Back in 1991, Disney launched Darkwing Duck, an animated series that appeared to be a spinoff of the extremely popular DuckTales. Considering that Launchpad McQuack had a leading role in both shows, that’s an understandable assumption. But according to series creator Tad Stones, Darkwing Duck doesn’t share any continuity with DuckTales at all!
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Stones explained that Darkwing Duck took place in its own separate universe. “Because Launchpad appeared in DuckTales and we used [Gizmoduck] as the Superman character, the hero who gets all the glory as opposed to Darkwing, fans try to connect the two realities. They are two different universes in my book. We work in the alternate Duckiverse.” Stones went on to cite the small differences in Launchpad’s depiction as proof of the different realities. For example, Darkwing Duck‘s Launchpad was a relatively competent pilot and sidekick, while his counterpart in DuckTales crashed planes more often than he landed them.
It’s true that Gizmoduck was portrayed as a very different character during his guest appearance on Darkwing Duck, but Launchpad still had his core personality in that series. And this may simply be Stones’ opinion as opposed to Disney’s official position. In 2011, Boom! Studios published a multi-part crossover between the DuckTales and Darkwing Duck comics which established that they did share continuity. Although it’s worth noting that those crossover issues were left out of the recently released Darkwing Duck Omnibus from Joe Books that reprinted almost all of the Boom! Studios issues.
Considering that Disney owns both properties, future crossovers are entirely possible even if the shows don’t officially share continuity. There is also a DuckTales revival coming to Disney XD in 2017. If that series does well, don’t be too shocked if Darkwing Duck eventually makes a comeback on television as well, Then we’ll see how separate the two shows really are.
Do you think that Ducktales and Darkwing Duck should be separate shows or should they share continuity? Crash your comments below!
Image: Disney/Joe Books/Boom! Studios
