success but with a price. Bushroot was turned into a half-duck/half-plant creature who now desperately seeks a friend or girlfriend. Bushroot uses his newfound control over plants as his main weapon and views them as people. He was the show's earliest recurring supervillain.
 * Spike – Bushroot's pet/assistant, a large carnivorous plant loosely resembling a Venus Flytrap with a shaggy mop of orange hair. He behaves much in the manner of a dog, to the point that he likes playing fetch. He once helped Darkwing Duck and Launchpad escape because he was jealous that Bushroot was paying less attention to him.
 * Posey (voiced by Frank Welker) – A "vampire potato", originally intended to be a wife for Bushroot. However, due to Spike handing him the wrong ingredients, Bushroot accidentally creates a gigantic potato that feeds on the blood of non-plants. Victims of Posey become zombified couch potatoes, doing nothing but sitting in front of the TV and eating potato-based food products. She appears (and is destroyed) in the episode "Night of the Living Spud".
 * The Liquidator (voiced by Jack Angel) – Bud Flud, a slimy dog salesman who was in the bottled water business, was mutated into his present state, a water based monstrosity, after falling into a vat of a competitor's water, which was revealed to be laced with a corrosive chemical during a battle with Darkwing and Launchpad (a probable spoof of the Spider-Man villain Hydro-Man); he thinks Darkwing pushed him in, when he actually fell out of fear. He can control all water, even changing its form. He constantly talks in advertising-style lingo. Since he is made of water, he and Megavolt do not interact well; he is also able to be turned into pudding as seen in "Justice Ducks Unite".
 * Liquidator's Mascots – A pair of females who appear with Liquidator in his origin episode "Dry Hard". They were the mascots for Sparkling Crystal Pure Flood Water and later for the Liquidator himself. They dressed up as various items (from water bottles to lobsters) and sang catchy tunes that related to whatever the Liquidator said.
 * Megavolt (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) – Elmo Sputterspark is a rat and was a high school nerd who gained the power to control electricity when one of his experiments was sabotaged (a possible spoof of the Spider-Man villain Electro). He's former high school classmate of Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck, and his oldest villain: the two first battled at St Canard High's senior prom. Megavolt is quite psychotic and uses his control over electricity as his main weapon. His costume consists of his original jumpsuit, gloves, boots and safety goggles from the power company as well as a giant battery worn on his back to keep his power flowing on the go and a headpiece that resembles a big plug. Megavolt was the show's creators' favorite villain and therefore the most recurring. He seems to regard light bulbs and other electric apparatus as his friends and many of his crimes involve "liberating" them. Megavolt often referred to Darkwing as either "Darkwing Dork" or "Dorkwing". He shorts out when hit with water, a weakness that Darkwing often uses when defeating him. He was the first villain to learn Darkwing's secret identity but, being mad, forgot what it was by the end of the episode. In the comic story "The Duck Knight Returns", he was forced to briefly retire from supervillainy and get an office job (where he worked next to Drake); he found he preferred prison to working at Quackworks. On the Public Enemies Wanted List he is # 3.
 * Quackerjack (voiced by Michael Bell) – A toy maker gone insane and wearing a harlequin-style jester costume, Quackerjack uses his arsenal of dangerous playthings as weaponry while he robs banks or just causes chaos for the fun of it (an obvious spoof of Batman nemesis, The Joker). He is almost never without his trademark doll, Mr. Banana Brain, which can be used as an explosive. His most common toys are mechanical toy chattering teeth of various sizes. He has been known to team up with Megavolt. In the comics by BOOM! Studios, Quackerjack became a more dangerous villain; hurting from Negaduck destroying Banana Brain and telling him he wasn't "mean enough" to be a serious villain, then becoming bitter and angry when he failed to fit in at Quackwerks, viewing others' success as a "rejection of him". He became determined to show "the world he is mean enough" but after a series of more evil crimes, he grew tired of being more evil and turned himself into a toy outside his old girlfriend's house, believing "This is the best I can ever be". He was later brought back by Negaduck's "slime".
 * Mr. Banana Brain – A banana-headed doll that Quackerjack seems to always have with him. Not really a character, but the closest thing he has to a recurring sidekick and frequently makes "talk" via squeaky-voiced ventriloquism. He doesn't realize Banana Brain is a toy and that he's doing its voice. The doll was possessed by the demon Paddywack in "The Haunting of Mr Banana Brain". Negaduck deliberately destroyed him in the comic "The Duck Knight Returns", and Quackerjack has tried to create replacements.
 * Teddy – A robotic and malicious little teddy bear that served as Quackerjack's bodyguard and henchman in the episode "Days of Blunder" before self-destructing.
 * Terror Teddy – A giant robotic teddy bear that Quackerjack uses to terrorize St. Canard in the episode "Days of Blunder".
 * Crying Crissy Doll – A gigantic robotic doll with which Quackerjack tried to flood "Whiffle Boy" playtown in the episode "Whiffle While You Work" until he was defeated by Gosalyn Mallard.
 * Mr. Trivia Buff – One of Quackerjack's most ingenious torture devices is an Egghead talking doll which endlessly repeats useless facts in the episode "Quack of Ages".

F.O.W.L.
F.O.W.L. (The Fiendish Organization for World Larceny) is a terrorist organization (similar to S.P.E.C.T.R.E. from the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming) originally introduced in the DuckTales episode "Double-O-Duck" as the "Foreign Organization for World Larceny." F.O.W.L. antagonizes Darkwing Duck on different occasions.


