Darkwing Duck vs Inspector Gadget VS Prediction Blog

 “Incompetence is a better explanation than conspiracy in most human activity.” - Peter Bergen

Darkwing Duck, Disney’s terror that flaps in the night protecting St. Canard
Inspector Gadget, DiC’s globe trotting cyborg putting a stop to MAD

Crime is something that can be dangerous to think about running into, but thankfully many dedicate themselves to helping solve these and defend the innocent. Though not all of those who are dedicated to such noble goals are quite as skilled, they certainly make up for it in sheer tenacity to do the right thing. Goofy and dramatic they may be, you’ll never find a hero as ready for danger as these two. 

Before We Begin

For Darkwing Duck, this will be going over his original show, his various comic runs, and his various forays into games and other media (the NES game for example was explicitly dubbed canon in profiles from the comics). This will also composite him with his alternate version from the 2017 Ducktales Reboot, as that version isn’t too different from the main one. Though this is only applying to the second Darkwing from that show, as that one being Drake Mallard is more consistent with the original character, whereas the earlier Jim Starling Darkwing turns out… let’s just say a bit different. 

Now in regards to his crossovers, the main point of focus is of course the original Ducktales cartoon, which pretty explicitly shares a world with Darkwing (more on this later), so feats and scaling to that series is fair game. However, we’re not going to be including details such as the original Disney Ducks comics that Ducktales was based on, nor other works in the wider Mickey Mouse franchise, since those are a lot harder to treat as still in the same world as Darkwing’s main media. So, don’t go into this expecting Darkwing to start scaling to something like Kingdom Hearts just because Donald is in both. We’re also not gonna be discussing any of his less story relevant crossovers, such as Chibiverse or the various Disney mobile games, for similar reasons.

As for Inspector Gadget, this will be relatively simpler. This will be compositing him between his main three shows, which includes his original animated series, the Gadget and the Gadgetinis, and the 2015 CG animated series. He’ll also get his various animated movies and specials, the live action films, the Gadget’s Field Trip educational shorts, and the various games, books, and other media he’s appeared as a part of. And like Darkwing, cross scaling will be pretty much disregarded, with one exception that’s not that important to really talk about here. 

Background

Darkwing Duck

“Let’s get dangerous!”

Let’s return to the wonderfully wacky era of the 1990’s. Plenty of children grew up with glorious cartoon masterpieces from all corners of the network, but one of the most domineering figures was definitely Disney. Before modern masterpieces like Phineas and Ferb or Gravity Falls, they had the legendary Ducktales, short-lived but memorable Talespin, and you can’t forget the grim gritty Gargoyles or the wacky misadventures of Chip N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers. Still, they had to have a superhero to compete with shows like Spider-Man and the X-Men among others, so they decided to parody a similarly batty billionaire with too much time on his hands. Enter Drake Mallard, or as you know him (3-2-1…) Darkwing Duck!

After the standard superhero fare of martial arts training, picking up an arsenal of gadgets, and mastering dramatic catchphrases, Drake took up the role of Darkwing Duck to protect the streets of St. Canard from the crimes that plagued them. He was quite vain in truth, and had an equally standard character trait of wanting spotlight for his actions, likely from the neglect and bullying he suffered in elementary and high school. When he pretended to be a superhero to save his high school from his classmate Megavolt, that gave him praise and adoration from others; love, which undoubtedly drove much of his vanity. As luck would have it, he stumbled upon the scheme of big-shot crime boss Taurus Bulba, who was chasing after the Ram Rod; a technological masterpiece that required the code from a deceased Professor Waddlemeyer. Bulba sent his goons after the Professor’s only surviving relative, his granddaughter Gosalyn. Placed in an orphanage, Gosalyn’s spunk and spirit scared off most prospective parents, until Bulba’s thugs came looking for her. Fortunately, Darkwing came by and saved her, where the two curiously began to bond as he protected her from her grandfather’s killers.

During that time, including her acing his training programs and making him laugh while he comforted her sadness and sang her a lullaby, the two became quite close. It was for this reason that Bulba tricked Darkwing and captured Gosalyn, getting him to give up the Ram Rod code in exchange for her life. Instead, Darkwing pulled off his first true villain defeat with the aid of sidekick Launchpad McQuack by destroying the Ram Rod and Bulba’s forces, blowing up his ship in the process and making Gosalyn believe him dead. She returned to the orphanage, sadly believing that everyone who ever loved her was cursed, and that she should stay an orphan for everybody else’s sake (yes, this is 100% real. Read the comic). However, Darkwing survived the blast, and returned to the orphanage to legitimately adopt Gosalyn as his daughter.

From then on, Darkwing Duck got into all kinds of wacky 90’s shenanigans, all while actually growing as a person. Being a father is just as tough as being a superhero, but he and Gosalyn pushed through the hard times to be quite the family. In keeping with that sense of relationships, Darkwing begrudgingly formed the Justice Ducks to keep St. Canard safe when the need arose, and reformed the wonderfully wacky witch Morgana McCawbra for an actually… pretty sweet mutually precious ship (most of the time). Still, rocky times arose, like when Darkwing retired after being supposedly made obsolete by high-tech police forces. This shocked all his closest allies, and allowed Morgana to be tortured by those same police forces, in truth behind Bulba once again. Still, the call of the night kept on singing, and Darkwing returned to action with Gosalyn and Launchpad once more. Heck, he even worked alongside Scrooge McDuck to save the world from his arch-nemesis Negaduck, and saved the multiverse more than once with the help of his pals. Ironic, given his desire to go it alone and flare for the dramatic in search of spotlight, that he would find a big happy extended family for all the love he’d ever need. So, if you journey to St. Canard thinking its easy pickings, get your behind ready for a kicking from the terror who flaps in the night. Better watch out, you bad boys… for Darkwing Duck!

Inspector Gadget

“Don’t worry Chief, I’m always on duty!”

Come with us back to the comically kooky time of the 1980s. Kids grew up chowing on cereal with Saturday morning cartoons, sparking long-lasting love of the medium from the 1990s to the 2000s and even today. You’ve got the muscled monster of manliness He-Man, the aptly named Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, media icon of Transformers, and even toons about video games like the Super Mario Brothers Super Show. If it wasn’t obvious, superheroes were big business, so every network and animation studio had their own heroes. Still, one of the most iconic of the generation who hasn’t yielded quite the same longevity is one of the goofiest, but greatest, detectives to ever wear the fedora. He’s the wacky wonder of geeky gadgetry, so it’s only fitting his name was (do-do-do-do-do) Inspector Gadget!

The Inspector’s adventures are pretty simple; fitting for the Saturday Morning formula. Gadget takes care of his brilliant niece Penny and comedic canine Brain, all while working with governments around the world to take down the mad genius Dr. Claw and his literal M.A.D terrorist organization. He’s a clumsy fellow, that’s for sure, and is frequently bailed out of trouble by Penny and Brain’s efforts unbeknownst to him. Still, his insane luck and skill (at times) has always resulted in Claw’s failure at forcing the world under his heel with the iconic “I’ll get you next time, Gadget!” Beyond that though, the Inspector is sort of a mystery. Gadget’s had a lot of varying history over the years, along with a lot of fan theories about where he really comes from. Some theorize he was built by Professor Von Slicktenstein, some think he was the robot replacement for the real Inspector Gadget (who happens to be his worst enemy?), and so on. 

One of his more detailed backstories not based on pure speculation are the Disney live-action movies, which really detail the human side of Gadget to begin with. The Inspector was once plain old John Brown, an aspiring police officer wishing for a chance at the big time as a true hero. Despite the support of Penny and Brain, he simply did not have the qualifications, being a mere security guard for Bradford Robotics Laboratory (owned by Artemis Bradford, father of Brenda Bradford, who he has feelings for). However, when criminal Sanford Scolex broke in to steal cyborg technology from the "Gadget" program and killed Artemis, John arrived just the same to chase after Sanford. Despite valiant effort, John was severely injured along with Sanford, turning the latter into Dr. Claw, while his own life was saved with this same cyborg technology to become the first cyborg police officer: Inspector Gadget. 

From there, Gadget trained to be a better hero, solved the murder of Artemis, and brought Claw to justice for the first of the hundreds of times he has over the years. Since, he’s worked with the World Organization of Mega Powers (WOMP), became a Lieutenant, and underwent the malfunctions your regular robot does after his relationship with Brenda ended. Due to this, the Gadget program produced a second robotic police soldier, being Gadget Model 2 / G2, a stone-faced female fighting force made to replace him. Gadget was actually quite smitten with her, despite her viewing him as an obsolete idiot at first. Even after being fired from his glitches and plain annoying bad luck, he still maintained the purity of heart to fix G2 after she was shut off for being “defective” just like him. With old and new working together, they saved both Penny and the city from Claw’s return to power, got Gadget’s own job back, and had a pretty cute romance at the end of the film. 

Over the years, Gadget’s been many things, but the one thing all his wacky tools or sometimes clumsy demeanor could never mask was his sheer desire to save the world in any way he could. Stopping terrorists all over the globe should make that pretty clear, but it’s almost a trip and a half to see how he rose from a simple security guard to a world-renowned hero with an extended family of helping hands when he (inevitably) falls flat on his face, right there to pick him back up. He’s been beating Claw’s bozos for over 30 years now, gone through several reboots, and watched Penny grow up into quite the aspiring superhero just like him. Being a hero to those who care about you is what inspires change, and it's truly all in a day’s work for the bumbling best of the best (do-do-do-do-do), Inspector Gadget!

Intelligence & Skill

Darkwing Duck

You may not expect it from Darkwing’s more exaggerated and goofy demeanor, but he’s taking the obvious Batman inspiration and sometimes giving comic Bruce a run for his money in all factors. Starting off with his raw skill, Darkwing has gone through “years of training” in esoteric disciplines, and is noted to be highly trained in martial arts like his enemy Negaduck, who he has matched in combat. In fact, Darkwing is the only person in his dimension or the Negaverse dimension to have beaten Negaduck to begin with, so the kinds of villains he can fight are the cream of the crop. Speaking of, he’s defeated F.O.W.L’s giant robot replica of himself, outmatched an intergalactic criminal with his bare hands, and destroyed numerous Kung-Fu enemies while trapped in a video game. If the skill of his enemies is your game, he’s also evaded numerous shots from One-Shot, an ace former pitcher and marksman with uncanny accuracy before getting tagged. While fighting him, he mentioned he aimed to anticipate his moves, and said he was close to it (meaning he does the same sort of thing with his other rogues). In fact, he single-handedly filled up the entire St. Canard maximum security prison with every single villain in the city, and defeated them after they all tried jumping him one after the other while being trapped in the prison by Negaduck. 

Covering other examples of his skill, Darkwing can fight just fine while his arm was turned into a snake, has ricocheted gas bullets off walls to blast foes towards him and out windows, and beat numerous foes before his thrown Gas Gun could hit the ground. His training in question that allows him to do this (barring things like being Dodgeball champion in high school) involved going to the best martial arts schools in the world to learn Chi and Zen techniques, and becoming an eventual black belt in Quack-Fu under the legendary Goose Lee to take on ninjas. Such techniques that come out of this include his patented double-flip web kick, or a curveball that literally curves around after being thrown. Darkwing’s taken this further to become an expert in swordfighting, mountaineering, fire tap-dancing to walk on lava, racing, contortionist studies to slide out of bound chairs, and disguise from Waddleaide Webfoot, world-famous mistress of magic and disguise. His training goes to such bizarre areas that he has used ancient Carpethean techniques for bone dislocation to get out of chains, or noted he’s swam the English Channel twice while wearing a straightjacket. So, when he states both Launchpad and himself are masters of “every known martial art,” you’d better believe him. 

Even beyond raw martial skill, Darkwing is actually a legitimate genius in more ways than one. He has dubbed himself “the world’s greatest detective,” and while he might be tooting his own horn just a bit, he’s certainly earned such a description. He has extensive files on the criminal world and has recognized specific thugs of specific bosses, can recognize the type and tire make of a random vehicle, and swallows a lockpick every morning to cough up for, say, escaping being tied to a rocket. He is rather methodical when it comes to tracking down villains, like, when it comes to finding Megavolt’s hideout, he would tap into the Department of Water and Power’s computer to look for power surges from his intense amount of electricity. Beyond other examples of making all of his gasses himself, defeating electric eels once recognizing they worked on rotating current, etc, Darkwing’s done some other rather ridiculous things. 

