Darkwing Duck/ DuckTales Finale

"Dangerous Currency"

So, the day has come that Disney's BOOM titles have come to an end, and to be honest, I'm pretty heartbroken over the situation. BUT there are rumors running that Marvel is considering continuing Disney titles which makes my life a bit better. But enough on that- that's get to what is important- the 4 part crossover event.

The story begins by pointing out that Quackwerks, the primary business in St. Canard and office of Launchpad McQuack is owned by a little known guy in Duckburg by the name of Scrooge McDuck. We begin two hors before things get insane, as McDuck and his three nephews and niece head to see Launchpad. Meanwhile, a lone duck, who looks haggard and worn down is runnign through the darkness, trying to reach Launchpad before its too late. As both of these events take place, Scrooge explains that the reason everyone is in danger is because Fenton Crackshell, the best accountant in the world, cannot be found. No surprise that the mysterious and desperate duck running is indeed Fenton, now arriving at the home of Drake Mallard, aka Darkwing. As Fenton is raving about what "lies below," Scrooge arrives at the house to attack Launchpad for screwing up his company, but stops short when he sees Fenton. It gets dark very fast putside and everything begins to become evil and inky- just like the substance that they have been dealign with for the past few issues. Fenton screams out that no matter what, don't let the slime touch you, just as the floor swallows him whole. Scrooge and Launchpad go back and forth about what will they do now that Gizmoduck is gone. Also, Drake learns that Fenton is Gizmoduck. A fact that apparently everyone but him was aware of. Scrooge then harps on the fact that Drake is useless for about five minutes before he finally comes out that he is really Darkwing Duck, which takes Scrooge another 5 minutes to get over. Meanwhile, the League of Eve-il (Yeah, dumb name, I know), comprised of Magica Despell, Amonia Pine, Cinnamon Teal, and Camille Chameleon, is putting plans into motion destroy both Duck cities. Back in St. Canard, Gyro Gearloose, Scrooge's inventions guy, is working on a way to beat the evil substance. Gosalyn reveals to everyone what she's been hiding- the Gizmoduck armor, and while Scrooge is annoyed that Fenton lost the armor to a little girl, he quickly bonds with Gos. Gyro and Honker fix the suit up for Fenton, so that instead of him saying his catchphrase and the armor coming to him, he will be teleported to the armor now. Before the process can go through, the Beagle Boys and Megavolt arrive to steal the armor. Gyro and Honker get taken out while Darkwing goes up against Megavolt. The Beagle Boys however, forgot the first rule of the shows- watch the kids. Scrooge's kids and Gos take out most of the Beagle Boys with grappling hooks and assorted rope. Darkwing and Megavolt continue fighting, and just as Darkwing gets the upper hand, the villains all get a call to "get dirty," which is code for "Put the ink on you." The heroes are mystified why there are covering themselves with the stuff until the changes happen. Megavolt turns into a complete powerhouse, who makes his own energy instead of having to steal voltage, and the Beagle Boys turn into one giant body with five heads and four arms. With these changes the villains easily steal the Gizmo suit and head to the hideout where a trap is being set for the heroes who follow. As the heroes look onward, they see that St. Canard itself has turned into a monster. While the ramifications of a whole city turning evil are discussed, Scrooge sneaks off to contact "Agent 44," who is a mystery to us currently, to tell him "This is worse than we thought." End of Part 1.

Part 2 picks up exactly where the last left off. Scrooge forms a plan on how they will take on Magica, who is holed up in the Quackwerks building. He, Darkwing, and Gyro will sneak in, while Launchpad and the kids are told to stay there and research the slime as much as possible. Darkwing is annoyed that he's being pushed around in his own city, but goes along with Scrooge's plan, but he knows how they will sneak in. A panel later, after the three of them have crashed though the penthouse window, Scrooge and Darkwing fight over the meaning of subtlety. Finding a box labeled "SECRET PLANS," Darkwing opens it to find this:

A moment later, the sprinklers activate and cover the room with the slime, just as the three heroes duck under a table for cover. Once it stops, they look out to see that Quackerjack is not only alive again, but is now a jack-in-the-box tank creature. Its pretty nightmarish really. Liquidator shows up as well, and he looks the same except being bigger and having cannon arms that shoot scalding hot water and freezing cold water. Also, Megavolt's there. As this fight ensues, we follow Launchpad and the kids as they walked the transformed streets, being attacked by all sorts of things, including a lamp post which Gos makes quick work of:

All the boys comment on how cool and cute Gos is. It gets a little awkward, but that's quickly cut away from as we catch up with Scrooge, Gyro, and Darkwing as they escape the building to the vine covered outer walls and windows. Although they try and climb, they are tangled in the vines by Bushroot who is apparently more powerful, but its never really explained. Darkwing shoots him in the face with a gas gun and the three manage to escape. Meanwhile, the kids are in a cave, following the slime and find a whole lake of it. The four boys, in a n effort to impress Gos try and reach in to get a sample, but they all accidentally fall in, leaving Webby and Gos with Launchpad. Scrooge, Gyro and Darkwing hide out in the most boring un-evil place in the Quackwerks building: Darkwing's old office before he started crimefighting again. Darkwing and Scrooge argue the cost and benefit of working a job to support your loved ones, and I really enjoyed how real this gets for a second. Scrooge gets a bad rap at times for his stinginess, but he shows some genuine care, and honestly some humility as he acknowledges that he won't be around for much longer. Its kinda sad. The moment is killed quickly as they hear someone calling for help. They find Gizmoduck chained up, but before they can free him, all the villians- The Big Beagle Boy, Quackerjack, Bushroot, Megavolt, Liquidator, the League of Eve-il, and the Phantom Blot- arrive and cover the floor with slime. The three heroes quickly jump to safety on some furniture, but they can't save Gizmoduck... so this nightmare is shown:

The heroes are almost taken out and Gyro nearly falls in, but is saved by Darkwing, as Scrooge calls the mysterious Agent 44 to initiate Operation: Motherlode. While they fend off the crazed Gizmoduck, the four Darkwing villains are annoyed that they can't be the ones to take on Darkwing and that the Blot is only out for himself, despite using other people's power, which reminds them of someone else they know... (foreshadowing). The Eve-il group is also annoyed that a man is taking the lead. Darkwing is grabbed and about to be eaten by Gizmoduck, when something falls out of the sky landing on Gizmo's head: a grumpy woman, on a couch, in curlers and watching television. Its Mrs. Crackshell, Fenton's mother. She berates him for a couple pages and he snaps out of the evil mode, and apologizes. The Blot gets pissed and goes to plan B: Sending in the supervillains:

Gizmoduck manages to fight them off and get Scrooge, Darkwing, Gyro, and his mother out to safety, only to find that the city is being terrorized by giant monster versions of the boys. End of Part two.

Part three picks right up, as Darkwing rescues the girls from the now evil monster boys and finds Launchpad and they all escape to Duckburg. Magica plans on taking the fight to Scrooge so that she can get a hold of his number 1 dime, which is apparently magic, and the Phantom Blot questions his purpose in this story as well as in life, a piece of foreshadowing again. Gyro manages to whip up an antidote to the slime just as the Duckburg police report sightings of "giant monsters that look strangely like Scrooge McDuck's nephews, and another bespectacled boy that we are, as yet, unfamilar with." Gotta love over analytic news reports... So the police are no match for the creatues, which I just figured out why they took these forms. Huey is the dragon from Sleeping Beauty, Dewey is teh whale from Pinnochio, Louie is the devil creature from Fantasia, and Honker is the Giant from Footloose and Fancy Free.

The boys are quickly dispatched with the antidote given from each of the adult heroes, including Scrooge and his classic Pogo stick cane that make the NES game awesome. The boys apologize profusely to everyone except Gizmoduck who they go off on because he wasn't around and could have prevented all this. Valid point I suppose. So, Gizmo recounts how he, Fenton Crackshell ended up trapped with Magica for a year, projecting the scenes without even realizing it. The suit, still slime enhanced has gotten a lot more weapons and presents a slideshow of Magica's plans, including her noting that she hates Negaduck, wants women to rule the world, is using some evil to control Phantom Blot, and plans to cover the world witht he slime. Everyone ponders if this is truly the end of the world while Scrooge once again calls Agent 44 to explain Magica's plans. Everyone turns to Darkwing for guidance, and for the firt time since the first story arc we get the signature catchphrase:

As much as I enjoy that line, the story takes a quick turn towards kind of sad and foreshadowing as Scrooge and Darkwing debate the issues of having kids around for these kinds of adventures.