 * The High Command – The three commanders of F.O.W.L. Whether appearing individually or all together, they are always hidden in the shadows and their true names are never mentioned in the show. The ones that usually talked were the one with a big head and fangs and the one with a hunched back. The one wearing the oversized hat never talked. It also appears that they were anthropomorphic birds. According to Steelbeak in "Cleanliness is Next to Badliness", they fed his predecessor through several garbage grinders when he failed them. In the Boom! comics, the rise of Quackworks decimated F.O.W.L. and a disgruntled High Command compensated by trying to summon the demon Duckthulhu.
 * Steelbeak (voiced by Rob Paulsen) – Acting like a 1920s gangster, Steelbeak is a suave and urbane rooster who is the chief agent of F.O.W.L.. He gets his name from the metal beak he wears in place of his original one which was apparently lost sometime before the events of the show, though it is not revealed how. This trademark beak also serves as a weapon because it can bite through almost anything (similar to Jaws, another recurring James Bond villain).
 * Ammonia Pine (voiced by Mitzi McCall) – A former cleaning lady who worked at a research lab, Ammonia accidentally inhaled the fumes of an experimental bathroom disinfectant, which had a strange effect on her and turned her into a cleaning-obsessed villain. She was later recruited by F.O.W.L. for their dastardly plans. She hates and even fears dirt. She has a sister named Ample Grime, who is also a F.O.W.L. agent.
 * Ample Grime (voiced by Ellen Gerstell) – Ample is Ammonia's messy, dirt-loving sister. No origin story is given for why she loves messes so much; however, it may be due to her sister's obsessive cleaning. She hates and fears cleanliness as much as Ammonia hates dirt which proves to be a problem when the two are required to team up.
 * Major Synapse (voiced by John Stephenson) – The typical R. Lee Ermey-type military man. He once sent an Eggmen military unit into an active volcano so it could be "captured." He steals S.H.U.S.H.'s Norma Ray, using it to turn his useless hippie underlings into superpowered malcontents. He later used it on himself turning into a giant head with a giant brain that had major telepathic abilities until his own stupidity caused his underlings "Hotshot" and "Flygirl" to be flattened by a cartoon anvil which they are last seen crawling away under. His own superbrain explodes when Darkwing Duck, Launchpad, and Gosalyn overloaded him with questions. In the comic story "F.O.W.L. Disposition", Hotshot and Flygirl briefly reappear as F.O.W.L. agents under Ammonia Pine's command, but end up defeating themselves when Honker tricks them into getting crushed by an anvil (again).
 * Hotshot (voiced by Danny Mann) – One of Major Synapse's hippie underlings changed by the Norma Ray. He controls both fire and ice.
 * Flygirl (voiced by Teresa Ganzel) – One of Major Synapse's hippie underlings changed by the Norma Ray. She can move things with her mind and can also fly.
 * Eggmen – F.O.W.L. foot-soldiers, instantly recognizable by their white, egg-shaped helmets.