Paired with these skills and smarts are his quick shot accuracy, which has enabled him to shoot targets from buildings away, accurately throw and tag objects with toothpicks, thrown his hat with his foot while tied up to switch railroad tracks, or shoot switches to drop hooks which catch people about to fall in seconds. Altogether, Darkwing has some pretty creative combat strategies when he’s at his best. That includes blinding enemies with spotlights, pulling objects connected to foes into machines so they are pulled in with them, splashing water on electric opponents to fry them, and more. DW’s used weapons from his enemies as ammo for his Gas Gun in new strategies, which even his child self in the past with no experience whatsoever did to save his future self… it's complicated. Rapidly making a bungee cord out of his grappling hook to stop the Thunderquack from crashing in a few seconds is standard fare, as is his creating lasers with magnifying glasses or pouring concrete into Liquidator to freeze his body. 

These sorts of things get even more ridiculous when you look at other Darkwing fights. He unlocked a safe mid-fall to hop inside, made a being of supreme intelligence self-destruct by exploiting his method of gaining intelligence, escaped death traps tearing him in half in roundabout ways while restrained, etc. DW once blew up his cape like a giant cushion via Gas Gun to save his team from falling to their death, or even weaponized his own bad luck curse from a witch doctor against his enemies. Even when separated into his good and evil sides, the former escaped a death trap in the most confounding possible way, and his whole self took a page out of Ben Franklin to make himself a conductor; frying enemies connected to his lines through lightning. At his best, he’s even taken down the Fearsome Five (minus Negaduck) one after the other, and even if he can’t figure out an easy solution against his enemies, he’s been known to spam all the gadgets in his arsenal rapid-fire until something works. 

Inspector Gadget

While Inspector Gadget is mainly known for being a bit of a bumbling fool, his intelligence and competence has actually fluctuated quite a bit through the years. While typically Penny tends to be the brains of the operation, he has shown himself to be quite skilled all things considered. Starting with that skill, despite only watching Bruce Lee films, he held his own in a brief scuffle with a Kung Fu Shaolin master and was later taught in said martial art form. Gadget’s stupidity actually plays quite nicely into his unpredictability as a fighter, shown when he was capable of defeating the most dangerous criminals in the country while under the guise he's playing tag (his skills are so convincing even the criminals that actually planned to destroy him actually got doped into playing tag for moment). Not convinced? Well, he once subdued two criminals while having his gadgets malfunctioning and happen to get exactly what he needed to catch them (using a spray to immobilize their movement while a net falls from the sky on them including with a bolas being thrown to keep them trap in the net). 

Gadget’s skill in multitasking allows him to combat three M.A.D agents firing weapons at him from all sides with a lasso, egg bazooka, and just batting several cannonballs at once while simultaneously kicking a bomb away. He once remarked that he placed second in Scottish hammer throwing (which requires precise control over the body and hammer), and also displayed such precision that he threw a paper airplane across continents exactly on the commissioner’s desk… despite not knowing his address. While he’s kind of a doufus when it comes to geography/cities, he’s been dubbed the World’s Best Detective by Chief Quimby, and even claimed to have the sixth sense of a detective in a minigame description. He also shows himself to be fairly knowledgeable on the history and cultures of various countries throughout the Inspector Gadget's Field Trip series. 

His adventures against M.A.D have had him fight foes that turned the room he was in topsy-turvey, scale the icy slopes of a M.A.D hideout or the outside of Claw’s high-speed ship, let alone all the various national landmarks he’s fought through. This man has climbed the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, and Big Ben; defeating M.A.D soldiers and their goons all along the way. That includes taking on large Statue of Liberty robot golems, robot clones of him, or traversing volcanic M.A.D bases. His on-the-spot thinking is still nothing to scoff at when he’s at his best, like when he reprogrammed an assembly line making robot copies of him to make defective versions instead. Gadget has also navigated a large laser-filled area while floating down through it, defused bombs, and certainly outperformed much of his lesser showings over the years. And while typically he tends to bumble his way through cases, he is still willing to get serious if the situation calls for it. Typically in situations where Penny ends up getting kidnapped by  MAD agents, he’ll drop his usual obliviousness in order to take down the MAD plot she’s been tangled up in. There’s also been times like in the Gadget’s Last Case film, where he ends up finally getting fired by the Chief, and still ends up working to save the day. 

Equipment

Darkwing Duck

Suit

Darkwing Duck’s crime fighting suit, besides looking pretty cool, has several built in features that help on his escapades. His cape is resistant to tearing and projectiles like darts, able to be used as a glider or parachute (even though he has an actual parachute), and acts as a shield that can block and even reflect most projectiles in the NES video game, He also has gadgets hidden in his cufflinks for most needs, such as buzzsaws strong enough to slice through spiderwebs, plants, or whole body chocolate prisons ensnaring him, and acid pellets strong enough to melt through wood or concrete floors. Finally, he’s also coated it in Teflon, which can help prevent being trapped in adhesives, and has a parka addition for catching criminals in cold weather.

Gas Gun

Darkwing’s primary weapon of choice for making villains suck ass, er, gas, and for good reason. It is an incredibly versatile weapon for a variety of crime fighting purposes, such as firing gasses which can come with a wide variety of effects. These all get loaded in the gun through various cartridges, which can also be activated manually as a makeshift gas grenade in a pinch, which he can administer via a shot in the mouth or simple bursts. The basic kind is knockout or sleeping gas, which can be delivered in cartridges or bursts to KO most foes pretty much immediately. Going further, he’s been shown or noted to have Freeze Gas, Nerve Gas, smoke and smog bursts for stunning foes, itching powder that works on cyborgs, Sneeze Gas for massive dinosaurs, Tear Gas, or Laughing Gas for uncontrollable bouts of laughter. Beyond that, there's gas to set off sprinkler systems, Anti-Flamingo Repellent of all things, Stink Gas, or pellets that appear to destroy machinery. These gas bullets also have purely concussive use too, like when Darkwing used one to bash back Taurus Bulba’s massive mech out a window. More extended sources like children’s books also note he has things like hiccup gas and “forgetful gas,” directly showcasing the former in the book, meaning he has the latter for reference. 

Now, you’d think that’d be it for the weapon, being called a Gas Gun, but Darkwing has kind of just snuck in whatever weapon or tool he needs for any occasion. This includes water blasters, a tickle setting, nets to instantly wrap up foes, settings to blast fire or act as an ice-melting blowtorch, and Gum Blasts to gunk up Negaduck along with technology like his Chainsaw. There’s a fan function for high-gear torrents of wind, a massive rocket to blast him out of quicksand (and several stories high), or various bombs that can blast him out of 2 tons of cement. Speaking of bombs, DW has used explosive sticky ball to wreck pipes after lodging onto them, or Glue Bombs that can restrain multiple people or even himself with no known way to get out (it trapped them for multiple minutes at least).

A lot of these actually come with select strategies and plays. For example, Darkwing Duck has repeatedly used items like plunger and grabber functions to steal objects and weapons from his many enemies. There’s blender functions for slicing up foes or blending Liquidator into pudding, Christmas decoration blasts to wrap up sentient Christmas trees, or a good old fashioned anvil to the noggin. For melee options there’s a boxing glove punch function that can shatter wrecking balls as a projectile, while restraining foes can easily be done with a launchable net. If Darkwing needs to get out of a jam, his grappling hook can reach blimps in the air or other aerial vehicles from ground level (at least 300 meters tall), or just reel people back to his location. Beyond other general usages like flame retardant foam to put out fires or industrial-strength weed killer to deal with plant monsters, in his various games it can shoot out Mega Man style energy pellets. While they aren’t really that effective when underwater, Darkwing has showcased underwater settings to circumvent this. Lastly, he’s wielded two gas guns at once, and has extra Gas Guns at his lair if his primary gets destroyed. 

Crime Fighting Gadgets

No Batman sendup is complete without a variety of gadgets, and Darkwing does possess a good variety of them which he’s used for many purposes over the years. He’s constantly stated and shown to have the latest state of the art in crime-busting technology in his lair or on his person, such as Smart Bombs or large bazookas. He actually gets these directly from S.H.U.S.H, along with new tricks every now and then (potentially several per week), so their being the best of the best is all but assured. This goes double for all the zany yet powerful gear the criminals of St. Canard have dared to face off against, like this massive pile of gadgets he’d dump from just the Thunderquack when giving up crime fighting.

• Anti-Magnetic Coils - Darkwing wrapped these around himself to prevent his body from being magnetized by a machine. ‘

• Autumnizer - A gun he invented that breaks down plants by messing with Chlorophyll, being able to destroy massive tendrils, KO plant-hybrids like Bushroot, and make trees drop leaves like it's actually autumn.

• Darkwing Sensing Watch - This nifty little device can tell him information about the area in relation to criminal intent, like what a criminal could be looking to steal in a museum.

• Electromagnetic Power Pointer - He used this to track large surges of power, and of note it doesn’t run by batteries given context. 

• Explosives - Has used explosives that blew up half his house and Banana Bombs to use against F.O.W.L soldiers.

• Fast-Heating Ouchie Strips - For DW’s first official in-universe endorsement, he used various heating strips to severely burn the shapeshifter Camille Chameleon after sticking them on her body.

• Ghost-Hunting Gear - Darkwing has used protopack-esque inventions of his to take down ghosts in flashbacks, and one he invented himself before it backfired.

• Glue Bombs - Darkwing has multiple Laser-Guided Glue Grenades, which explode to trap people in a sticky mess of gunk that makes breaking out pretty much impossible. 

• Grappling Hook Belt - A belt with lines attached to it; allowing Darkwing to repel or ascend with the push of a button.

• Handcuffs - The detective’s best friend, and something he’s used to tie himself to villains in capturing them before. 

• Inflatable Shoes - With these, Darkwing seems to be able to run much faster. 

• Infrared Ultra-Scan Specs - With these super scanners, Darkwing could scan the blacked out St. Canard for any trace of light, and he’s used similar goggles to track sludge from Gosalyn (who was currently mutated).

• Laser Device - For burning through ropes (and nearly his own keister).

• Magnet Gun - His trademarked Magnet Gun can automatically track specific objects and magnetize Darkwing to them, essentially pulling himself wherever they go the point that he will fly through the air towards their location.  He also has a reverse-polarity setting, which he’s used to blast back robotic suits of armor. 

• Magnifying Glass - The detective's best friend for finding fingerprints, and an ally of Darkwing’s as well. His variants are even able to scan microscopic scuff marks and determine they were from a vacuum apparatus, so they’re much more useful than the average kind.

• Mallet - Darkwing keeps one of these around his house, and has used them in combat against foes like Liquidator. 

• Minicomputer - For strategic attacks, Darkwing has a portable strategic high-tech minicomputer (or laptop if you’re not a nerd) for formulating plans with his varied technology. 

• Night-Vision Goggles - Darkwing has night-vision goggles to search areas, which also curiously stun other people when their eyes are exposed to them.

• Radar Cape - A special cape which can track certain objects, act as a radio, and protect him from effects of brainwashing. 

• Hoverboard - Had this and was going to use it, but was stopped. 

• Scuba Gear - Both he and Launchpad have Scuba gear for aquatic missions. 

• Slow Motion Potion - When making a breakthrough in molecular physics while under the effects of super-speed (casual Tuesday for him), Darkwing created a “Slow-Motion Potion” in one of his experiments. Upon tricking a foe into drinking it, which he did with Negaduck, it slowed down his body to the point that he was frozen in time like a statue. He couldn’t escape nor comprehend what was happening, with him only being able to get out in an unknown way off-screen, like the other cartoon villains of old. 

• Smoke Bombs - The iconic gadget of most caped crusaders, and what Darkwing uses to essentially teleport (see abilities). His reboot self also made liberal use of these, with them being able to spread enough smoke to quickly cover a room. 

• Submarine - Darkwing owns a Submarine and has used it when St. Canard was flooded, while also showcasing the ability to record audio and play it back for disrupting the orders of Neptunia (commanding sea life with a conch horn).

• Suction Cups - One for each limb, and all for the purpose of scaling buildings like Spider-Man.

• Super-Expanding Air Cushion Pellets - With one of these, which Darkwing never leaves home without at least a few, the Mighty Mallard can break his fall with a safe bounce. 

• X-Ray Scope - Made this device at home to obviously scan things like an X-Ray, seeing through objects both near and from afar. 

• Ultra-Sonic Pitch Device - A weapon that fires, well, an ultra-sonic pitch that can be turned up to maximum effect, stunning foes to the point of immobilization; just like when it was accidentally used on Darkwing himself.

