Character

Drake Mallard

Darkwing's civilian identity

Drake Mallard (better known by his alter ego Darkwing Duck) is the titular protagonist of the 1991 animated TV series of the same name. A self-absorbed vigilante with delusions of grandeur, Mallard moonlights as St. Canard's resident superhero with the aid of his bumbling sidekick Launchpad McQuack. His adventures typically involve fighting a rogues' gallery of villains, while simultaneously leading a domesticated, mild-mannered life as the adoptive father of the orphaned Gosalyn Waddlemeyer. Darkwing Duck made his formal debut in the episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck" on September 6, 1991, after having previously cameoed in The Disney Afternoon title sequence in 1990. The earliest iterations of the character drew inspiration from pulp heroes of the 1930s, such as Doc Savage and The Shadow, but later evolved into a satirization of superheroes from the Silver Age of comic books.