Other villains

 * Taurus Bulba (voiced by Tim Curry) – Taurus Bulba is a bull who is shown to be a ruthless and extremely dangerous major super-villain in St. Canard. He is the main-villain of the series pilot-episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck". He's one of the few villains implied to have committed murder, specifically of Gosalyn's grandfather. Among his objectives are his desire to give St. Canard a new kind of villain: he considered the other villains too unprofessional. He was the first major villain that Darkwing fought against and defeated, although only after Bulba proved willing to destroy himself, in order to try to kill Darkwing in the process. Though he was believed to have perished in the explosion of Canard Tower, he was later revived by F.O.W.L. in the episode "The Steerminator" in order to become their new major agent after Steelbeak reconstructed him as a cyborg, to which he refused. He came back as the chief villain in "The Duck Knight Returns" comic story, launching a secret corporate takeover of St Canard and ruling it behind the scenes for a year before he was exposed. A never made 4th season of Darkwing Duck would have had Darkwing and an African version of Darkwing Duck vs Taurus Bulba in Africa. His name appears to be a reference to Nikolai Gogol's hero Taras Bulba, and the Latin word for "bull."
 * Hammerhead Hannigan (voiced by Hal Rayle in "Darkly Dawns the Duck", Tad Stones in "In Like Blunt") – A goat who is Bulba's lead henchman. Hammerhead is a surly goat wearing a pinstriped suit who talks and acts like a stereotypical 1930s gangster. His gimmick is that he uses his head as a blunt object to headbutt his enemies. He appears to be based on the Marvel Comics villain of the same name, although a Three Stooges reference suggests he may also have been inspired by Shemp Howard's character named Hammerhead in The Invisible Woman. His choice of attack, headbutting, may also be based on actual male goat behavior as a show of aggression & dominance. Of Taurus' henchmen, Hammerhead is the only one who went on to appear in a third episode. He was shown briefly in the episode "In Like Blunt" about to beat up Phineas Sharp when the list that Phineas was going to sell was replaced with a grocery list.
 * Hoof and Mouth (voiced by Eddie Deezen) – Bulba's lackeys, a ram and a mute donkey. A lanky, bucktoothed donkey with red hair and a green fedora, Hoof is possibly the least intelligent of the three. Both he and Mouth wear bowties and are exceptionally clumsy, and often physically abused by Hammerhead. Hoof is apparently a mute because he never says a single word in either of the episodes he appears in, apart from the occasional grunt. Slightly smarter than Hoof is Mouth, a ram wearing a red bowtie and a driving cap. Their combined names are a pun on hoof-and-mouth disease. Whereas Hoof is eternally silent, Mouth, conversely, has an apparent speech impediment which makes him talk very rapidly and repeat almost everything he says. He is the smallest of the trio, yet still bigger than Darkwing as seen during his confrontation with him aboard Taurus' airship.
 * Clovis (voiced by Marcia Wallace) – Bulba's personal secretary, a blonde cow.
 * Tantalus – Bulba's pet vulture.
 * Negaduck (negatron version) (voiced by Jim Cummings) – This prototype-version of Negaduck was the embodied evil half of Darkwing Duck made entirely of negatrons, and created by Megavolt's tron-splitter device when it split Darkwing's positrons from his negatrons in the episode "Negaduck". Like the main version of Negaduck, this version was evil and malicious, as well as sadistic and often used weapons to terrorize people and commit crimes. He later became galvanized (becoming a powerful being of negative energy with intentions to destroy everything in his path). This also had the effect of giving him the ability to project beams of pure negatronic energy that destroy everything in their path. Visually, the galvanized Negaduck was surrounded by a blue aura and resembled a negative photocopy of Darkwing. However, he was forced to fight Posiduck who was also galvanized. In the end, he was remerged with Posiduck, thus bringing Darkwing back to normal. He is not to be confused with the main version of Negaduck.
 * The Brainteasers – Hat-shaped aliens that take over "host" bodies by sticking on their heads. They then completely control the host, give it incredible strength, and use their own voices. They subsist on metal which they force their hosts to eat.
 * Flarg (voiced by Rob Paulsen) – Flarg the Terrible is a Bowler hat and The Grand High Potentate of a thousand planets in the Delphonic Nebula. A ruthless leader who loves planetary destruction. Crash landed on earth and used Honker and Gosalyn as hosts. Attempted to conquer the planet but ultimately foiled by Honker and captured by revolutionaries. Later returned and used Binkie as host in his attempt at revenge.
 * Barada (voiced by Rob Paulsen) – A Cowboy Hat Guard of Flarg who was with him on both visits to earth. Barada's name is likely a reference to the famous phrase "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!" from The Day the Earth Stood Still
 * Nikto (voiced by Frank Welker) – The Gatsby other Guard of Flarg on both visits. Noted for his constant hunger for metal leading to him occasionally consuming important items. Also a lot less bright than the others. Like Barada his name is likely a reference to The Day the Earth Stood Still.
 * Talaya (voiced by Susan Tolsky) – A Female Brainteaser and love interest of Flarg. Broke the other three out of prison with a cake baked into a file (a parody to a file baked into a cake) after their capture by the revolutionaries. Joined them in their attempt at revenge on Honker.
 * Professor Moliarty (voiced by Jim Cummings) – A mush-mouthed mole who schemes to put the surface world into an eternal darkness. His name is a reference to Sherlock Holmes nemesis James Moriarty and his persona may be inspired by Marvel Comics' Mole Man.
 * Splatter Phoenix (voiced by Dani Staahl in "Brush With Oblivion", Andrea Martin in "Paint Misbehavin'") – A rejected artist known for her pompous speech (in "Paint Misbehavin'", she proclaims herself a "daringly innovative pseudo anti-neo post modern deconstructionist"), her chief weapon is a brush covered with paint that can allow her to enter paintings, animate them, or even to paint wholly new (and usually surreal-looking) creatures that help her. Along with Major Synapse, she is the only villain to ever "die" in the series, as she was "erased" by turpentine. She first appears in the episode "Brush With Oblivion", in which Darkwing Duck and his sidekicks attempt to stop her from stealing the Mona Lisa's smile. This episode features a number of clever parodies of works by famous artists such as Grant Wood, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso. It is implied that she is actually aware that she herself, along with the entire universe of the TV series, is actually animated/painted by "some higher being".
 * Dr. Fossil (voiced by Barry Gordon) – A pterodactyl and the creator of Stegmutt. Dr. Fossil is a paleontologist who worked at the natural history museum in St. Canard until, for reasons best known to himself, he turned himself into a humanoid pteranodon using his invention, the Retro-Evolution Gun. He later did the same to Stegmutt, the museum janitor, and Stegmutt became his unwitting henchman. It is not known precisely why Fossil de-evolved himself into a pteranodon, but his new form made him an outcast among the other animals in St. Canard, and he began to resent their stares, jeers, and cries of, "Look! It's Godzilla!" He also began to see that, to modern people, dinosaurs were nothing but a source of entertainment and amusement. Fossil began plotting to bring about the end of the world.
 * Phineas Sharp (voiced by Jonathan Harris) – Appearing in the episode "In Like Blunt", Phineas Sharp is a vulture who is the most evil villain in the history of S.H.U.S.H. It took super spy Derek Blunt to defeat him. He soon returns for revenge stealing a list of S.H.U.S.H.'s agents and trying to sell it off to the highest bidder. He invited a number of other villains — including Flintheart Glomgold, the Beagle Boys, Magica De Spell, Steelbeak and Ammonia Pine of F.O.W.L., and Hammerhead Hannigan, among others — to his resort to auction off the list and use the resulting billions to buy all the tea in China. His scheme was foiled by Darkwing Duck and Blunt who switched the real list with a grocery list taken off of his assistant Horatio.
 * Horatio – Sharp's short falcon assistant.
 * Isis Vanderchill (voiced by Sheryl Bernstein) – Appearing in the episode "All's Fahrenheit in Love and War", Isis Vanderchill is the Ice Queen of St. Canard. She has ice water in her veins and a passion for that caped crimefighter Darkwing Duck.
 * "The King" (voiced by Patrick Pinney) – An Elvis impersonator who took over St. Canard after Darkwing and Gosalyn accidentally went back in time and changed events so that Drake's younger self joined the King's gang and helped rob a music store, starting him down the road to crime. He appears in the episode "Paraducks".
 * Lamont (voiced by Candi Milo) – The King's younger brother, a schoolmate of a young Drake Mallard who often bullied him. As an adult in the changed future, he was a member of his sibling's gang alongside Drake.
 * Tuskernini (voiced by Kenneth Mars) – A walrus and an ego-driven but failed Hollywood film director whose schemes are built around films. He travels with a cadre of silent yet efficient penguin sidekicks. His name is a reference to famed conductor Arturo Toscanini, though the resemblance ends there.
 * Lilliput Gooney (voiced by Frank Welker) – Owned the miniature golf course, Gooney Golf, and was using a strange hat to communicate with and control ants. With his tiny minions, and his trusty shrink ray, he began turning St. Canard's monuments into miniature props for his golf course. This is essentially his modus operandi, as well as collecting some cash along the way. He is defeated when he shrinks Darkwing down to the size of the germ, and the caped crusader "infects" him. Apparently symptoms of Darkwing-itus involve one's face turning green and spotted, and is accompanied by uncontrollable sneezing.
 * The Bugmaster (voiced by April Winchell) – Her real name is Bianca Beakley, a former newscaster and Gosalyn's role model. To boost ratings, Bianca became a villain and started to commit crimes by controlling insects. She appears in the episode "Fraudcast News".