• Random Gear - When forced to empty out all of his gadgets at gunpoint, Darkwing showed he had a bow and arrows, small rocket launcher, sword, slingshot, explosive arrow, high-powered electric gun, chainsaw, and rubber chicken. 

• Random Bullshit Go! - Yeah, at one point Darkwing fought Cat-Tankerous and fully embodied the meme; just throwing various gadgets until something worked. This includes binding ropes, electric grenades, flame blasts, water/ice showers, and plasma (plus anti-cat spray). 

Bladed and Melee Weapons

For fighting up close, Darkwing has numerous bladed and melee weapons. 

• Chainsaw - For slicing through objects like walls or wooden trees with ease. 

• Knife - Has a knife to cut himself out of a bag.

• Machetes - Everybody needs a pair for chopping up foes, like when DW sliced up plant minions of Bushroot into a veritable salad.

• Plunger - While it may seem a common toiletry, Darkwing has used this plunger to smack back electricity via the rubber end from foes like Megavolt, providing a way to bat energy attacks right back to sender. 

• Weed Wacker - Bro actually pulled out a weed wacker to chase Bushroot. 

Guns and Ranged Weapons

Bro is strapping more than just a gas gun, though most usages are fairly contextual. Besides firearms, he’s also used other ranged weapons over the years.

• Bazooka - What a way to start off. Darkwing has a Bazooka, from which he can launch bombs of tear gas or mortar dust (provided he doesn’t mix up the capsules).

• Blowtorch - Even while Drake Mallard, Darkwing has used blowtorches to light objects on fire. 

• Crossbow - Another bit of equipment from the reboot, with arrows that have his face as the emblem and are strong enough to burst through glass windows. 

• Gatling Gun - A western style machine gun used as overkill against a film bandit.

• Machine Gun - A random weapon he pulled out while disguised as Negaduck/thinking he was him (long story)

• Shotgun - When he was split between a good and evil personality, he used this on some innocent bunnies

• Plunger Gun - Aside from other plunger-related weapons, Darkwing has a unique gun that shoots one to snag and reel back any caught in its grasp. 

Game Power Ups

Several of Darkwing’s games also give him special powerups he can find in the level to upgrade his abilities.

NES Power Ups

• Heavy Gas - When fired, a large ball of gas will fall to the ground and explode. The explosion will send a shock-wave across the floor in both directions

• Thunder Gas - Darkwing fires two lightning bolts that move at 45° angles up and down. Each bolt will pass through enemies and walls until it flies off screen.

• Arrow Gas - This fires an arrow with a suction cup moving in a straight line. If the arrow hits a wall, it will stick to it, allowing Darkwing to climb and stand upon it. The arrow is also able to deal damage to enemies.

• First Aid Kits - Restore Darkwing’s health.

• Gas Energy Containers - Gives more ammo for the above attacking power ups.

Java Power Ups

• First Aid Kit - Restores Darkwing's health.

• Grapple Hook - Darkwing fires one upwards to give himself height.

• Multi-Shot - Allows Darkwing’s gun to blast three shots at once.

Miscellaneous Items

Obviously there’s a fair bit of this that falls into the more miscellaneous category, so thus, here it is. 

• Hedgeclippers - For whenever DW needs a plant-clipping trick. Hey, you can never be too prepared. 

• Hypnotizing Gear - Darkwing has stolen flutes to play hypnotizing music against plants like they were snakes, utilized a stolen tool from Quackerjack to hypnotize him instead, and hypnotized some childhood classmates of his to forget his secret identity with a simple pendant device. 

• Jumbo-Size Peashooter - For blowing out objects as projectiles, which he did in a high-stakes fall with great accuracy. 

• Roller Skates - For moving throughout the city without any vehicles, provided he has other devices to pull himself with.

• Jackhammer - Darkwing has a personal jackhammer for breaking out of trapped rooms, even saying he never leaves home without it. 

• Exploding Dog Bone - You never know when you might need one, like against Quackerjack’s chomping robot teeth.

• Sledgehammer - Darkwing has shown off one of these, and the ability to swing it quite well.

• 200 Horsepower Thing-Cutter - Yes, that is really its name. As a likely buzzsaw, Darkwing tried to use it before it backfired and ran off. 

• Giant Cleaning Sponge - For threatening Liquidator. 

• Giant Axe - For chopping down mind-controlled trees at Christmas time.

• Mega-Vibrating Jungle-Slasher - For cutting through jungle shrub like a crazed madman.

• Ultraviolet Scanner - Darkwing had binoculars to scan with ultraviolet waves before it was thrown into a lake. 

• Turpentine - When pit against Splatter Phoenix’s paint-made creations, Darkwing used Turpentine supplies on his person to wipe the monsters out of existence. 

• Pictures of Himself - You’d think his insane vanity would hold him back, but Darkwing’s thick photographs of himself he saves for autographs have protected his chest from getting shot by arrows. 

• Lockpick - Darkwing swallows one of these every morning just-in-case, and has quickly retrieved it to escape being tied to a rocket. 

• Hydraulic Jack - With this heavy-duty hydraulic jack, Darkwing can force open the jaws of massive bear robots, with such usefulness ensuring he never leaves home without one.

Inspector Gadget

Gadgets

As expected or completely suspected, Inspector Gadget’s surgery origin would fill his body head to toe with an arsenal of gadgets for nifty crime-fighting; of which he reportedly has more than 13,000 in total. These include but are not necessarily limited to the following, many of which can just come out of his body whenever he needs them. 

• Gadget Skates - These little things make Gadget able to slide around areas with greater speed, and their rocket setting makes traversing areas even easier. Games similarly greatly boost Gadget’s speed to zip all over the area, albeit they are hard to control. 

• Gadget Copter - With this helicopter-hat, Gadget can fly over obstacles and zoom around the area however he wants.

• Gadget Coat - With his iconic Sherlock Holmes coat, Gadget can do things like blow it up to float in the air/slow his fall, or shield him from damage, though too much will destroy it and leave him running around in his boxers. Some games even have it able to propel itself like Kirby flies, though this is a short-term deal and it will wear off after a while. Even better, it can outright reflect attacks like missiles back to sender once blown up, shielding him while attacking the attacker (including gas missiles). It can also act as a life preserver vest in case of being underwater.

• Gadget Umbrella - This literal hat-trick can float and drag Gadget around provided there is ample wind, or let him float safely down to the ground. It can also serve to save him from attacks by creatures such as lions. 

• Gadget Communicator - From the Gadget & the Gadgetinis game, Gadget has a personal communicator from which Penny can aid him on mission details. 

• Gadget Suction Cups - With the classic catchphrase, Gadget can launch a suction cup grappling line to latch onto certain objects, dragging him through high spaces like a grappling hook would. On other occasions, he’s covered his hands and feet with suction cups to stick to surfaces, even underwater.

• Gadget Rocket/Missiles - For when he needs to clear out a swarm of foes attacking him, Gadget can launch a missile as large as he is out of his hat to pretty much nuke the area, destroying nearly any poor foe in the vicinity instantly. He does have a limited supply of these though, and can’t just spam-carpet bomb the area willy-nilly. Other usages of rockets include ones that extend from his back to fly him out of sticky situations where he can’t easily get out, the Turbo Blaster Rocket that can skyrocket him into the southern hemisphere, and the Torpedo Missile Cannon for an essential rocket launcher. Beyond regular rocket attacks, Gadget can also go-go Full Arsenal, Gadget can shoot large sets of missiles at his targets for an overkill method if he really wants to.

• Gadget Boots - With these magnetic footwear, Gadget can magnetize his feet to anything composed of iron for example, remaining on them like Spider-Man’s wall-crawling even upside down. Sure, he can’t move while its active and it only lasts a short time, but it is still a useful power nonetheless, especially when it ignores bursts of wind or other attacks that would otherwise blast him back. 

• Gadget Binoculars - After a “Go Go Gadget Binoculars!,” the Inspector can use the aforementioned tool to see objects invisible to the naked eye. Not only that, but he can reveal those objects to his regular vision by selecting multiple objects, essentially turning off their invisibility.

• Gadget Sonar Radar - Gadget has a sonar radar, with which he can hear nearby targets like Brain (Dog) hiding in a bush.

• Gadget Dolphin Dictionary - He has one to translate dolphin chirps. I’m sure this will be very important and game changing. 

• Gadget Depth Detector - Allows him to track how deep in water he is. 

• Go Go Gadget Camera- With any of his arms, the Inspector can extend a camera to capture photos of criminals and identify them, or simply stun his foes with the camera’s flash. 

• Go Go Gadget Laser - From his finger, Gadget can shoot a laser to blow stuff up.

• Go Go Gadget Wrench - His middle finger can be used as a screwdriver, which he accidentally used to rewire Dr. Claw’s machine to go hairwire.

• Go Go Gadget Stopwatch - This nifty watch was given to the Inspector for an episode, and is quite the powerful device. With the click of a button, it shoots an electric blast at targets that can freeze them in place for 10 seconds with no way to break out should it land.

• Go Go Gadget Electric Net - Gadget can shoot an electric net to ensnare foes.

• Go Go Gadget Mallet, Tennis Racket, Anvil, Water Gun, Roller Skates-  Self explanatory.

• Go Go Gadget Propeller Feet - This turns his feet into a propeller to navigate through water.

• Go Go Gadget Digital Disguiser - Through this trick, Gadget can alter his appearance. He’s turned into a variation of different clowns, a caveman, ballerina and even a cowboy.

• Go Go Gadget Chainsaw - While a bit self-explanatory, this chainsaw limb from Gadget can slash through chains restraining him and even solid brick walls. 

• Go Go Gadget Caramel Dispenser - This may seem a bit odd, which is fair, but this device can shoot caramel which traps people in place like a sticky glue.

• Go Go Gadget Feather - This simple device summons another arm to tickle his foes into submission.

• Go Go Gadget Skis - For skiing through any cold environment.

• Go Go Gadget Cutting Torch - Should Gadget need to turn up the heat, he can transform his hand into a blowtorch.

• Go Go Gadget Handcuffs - Pretty self-explanatory. 

• Go Go Gadget Wings - When falling and in need of a pick-me-up, Gadget can sprout insect-like wings from his back to fly through the air at will. 

• Go Go Steam Cleaner - Should Gadget ever be covered in a sticky substance like honey, he can use his Steam Cleaner to instantly remove the gunk from his body.

• Go Go Gadget Reverse Polarity - With a literal reverse in polarity, Gadget can reverse electrical attacks from Gadget’s body back to sender.

• Go Go Gadget Glue Gun - This is used to immobilize foes in a glue trap.

• Go Go Gadget Freeze Ray - Gadget has used this to freeze foes solid in seconds, including a whole crowd of people for its radius.

• Go Go Gadget Can Opener - Evidently, to cut himself out of a bag.

• Go Go Gadget Parachute - Simply put, Gadget uses this to land safely.

• Go Go Gadget Super Sucker Sacuum 5.5 - With this… oddly named device, Inspector Gadget releases a powerful suction that inhaled nearly all of the objects in Nozzaire's office, and even Nozzaire himself at full power inside the bag. By clicking a button, he can dispose of the bag into a trash compound, and all of this is pretty deadly when combined with the guided missile accuracy of the device. 

• Go Go Gadget Baseball Glove - For some sports action, Gadget has used a large baseball glove to catch and throw missiles back to sender. 

• Go Go Gadget Motorboat - This one creates a portable motorboat for transportation.

• Go Go Gadget Bow and Arrow - With this seemingly common attack method, Gadget can launch arrows capable of imploding torpedo missiles.

• Go Go Gadget Multi-Racket - For more sports plays, Gadget has pumped out multiple tennis rackets that bat a multitude of grenades back at the sender.

• Go Go Gadget Magnet - With this common cartoon item, Gadget can pull metal substances to him, though heavier objects like a satellite dish can send him flying backwards.

• Go Go Gadget Copter-Helmet - With this, Gadget can not only fly, but also access a vortex setting that blasts intense gust of wind; flinging away most people in his vicinity.

• Go Go Gadget Scottish Hammer Throw - It’s throwing a hammer. But Scottish. 

• Go Go Gadget Hat Spring - Because you can never be too prepared, Gadget has a spring in his hat to help him recover if he's falling upside down.

• Go Go Gadget Suction Cups - With these suction cups attached to wheels, Gadget can pretty easily traverse higher ground.

• Go Go Gadget Fire Hose - Should Gadget need to combat fire, he can transform his arm into a fire extinguisher.