The team begins to argue over where all these villains will strike first, and for Scrooge the answer is obvious- the money bin. Gyro takes Darkwing's gun to try and do some upgrades, while we check in on the villains. Magica drops Darkwing's rogues off in the city to wreck havoc, but they are quickly taken out with Darkwing's new antitdote gun that Gyro built. Darkwing is hailed by the radio as the greatest hero that Duckburg has ever seen, which is a storyline I'd like to see happen- kinda of a trading places type gig. Scrooge gets a tingle in his hands and knows that his money bin is in danger and gets there just in time to see the bin come to life and go on a rampage. Gyro hits the bin with a beam that will reveal the origins of the slime, and a portal opens in the sky, turning everything to black, and revealing the true culprit behind the whole thing: Negaduck... with Morgana, Darkwing's missing girlfriend, who looks liek she's been beat up pretty bad. Part 3 end.

Think the Gizmoduck/Christ imagery is too heavy handed here? Well, its ok... he doesn't really factor in to this story much. Negaduck tries to take down Darkwing and Launchpad's plane, but nobody crashes Launchpad's planes, but Launchpad, so he does a force crash, saving everyone inside. Negaduck uses his slime on Darkwing to show how all of this came to be. After being split into so many parts at the end of the Crisis on Infinite Darkwings storyline, his parts decsended so deep into the earth that, if this was anything but Disney, would be called Hell. After Morgana gave her life to save the world from Duckthulu, she was sent to the same place, where Negaduck siphoned her magic to bring himself back, piece by piece, which is what the slime is. Morgana however put a failsafe on her magic, that for Negaduck to come back fully, he would need Darkwing's permission. No surprise that Negaduck is dangling Morgana in front of Darkwing, that for her to come back, Negaduck would have to come with. Like all great heroes, Darkwing only has one choice:

Negaduck attempts to leave, but the slime takes his body over and he becomes an enormous prison, full of ink cells, holding Webby and Gos, Phantom Blot, The Big Beagle Boy, Gizmoduck, Huey, Duey, Louie, and Honker, and Scrooge, and the League of Eve-il, and Magica herself- each in their own cells. Negaduck's first order of business is to tell the Phantom Blot what Magica did to him, which does not go over well. While the Phantom Blot is going nuts, Scrooge calls Agent 44 one last time, tellign him that he knows what to do now, and we finally find out who he is:

Honestly, I was surprised. Did not expect him to show up. But what can Donald do? Tell people to fight back. Cue this "Who's that?" of DuckTales:

Back to our heroes, all of the citizens fighting back is making Negaduck weak so the Phantom Blot proposes a team-up, and includes Magica in the plan. All the villains join together to form something truly evil, use the reference of your choice for how this works... anything works really.

Scrooge realizes though, as the new ultra ink creature attacks, that the ink isn't as pure anymore, so its no longer transforming people when it touches them. Darkwing and the gang begin attacking all the different villains inhabiting the slime, and Morgana tells Darkwing about her trump card: She put a spell on Negaduck, so that if he ever feels sorrowful or that he's made a mistake, his powers will cease and he will return to the other dimension. Darkwing realizes this quickly and gives Negaduck the friendship speech, stating that because Negaduck never lets himself have friends, his life doesn't really matter. The realization causes him to doubt his evil plans for just long enough for the portal to reopen, taking with him those that had bonded with him- the Beagle Boys, The League of Eve-il, Magica, and the Phantom Blot- and the portal closes behind them. Later, the heroes all gather for a meal, to be served in Duckburg and then dessert will be served in St. Canard. Everyone comments on the teamwork that made this all possible and there is an implication that Scrooge will retire now that his only real villains are no more. And the two shake hands and the story ends. Its a bit anticlimatic, but I think its fitting. I don't think it ended the way Brill planned, since the series had to come to an early end, but I think it works well enough overall.
VERDICT: A. Like this is going to come as a surprise... The storyline was strong in all the ways it needed to be as a final storyline. I would have wanted a bit more, but honestly, I'm happy with what we ended up with, and I can only hope that Darkwing finds a home with Marvel. I know if you aren't reading it already, you probably won't now... but I implore you to get the first trade at least... it is fantastic.