 * Jambalaya Jake (voiced by Michael Gough) – A character of unknown humanoid species, whose minion is an alligator named Gumbo. Jake and Gumbo both come from the bayou and have a cajun accent most reminiscent of Cajuns in the New Orleans, Louisiana locale. Jake and Gumbo first appear in the episode "Can't Bayou Love", which was Disney Afternoon episode 16. Jambalaya Jake reappears later in the series in the episode "Double Darkwings" in an attempt to get even with Darkwing using his grandmother's potions.
 * Gumbo (voiced by Jim Cummings) – Jambalaya Jake's alligator henchman.
 * Beelzebub (voiced by Marty Ingels) – The Devil, first appearing in Darkwing's dream and reality in "Dead Duck" and then for a real battle in "Hot Spells". Two of his demon minions briefly appear near the end of the episode "A Star Is Scorned", where they are accountants for "Dizzy Studios".
 * Darkwarrior Duck (voiced by Jim Cummings) – A Darkwing Duck from an alternate future, where Gosalyn went missing. He first grew despondent, then tougher and more obsessive over crimefighting; soon, he'd taken over the whole city with robotic servants, alienated Launchpad, and was responsible for mass incarcerations for "crimes" like being out after 8PM. It was implied he'd killed a number of people. Gosalyn had gone missing due to time-travel to the future and she was able to end this timeline by returning home - Darkwarrior had been initially ecstatic to see her but soon turned on her for being a 'villain'. However, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her. Only appeared in "Time and Punishment" in the show, but appeared again in the comic "Crisis on Infinite Darkwings"; issue fifteen showed Darkwing thinking of bringing about Darkwarrior's dictatorship when he thought about what he could to keep people "safe" from loss as Mayor.
 * Paddywhack (voiced by Phil Hartman) – Paddywhack is a supernatural entity who inhabits a haunted jack-in-the-box, capable of possessing inanimate objects and imbuing them with his will. He managed to get out of his jack-in-the-box and possessed Quakerjack's toy-plush Mr. Banana Brain. Only appeared in "The Haunting of Mr. Banana Brain" in the show, but came back in the comic "Crisis on Infinite Darkwings".
 * Weasel Lowman (voiced by Brian Cummings) – A former work colleague and fellow salesman of Herb Muddlefoot's at Quackerware Products, he was fired from his job for being a disgrace to Quackerware's salesmen corp. Using a machine to turn the Quackerware products into sentient beings, he sells them while disguised as Herb. The products then ransack the customers' homes, steal their valuable belongings, and hand them over to Weasel. SHUSH targets Herb as the prime suspect in the rash of home burglaries. With the help of Herb, Darkwing is able to uncover Weasel's scam and clear Herb's name. Weasel Lowman's name and character is a play on the name of another fictional salesman, Willy Loman. He appears in the episode "The Merchant of Menace".
 * Ordinary Guy (voiced by Ron Palillo) – Ordinary Guy was a human native of the planet Mertz who appears in the episode "Planet of the Capes". His name derived from the fact he was the only person on Mertz who didn't have superpowers. As Mertz's only normal human, Ordinary Guy was constantly being "rescued" by his neighbors from "dangerous" situations. He eventually grew tired of this and disappeared, prompting the heroes to seek out Comet Guy's old friend Darkwing Duck as a replacement. In reality, Ordinary Guy had taken on a supervillain persona, Not-So-Ordinary Guy, and invented a large ray gun which would steal the superpowers of all of Mertz's heroes. He then turned the device on himself, absorbing all of the stolen powers and becoming huge and muscular. In this form, he renamed himself Extraordinary Guy. Darkwing, already lacking powers, used the machine on himself and became big enough to battle Extraordinary Guy. The two fought and eventually grew so huge they stood astride Mertz itself and used surrounding planets and stars as weapons. The battle ended when Darkwing reversed the machine against Extraordinary Guy, but not himself, turning the villain back into a normal, powerless human, and returning the superpowers to their rightful owners. Ordinary Guy almost went spinning helplessly off into space, but he was rescued at the last second by Darkwing, who told him a true hero saves the villain.
 * Cement Head (voiced by Jesse Corti) – After his father fell into a pool of wet cement, he was born a cement mutant. Disowned by his parents he turned to crime and became a crime lord in St. Canard. He appeared in the episode "Mutantcy on the Bouncy". He also disguised himself as a pig who was a respected business owner.
 * Camille Chameleon – Originally a girl that would never fit in anywhere, Camille spent her time studying biology and became obsessed with chameleons and their ability to fit in anywhere. She managed to extract the chameleon essence and implement it in herself, giving her fantastic transforming abilities and apparently a tail. Darkwing defeats Camille when Honker turns up the heat causing her metabolism to speed up. She loses control of her shapeshifting powers and assumes many different personalities until she finally breaks down and is permanently turned into an actual chameleon. She appeared in the episode "Calm a Chameleon". She later appeared in the Boom! Studios comics, working for Magica De Spell.
 * Wacko (voiced by Hal Rayle) – Wacko was an alien criminal who sought to destroy the universe using seismospheres in the episode "When Aliens Collide". He was a member of a species capable of altering their body structure. In his "normal" form he was small and cute, but he could cause himself to grow huge and muscular and even stretch his body out. Captured by Captain Big Nasty of the Outer Space Patrol, he was fitted with a collar that prevented him from bulking up, and also from speaking. Wacko escaped and stole the seismospheres and fled to Earth. Found by Drake and Gosalyn Mallard and Honker and Tank Muddlefoot coming home from the theater, he was adopted by Gosalyn as a pet. With her help he was able to get the restrictive collar off, and reacquire the seismospheres which had been found and kept by Tank, who mistook them for jawbreakers. Wacko then more or less kidnapped Gosalyn and Honker and held them hostage, threatening to use the seismospheres, but he was stopped by the combined forces of Darkwing Duck and Captain Big Nasty.
 * Major Trenchrot (voiced by Charlie Adler) – A major with whom Darkwing Duck and company met in the episode "Apes of Wrath". At first, it seemed that he was hating gorillas just because they were stealing "banana crates" (which really contained weapons), but in reality he wanted to build the biggest villains vacation villa in the world, and for that he needed to destroy all the gorillas. His plans were ruined by Darkwing Duck.
 * Dr. Anna Matronic – Inventor of the Silly Signal, originally built to make her Muttmatics smarter, but instead, it made them act silly. She used this weapon on S.H.U.S.H. agents to make them act like twits in the storybook The Silly Canine Caper. Anna Matronic was originally intended for an actual episode of the show which was abandoned for unknown reasons; she does, however, make a cameo appearance in the episode "In Like Blunt". She is also prominently featured in a comic story published by Marvel Comics, but for some reason, instead of a female duck as she was originally designed, she appears in the comic story as a human. Her name is a pun on animatronic.
 * The Mutant Space Cabbages – A mutated alien race of cabbages who attempt to conquer Earth in the episode "Twin Beaks". They were originally crops farmed by a race of alien cows on the planet Larson, but mutated and fled to Earth where they began to replace people with clones in order to take over the planet. They are eventually defeated by the space cows, with help from Darkwing and Bushroot.
 * Jock Newbody (voiced by Hamilton Camp) – A former fitness guru and body builder, Jock became obsessed with extending his life and regaining his youth. Turning to mystic and arcane practices such as seventeen hours in avacado and kiwi baths, jock was able to live to age 122 while retaining much of his strength. Then he somehow managed to perfect a forumla for a true fountain of youth. It only needed one last ingridiant, the feather of a true hero (otherwise the effects would cause jock to gain the tendencies of whoseever feather it was). Gaining Darkwing's feather allowed Jock to succeed in his dream of regaining his young adult body. But betraying his henchmen and Darkwing and Herb's interference ended with him trapped in the body of an infant.
 * Slim and Flex (voiced by Brenda Vaccaro and Rob Paulsen respectively) – Jock's retainers. Slim is shorter, heavier and the streotypical slave driving personal trainer. Flex is taller, thinner and pretty stupid; with a habit of repeating himself. The two worked as Jock's henchmen and trainers at his fitness center, using their bodybuilding abilities in both cases. But once Jock regained his youth he tried to blow them up along with Darkwing for knowing about his elixer. This caused them to turn against him and try to take the elixer for themselves. But in the end they too had their age reverted to infancy.
 * Nodoff (voiced by Neil Ross) – The ruler of Dream World and one-time partner-in-crime with Morgana McCawber. He provided Morgana with sleep sand in order to help her in her efforts to steal in order to pay off her student loans. Unbeknownst to her, Nodoff's real plan was to make all the people of St. Canard sleep forever. He was defeated when Darkwing used the sleep sand to send him to the real world where he lacks the powers that he has in the Dream World. He appears in the episode "Ghoul of My Dreams".
 * Johnny T. Rex (voiced by Chick Vennera) – A Tyrannosaurus rex who was threatening prehistoric scientists in the episode "Extinct Possibility". He was defeated when Darkwing (who traveled back in time) challenged him to a road race. In the end, he was encased in amber.
 * Dr. Slug – A villainous Jabba like mass who is only seen in one episode and the opening teasers; he never had a whole episode although he is seen briefly in the episode "Inside Binkie's Brain". Negaduck complains that although Dr Slug couldn't get himself out of a paper bag, Dr Slug is Public Enemy No. 1 a fact that drives Negaduck insane with rage.
 * Ice-Head Harry (played by Andrei Torossian) – He was featured exclusively in the Darkwing-based segment of the Walt Disney's World on Ice show Double Feature... Live! His villainous goal was to win the heart of a dancer named Dazzles (Daisy Duck), and tried to do so by having his Hoods steal the Diamond of Love so he could present it to her. When she refused it because her heart belonged to another (presumably referring to Donald), he had her tied to a keg of dynamite, but Launchpad managed to call Darkwing in to stop Ice-Head.
 * Wolfduck – He was featured exclusively in the Darkwing Duck Capcom/NES video game.

