3 out of 5

I jumped on the bandwagon, absolutely.  And I bought DWD until the run – 18 issues – ended.  It’s a classic example of a beautiful looking and funny series that works month to month because it’s not fresh in memory, but when read back to back, well, the cracks are pretty evident.  There were massive hints to this when writer Ian Brill jumped on the Rescue Rangers reboot for Boom! Kids as well, as the random humor that kept DW buoyant didn’t work as well with Chip n’ Dale, which was more of a straight pun book, drawing attention to the poor scene-to-scene jumping that seem to be inherent in Brill’s scripts.  Now true, this might work for ADD kids, and perhaps it mimics the style of the original cartoons (or current cartoons), I can’t say and can’t recall, but certainly for adult readers who trumpeted the book, I suspect that they – as I was – were blinded by some of the cute modern references (a Frank Miller cover parody… an Infinite Crisis parody…) along with the nostalgia of the whole thing.

Darkwing had the benefit of a good jumping-on point – Darkwing has retired, and now works for the same corporation as everyone else – Quackwerks – which uses “Crimebots” to police the streets.  Crime is gone, criminals are at work peacefully alongside the general populace… everything is perfect!  Or is it?  Where’s the variation in life?  Where’s the excitement?  And who runs Quackwerks?  Well, Darkwing puts the purple back on to find out and, yeah, discovers there’s a big bad super villain behind the whole deal.  This was a 4-issue mini which was so successful before its conclusion that it merited the series being renewed as an ongoing, so Brill pretty much used short 3-issue arcs to explore the return of various villains from the show.  It was absolutely creative and yes, at moments, really funny – some great visual puns on almost every page, and some random humor that works on several levels.

But even while I was giggling, I was caught with the feeling that I was missing issues… and as I reread the series, it made sense why.  Brill just jumps from scene to scene without transition, and freely incorporates past elements from the series without explanation.  Which I guess is cool for diehard fans, and again, works for kids who just don’t need explanations, but as someone trying to actually read something, it just feels like flashy drawings to tie loose gags together… and even the gags wear a little thin, some dialogue just pointless banter to get to a joke.  But again, you can say this is all just how cartoons work.  Okay, sure.  But then… the main crux of the series, the reason for DW to come back, just doesn’t click.  Sure, Quackwerks is run by a villain, but only because it has to be to justify the story.  Things were actually… sorta… working okay without DW, and they even end up using the crimebots throughout the series as a loose police force.  Nitpicking?  Not really.  Just trying to say why the series never really gels into some genius kid story like Bone.  It’s just a well done cartoon in book form, and I’d give the Darkwing Duck cartoon a mediocre rating as well.

I do want to give a nod to the Boom! Kids artists, who find nuances in their style and panel designs while maintaining, absolutely, the look of the original characters which they’re representing.