• Go Go Gadget Fireworks - Because you never know when you’ll need to pop out fireworks from your head.

• Go Go Gadget Flamethrower - Gadget has been noted to have one of these within his arsenal. 

• Go Go Gadget Lasso - With even a seemingly simple lasso, Gadget has controlled the trajectory of a missile he rode on. He’s also used it to cause scene transitions.

• Go Go Gadget Karaoke - Pulling a Kirby Microphone with this trick, Gadget can sing so loud he causes avalanches in apt areas for such.

• Go Go Gadget Giant/Super Drill - While looking like a normal drill, this device is powerful enough to break through walls in a building with ease. 

• Go Go Gadget Buzzsaw - With this hat-blade, Gadget can cut himself out of nets meant to trap him. 

• Go Go Gadget Super Hearing Aid - Okay the name does sound kind of stupid, but it can allow Gadget to hear and pinpoint types of audio in echoing areas, so there’s that. 

• Go Go Insecticide & Gas Mask - With this veritable fatal poison to insects, Gadget can take out various bug creatures, and he also has a gas mask on top of that to protect himself from it when he uses it. 

• Go Go Gadget Fumigator - A simple gas sprayer to fumigate areas and annoy plenty of other people with coughing fits. 

• Go Go G-Portal - Gadget can use this for vacuums that can pull foes into a newly-formed vortex, like when it managed to yank Talon and multiple clones inside the portal and remove them all from the area in seconds. 

• Go Go Searchlight - The Inspector can turn his finger into a portable flashlight to navigate dark places.

• Go Go Gadget Metal Detector - Gadget can create and utilize a magnetic pull that attracts any metallic substance to it. That includes a soda can, an anvil, a multitude of appliances, the Gadgetinis, cars, trucks, a helicopter and even a cruise ship.

• Go Go Gadget Underwater Survival Equipment - For any underwater missions, Gadget can pop gear onto his body so he can breath underwater. He also has swim fins with shark repellent.

• Go Go Gadget Tranquilizer Darts - For sedating incoming threats and putting them to sleep at will

• Go Go Gadget Gondola - He can just spawn an entire gondola, complete with a gondolier. Worth noting is apparently gondoliers wear webbed socks. 

• Go Go Gadget Trams Factor - He can spawn an entire tram train which is fully automated.

• Go Go Gadget Shock Absorber - He has one of these as well. Do we have to come up with witty descriptions for all of them-

• Go Go Gadget Gold Pan - Okay this one definitely speaks for itself

• Miscellaneous - For all the very random and still useful needs Gadget has. These include a unicycle, eggbeater, earwax remover, kumquat juicer,  sprinkler and land mower, butterfly net, porta stove for popcorn, megaphone, communication broadcaster, animal leashes, bowling balls, coffeemakers, boomerang, chopsticks, speedometer, fishnet, olympic torch, frame, pizza, and a globe. 

Game Gadgets/Items

In the various games to his name, Gadget can collect a plethora of gadgets and items to help him on his platforming journeys. Starting with the SNES, an important factor that should be noted is that quite a few gadgets cost a varying level of hat points to use, and Gadget has to collect more hat points in order to use said gear if he runs out. Oppositely, they can get a unique upgrade if Gadget finds three item boxes of the same gadget. The list of gadgets and items are as follows:

SNES

• Hat - Uses as energy source for his items, which he can collect up to 99 of.

• Red Propeller - This nifty trick attacks aerial enemies.

• Bomb - A thrown explosive that destroys numerous blocks/enemies upon detonation. 

• Hand - Gadget can use these to pull himself up onto rails, enabling his scaling these higher areas from his hat.

• Man - These little Gadget clones run to and damage the baddies upon being used, popping out in a small platoon to dash for the enemies as mini-bombs that he can absurdly spam.

• Brain Head - Extends the length of Gadget’s limbs, like his arms and legs. 

• Question Mark - A mystery special attack item. 

• Arrow - A launched projectile for offensive needs that Gadget can shoot out of his hat.

• Lamp - Used to see in the dark, or even throw as weapons if needed. It can also reveal invisible objects as will, somehow.

Operation MadKactus (Gameboy Color)

• Polymer Bombs - During this game, Gadget places Polymer Chewing Gum Bombs at various spots in bases to destroy them, per Chief Quimby’s orders. 

• Gadgetobonus Net Thrower - The perfect weapon to neutralize any enemy, 

• Gadgetobonus Photo Flash - This weapon stuns and neutralizes all enemies on-screen for a time.

Mad Robots Invasion (PS2)

• Gadget-batteries - After a bomb from Dr. Claw neutralized all his tools, Gadget was forced to rely on these trinkets to use his vast arsenal across this game. They are floating emblems that he must touch to use his many Gadgets, but he can’t carry them with him, and they are all for a limited time. 

Gadget & the Gadgetinis (PS2)

• Upgrades - Gadget gains various upgrades across the game ensuring he gains all these tokens, translating to gain the power/weapon they come with. 

• Boxing Glove - With this, Gadget can increase the power of his physical strikes. 

• Gadget Screwdriver - With this equipped, Gadget is automatically repaired by its touch when at low health.

• Bubble Gum Gun - This impressive close-range firearm automatically protects Gadget when enemies get too close, trapping foes in sticky gum prisons with each shot should they land when he merely punches them (it is a passive addition to his regular attacks)

M.A.D Time Party 

• Flowers - This select kind of flower collected in a minigame lets Gadget briefly stun enemies by throwing them as projectiles. 

Various

• Hammer Hat - With this cartoon mallet from his hat, Gadget can knock out any of his enemies in the PS1 game, though it is only good for 5 wallops. In other games, he has it for standard usage against all manner of foes, with the pure strength to smash large metal machines or the usage to smash back energy blasts.

• Blue Propeller/Helicopter Hat- With this, Gadget can briefly fly and float down by the given propeller in his hat. Aside from the SNES game, its PS1 version lets Gadget fly for a short time, although running out of fuel cancels it while causing him to crash. In the GBA game, it lets him fly through the air however he wants, albeit for a limited time based on how long the power-up lasts. In the PS2 game, he even flew to Paris in an unspecified amount of time from New York City, or traversed other parts of the city in a few hours

• Suction Cup - For climbing walls and never letting any obstacle stand in his way, the Inspector shoots these out of his hat and hops atop them for climbing walls. In other titles, these act as a nigh-unlimited supply of projectiles that can damage Gadget’s many foes. 

Vehicles

Darkwing Duck

Rat Catcher Motorcycle

You’ve seen it in the theme song and all over the place, but this is Darkwing’s trusty motorcycle that can catch the speediest of vehicles as he traverses the city, which he can call to his side at any point via radio. Of its many functions, there’s numerous for fighting crime that you’re sure to recognize from your standard James Bond vehicles. There’s oil slicks for chases, scanners to track enemy transmission by itself or with homing devices, state-of-the-art antilock brakes, and a radio to contact Launchpad. More esoteric tools include a Waffle-Launcher Crossbow, goop-blaster to restrain enemies, band launcher to wrap around and capture crooks, and an ejector seat that can launch Darkwing clear over multiple buildings. Speaking of that sort of thing, Darkwing has somehow made the Ratcatcher jump several stories up onto a building or pulled levers to make the motorcycle jump hundreds of miles above St. Canard. Defying physics seems to be a trend, considering the bike can travel through pipes much smaller than itself, jump back up a bit after falling by reversing in midair, or, y’know, chase Moliarty through the planet itself; traversing several thousand miles in seconds. Oh, and there’s a winter setting. That’s cool too I guess. 

Thunderquack (Inapplicable)

The Thunderquack is what DW’s trusty sidekick Launchpad McQuack flies everywhere, acting as the obvious pilot for him after he worked on it for a year. It is quite the beauty, being able to launch goop missiles to gunk up the vision of other jets and eject his motorcycle for him to switch to that. Other functions include scanning tech for tracking down Darkwing, or hooks and lines shot out of its mouth to outmatch vehicles in tug-of-wars which pull down buildings that can be released. It's also got a net for dropping on criminals, a 240 gigawatt laser cannon that can vaporize people. Cloud-seeders for material that rusts robots provided it rains, or the simple ability to open its mouth to capture foes by shutting it on top of them. Unfortunately, Darkwing himself isn’t that good of a pilot, and thus he doesn’t actually use it himself. If granted Launchpad as support however, he would be given its help just fine. 

Time Machines

This is… actually pretty funny. Darkwing had used time machines from S.H.U.S.H before for chasing enemies through time, and stolen Quackerjack’s Time Top as well. You’d think this is non-standard but he just kind of keeps it in his hideout and never really uses it. 

Inspector Gadget

Gadgetmobile

The Gadgetmobile is Gadget’s answer to a particular caped crusader from Gotham City, and just as wacky as he is to boot. It can easily ram through and smash most things, as most know, but it is far more versatile than that. It also has underwater and aerial equipment to switch out for when a high-speed chase takes to roads beyond just heat-scorched concrete, including literal scorching heat from lava via hover-wheels. In a racing game it was even somehow able to just drive in space? It can even change its appearance to look like a baby carriage, an eight wheeler truck or a snow tractor with continuous caterpillar tracks to navigate snowy/icy terrain. Though even if he doesn't need it, Gadget's also somehow able to fit it inside his suitcase. In the movies, it’s also equipped with its own onboard AI which can drive it around on its own. It also comes with all its own wacky additions to Gadget’s arsenal as well, with a tool for most any occasion. He’s also added some power-ups to it in select games, which will be listed after the cartoon gear. 

• Jet - The Gadget mobile can transform into a jet for flight.

• Boat -  It transformed into a missile at one point and it has been used as a jet boat for water terrains.

• Hypnosis - It can hypnotize and inflict drowsiness onto an individual leaving him momentarily incapacitated.

• Wooden Cart - It can pop out a wooden cart.

• Laser Guns - It can inject a laser gun to fire at opposing forces.

• Mirror - It has a mirror to deflect incoming attacks.

• Wings & Thrusters - It can sabotage opposing drivers by wing extensions and their turbo thruster's flames.

• Helicopter - It can transform into a helicopter for flight.

• Go Go Gadget Spring Legs - It can extend it's legs to traverse incoming obstacles.

• Time Travel - By building up terminal velocity, the gadget mobile can access the time travel g-portal to hop back and forth through time.

Inspector Gadget Racing Power-Ups

• Hammer - Even without traditional power-ups, the Gadgetmobile can pull out a giant mallet with a gloved hand to smack any nearby enemy silly. 

• Missile - Collecting these lets Gadget launch missiles to destroy the nearest enemy car in front of him

• Bubble - Shoots bubbles that stick to enemy cars and drag them behind like sticky bubble gum would. 

• Gears - These little guys give Gadget’s vehicle a speed boost.

• Bomb - This item somehow attaches a bomb to an enemy vehicle that they can’t remove which will explode after a short period of time… if you don’t drop it off on somebody else first.

• Shield - Makes a green energy shield that protects Gadget’s vehicle for a short time before disappearing. 

Abilities

Darkwing Duck

Toonforce

For as competent and like comic crusaders as Darkwing as shown he can be, he’s still a wacky cartoon first and foremost, meaning he’s got the same toonforce shenanigans others do. Such bastardization of logic and physics allows him to stop himself from falling in midair to reverse himself, speak underwater, and stretch his body to great lengths or fit through much smaller pipes. Darkwing can be magnetized to other objects because he has a magnetic personality (though this isn’t really brought up/shown off in the cartoon and is more of a gag), once screamed so loud it was heard on Saturn, shrunk from disappointment and quickly regrew, and somehow ran inside a film (for reference, Negaduck also reached through a TV to grab somebody). He can kick and shatter your entire body like he did with the Pennywise aficionado Paddywack, and he once spun into his Darkwing costume from barely any clothes on.

Hammerspace

Like most cartoon characters, Darkwing is able to casually pull basically anything he wants out of nowhere, as shown above. He’s claimed to have thousands of crime fighting devices on his person and a massive arsenal, so it’s hard to fully doubt that, as the rather large weapon section shows. He’s used this to extremely petty (and hilarious) effect, like grabbing a pie, flower pot, anvil, safe, and 100 lb weight for his enemy Negaduck to smash into. Speaking of, while disguised as Negaduck/thinking he was him (long story) he grabbed numerous weapons more destructive than normal, like a spiked club, machine gun, fighter jet, and a missile several times larger than him.