Comic-original villains

 * Fluffy – First appearing in the Disney Adventures comic "The Kitty Kat Kaper" (Disney Adventures #2-09, July 1992):, Fluffy was an orange housecat with "mega-genius intelligence" (granted from being a test-animal in S.H.U.S.H.'s research labs) who sought to conquer St. Canard and turn it into a city ruled by cats. After being defeated by Darkwing Duck in his first appearance, Fluffy returned in "Cat in a Hot Tin Suit" (Disney Adventures #3-12, October 1993) wearing a homemade suit of armor (built from old tuna cans) and briefly ruled St. Canard after defeating Darkwing Duck in a very one-sided battle, though Darkwing later managed to overthrow Fluffy. In his third appearance, "Fluffy's Reign of Terror", Fluffy is released from prison for good behavior. Shorty after his release, he covered St. Canard in a white substance dubbed "Flee Powder", driving those exposed to it into leaving St. Canard as fast as possible (though it only worked once per person and had no effect on mutants like Megavolt, Bushroot, and Liquidator). Again, Darkwing was able to outwit Fluffy and save the city.
 * Duckthulhu – A parody of Cthulhu. A powerful primordial entity, F.O.W.L. High Command tried to summon him in order to enslave mankind in "F.O.W.L. Dispositions". He could mutate people into tentacled monsters that were slaved to his will; even before Duckthulhu had risen, the more weak-minded citizens of St Canard had started to transform. F.O.W.L. were wrong in believing he could be controlled and Duckthulhu came close to winning before Morgana was able to stop him.
 * Carmichael Q. Anthony / One-Shot – A former baseball pitcher who was banned from the sport after he began having a mental breakdown, causing him to pitch any random object he could grab. After receiving a magical coat allowing him access to an unlimited supply of objects, he became the supervillain One-Shot, causing mayhem in the city of St. Canard.
 * Mortimer L. Marquand / Cat Tankerous – A super-villain cat who wears an enormous suit of indestructible armor, though it's revealed that its wearer is only a child. Prior to receiving the suit, Mortimer L. Marquand was just an ordinary school-age boy with a deep but unrequited crush on his schoolmate Gosalyn. Inspired by the sight of her as "GosmoDuck" during the Crisis of Infinite Darkwings, Mortimer attempted to build his own Gizmo Suit and impress her, but to no avail. He then received the Cat-Tankerous suit with a note saying for him to "be a better man", driving him into a single-minded obsession towards destroying St. Canard and Darkwing Duck.
 * Constance A. Dention / Suff-Rage – When Darkwing Duck declared his intent to run for Mayor of St. Canard, he faced opposition in the form of Launchpad and newcomer Constance A. Dention (a pun on "constant attention"), who also sought to destroy Darkwing as the super-villainess Suff-Rage. As Constance, she used mudslinging and verbal abuse to damage Darkwing's reputation in the polls. As Suff-Rage, she employed a wide variety of illusions and animatronics to confuse Darkwing and turn the public against him.
 * Mondo – Appearing in the story Mondo: The Mad Mask Misappropriator, he is a big-shot hunter whose lifelong goal is to unmask every superhero in the world. He has a massive collection of masks from all the superheroes that he, according to Darkwing, "shamed out of the superhero business".
 * Solego, the Chaos God – A saurian sorcerer with nearly unstoppable magic powers from ancient times who was eventually imprisoned within two pieces of mystic jewelry. In the five part crossover story Legend of the Chaos God, Solego's mind tries to influence others to unite the two pieces and restore his body. Over the course of several decades, the cast of TaleSpin, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, and DuckTales are all influenced by Solego's cursed jewelry as the sorcerer tries to manipulate them to reunite the two pieces and free himself. Solego eventually possesses Gizmoduck's suit and uses it to fly to St. Canard, where he finally succeeds in freeing himself. During a battle with Darkwing, one of his magic blasts bounces off a satellite dish, striking the jewelry and splitting it, reimprisoning him. The pieces are sealed within a safe, which is then buried at the bottom of Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin.
 * Clawed Hopper – A kangaroo with a metal pincer hand who was the main villain of the three part story Cereal Crimes. While Darkwing investigated strange donut shops popping up all over the city that sold magnetic donuts (all set up by Hopper and his gang), Hopper used an interactive TV show involving the "Crunchy Crusaders" – mascots for a breakfast cereal – to brainwash the children of St. Canard, including Darkwing's daughter Gosalyn; the host was a parrot named Bob (blue in the earlier appearances, and green when worn on Hopper's pincer hand). Darkwing eventually went to the TV station, "unmasked" Bob the parrot, and defeated Hopper by pinning him to a metal wall, using his own magnetic donuts.

