Now you're up against it, Darkwing. Your traditional-title cohorts are blowing the kaboom! popsicle stand (with the last one for the foreseeable future, WDC&S #720, being released just this week), and your sole remaining compadre in the Disney-comics corral is sporting a rather spavined look at the moment. You'd better be ready to flap and terrorize for all you're worth to keep your own title alive. At least Ian Brill and James Silvani are showing confidence that they'll be around for a while; they even go so far as to introduce a brand-new supervillain in this standalone issue's aptly titled "Done in One." And a decidedly "screwball" foe he is...
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
P
A
C
E
The point-to-point tale of crazed simian relief pitcher Carmichael Q. Anthony (there must be a pop-culture reference in there somewhere... can anyone help?) is a refreshing relief from the character-choked, albeit entertaining, epics we've previously seen in this title. As a gimmick villain, he's certainly worthy of standing with such oddball infrequenters as Lillyputt and Splatter Phoenix. However, we may yet learn that his descent into obsessed madness as the junk-chucking One-Shot is in fact connected to a previous story, namely, "Crisis on Infinite Darkwings." Where else would CQA have gotten a coat that allows one to pull flotsam out of other dimensions... and that appears to tip the mind-muddled monkey over the mental edge? For all we know, all that stuff came from the immediate vicinity of the Universal Plug, but with some higher intelligence guiding it to Anthony. Is this Negaduck's way of once again making his putrid presence felt?
Surprisingly little is made here of Morgana's disappearance in DW #12, apart from Darkwing's futile attempts to contact her via psychic means at the beginning of the story. Once Launchpad and Gosalyn (1) bring the presence of One-Shot to the depressed DW's attention and (2) remind him of Morgana's "putatively last" request that he "always be himself" (simply watching several hours of cartoons at a stretch would have gotten that message across just as efficiently!), it's exaggerated action to the fore and Morgue to the rear of DW's consciousness -- at least until One-Shot is shunted to the pen (I had to use at least one baseball pun, didn't I?) and DW decides to make Morgana proud of him by... running for mayor? Apart from the obvious peril inherent in letting DW run any major operation, wouldn't this gambit completely obliterate his existence as Drake Mallard, obliging him to be in DW-mode all the time and at all hours? (Though I will admit that the whole "terror that flaps in the night" business has occasionally seemed to be strictly optional in this title.) Somehow, I suspect that the Darkwing I know wouldn't bounce back from the loss of Morgana quite this quickly. He wouldn't necessarily turn into Darkwarrior Duck, but the "recovery curve" would be steeper than this. Hopefully, in the midst of all the politicking and mud-slinging (none by One-Shot, however!), DW will keep "the search for Morgana" in the front of his easily-distracted mind.
Brill and Silvani continue to wrought well in this title, and a good thing, too -- their share of the load is about to get considerably heavier.
No comments:
Post a Comment