Enhanced Stamina

DW has quite the damage tolerance to be sure, which we’ll discuss in a moment, but even aside from that he’s capable of pushing past most trouble in his path by sheer endurance. He once ran around an entire city several times from day until night, while defeating 6 burglars, 9 car thieves, 21 muggers, 11 kidnappers, 5 international terrorists, and a voodoo king with an army of zombies was a “slow night” for him. In fact, he once was able to chant spells for 24 hours straight.

Regeneration

As you may expect from a guy that’s experienced as much slapstick as he has, Darkwing has managed to take all sorts of harm and then pop up onscreen unaffected seconds later, no worse for the wear. He’s repaired and pulled himself back together from various injuries, like getting his face and eyes ripped off, or having his head blown up with nothing left. Pure force doesn’t really do much, since he can pop back up after being flattened or squished into a pancake, having his body crushed like an accordion, getting blown up like a balloon and popping back to normal, etc. Even being run over by a Steamroller has had him walk it off mere seconds later, same with being flattened against a wall by a physically stronger opponent. For reference, Gosalyn and Honker’s bodies (unpowered children Darkwing works with) were flattened by intense gravity, and they squirmed along as pancakes before popping up just fine no worse for the wear.   

This clearly breaches into a legitimate healing factor, given he has repaired his body from being riddled with gunfire, walked off casts and broken bones, and just regrown teeth. Such ridiculousness allows him to survive being flattened into a credit card and inserted into a machine, then turned into cash before being turned back to normal, let alone being encased in amber for millions of years alive somehow. Punching far stronger foes and literally shattering his arms or body against them doesn’t matter when he has immediately healed said wounds, nor does his being smashed into paste when he can instantly come back from it. Even more insane, he instantly recovered from being frozen and shattered to pieces, and was blown up to nothing but his head left only to come back right after. 

In fact, he has been disintegrated into ash four separate times across the show, with two examples having him survive and come back soon after, while the other half show him near-instantly repairing his body. The former two were when he was blasted to dust by Grizzlykoff’s training or his own gadgets by accident, where he returned in the next scene from a very visibly short timeframe. The latter two had him be burnt to ash by a dragon and return in seconds, and get burnt to ash by a bomb only to reform the instant he fell to the ground, so Darkwing Duck can reliably survive and keep fighting after getting burnt to ash or otherwise disintegrated. He should also be comparable to Negaduck, given he is an alternate dimension version of the main Darkwing. In that vein, Negaduck was sucked into the universal plug, which he stated would suck the pair into “oblivion,” and survived off-screen to return in later episodes/media. 

Teleportation

In classic Batman fashion, Darkwing can teleport via smoke bomb almost inexplicably. It’s not even attempted to be his strategically appearing or leaving, he just pops up in a flash of smoke whenever he wants, and he’s done this numerous times across the series. In fact, Negaduck (who is the same guy from another dimension) has teleported between hiding spots like closed dumpsters and sewers in Scooby-Doo fashion multiple times, and Drake has operated similarly to pop up inside wrapped presents. So, it's definitely fair to say he can legitimately teleport.

4th Wall Awareness / Plot Manipulation

You’d be surprised how much he does this, but Darkwing is so into the superhero game that he regularly gives Deadpool a run for his money in playing around with the 4th wall. He has spoken as the narrator of his own comics more than once, spoke to the writers about “ending the episode,” and grabbed the closing screen around him to speak to the viewer. This is best showcased when, on the back foot against his most fiendish ally Dr. Slug, Darkwing literally paused the show itself to directly address viewer questions and go into a large flashback. Such was directly addressed by Launchpad, the segway into an entire episode, and he similarly paused the flashbacks to once again speak to the viewer. At the end of the episode, Darkwing unpaused, going back to regular St. Canard and away from the fight entirely. So, odd as it may seem, Darkwing can just… pause the world around him if he so desires in a dangerous situation. He’s also used a remote to end the episode as well, so it’s not really out of the question from a logistical standpoint. 

Genius Intelligence

Darkwing may seem like an arrogant heel most of the time, and he is, but he’s smart enough to make up for his faults, even saying his mind compensates for his lack of superpowers.  In truth, Drake is a legitimate genius on numerous levels, breaching some pretty ridiculous showings of smarts. He once referenced, cross-referenced, checked, and double-checked every villain in his files to scrutinize every crook who ever stole fish, ate fish, or just smelled fishy; all to match against one particular crime’s motus apparandi. Speaking of said files, he has the world’s most extensive library of books on physics and bizarre phenomena, which he and his team read through in a single day to the point that he casually knows all about plasma wave inverters. Such may seem impossible, but this is the same guy who, when under the effects of super-speed, did… (checks notes), uh… dang. He went to university majoring in molecular biology and chemical engineering, made a breakthrough in accelerated molecular theory, delivered a paper on it in Switzerland, and concocted a super-speed antidote to those powers he was under. After graduation he raced back home, where he revealed one of his experiments led him to discover a slow-motion potion, which upon being drunk, slowed Negaduck down to be frozen into a statue that he couldn't escape from (shown above).

So, yeah, saying Drake is a veritable brainiac is an understatement. Extended media like his comics has doubled down on this to dub him a legitimate inventor, like how he has created ghost traps or reconfigured a microphone into a makeshift transmitter to communicate with allies in enemy territory. Even the original show has had him craft a cure for Gosalyn’s condition as a plant sludge monster, create a massive tank of countermeasures to the Pine twins out of literal garbage, or literally disassemble Negaduck’s massive mech with a regular old wrench in seconds. Darkwing has used this intelligence in combat to bait enemies into making mistakes while captured by playing on their arrogance, or to trick enemies into thinking their attacks were successful to destroy their weapons. If J. Gander, head of S.H.U.S.H (basically S.H.I.E.L.D for sake of the point), states that nobody can match his wit, ingenuity, and unpredictable methods, then there’s little more to say on that front. 

Quotes

Let’s be real, Darkwing’s ability to come up with hilarious, heart-warming, or just badass quotes on the fly is his most overpowered ability. 

Resistances

• Atomic Manipulation - Darkwing was once subjected to a device that shredded and rearranged molecules to make him a veritable Picasso, but simply popped his body back to normal in a flash. 

• Electricity - Has been fine after getting electrocuted, including by real lightning, which should be obvious given one of his main villains is Megavolt. Even after a year retired, Darkwing could shrug off electricity from the high-tech Crimebots relatively fine, and has been fine after getting shocked/singed by electricity from a power line. Heck, he once survived enough raw electricity to literally light up all of St. Canard and got right back up after. 

• Heat/Fire - Survived various instances of being burnt, with his most competent examples showing him ignore it and immediately shake it off. 

• Ice/Cold Temperatures - Has survived being completely frozen solid, although it has incapacitated him for a time in larger portions encasing his body.

• Acid - Fine after being blasted by Ample Grime's sludge, which can melt fences.

• Mind Manipulation (Limited) - His radar cape was able to protect him from the silly signal, an energy beam that can brainwash people. Of note, he has been affected by numerous mental powers in the show before such as memory erasure, so he would be vulnerable without the cape.

• Transmutation (Limited) - Darkwing was once turned into a giant hand by Morgana, but came back to normal just fine off-screen in a short time. Keep in mind however that every single time he has been transmuted or mutated into other creatures across the series, he’s been unable to reverse it, so it’s not that sturdy of an argument.

• Gasses - Darkwing has actually had his varied gasses blown back or blown up in his face numerous times across the show, and has been virtually fine in all examples. Even against other characters, he has shrugged off stink gas, and actively beat Megavolt in a cloud of his own gas blown up in their faces.

Inspector Gadget

Cyborg Physiology

Inspector Gadget, being a walking arsenal of unfounded ridiculous 80’s magic, is a technological marvel with virtually any kind of weapon or robotic power you can think of. With only a “Go Go Gadget ()”, the Inspector can activate all these crazy powers at will, many of which are simple aspects of his robotic body. For example, his hat has all manner of tools, from the simplest extendable gloved hand to grab onto ledges or objects, Still, as anybody familiar with the Inspector knows, his gadgets are quite prone to malfunction, and often hinder his efforts due to that factor combined with his own miscalculations. Though only god knows how they can all fit inside him.  

Gadget Limbs

With a “Go Go Gadget Arms / Legs!” Gadget can extend his limbs to launch himself higher for reaching places easier or to swing from areas like Spider-Man, dragging him along or making his limbs drag along themselves, and they seem to resist traits like fire that his main body does not when in use. He can even extend the torso half of his body, if he's ever flattened, the detective has his spatula gadget to scoop him up and a bicycle pump to inflate his body back to normal. In a game, his legs have reached over 100 meters into the air, and in the Field Trip series, he was able to stretch his neck to the height of the Empire State Building, which is 381 meters tall. In battle, Gadget can launch extended punches like Mr. Fantastic for blows that shatter rock with a “Go Go Gadget Punch!”, which he can also achieve by extending his head. ”Go Go Gadget Arms” extends his limbs to scale a tree, and in general, he can do things like grow extra limbs to pilot vehicles for him or turn his arms into a gravel vacuum to suck in water and transport it elsewhere. Gadget can also turn his legs into springs to hop distances in short bursts, or to simply boost his agility like the cartoons even older than him. In a fight, he can also use his legs to avoid incoming obstacles. 

Toon Force / Regeneration 

Despite being a cyborg, Gadget has gotten into his own cartoon hijinx such as surviving being flattened like a pancake and reflating himself back to normal, while also being able to retract his head like a turtle to avoid having his head get chopped by a guillotine, and casually being able to walk around without his heart. In addition, he’s shown himself to have some weird illogical and cartoony abilities, such as seemingly teleporting, walking on water, shrinking in size, or being able to beat up and destroy living fire monsters. He even seems to be capable of briefly pausing time, though he doesn’t seem to be capable of interacting with anything during it. 

4th Wall Awareness

Gadget has shown himself to be fully aware of being a cartoon character, typically by directly speaking to the audience, reminding kids of important life lessons and all that jazz from educational television. This is also commonly seen in the Inspector Gadget's Field Trip series, which regularly have him talk to the viewer on various topics, and even show him being able to cause scene transitions. He’s also been able to help provide instructions on how to use a DVD within their menus. 

Luck?

Given Gadget’s clearly lower intelligence examples, you’d think he’d have to have some Nathan Drake or Bugs Bunny levels of luck to make it out of some of his adventures unscathed… and you’d be right! The Inspector’s absurd luck has gotten him out of a pickle many times over, like when he coincidentally pulled out a mirror that deflects a laser targeting him from behind all without him being aware of the danger. He’s turned Talon's matrix target homing missiles against him through sheer happenstance, causing him to course correct on his digital system by getting rid of things to compensate. Gadget prevented a pyramid from sinking using his tennis racket to knock away the ancient artifact Talon was using to resurrect the mummy, falling and accidentally still locking the tome in the end. He once accidentally diffused a missile by rotating his propeller blades, coincidentally cutting the right wire and preventing it from blowing up. 

These sorts of things go on and on, getting just as ridiculous as the last, like when he accidentally reflected acupuncture needles headed towards his way with his Go Go Gadget magnifying glass and writing kit board. There’s also the time he outwitted a riddle sphinx that was programmed to be impossible to answer by offering a question of his own, causing her to get pulled into the lava instead. Most impressive of all for his luck is how a lady called the Oracle had the power to foresee what happens in the future, and with her predictions being 100% accurate. This includes predicting her own capture, characters tripping, characters arriving, incoming messages, places being destroyed, and more. That matters because Gadget’s accidental and unintentional destruction of a bomb was noted to be outright unforeseen by her, likely because of how ridiculous it is in theory. 

Resistances 

• Broadway Force - Talon's puppet pulser DJ sound system can force people to dance against their will, and Gadget was shown to be immune to his machine's effects (of note, this didn’t control their minds, and they were fully aware of their inability to stop dancing). 

• Transmutation - Dr. Wacko's plant pheromones release a fungus that transforms people into trees, and Gadget was unaffected after getting hit with it.

• Age Manipulation - He once drank some water from the Fountain of Youth and got reverted to a 12 year old, before turning back less than a minute later.

• Soul Manipulation - After swimming in the Oheo Gulch, he had his soul purified

• Ice/Cold - Gadget wasn't affected by the cold atmosphere of Dr. Claw's weather machine, which is cold enough to freeze people solid (as well as the Great Wall of China and the Mediterranean Sea). He has even entered the North Pole without any layers and remained okay, or been completely fine in the cold atmosphere of space.

