~The True Story of Darkwing Duck~
By: Cristi Muth
His name is Drake Mallard.
Growing up in the city of St. Canard, he was teased by the elementary school bully, Lamont (sp?), and treated like dirt by almost everyone. His only escape from the drudgery of everyday life was his "Super Pig" comics. He wanted to be a hero like Super Pig, someday...and the day came when a real hero by the name of Darkwing Duck traveled back in time to help out little "Drakie" Mallard. Darkwing got in way over his head, and it was Drakie who saved the day. Little did he know that his destiny was to become the hero he saw before him.
(Info from "Paraducks.")
In high school, Drake graduated from "Little Drakie Mallard" up
to "Drake the Dweeb." The most popular boy in high school, Ham String,
was Drake's main tormentor. But, Drake wasn't the only dweeb in the
school who was tortured by the "popular kids." There was a boy named
Elmo Sputterspark who was the smartest kid at St. Canard High...and, by
far, the most nerdy. One night, Ham and his friends took it upon
themselves to sabotage one of Elmo's experiments, a treadmill that
generated electricity as it worked, by taping Elmo's hands to the handles
and leaving him there. The overflow of energy was absorbed by poor Elmo
and he became an electricity wielding madman with a fried brain. He had
two motives: Get even with Ham, and free the lightbulbs.
Elmo decided that the best way to get back at Ham (and anyone
else who he had a grudge against) was to show up at the senior prom and
take everyone hostage. In doing this, Drake the Dweeb decided to finally
take matters into his own hands and try to be the hero he always wanted
to be. Drake dashed back behind the stage and found some old costumes
from the drama department. He used his purple tux jacket and a mask,
cape, and hat he found to make the first version of Darkwing's costume.
He used some blue smoke bombs he found and appeared in his now famous
entrance. The name "Darkwing Duck" had probably been stolen from his
future counterpart, but we can't be sure of that. If we go with that
theory, it would seem that Drake's destiny was to be Darkwing Duck.
But...let's move on...Darkwing appeared before everyone and attacked
Elmo. Of course, Drake's infamous luck worked in his favor and he
stopped "Megavolt" (Elmo's "villain" name.) After that, he made a career
out of being Darkwing Duck.
During this time, Darkwing and Gosalyn had been staying together in
"Darkwing Tower", above the bridge. They forged a close bond in a short
amount of time because they were so much alike. Both spirited in
different ways. I think it seemed obvious from the beginning that they
were meant to be with each other. Drake needed a family just as much as
Gosalyn did. His paternal instincts showed when he sang Gosalyn a
lullabye that her grandfather had sung to her:
(Info from "Darkly Dawns the Duck.")
(Info from "Double Darkwings.")
And so continues the story.
Key Moments of Darkwing's life
Copyright © 1998 Cristi Muth
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For years (it's hard to tell just how long), Drake lived as
Darkwing Duck up in the towers of St. Canard's Audubon Bay Bridge. He
spent his time busting small time criminals and longed for "a really big
time criminal." Finally, he got his chance when he uncovered the plot of
a mobster-esque madman by the name of Taurus Bulba. Bulba planned on
kidnapping the granddaughter of renowned scientist and inventor,
Professor Waddlemeyer. Bulba had stolen the Professor's invention, The
Waddlemeyer Ram Rod (a.k.a. "A tracular specific device that disrupts
gravitational bonds on a molecular level and allows manipulation on a
micro-scale.") but didn't know the code that operated it. He was certain
that the Professor's granddaughter, Gosalyn, would know. (Note: In
fan-fiction, Professor Waddlemeyer is given the first name of Noel, but
this is not a factual statement. In the series, he had no first name.)
Since her grandfather's death, Gosalyn had been living in the St.
Canard orphanage. Her parents had both died when Gosalyn was extremely
young (Note: In fan-fic, once again, more is surmised about Gosalyn's
parents, but nothing is supported by fact.) and Gosalyn had been pegged a
"problem child." After being led from the orphanage by Bulba's stooge,
Hammer Head Hannigan, Gosalyn was saved from certain kidnapping by a nut on a motorcycle who grabbed her just in the nick of time. That nut being
Darkwing Duck.
