DarkWarrior Duck

DarkWarrior Duck is an alternate future version of Darkwing Duck that appeared in the episode Time and Punishment.

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DarkWarrior Duck: A psychotic Darkwing Duck rules St. Canard with an iron fist in the episode Time and Punishment

Plot and appearance

Quackerjack and Megavolt, using a larger version of Quackerjack's Time Top, accidentally wound up taking Gosalyn Mallard along for the ride when she attempted to stall them from carrying out whatever plot they were hatching, so that Darkwing could swoop in and defeat them. Transported into the future, they witness a much deadlier version of Darkwing, calling himself DarkWarrior Duck, harassing a pedestrian and sending him to spend 'a month in the pen,' simply for jaywalking. Quackerjack and Megavolt are arrested, but Gosalyn is able to make her way to Darkwing's old base within the Audubon Bay Bridge. There, she runs into an older version of Launchpad McQuack, who reveals that Darkwing went mad after a time of depression, believing that Gosalyn had run away because he would not allow her to help him in his work. Rediscovering his purpose, he quickly cleaned up the city, but then proceeded to remake himself as DarkWarrior Duck, and rules St. Canard with an iron fist. Dark Warrior proved to be far more deadly than NegaDuck, and succeeded where the Fearsome Five could not, in that he actually conquered St. Canard and instituted a permanent state of city-wide martial law-style lockdown. He would humorously but viciously punish malefactors for even slight offenses. {Launchpad is no longer a sidekick after DarkWarrior accused Lauchpad of being 'too soft on crime' because Launchpad thinks criminals should be tried "before execution"!}

Upon discovering that Megavolt's "Timetop" could project into historical or future eras, Darkwarrior Duck became even more fanatical in his views of suppressive law and order: He would go back in time to pivotal points in law and order history and subvert the events by changing them more to his style of punishing crime.

DarkWarrior briefly attempted to reconcile with the time-displaced Gosalyn for his perceived wrongdoing, fashioning her a suit of protective (and pointy) armor that she could wear while going out with him to rid the city of crime. Gosalyn was unhappy with DarkWarrior's fascist-like take on crimefighting (as well as the armor, which was so overdone that she could not move while wearing it, and it could stand by itself when she was not in it!). When she protested vehemently, DarkWarrior, who had been twisted by his years of isolation and violent behavior, turned on her, forcing her to flee from him and spring Quackerjack and Megavolt, so that the three of them could return to their own time and prevent the future timeline of DarkWarrior.

Powers, skills, and weapons

DarkWarrior apparently designed several forms of machinery, including robots capable of flight, hovering and programmed police tactics, an updated version of the Thunderquack jet, and a powerful tank-like vehicle outfitted with dual side-mounted missile racks. He was also armed with a variety of weapons in each vehicle, and even his trademark gas gun seemed to have multiple weapon systems inside of it, including a built-in missile-launcher. He was also presumably just as physically capable of combat as he originally was. Thus it can be assumed that DarkWarrior, like his earlier alter ego of Darkwing Duck, is still a master of the Martial Arts. DarkWarrior Duck's battle armor, however, had increased his bulk considerably, indicating that he likely relied more on brute force tactics than any finesse his earlier version might have displayed.

Final Fate

With the return of Gosalyn, Quackerjack, and Megavolt to the series' present day, it seems likely that the future which gave rise to DarkWarrior will not come to pass after all. DarkWarrior has made no other official appearances since Time and Punishment.

References

The gritty, tank-driving, and overly violent DarkWarrior Duck is most likely a reference to or parody of the future Batman portrayed in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, where an older and embittered Batman viciously and ruthlessly deals out his own brand of justice to evildoers. Considering Batman's influence on the character of Darkwing Duck, the comparison is not only likely, but obvious. (In the episode, a crime located at the streetcorner of Miller and Varley is mentioned; Frank Miller and Lynn Varley wrote and drew Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.)

Trivia

This episode of Darkwing Duck contradicts a DuckTales episode, Duck to the Future, produced a few years prior. In this dystopian future, Lauchpad McQuack is a university professor.