Other characters

 * Mrs. Cavanaugh (voiced by Marcia Wallace) – The director of the St. Canard Orphanage, who appears in "Darkly Dawns the Duck". She is named after Christine Cavanaugh, Gosalyn's voice actress.
 * Warden Waddlesworth (voiced by Laurie Faso in "Darkly Dawns the Duck", Jim Cummings in later appearances) – The warden of St. Canard's unnamed maximum security prison. He first appeared in "Darkly Dawns the Duck" as Taurus Bulba's jailer, and he also appeared in the episodes "Twin Beaks" and "Jail Bird". Like Duckworth from DuckTales, he is a dog with a duck-based name.
 * Moloculo Macawber (voiced by Jack Angel) – He is the father of Morgana Macawber and head of the Macawber clan. He appears in the episodes "Monsters R Us" and "Hot Spells".
 * Dean Specter McHex – The dean of the Eldritch Academy of Enchantment (Morgana's alma mater). He appears in the episode "Hot Spells".
 * Goose Lee (voiced by Robert Ito) – An old Kung Fu master who taught Darkwing martial arts long ago. He appears to have been corrupted by money and now spends his days dreaming of opening an amusement park called Ninja Land. He considers Darkwing a disappointment due to Darkwing's use of gadgets and weapons instead of fighting using only his martial arts knowledge. He constantly refers to Darkwing as "Grubworm". His name is a parody of Bruce Lee. He appears in the episode "Kung Fooled".
 * Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson (voiced by S. Scott Bullock and Frank Welker respectively) – Two scientists who worked alongside Bushroot and Dr. Rhoda Dendron at St. Canard University. They appear in the episode "Beauty and the Beet" where they were merciless bullies who endlessly tormented Bushroot even after his mutation. Finally they pushed him too far, and were killed by his vines. Despite their so-called deaths they had a cameo in the episode "Going Nowhere Fast". It is possible that they are a reference to cartoonist Gary Larson; they resemble scientists from The Far Side.
 * Dean Tightbill (voiced by Frank Welker) – The dean of St. Canard University who cut the funding for Bushroot's experiments in the episode "Beauty and the Beet".
 * Dr. Rhoda Dendron (voiced by Jennifer Darling) – She is a scientist who only appears in the episode "Beauty and the Beet", where Bushroot tries to turn her into a plant/duck hybrid.
 * Tom Lockjaw (voiced by S. Scott Bullock) – Painfully handsome star reporter (based on Tom Brokaw) for "Soft Copy" (a parody of Hard Copy) who appears throughout the series. Occasionally, Tom's role is filled by another reporter named Dan Gander (possibly based on Dan Rather).
 * Webra Walters (voiced by Tress MacNeille) – She is a reporter (based on Barbara Walters) who appears in the episode "Up, Up, and Awry". It should be noted that this character previously appeared in some DuckTales episodes.
 * The Princess (voiced by Kath Soucie) – The beautiful female duck ruler of the petroleum-rich Middle Eastern country of Oilrabia. She appears in the episode "Water Way to Go". Her name is never revealed. She became smitten with Launchpad, who she thought was the hero between himself and Darkwing, who she thought was the sidekick.
 * Dr. Beatrice Bruté (voiced by Victoria Carroll) – A S.H.U.S.H.-funded anthropologist in the mold of Jane Goodall who appears in the episode "Apes of Wrath". Her surname is pronounced "Brute-ay". While studying gorillas in the jungle, she stumbled across Major Trenchrot's plan to build a vacation resort for villains.
 * Bongo and Congo (voiced by Frank Welker) – Beatrice's two most intelligent gorilla companions, who rescue her from Trenchrot's villa and later bring Darkwing, Gosalyn, and Launchpad to meet her.
 * Shyster and Loophole – Two tax attorneys who represented master criminal Numero Uno in his legal battle with the city. They were abducted by Stegmutt and turned into dinosaurs with Dr. Fossil's Retro-Evolution Gun. They appear in the episode "Jurassic Jumble".
 * Captain Big Nasty (voiced by Danny Mann) – A large alien android with an Austrian accent, based on Arnold Schwarzenegger, sent to Earth to apprehend the fugitive criminal Wacko in the episode "When Aliens Collide". Because of his name, and the fact he is pursuing the seemingly helpless and cute Wacko, Darkwing and friends initially mistake him for a villain, when he is in fact a police officer.
 * E. Thaddeus Rockwell – Darkwing Duck's producer in two episodes, and an egotistical, money-focused executive who abuses his aide Crosby. He's a human being, as is Crosby. In his debut in "Twitching Channels", he became wealthy after he gained the ability to pick up the events in Darkwing's home dimension and turned them into a cartoon show. In "A Star is Scorned", an out-of-continuity episode where Darkwing is both a real hero and an actor, Rockwell tried to replace Darkwing with Bushroot to save money (so he could keep it). A tuckerisation of Tad Stones.
 * Crosby (voiced by Rob Paulsen) – Rockwell's aide
 * A.F. Arret (voiced by Hal Rayle) – The ferret owner of a movie studio in the episode "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlatan". Very abrasive and short-tempered, he dislikes it when people mistakenly call him "Mr. Ferret". Tuskerninni was attempting to drive his studio into bankruptcy in order to get at the oil wells beneath it.
 * Official Guy (voiced by Dorian Harewood) – He is the official leader of Comet Guy's home-planet Mertz, which is populated by superheroes. He appears in the episode "Planet of the Capes".
 * "Webby" (voiced by Lorenzo Music) – A cute and innocent spider who appears in the episode "Aduckyphobia". Originally of normal size, he was mutated into growing to human size by exposure to the radioactive material called canardium. He bit Darkwing, giving him spider-themed powers. For a time, the innocent Webby was duped into helping Professor Moliarty. Not to be confused with Webbigail from DuckTales.
 * Hamilton "Ham" String (voiced by Jerry Houser) – A pig jock, Ham String was a bully who picked on Elmo Sputterspark in high school. It is his fault that Sputterspark ultimately becomes Megavolt. He appears in the episode "Clash Reunion".
 * Preena Lot (voiced by Teresa Ganzel) – Ham's high school girlfriend and later his wife. She generally tells Ham what to do in his bullying. She appears in the episode "Clash Reunion".
 * The Rubber Chicken (voiced by Corey Burton) – A somewhat cowardly chicken. Due to parental exposure, he was born a rubbery mutant who can stretch extremely far. He became a hero to defeat Cement Head but got framed instead and hunted by Darkwing. He later gathered other mutants to join his fight and eventually helped Darkwing defeat Cement Head. He appears in the episode "Mutantcy on the Bouncy".
 * Banana Boy – Due to parental exposure, born a mutant that can change body into a banana at will. He joined the Rubber Chicken but was easily defeated.
 * Glue Gal – Due to parental exposure, born a mutant with glue power. She joined the Rubber Chicken but was easily defeated.
 * The Sneeze Master – Due to parental exposure, born a mutant that can display cold symptoms at will. She joined The Rubber Chicken but her power only helped in the mutants' defeat.
 * Little Running Gag – A character that only appears in the episode "Comic Book Capers". He appeared to help a Native American version of Megavolt. He usually shows up at the most inappropriate moments and throws pies into people's faces.
 * Trudi (voiced by Susan Tolsky) – She is the twin sister of Binkie Muddlefoot and the aunt of Honker and Tank Muddlefoot. She appears in the episode "Twin Beaks", where she was one of the people that were taken and replaced by mutant space cabbage clones.
 * Duane (voiced by Frank Welker) – A truck driver who tells Darkwing and Launchpad about the giant vampire potato in the episode "Night of the Living Spud".
 * Principal Farnsworth (voiced by Linda Gary) – The principal of Gosalyn's school, who appeared in the episode "Toys Czar Us".
 * Saint Peter (voiced by Hal Smith) – The gatekeeper of Heaven who argues with Beelzebub over the fate of Darkwing's soul in the episode "Dead Duck".
 * The Grim Reaper (voiced by Tony Jay) – Also known as Death, appeared in the episode "Dead Duck".
 * Professor Waddlemeyer – Gosalyn's deceased biological grandfather. He is only shown in a photograph in the episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck Part 1".
 * Granny Whammy (voiced by Billie Hayes) – Jambalaya Jake's grandmother who appears in the episode "Double Darkwings", and is voiced by Billie Hayes.