• Heat/Fire (Somewhat) - Gadget survived close proximity to a Volcano Eruption with surprisingly no burns, though this wasn’t an outright attack.  Even so, he also has a spacepod that can withstand the heat of the mesosphere.

Feats

Darkwing Duck

• Saved Gosalyn Mallard, St. Canard, Duckberg, Earth, Planet Mertz, and the Multiverse

• Formed the Justice Ducks and partnered with Gizmoduck numerous times

• Mastered and earned his Black Belt in Quack Fu

• Helped his hero ancestors redeem the Mallard family name

• Teamed up with Scrooge McDuck and his family to stop the Phantom Blot

• Canonically pisses off Beelzebub with his work on Earth (yes, really)

• Defeated Taurus Bulba, Megavolt, Quackerjack, Liquidator, Steelbeak, every single villain in St. Canard, Negaduck

• Has an absolutely adorable relationship with former villain Morgana (bro actually reformed her, take notes every comic superhero with that love interest ever)

Power

• Kicked a trash can hard enough to knock away a group of goons

• Chopped down a large palm tree in only a few swings and seconds.

• Flipped over and then threw a heavily muscled F.O.W.L henchman

• Picked up and used an entire palm tree as a battering ram

• Was able to lift steel girders

• Opened and escaped from the jaws of an alligator

• Held a shark’s mouth open

• Kicked a metal door off its hinges

• Kicked a large robot hard enough to send it flying

• Stabbed through a giant robot with a frozen Steelbeak as a makeshift blade

• Knocked out a massive ice monster that smashed through various snow/ice walls

• Hangs onto a pool until it is pulled out of the ground by suspenders he’s wearing, technically pulling it himself by acting as the force between them

• Matched Gizmoduck in-combat off-screen, with both emerging with roughly the same amount of damage

• Once screamed so loud it was somehow heard on Saturn

Speed

• Beat up three goons in the time it took for his gun to hit the ground after he tossed it

• Ran against intense torrents of wind caused by a mutant dinosaur flapping his wings for an extended period of time

• Managed to go down a skyscraper in the time it took Negaduck to fall from it

• Ran to some hills in the distance in seconds

• Somehow made it numerous feet across a room while the size of a germ

• Moved across a jungle and desert in seconds.

• Dodged shots from a Sonic Cricket Chirp Blaster that resemble soundwaves

• As seen above, dodged gunfire from multiple drones at once, and once did so fast enough that he vanished before attacking the gunmen, or danced a jig and russian dance while casually dodging bullets

• Jumped over a rocket and ran away from bazooka shots/rocket launchers

• Dodged energy blasts from Beelzebub and his demons

• Gossalyn in his body ducked Megavolt’s electricity cannon

• Darkwing has repeatedly evaded this electricity himself, in the cartoon, games, comics, including from the amped up Nega-Negaduck who had Megavolt’s powers

• Dodged numerous lightning blasts from Morgana

• Dodged energy blasts from Taurus Bulba with Gosalyn

• Evaded Negaduck’s massive electromagnetic Railgun off-screen

• Dodged apparent light from an illusionary Tuskerinni’s camera

• Followed Moliarty on his Ratcatcher as he dug through the planet itself (0.01 c)

• Dodged shots from a portable particle accelerator (0.523 c)

• It was implied he aim-dodged the first few times, and was tagged in closer range. Later in the episode, he did dodge it in that same closer range gap, so aim-dodging likely isn’t a concern

• While under effects of that Particle Accelerator which gave him super-speed, built a skyscraper in seconds (1.19 c, see Before the Verdict)

• Disappeared from sight in the time it took for a camera to flash (Faster than Light, duh)

• With Gryzlikoff, painted a line across the moon in a short time. (12.304 c)

• Reportedly calculated an event down to the nanosecond (Hyperbole)

Durability

(There’s a lot)

• Has been crushed by numerous anvils

• Survived falling hard enough to implant into the ground or off a 96-story building

• Got shot by a point-blank cannon

• Got flung into and shook a lighthouse.

• Tanked explosions that blew up the roof of a house, the top of a skyscraper, and 2 tons of concrete, as well as numerous bombs from Negaduck

• Survived a superweapon explosion that destroyed a blimp and dwarfed the top of a building, though he was injured over the next few days

• Slammed around numerous times by Gnatmare and thrown across half of St. Canard in seconds (0.31 Tons of TNT)

• Tanked attacks from psychic hippies and a F.O.W.L general who became the ultimate psychic power

• Was shot by a 240-Gigawatt laser from the Thunderquack (57.361 Tons of TNT)

• Tanked ramming into objects while running at super-speed

• Got smacked into the moon after driving into a rock (This gets FTL rip bozo)

• Has been wailed on by Megavolt, Quackerjack, and Bushroot all at once, and once tanked getting smashed by Nega-Negaduck (who absorbed the powers of the other Fearsome Five members)

• Was mostly fine when a Volcano blew up just behind him

• Survived a bomb that would level a forest 

• Blasted by Negaduck (his alternate dark personality, long story)

• This was right after he had destroyed City Hall in one shot

• Survived being shocked by enough raw electricity to light up the entirety of St. Canard (12.06 Kilotons of TNT, potentially higher, see Before the Verdict)

• Got shocked by electricity that drained all the power of St. Canard and caused a blackout (12.06 Kilotons of TNT, potentially higher, see Before the Verdict)

• Was shocked by his temporary Supercomputer going haywire, which caused a citywide blackout (12.06 Kilotons of TNT, potentially higher, see Before the Verdict)

• Tanked the crash of a ship that flew to the moon (1.613 Megatons) 

• Shocked alongside Megavolt by the 8 quadrillion watts of power he absorbed from St. Canard’s power supply (1.912 Megatons of TNT)

• When juiced up by a drink, rocketed out of space and circled the moon before crashing back down, and was unfazed (353.734 Megatons of TNT)

• Slammed around by Stegmutt and crushed under a massive beanstalk he knocked over, citing both as the most and second most painful moments of his life 

• Tanked an energy blast from Comet Guy that destroyed a warehouse, as well as him pulling a training building down onto his body (See Before the Verdict)

• Survived falling off a bridge

• Survived the Ramrod exploding, which caused a shockwave that dispelled clouds (3.417 Tons of TNT)

Inspector Gadget

• Stops Dr. Claw’s world ending plans on a daily basis 

• Saved the earth from aliens by pacifying them to live on the moon

• Helped Santa save Christmas 

• Beat an evil Doppelganger of himself

• Defeated a group of Hong Kong fighters

• Defeated a duo of leprechauns trying to steal the national treasure of Ireland.

• Saved King of Fuzug and was treated like a king by the people

• Teamed up with his ancestors to stop M.A.D’s time travel schemes

• In Gadget’s Last Case, he was able to catch MAD agents without the help of Penny and Brain to get his job back

• Defeated Dr. Claw, Gadget Doppelganger, oh so many robots

• Annoying enough to make Dr. Claw curse him out in a kids game (this is real)

Power

• Smashed a hole through a wooden double door

• Can destroy rock blocks with headbutts and punches, and shatter boulders almost as big as he is with a few blows

• Shatters floorboards in a construction site just by jumping into them

• Dragged and pushed around crates as large as he is, or just shatters them with his punches

• Blew up a pile of rocks (118 Megajoules)

• Casually smashed apart a brick wall

• Can smack giant bombs thrown by a discount King Kong several dozen feet back to sender

• Can heavily damage engines or destroy robots in one punch, including smashing large metal machines with his hammer hat

• Destroyed a giant pharaoh robot and Dr. Claw’s personal mech

• Destroyed a Volcano base with 4 select bombs provided by Quimby (208.576 - 367.98 Tons of TNT per bomb)

Speed

• Dodged lasers, as seen above

• Can move in tandem with and evade fireballs, bullets, and rockets, 

• Can dodge missiles 

• Flew from New York City to Paris in an unspecified timeframe (mission started at 12:30 PM, and he got to his second one at 3:00 AM) and later from London to Mexico in (London mission started at 11:00 AM, and got to Mexico at 8:00 PM), then from Mexico to the Caribbean

• Tossed a paper airplane across the world (Mach 8,021)

• Moved in tandem with apparent lasers while flying (0.473 c)

Durability

• Got in an offscreen car crash

• Survived falling off the Empire State Building hard enough to leave a crater on impact 

• Survived an explosion that blew up an elevated building

• Survived an electrical explosion that blew up a power plant

• Can survive shots from a bazooka and missiles

• Virtually unharmed after a bomb explodes right next to him

• His Gadget Coat can reflect missiles while sustaining no damage, and he can tank these same mega-missiles even without it active

• Four of these missiles can destroy a small tower 

• Got launched out of a cannon

• Fell down the Grand Canyon

• Got struck by lightning

• Tanked a catalyst storm dispersion (1.223 Megatons of TNT)

• Was near a blast that caused a volcanic eruption (38.637 Megatons of TNT) 

• Survived smashing into a large meteorite hard enough to shatter it (170.3 Petatons of TNT)

Scaling

Darkwing Duck

Justice Ducks and Heroes

Darkwing may be a mighty hero, but (although it sometimes pains his ego to admit it) he’s even more formidable with his allies and other heroes working alongside him. In fact, Darkwing has continuously matched many of the other heroes his world has to offer despite his lack of superhuman strength or the like, so we’ll be looking at their feats as well to determine his full capacity.

Gizmoduck:

• No-sold a grenade and gunfire

• Held back a speeding tank vehicle with ease

• Blasted by cannonball a huge distance, into a minefield to explode, which damaged him but left him mostly alright.

• Got crushed by a big statue globe, then lifted it and threw it right back at Steelbeak

• Lifted a bridge up.

Stegmutt (Durability ONLY): 

• Stegmutt knocked over a massive beanstalk that Bushroot made 

Morgana McCawber:

• Casually created a thunderstorm with one spell that was shown extending over a good part of St. Canard

• Made a large storm over her family’s castle when angry, with her father saying she’s done worse in the past.

• Fought Magica de Spell, who later absorbed her power to double her own might (implying similar strength in raw power)

• Clashed with and defeated Duckthulu (a threat to all of existence) and remade the entire Disney Multiverse while doing so (uh… yeah. Inapplicable, see Before the Verdict)

Comet Guy (Durability ONLY, debatable, see Before the Verdict): 

• Threw an energy ball that destroyed a warehouse

• Comet Guy’s ship (which is kind of just him flying inside his helmet) quickly flew to the moon and shook it

• His ship/helmet shook numerous planets and celestial objects bouncing off of them

• Darkwing said there was only one force in the universe capable of causing his kind of destruction

• Other members of his species can kick buildings into the distance

• Using continual amplification via the powers of the Mertz, Darkwing and Ordinary Guy could grow larger than planets to do the following (note that this is far beyond an individual Mertz):

• Rapidly spin a planet by running on it

• Grab the Big Dipper and use it like a weapon

• Dodged blasts from the gun, which travels much further than their celestial sized bodies

• Fling multiple stars via slingshot, to little effect and minor annoyance 

• Use a moon like a boomerang 

• The Gun that drained and gave powers could drain and shrink both planets and stars

Villains

As the protector of St. Bernard, Darkwing Duck has frequently battled and beaten its many enemies from Liquidator to Taurus Bulba, sometimes multiple at the same time! As such, he can compare to and exceed the many evildoers he’s come across, like when he tanked hits from and beat plant monsters empowered by super fertilizer from Bushroot. For the finer details on the majority however, please see Before the Verdict, since a good amount of how high they get relies on explanation. 

Taurus Bulba:

• Upon becoming a Cyborg, Bulba’s weapons were stated able to destroy entire armies, and that he would become F.O.W.L’s most formidable agent (including Steelbeak)

Quackerjack:

• Created numerous toys that have smashed through walls, ignored gunfire, and destroyed buildings (regular guards have tanked this)

• Tore through numerous Crimebots with his bare hands

• His reboot selfs’ bombs could blow up floors of a skyscraper

Bushroot: 

• Grew a massive root to lift a bulldozer in seconds 

• Grew a massive plant stalk out of a factory in seconds

• Grew massive plant tendrils that lifted a building high above the city, later crashing in the ocean (8.256 Kilotons for growth, 71.65 Megatons of TNT for moving the building)

Liquidator:

• Negaduck using his powers flooded St. Canard

• Hardened all the water in St. Canard into a gelatin type material, including the bay.