Darkwing tried to take Gosalyn to the police station, but he had
been falsely accused of robbing the same train that Bulba's men had
gotten the Ram Rod from and the police opened fire on him. Followed by
Launchpad McQuack, the aviator who had helped Darkwing a little earlier
(and who Darkwing had hoped never to see again), Darkwing drove his
motorcycle, The Ratcatcher, into the Bay. This left Launchpad alone in
the water, wondering if Darkwing had killed himself and the girl.
Later, upon hearing what had happened, Taurus Bulba decided that
Darkwing and Gosalyn were not dead, but that he had her hidden somewhere. He decided that drawing Darkwing out was the best way to
find Gosalyn.
"Close your eyes, little girl blue
inside of you lies a rainbow
yellow, blue, red, blue, purple too, blue, purple, and green, then the
yellow
Rest your head, little girl blue
come paint your dreams on your pillow
I'll be near to chase away fear, so sleep now and dream til tomorrow
I'll be near to chase away fear, so sleep now and dream til tomorrow"
After Gosalyn had fallen to sleep, Darkwing realized that the colors
mentioned in the song were the same colors on the controls to the Ram
Rod. Gosalyn DID know the code...but she didn't know she knew. Now,
Darkwing knew, too.
Suddenly, bright lights filled the sky and Darkwing proceeded to decipher
Morse Code from Bulba's air ship. The message was that Taurus Bulba
would surrender, but only to Darkwing Duck.
So, Darkwing went off to meet Bulba, leaving Gosalyn alone in the Tower.
Bulba's men went to grab her but found her spirit too taxing. She was
finally caught by Bulba's pet Condor.
Bulba informed Gosalyn that Darkwing was now in jail. Apparently, he was
"playing way out of his league." Bulba had set Darkwing up to take the
fall for the train robbery.
In prison, Darkwing wallowed in self-pity until Launchpad came crashing
through the wall on the Ratcatcher. Even though Darkwing had shunned
him, Launchpad had stuck by. Making him Darkwing's only friend.
Launchpad informed Darkwing that he had built an air ship called The
Thunderquack in Darkwing's image. Mostly because he was Darkwing's
"biggest fan." They used the Thunderquack to get to Bulba's ship where
it didn't take Darkwing long to get captured and have Gosalyn used
against him so that he would tell Bulba the code. The Condor raised
Gosalyn high above the city (as they were atop the skyscraper known as
Canard Tower), and Darkwing had no choice but to enter the code into the
machine. Finally, Bulba had what he wanted and ordered Gosalyn dropped.
This pissed Darkwing off and he attacked Bulba with a renewed force.
Luckily, Launchpad caught Gosalyn on the "beak" of the Thunderquack as
she fell.
After that, Darkwing took it upon himself to overload the
machine and inadvertently caused Canard Tower to explode. This left Gosalyn back at the orphanage...all alone, thinking he was dead.
One day, Gosalyn was informed that someone was interested in
adopting her, but she wasn't ready for that. Though, after hearing the
voice of the person who wanted to adopt her, she quickly changed her
mind. There was a duck standing in the lobby, decked out in
bandages...and he sounded familiar. After Drake pushed a few bandages
down around his eyes like a mask and used a few secretive key phrases,
Gosalyn knew it was him and ran out. After being reunited with him AND
Launchpad...Gosalyn was legally Gosalyn Mallard and had a family. As did
Drake.
The three of them (Launchpad was dubbed Drake's "sidekick" and
took on the roll of an uncle to Gosalyn) moved into 537 Avian Way in the
suburbs of St. Canard. Gosalyn became best friends with the youngest son
of their neighbors, the Muddlefoots. Honker Muddlefoot was trusted with
the secret that Drake was Darkwing Duck, but not in any particular
episode. He just started showing up with Gosalyn around Darkwing Tower.
Even though Honker's parents, Herb and Binkie Muddlefoot, knew both Drake Mallard AND Darkwing Duck, they were oblivious and never put two
and two together.
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