Episodes
Over three seasons there were a total of 91 episodes.

Opening introduction
There are seven different versions of the Darkwing Duck introduction. The first two were aired on The Disney Channel when Darkwing Duck first premiered and featured alternate animation and a different version of the familiar theme song. The third version was used on the "Darkly Dawns the Duck" pilot and on VHS. The fourth version was used in syndication and on Toon Disney, and is actually the one they currently use today. The fifth is the version used on The Disney Afternoon, and is the same as the fourth version only cut for time. The sixth and seventh introductions were used on the ABC Saturday Morning airings, and contained mostly scenes from those episodes, starting with Darkwing tiptoeing up the Audubon Bay Bridge.

Broadcast history
Darkwing Duck first aired on The Disney Channel on March 31, 1991 as a "sneak preview", and then from April 6 into May of that year as a regularly scheduled run on weekend mornings, as it was advertised to be The newest animated TV series exclusively to The Disney Channel. In reality, this was a preview of the series before it aired on The Disney Afternoon.

The two-part episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck" originally aired as an hour-length TV special on September 6, 1991 as part of a larger TV special, "The Darkwing Duck Premiere and Back to School With the Mickey Mouse Club". The film served as the show's pilot. Seasons 1 and 2 were aired simultaneously in the Autumn of 1991. Seasons 1 and 3 on syndication as part of The Disney Afternoon block of shows. Seasons 2 and 4 aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. All episodes remained in syndicated reruns on The Disney Afternoon until 1995 and then returned to the line up from 1996 to 1997.

Starting on October 2, 1995, Darkwing Duck was rerun on The Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late-afternoon/early-evening and which also included TaleSpin, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. On September 3, 1996, Darkwing Duck was dropped from the beginning of the block when Goof Troop was added to the end.

The series was last seen in the U.S. on Toon Disney. Along with a number of other shows, it was removed from schedules on November 2004. Toon Disney then aired the Christmas episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf" on December 25, 2004. The show was last seen on January 19, 2007 as part of the Toon Disney Wild Card Stack. Certain episodes from the show's original run rarely re-aired while the show was on Toon Disney. These episodes appear to have been removed for content reasons. The most prominent of the rarely seen episodes is "Hot Spells", which features a Satan-like character called Beelzebub.

Darkwing Duck was one of the first American animated TV series to be officially broadcast in syndication in the former Soviet Union.

This show currently airs on Disney XD in various countries such as the Netherlands and Germany.

VHS releases
Four VHS cassettes, each containing one or two episodes (a total of 6 episodes) of Darkwing Duck, were released under the title Darkwing Duck: His Favorite Adventures in the United States on March 23, 1993, individually titled "Darkly Dawns the Duck", "Justice Ducks Unite!", "Comic Book Capers" and "Birth of Negaduck!". However, most countries around the world only received releases of "Darkly Dawns the Duck" and "Justice Ducks Unite!" Each video came with two "glow-in-the-Darkwing" trading cards. Featured on the cards were Darkwing Duck, Launchpad, Gosalyn, Honker, Negaduck, Bushroot, Megavolt, and Taurus Bulba. The videotapes also included a Darkwing Duck music video which played at the end of each tape.

Additionally, on September 28, 1993, the Darkwing Duck episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf" was released together with the Goof Troop episode "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Happy Holidays with Darkwing Duck and Goofy! On September 3, 1996, the Darkwing Duck episode "Ghoul of My Dreams" was released together with the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Good Times, Bat Times" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Witcheroo!

UK, Australia & New Zealand releases
Six VHS cassettes containing 10 episodes of the series were released in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

United States (Region 1)
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released a three-disc DVD box set entitled "Darkwing Duck: Volume 1" on August 29, 2006. It included 25 episodes, plus the two-part pilot "Darkly Dawns the Duck", as opposed to the uncut version's release on VHS. The second volume, containing the next 27 episodes, was released on August 7, 2007. The sets do not contain any special features. It is currently unknown if Disney has any intentions of releasing the remaining 37 episodes on DVD.

International (Region 2)
No official releases have been made outside the United States.

Video games

 * Darkwing Duck video game released by Capcom on the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy as a platform side-scroller. The game was developed for the NES in 1992 and was ported to the Game Boy in 1993. The Game Boy version is essentially a slightly stripped-down version of the game.
 * Darkwing Duck (A different game with the same title) was also released for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1992 as an action side-scroller.
 * Darkwing Duck (yet another game with the same title) was released for various touchscreen mobile phones as a platform side-scroller in 2010.
 * In Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes (2.0 Edition), the upcoming game will have two power discs, "Darkwing Duck's Grappling Gun" and "Darkwing Duck's Ratcatcher" that will be released. Darkwing Duck himself is a townsperson and mission giver in the 2.0 Toybox.