• The water instantly went back to normal when he was beaten, so he was likely doing it continuously

Megavolt:

• Shocked Launchpad hard enough to smash him into and dent a metal object

• Fully destroyed a door, stool, and treadmill in one blast each as a teenager

• Claimed he could run “a few zillion volts” through a person

• Electrocuted Taurus Bulba

• Drained, absorbed, or tanked energy that causes citywide blackouts in St. Canard… basically every time he appears (12.06 Kilotons of TNT, potentially higher, see Before the Verdict), including:

• Caused a blackout across St. Canard in his first appearance, and has done similar to numerous other cities

• Tanked getting shocked by energy from a short-circuit that knocked out all power in St. Canard for a brief blackout

• Caused a blackout over the entire city by sabotaging the power plant.

• Pulled energy from several power sources, and drained “half the city’s power” to fuel Quackerjack’s Timetop

• Absorbed the power of all the Starducks in St. Canard, implied to be basically the entire city

• His Negaverse counterpart (same powers but from a different dimension) instantly powered the entirety of Negaverse St. Canard (289.5 Kilotons of TNT, potentially 45.9 Megatons, see Before the Verdict)

• Absorbed all the batteries and power supply of St. Canard, feeling the raw power of “8 Quazrillion watts” course through him (1.912 Megatons of TNT)

• He was shocked by his power being stolen right after this alongside Darkwing

• Most of his energy was used to recharge a super-battery prototype. Said prototype can fuel a vehicle flying around the world 20 times without needing to refuel (35.2 Megatons of TNT, see Before the Verdict)

• By messing with the power plant and drawing electricity a bunch of ways, he sent an elevator to the moon and back at roughly the speed of light tbh (Inapplicable)

• This was in a comic book Darkwing wrote about his adventures, so it’s more likely he was exaggerating and not that usable of a feat but still, pretty funny

• Has directly tanked getting shocked by his own powers numerous times

• Survived getting blasted and stepped on by a kaiju trio Electromagnetic Gosalyn clone (don’t ask), who earlier absorbed all the power in St. Canard with relative ease

• His weapons launch electricity at the same time as a lightning bolt, and he has come out of light bulbs as electricity (Mach 286, see Before the Verdict)

Steelbeak:

• Darkwing dubs Steelbeak F.O.W.L’s top agent

• Got blasted and scorched by weaponry from Taurus Bulba

• Survived a F.O.W.L battleship getting vaporized to ash by lightning (87.8 Kilotons of TNT)

• Dodged and ran away from blasts of a high-tech gun meant to shoot the earth from the moon (Mach 75,000 - 26% Lightspeed)

Gnatmare (Durability ONLY):

• Slammed through a massive building in seconds

• Quickly launched Darkwing across half of St. Canard

Others: 

• Rabbit Racer tripped and slammed on the ground at just below the speed of sound

• Dr. Fossil used a magnet to pull a comet to Earth for a redo of the extinction-level event that wiped out the dinosaurs (Non-scalable)

• Professor Moliarty Literally dug through the planet itself to the other side in seconds (0.01 c, 207.49 Kilotons - 1.789 Megatons of TNT)

• One of Darkwing’s variants from a darker future tanked his own, er, tank exploding pretty much fine

Negaduck

“We’re going to give you 30 minutes to burrow as deeply into this facility as you can; and then we’re all going to come looking for you. The clock’s ticking, Deadwing. Run.”

They say a man’s greatest enemy is himself, and this is no less true with the dastardly devious Negaduck. An evil alternate dimension counterpart to Darkwing Duck, Negaduck is his Joker, Bullseye, and Green Goblin all at once in terms of both pettiness and skill. The two have harmed and fought each other numerous times on even footing, and Negaduck is essentially just Darkwing Duck from another dimension in the first place, so there’s no question that the two would be comparable. 

• Knocked out three guards with one kick and cut a podium in half with his chainsaw

• Slashed through a trash can with a whip

• Had guns that blasted through a wall

• Blew up a wall

• Survived the Thunderquack ramming him/falling on him

• Tanked 14 bombs, which blasted him off into the sky to pull a Team Rocket

• His bazooka blew up a battleship with him on it, which he survived

• Megavolt outright admitted he wasn’t a match for Negaduck

• Stated by the Friendly Four (Negaverse counterparts to the Fearsome Five minus Negaduck) that Darkwing was the only one to ever beat Negaduck; meaning they had all lost to him prior 

• Ran in circles as a blur

• Dodged and reflected blasts from Morgana 

Ducktales (Original)

As mentioned, Darkwing does share a world with Scrooge McDuck of the Ducktales cartoon. Beyond Launchpad McQuack being a recurring character in both shows and Darkwing being relative to him, he’s crossed over with Scrooge himself in the comics and is a relative fighter to him as well. Heck, he once soloed the Beagle Boys in his own adventures, with all of this comfortably letting him scale to the general feats of the tv series (see Before the Verdict for a general explanation on this)

• Scrooge has been able to casually outpace gunfire

• Scrooge survived riding his money bin from orbit (17.296 - 566.274 Tons of TNT)

• Launchpad ran up an insanely tall staircase in seconds.

• Launchpad pulled a fridge to his location with psychic powers from halfway around the world (0.016 c, 300.265 Kilotons)

• While not overtly stated, this was a recurring gag episode and they were in an area without a likely fridge. It’s more likely he pulled the refrigerator from their house, given Darkwing’s annoyed remark “AGAIN with the refrigerator?"

• Launchpad moved a psychic high into the atmosphere with his powers and tanked him falling back down on top of him (0.007 c, 178.35 Kilotons)

• Launchpad dodged blasts from a Heat Wave energy Gosalyn

• The episode went over a trio of energy Gosalyn’s based around the Electromagnetic Spectrum; being light, radio, and heat waves. They are stated to be these numerous times and numerous characters dodge their attacks, albeit heat rays being the only one to consistently behave like lasers. 

• Magica and the Beagle Boys survived this explosion

Ducktales (Reboot)

Similarly, Darkwing within this continuity has shown to be on par with the main cast, meaning he should also generally scale to their feats as well. 

• Penumbra survived the Planetary Engine’s thrusters exploding (122.86 Tons of TNT) (See Before the Verdict)

• Gizmoduck survived this massive explosion

• Della can dodge lightning from Zeus (Mach 127.26)

• Gizmoduck has dodged natural lightning (Mach 531.22)

• Donald has taken hits from Storkules (Debatable, see Before the Verdict)

• Tossed a discus around the world (15.354 Kilotons, 0.027 c)

• Moved the planet back into orbit (34 Yottatons, Mach 637.217)

Inspector Gadget

Dr Claw

Corporate greed personified, Dr. Claw is Inspector Gadget’s biggest adversary with his constant attempts to take over the world whether through hiring mercenaries, assassins or even traveling through time itself , there is no limit to how far he'll go to claw his way to victory.

• Singlehandedly crushed a crystal

• Might just be a claw attached to a chair

• His ship survived a blast from the Emerald Duck, which was able to blow up several mountains (629.7 Megatons - 40.056 Gigatons of TNT)

M.A.D

What evil villain would he be without a group of henchmen, whether human or even aliens to help pursue Inspector gadget. Gadget should scale since he generally overpowers them in nearly every iteration of the story.

• Random agents survived being in an underwater base that blew up

• Robots self-destructing can annihilate metal doors as large as or bigger then they are

• Remember that meteor exploding? Yeah Talon was on it too. (170.3 Petatons of TNT)

• Talon survived the explosion of the reactor Dr Claw made, this same reactor was stated to be able to scorch the earth’s surface and even claimed to be able to carve a face of his cat into the moon (646.57 Petatons)

Fidget & Digit

When in doubt, there will always be a few gears left to support Uncle Gadget. These are the titular Gadgetinis, and Gadget should generally scale to them considering he's the one doing most of the fighting while they're mainly afraid to get into conflict with the villains he combats.

• Fidget can dodge and tank missiles

• Digit survived atmospheric re-entry

• Fidget and Fidget bail off an atmospheric-escaping rocket (Mach 40.8)

• Fidget and Digit were able to intercept an alien saucer's interstellar flight (2.98c)

Others

• Penny deflected a laser with a mirror (0.241 c)

• Remember that meteor exploding? Yeah Penny and Brain were on it too (170.3 Petatons of TNT)

• Chief Quimby regularly survives various explosions from his self destruct messages

• Chief Quimby survived being locked in an incinerator and dropped in a vat of acid; surviving because he is a cartoon character

• Chief Quimby getting mad was allegedly on par with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (13 - 21 Gigatons fr)

• All of Gadgets ancestors can tank cartoon bomb explosions

Weaknesses

Darkwing Duck

Darkwing Duck is certainly a challenge, but a large portion of the time his own arrogance and ego leads to very unwarranted errors. Even aside from that, he’s not always equipped to deal with much stronger opponents, to the point that his arms have shattered punching people like Cat-Tankerous. His technology is also prone to mistakes, such as how his Gas Gun has been frozen, stolen by a vacuum gun, or otherwise taken by certain foes. His gas itself has also been blown back at him to negative effect… a lot actually, even though he’s been fine moments later. He’s been immobilized by traps like spider webs throughout the series to varying success, and also been transmuted or possessed throughout the show with rarely any positive examples against it. 

Inspector Gadget

Gadget’s biggest issue as a fighter is that, while he can be competent if the situation calls for it, he’s… frankly a massive idiot a lot of the time. Most notably, he is regularly tricked by various MAD Agents and takes them at their word, like when he was tricked into holding live bombs due to believing they were balloons. Beyond that, he’s had all his gadgets get stolen after getting captured, had them deactivated by specially designed bombs, and regularly tends to have the wrong one pop out when trying to summon them. He’s also been dazed and stunned by gases, and seemingly can’t go underwater, though this is inconsistent. And while Gadget’s luck is certainly nothing to scoff at, it is important to note this isn’t an explicit ability making him unable to take damage or fail, given all the times across the multiple series he’s been put in danger and not been saved by pure luck. 

Before the Verdict

Darkwing/Ducktales: Canon or no?

This is mostly to explain the canon situation between Darkwing Duck and Ducktales, since there’s been a lot of discussion whether or not the series are actually connected. Are they? Short answer: yes. Long answer: it’s complicated.

Starting, the original cartoon obviously draws inspiration from Ducktales, having Launchpad McQuack as Darkwing’s sidekick; him being a mainstay on Ducktales. The comics detailing the first few episodes of Darkwing Duck even stated Launchpad showed up “from another comic.” The cartoon beyond that frequently showcases people from the same world, like Drake’s superhero frenemy Gizmoduck, who was also from the original Ducktales show. In the episode where Fenton showed up, Gizmoduck brought up both St. Canard and Darkwing as seperate places, was shown to live in Duckberg (home of Scrooge McDuck, with his face showing up on a billboard), and noted to be friends with Launchpad. Launchpad himself obviously confirmed this, noted he was from Duckberg, talked about Duck Manor (Scrooge’s mansion), and mentioned they used to work “for the same guy.” Even beyond this, villain auctions for S.H.U.S.H agent files (makes sense if it’s a shared universe due to how big the agency is) showcased numerous Ducktales exclusive villains there. Magica de Spell, Glomgold, and the Beagle Boys all made the cut, and the latter show up in Darkwing’s comics themselves, and Magica being in a duo villain deal with Negaduck for an important arc detailing Darkwing’s multiverse.

These sort of collaborations aren’t exactly new either. Even in the original Disney Afternoon comic series, the entire collection (Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, Talespin, Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop) had an overarching crossover between each other. In more recent years, the BOOM! line of Darkwing Duck involved the Ducktales canon numerous times in overarching storylines. Gyro Gearloose and the Gizmoduck armor were pretty important to the first few stories, and Scrooge showed up to resolve this while giving Launchpad control over a company (with said event triggering several later story events and being referenced numerous times across the other comics). Launchpad is noted to be a former employee of Scrooge McDuck in relation to this, and the final saga of both comic runs involved a crossover with the Ducktales comic at the time, where the story was told and continued through both their series (meaning you needed to read Ducktales for one part, Darkwing Duck for another, and etc). Scrooge discussed the happenings he did earlier in the Ducktales comics, plus Gosalyn using the Gizmoduck armor, which he noted was why it was missing for a while from Duckberg. The end of story had them shake hands with a sort of conjoined feel to things of both worlds, and that was that. 

