DarkWarrior Duck
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DarkWarrior Duck is an despotic alternate future version of Darkwing Duck that appeared in the episode Time and Punishment.
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[edit] Plot and appearance
Quackerjack and Megavolt, using a larger version of Quackerjack's Time Top, accidentally wound up taking Gosalyn Mallard along for the ride when she attempted to stall them in their plan to visit the future and enjoy its higher technology. Once in the future, they witness a much deadlier version of Darkwing, calling himself DarkWarrior Duck, harassing a pedestrian and sending him to spend 'a year in the pen,' simply for jaywalking. Quackerjack and Megavolt are arrested, but Gosalyn is able to make her way to Darkwing's old base within the Audubon Bay Bridge. There, she runs into an older version of Launchpad McQuack, who reveals that Darkwing went mad after a time of depression, believing that Gosalyn had run away because he would not allow her to help him in his work. Rediscovering his purpose, he quickly cleaned up the city of supervillians and F.O.W.L. agents, but then proceeded to remake himself as DarkWarrior Duck, and rules St. Canard with an iron fist. DarkWarrior proved to be far more deadly than NegaDuck, and succeeded where the Fearsome Five could not, in that he actually conquered St. Canard and instituted a permanent state of city-wide martial law-style lockdown. He would viciously punish malefactors for even slight offenses. (Launchpad is no longer a sidekick after DarkWarrior accused Lauchpad of being 'too soft on crime' because Launchpad thinks criminals should be tried "before giving them the chair"!)
Upon discovering that the Time Top could travel into historical or future eras, DarkWarrior became even more fanatical in his views of suppressive law and order: He would go back in time to pivotal points in law and order history and subvert the events by changing them more to his style of punishing crime.
DarkWarrior briefly attempted to reconcile with the time-displaced Gosalyn for his perceived wrongdoing, fashioning her a suit of protective (and pointy) armor that she could wear while going out with him to rid the city of crime. Gosalyn was unhappy with DarkWarrior's fanatical take on crimefighting (as well as the armor, which was so overdone that she could not move while wearing it, and it could stand by itself when she was not in it!). When she protested vehemently, DarkWarrior, who had been twisted by his years of isolation and violent behavior, turned on her and sent her to prison. She led Launchpad, Quackerjack, and Megavolt in a jailbreak so that she could return to her own time and prevent the future timeline of DarkWarrior. When Gosalyn tried to stop DarkWarrior from killing the two villains, he points his gun into her face (she says that she's not afraid of his gas gun, but unfortunately for her, Darkwarrior had not used a gas gun in years, and switches it into a missile launcher). He again turns on her, this time citing all of her past misbehaviour (or "criminal record," as he terms it) as signs he should've recognized her "as a bad egg from the start," but once she's backed against the wall, his still-nascent love for her seeps out, and prevents him from pulling the trigger. Shortly afterward, Launchpad knocks his old friend out, allowing Gosalyn, Megavolt, and Quackerjack to escape.
[edit] Powers, skills, and weapons
DarkWarrior apparently designed several forms of machinery, including robots capable of flight, hovering and programmed police tactics; an updated version of the Thunderquack jet; and a powerful tank outfitted with dual side-mounted missile racks. He was also armed with a variety of weapons in each vehicle, and even his trademark gun seemed to have multiple weapon systems inside of it, including a built-in missile-launcher. He was also presumably just as physically capable of combat as he originally was--like his earlier alter ego of Darkwing Duck, he is still a master of the martial arts. DarkWarrior Duck's battle armor, however, had increased his bulk considerably, indicating that he likely relied more on brute force tactics than any finesse his earlier version might have displayed.
DarkWarrior is also shown flying the updated Thunderquack, which means he had in the intervening years learned how to pilot aircraft--the earlier Darkwing often complained about not knowing how to fly.
In some ways, DarkWarrior still retains his Darkwing roots, including having his vehicles and robots in his image. He also retains his entry monologue, although modified for his tastes: 'I am the terror that hunts in the night! I am the jackal that gnaws at your bones!' (The accused jaywalker tries to edge away; DarkWarrior uses a tank round as a warning shot while saying 'I'm not finished!') 'I am DarkWarrior Duck!'
Instead of appearing from nowhere in a cloud of blue smoke, DarkWarrior gives this speech over the tank's loudspeakers, and appears from the hatch in a gush of red smoke. DarkWarrior also has an upgraded version of his Gas Gun (although he claims that he hasn't used it in years) which can shoot missiles, if nothing else.
[edit] Final Fate
With the return of Gosalyn, Quackerjack, and Megavolt to the series' present day, it seems likely that the future which gave rise to DarkWarrior will not come to pass after all. DarkWarrior has made no other official appearances since Time and Punishment.
[edit] References
The gritty, tank-driving, and overly violent DarkWarrior Duck is most likely a reference to or parody of the future Batman portrayed in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, where an older and embittered Batman viciously and ruthlessly deals out his own brand of justice to evildoers. His use of automated armored fighting vehicles and a continual mass-surveillance of the city also echoes tactics used by another future version of Batman in the subsequently published DC Comics graphic novel Kingdom Come, although this was published in 1996, and Darkwing Duck was even over by then (1995). Considering Batman's influence on the character of Darkwing Duck, the comparison is not only likely, but obvious. (In the episode, a crime located at the streetcorner of Miller and Varley is mentioned; Frank Miller and Lynn Varley wrote and drew Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.)
There also seem to be some influences from the comic character Judge Dredd, with Darkwarrior Duck acting as judge, jury, and sentencer, coming down hard on the smallest legal infractions by the citizens of St. Canard.
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