Comic books
Disney Comics published a four-issue Darkwing Duck comic book mini-series in late 1991, right around the time of the show's syndicated premiere. This mini-series was an adaptation of a draft of the script for "Darkly Dawns the Duck". Like the TaleSpin comic before it, it was meant to spin off a regular comic series, but the Disney Comics implosion happening at the time prevented that plan. However, Darkwing Duck stories were regularly printed in Disney Adventures magazine between the November 1991 and January 1996 issues. Additionally, Darkwing Duck stories were also regularly featured in Marvel Comics' short-lived Disney Afternoon comic book.

BOOM! Studios
On March 13, 2010, BOOM! Studios announced that they would be releasing a four-issue Darkwing Duck miniseries, titled "The Duck Knight Returns", starting in June of that year. The series was written by Aaron Sparrow (uncredited), Ian Brill and drawn by James Silvani, and was set one year after the end of the show. BOOM! later announced that due to positive fan reaction, the comic series would be extended indefinitely as an ongoing title. This first trade paperback collection of the initial four issues of the comic was released in the fall of 2010

Unlike the original show, the comic strengthened Darkwing Duck's ties to the parent show DuckTales and began to use a number of Carl Barks characters like Magica De Spell (allied to Negaduck in the second story) and cameoing Scrooge McDuck and Gyro Gearloose. A 4-Part Crossover story with Disney's DuckTales, titled "Dangerous Currency", was released with parts 1 and 3 for DuckTales #5 and #6, and parts 2 and 4 for Darkwing Duck #17 and #18. The comic also made a lot of homages to other Disney shows: Magica's powered up form in #7 has emblems that reference film villains like Hades and Jafar, someone holds a sign saying "Bring Back Bonkers" in the background of #6, and #3 shows Launchpad tried to get a job with Gadget Hackwrench of the Rescue Rangers from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.

The eighteenth issue, which shipped in October 2011, was the end of the series due to BOOM! Studios prematurely losing the Disney Comics license. Darkwing Duck Vol. 5 "Dangerous Currency" crossover, released in November 2011, was the final printing.

Comic Creator Controversy
Throughout the run of the Darkwing Duck comic series, there was controversy as to who was responsible for the series. Editor Aaron Sparrow is largely credited with the idea to relaunch the property and has claimed to have plotted the first year's arcs and come up with many of the concepts for following story arcs. This has been publicly disputed by Boom and credited series writer Ian Brill. However, artist James Silvani has publicly credited Aaron Sparrow not only with the idea of bringing the series back, but assisting him in ghost-writing much of the series and changing a lot of the concepts Ian Brill brought to the series following Sparrow's departure from BOOM! Studios. This seems to be further corroborated by the fact that Sparrow and Silvani have both stated they did not write any of the final arc of the series, "Dangerous Currency", which was largely panned by fans for having many glaring character inconsistencies, particularly in the case of the character Gizmoduck.

Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones has also publicly credited Aaron Sparrow as bringing the character back in a 2010 BOOM Kids! "Get A Sketch" panel at Comic-Con International. It may also be noted that Sparrow continues to make public appearances with Silvani and Stones, and Ian Brill does not. In a 2011 livestream interview Tad Stones admits he was unhappy with later issues of the series, and particularly criticized the election arc, of which he "tried to talk them out of". When questioned on whether he had read the entire comic series he stated: "Not the later stuff. I applaud what James tried to do. I hear he saved them but I thought the central premises were wrong."

Aaron Sparrow served as moderator at the 2013 Comic-Con International Disney Afternoon: The Continuing Legacy panel, which featured Tad Stones, voice actor Jim Cummings, voice actor Rob Paulsen, TaleSpin creator Jymn Magon, and Darkwing Duck comic artist James Silvani, associations which would seem to further corroborate his version of events.

In 2013, Disney European publisher Egmont released a compendium of several of the BOOM! Studios Darkwing Duck stories, including "The Duck Knight Returns", "Crisis On Infinite Darkwings", and "F.O.W.L. Disposition". Aaron Sparrow's story credits were not only restored, but he and James Silvani created an all-new 3-page introduction, and Ian Brill's dialogue was replaced with original dialogue by Sparrow.

On October 22, 2014 comic news website Bleeding Cool announced that the first 16 issues of Darkwing Duck would be packaged together and published in an omnibus by Joe Books. On his tumblr account, James Silvani stated that the omnibus would be a remastered edition, featuring revised art, a new epilogue, and that the script had been "painstakingly rewritten" by Aaron Sparrow. It was also announced that the omnibus would lead in to a new monthly series written by Sparrow and drawn by Silvani, with no involvement by Ian Brill. The omnibus reportedly only collects the first 16 issues and the annual, omitting the final "Dangerous Currency" crossover with Ducktales,seeming to further put the lie to Ian Brill's claims of sole authorship.

Awards and nominations

 * Daytime Emmy Awards
 * 1992 - Outstanding Animated Programming (nominated)
 * 1993 - Outstanding Animated Programming (nominated)

Cameos

 * Goof Troop (1992-1993): Quackerjack makes a cameo on Max's watch in the episode "Axed by Addition". In some episodes, Darkwing Duck makes a cameo on the comics and on TV.
 * Raw Toonage (1992): Launchpad and Gosalyn were guest stars.
 * Bonkers (1993-1994): In a dream sequence, Bonkers accepts an award for best cartoon crime-fighter from Darkwing, who's jealous he didn't win it himself. Darkwing later makes two more cameos in two other Bonkers episodes.
 * Aladdin (1994-1995): In the episode "My Fair Aladdin", the Genie transformed into Darkwing Duck.
 * Quack Pack (1996):
 * Robot Chicken (2011): In the episode "Kramer Vs. Showgirls", a "Where Are They Now" segment revolves around 90's characters. Launchpad was killed in a mishap with a jet and when Gosalyn needed a kidney transplant, Darkwing donated his body to a Chinese restaurant where he was cooked alive.
 * Funny or Die had an April Fool's sketch in 2013 where lead voice actor Jim Cummings tried to crowdfund a Darkwing Duck animated film created all by himself.

Reception
Darkwing Duck was named the 93rd Best Animated Series by IGN, calling it "one of the many reasons why after-school cartoons rule".

"Torgo's Pizzeria Podcast" gave a favorable retrospective review to Darkwing Duck in April 2012. The podcast did however note some weaknesses with the series.