The Creator Of ‘Darkwing Duck’ Sheds Light On Its Connection To ‘Ducktales’ And Ruins Your Childhood

Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones is changing the way many fans look at his series and it’s relationship to the DuckTales franchise. Stones spoke with The Hollywood Reporter recently and dropped a few interesting bombshells about the series and his inspiration behind the scenes. There’s some fun stuff like having Darkwing commit to his catchphrase, “Let’s get dangerous,” in each episode, no matter what. And there’re even some heartwarming tales of people who were touched by the show’s characters as a kid and how it reflected on their own lives.

But the thing that sticks out from the chat and is keeping it going online revolves around how Darkwing Duck is somehow separate from DuckTales altogether. The two shows have long been thought to be part of the same universe, but the truth has them existing in some sort of alternate universe:

Because Launchpad appeared in DuckTales and we used Roboduck 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,” says Stones.

There’s apparently a good reason for this. Stones talks at length about how he drew from the silver age of comics, a time when stories featuring Flash, Superman, and Batman were somewhat connected but still different. Stones doesn’t adhere to continuity, doesn’t care for having these restrictions, and certainly doesn’t mind changing the way you watch his series:

“It drives fans crazy, but I was not a huge fan of continuity,” says Stones. “I grew up with Silver Age continuity with the comics. Yeah, I know Lois Lane doesn’t know Clark Kent is Superman. She suspects something. Jimmy Olsen’s his pal. He went to high school with Lana Lang. The basics everybody knew. But there was really no arc or change. Every time you picked up a comic, you knew where you were starting.”

He even continued his thoughts by replying to the tweet above, comparing Darkwing Duck to some Elseworlds version of DuckTales.

I think the real interesting aspect is how much thought went into these shows that were intended for children and filled the afternoons once they got home from school. It never would’ve crossed my mind as kid watching Darkwing Duck to think that the characters I’m seeing weren’t the same from the other shows, just as I wouldn’t have a second thought about seeing them in the first place. It just works when you’re a kid.

That little bit of respect past saying, “oh kids will watch anything, screw it,” is really nice.

(Via i09 / The Hollywood Reporter / Hitfix)

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