Still, things can get complicated for no reason. Creators have stated at times they are in separate universes or other facets, like how that last crossover was axed from the series in later omnibus collections because of disputes with Disney. Even still, the original cartoon provides numerous examples of connection to Duckberg’s characters, noting where they come from, and other things like that. It may not be outright bringing up Scrooge, but it is a clear connection. Much of what happens in that BOOM! run can’t even happen without Scrooge or Magica’s direct intervention, and the ending is the clear intention of the writers to unite the worlds and show Darkwing teaming up with Scrooge. Finally, let’s return to that “alternate universe” statement from a Reddit Q&A with series creator Tad Stones. As he states, he means alternate universe in the slightest sense of the word, like with Launchpad, like with the following:

“I point to Launchpad as proof they're in a different universe. In DuckTales he was a terrible pilot, in Darkwing Duck he's an excellent pilot and built the Thunderquack. He looks different in Darkwing's world. He's more clueless in Darkwing's world. That doesn't mean he didn't work for Uncle Scrooge. It just would've been a slightly different version of Uncle Scrooge. Scrooge could have easily appeared in a Darkwing episode. But there was no official decision made while we were doing the show. We just didn't bother with making our show consistent with any of the stories of DuckTales. And we definitely would not limit our characters with DuckTales physics, we definitely pushed the cartoon reality that allowed being squashed by a falling safe and surviving.”

Such is a pretty evident confirmation that “alternate universe” only really means parallel in this case. Any real differences are minor discrepancies based on how they wanted to write Launchpad and other incoming characters without treading on Ducktales stories. This allowed the writers to get away with wackier physics and their own stories with Launchpad, due to him essentially just being the same character but slightly different as far as writing and the overall universe is concerned. Due to being a parallel universe by WOG and especially given his elaboration, there’s more than enough evidence and narrative intent to put both in the same universe in regards to scaling even aside from the 2017 version obviously being a same-universe deal.

Kinda funny how Ducktales benefits from this because of how cracked Darkwing is though lol.

Megavolt’s Education on Electricity

Megavolt is a bit of a “feats man” all things considered, and a good deal of his bigger feats need to be explained due to this. 

Starting, there’s the nature of his many blackout feats. He’s caused blackouts, did similar to other series offscreen, and tanked energy that gave the city a brief blackout. Such lands about (insert value) and his Negaverse self supports him by instantly powering up the entirety of Negaverse St. Canard (most likely for at least a day given the ending of the episode). He’s also survived blasts from foes who can casually did this like that weird Gosalyn deal, or his own powers backfiring on him several times across the series as a relatively casual gag. In fact, he once absorbed all the energy of St. Canard, with the power being stated by the narrator of the comic (not Darkwing) as “8 Quazillion Volts.” Obviously being a stand-in for quadrillion, this then bumps his power output up to nearly 2 megatons of TNT, with both Darkwing and himself tanking this power backfiring like all the other times he’s been shocked by his own power. Technically speaking, since this clearly deals with all of St. Canard’s power, we could then apply the number to all the other Blackout feats, thus making it even more consistent. That standard could also apply to Nega Megavolt, making his feat even higher.

One of the other power examples from him is all of his energy being used to recharge a super-battery prototype. Calculating it lands him 35.2 Megatons of TNT, which is a good sort of high-end for him and Darkwing as far as more “reasonable” calculations go. Darkwing was knocked out earlier by the battery’s residuals, and this battery fully drained Megavolt’s energy to refuel. So, it’s essentially just Megavolt’s maximum. In that vein, why isn’t this non-viable due to that? Well, this is where knowledge of how Megavolt’s powers work comes in handy. Megavolt has shown numerous times that electricity is related to his stamina, such as when his first episode had him get tired and drain store appliances to refuel for peak condition. Other episodes go through this same song and dance to recharge, meaning any time he gets beat through this and passes out for example deals with similar examples of his “max” power.

In that vein, Megavolt has had that happen several times, tanked his own short circuits by water several more times, and Darkwing has tanked those same ones on other occasions. Lastly for power, Darkwing once drew a comic about his adventures where he showed Megavolt shooting an elevator to the moon, which then came down at near “the speed of light.” Doing something like that would massively amplify his regular blasts and likely get hundreds of megatons if not far higher through kinetic energy, but it’s likely not usable. Darkwing is notoriously well-known for hyping himself and his capabilities up, often narrating his own adventures. Handed a comic book, he’d be using these same sorts of grandiose things to make himself look better. Granted, one could say he’s being at least somewhat serious given he is supposed to be writing a story about what he thinks his adventures are like, but given his more consistent attitude and the nature of the statement as opposed to omniscient narration, it’s better left aside as unusable. 

Speaking of speed, our final card to pull is the classic cartoon debate for a bit: is his electricity lightning speed? Yes, actually, which surprised us. Official descriptions of his powers detail his shooting “electricity,” which itself obviously isn’t lightning. He once complained he couldn’t use “his own lightning bolts," and he is a veritable genius insofar as electromagnetic matters are concerned. Although, this scene had him start as melodramatic and mopey, so one could take it as hyperbole. However, we are directly shown his weapons using his own electricity firing in the same timeframe as a lightning bolt, with these shots happening simultaneously in order to progress this story specifically. Can’t really happen if one is faster or slower than the other or they wouldn’t both happen at once. Lastly, there’s also times where Megavolt goes through wires of electricity or comes out of light-bulbs. These could be used to argue Megavolt’s electricity is relativistic if not higher, but they aren’t much supported or built-upon beyond these examples. The former specifically took far less time and was more drawn out then literal electricity moving at near the speed of light, so these aren’t supported enough to legitimately use.

Bonus Section: Morgana’s Electricity

This is a bonus section for Darkwing’s girlfriend Morgana, and if her electric blasts share the same attributes as Megavolt. Hers are even easier to prove are actual lightning. While they aren’t “called” lightning, they don’t really need to be. Their going off bears lightning sound effects, and Morgana has frequently extended these powers to create or wield storms through these same energy blasts. She literally just points these lightning blasts up and makes storms the first canon time she shows up. Can’t get more blatant than that. We’ll return to her next for scaling, but Darkwing and Negaduck have both dodged her blasts, the former more blatantly these same electricity shots. 

Conclusion: Megavolt’s frequent blackouts yield over a dozen kilotons at least, while his Negaverse counterpart powering a city like St. Canard for over a day gets nearly 300 Kilotons. He’s extended further to wield 8 “Quazillion” Watts, which would get nearly 2 megatons given the obvious naming method. Technically, since this is explicitly all of St. Canard’s power, any blackout feat or otherwise would get these numbers since they deal with the same energy, as well as multiply Negaverse Megavolt’s numbers to 45.889 Megatons (multiplying the base energy over an hour to a day’s worth).

There’s always that one Comet Guy (Darkwing’s Scaling and Higher Arguments)

As with most cartoons, there’s always the most odd feats and scaling to go over that deviate quite a fair bit from the norm, which Darkwing Duck is not exempt from. 

Gizmoduck

Let’s start with the more believable and acceptable examples, like his somewhat rival Gizmoduck. Throughout the show, things depict Fenton as pretty obviously above Darkwing, shown in a lot of notable examples. He has casually lifted an object, gave it to Darkwing, and it crushed him, pulled off feats to Darkwing’s chagrin like lifting bridges, and other things that paint him as quite jealous. The issue is that most of these are taken as humorous moments where someone like Batman would be jealous of, say, Superman, just because he can’t do that exact thing. It in of itself isn’t enough to paint Darkwing as wholly above him, especially when we have direct evidence that this isn’t the case. In the first episode Gizmoduck shows up in lore-wise, he views Drake as a potential threat, and Darkwing views Fenton as a glory hog butting in on his city (which is his job). Steelbeak, recognizing this, tries to get the two to butt heads and take each other out. 

During the episode (where Darkwing outmuscled him at points to grab things from him) the two eventually did fight, where the results of this are far more serious narratively considering it is showing us what would happen if they seriously fought when mad. In such, Darkwing shoved him back relatively easily, dodged his projectiles, and kicked down debris to fall down on him. Afterwards, Gizmoduck tackled him, and they fought evenly off-screen. Moments later, both are damaged and winded to the same degree, in a clearly even fight. Despite most of the series seeming to paint that picture, Darkwing did clearly match Gizmoduck to the point that both were clearly strained, and ignoring that for gags about Darkwing’s jealousy is a bit off. To be blunt, most of Darkwing’s enemies in the first place have superpowers that he does not, but he still prevails, so it's not even narratively inconsistent.

Conclusion: Darkwing should reasonably scale to Gizmoduck, more or less. 

Comet Guy

Y’know, when I was watching the series (R1F) I didn’t expect this guy to move the moon by accident in the last 15 seconds of the episode he was in. 

Getting down to brass tacks, Comet Guy is the resident idiot superhero too powerful for his own good that Darkwing encounters in 2 of the 91 episodes of his series. Insert mayhem when he showcases by far the strongest feats that don’t come from unscalable macguffins like Moliarty moving the moon with a gun or Steelbeak’s weapons to alter the sun/moon affecting earth. Does Darkwing scale? It’s as complicated as ever, and depends on your standards. Going into things, Comet Guy flying in his “ship,” which is just his helmet and probably him flying, has shaken the moon and numerous celestial bodies like apparently Saturn with ease simply by bumping into them. This isn’t inconsistent, as the strength of numerous Mertz has let Darkwing have an Asura’s Wrath battle with a similarly amped Ordinary Guy; said battle mucking around with planets and stars with ease. 

Obviously this is a good bit beyond Darkwing’s shown feats and regular limitations. So, the issue then is if he is portrayed similar to them. Similar to Gizmoduck, the series throws in numerous jokes about Darkwing’s mortal body and lack of superpowers in comparison to them, being pretty blatant that he can’t do anything to them really. For example, let’s return to the Mertz planet Comet Guy comes from. He was brought there to be their new “Ordinary Guy” due to a lack of superpowers, when all people on the planet have super powers, and thus needed someone “normal” to save. That narrative role paints a clear gap between them, like in Darkwing’s excuses that he can’t hit as hard as them when they try to emulate his moves. Speaking of, when he tried kicking a Mertz hero, he didn’t budge nor hurt him, which is kind of telling. 

Now, normally, this would be pretty damning. In a sense it is, as with this in mind, arguing anything to the contrary of Darkwing scaling at all would seem stupid. The issue is in one commonly brutalizing regard of Darkwing Duck; durability. Simply put, Darkwing and other characters have tanked Comet Guy actually trying to attack them to varying degrees. Comet Guy’s first showcase of his power was unleashing a bomb that destroyed the warehouse Darkwing was in, with Launchpad, Steelbeak, and F.O.W.L Eggmen soldiers all surviving this, albeit damaged. Darkwing later had Comet Guy pull a building down on his head and crawl out later, and was crushed/rolled into a ball by Comet Guy convinced he was a villain (his own villains do this from time to time, despite other clear examples of his scaling). Even on the actual Mertz planet, he was tackled by him and three other superheroes which collapsed stage on top of him, and was mostly fine after the fact. Comet Guy accidentally smashed him up to flatten head against the ceiling, and those were examples of the heroes actually trying; being concerned… in their own way. 

The other examples in favor of this come from Ordinary Guy. As the former “normal” person without superpowers, his becoming a villain and seeking to steal the Mertz heroes powers came from his repeated beatings, among other things, that he suffered from those trying to rescue him. Again, both him and Darkwing do not have powers, yet it is established that they can take attacks from the Mertz to some degree without dying. Kind of defeats the purpose of the episode if they’d just die in one hit. Even later, when Ordinary Guy steals the powers of 3 Mertz (including Comet Guy), and subsequently states his newfound strength dwarfs their original, he steps on and flattens Darkwing, who gets up right after. Next, the most important factor is, oddly, Stegmutt. 

For those unaware, Stegmutt is a member of the Justice Ducks who originally worked for an evil scientist as the less intelligent muscle-for-hire. During said team-up, Darkwing was obviously at some point injured by the mutant duck dinosaur, from a (admittedly hilarious) scene where Liquidator tricked him into playing pretend that Darkwing was on fire. Thus, he slammed him around hard enough to shake the area, harming him greatly but still enabling him to get up mostly fine after. Shortly after, Stegmutt also knocked over a massive beanstalk… which crushed Darkwing, but he still got up after. Why do these matter? Well, Darkwing directly stated following that those two events were “the most painful” of his entire life. Say what you will about Comet Guy, but he never hurt him enough to earn that reaction, and thus we have a narrative example of that being the most damage Darkwing ever took. Pair that with Comet Guy’s planet moving being casual and the many examples of Darkwing being struck by him while casual or serious, and you could theoretically downscale him from this as a sort of high-end argument.

Now, obviously this isn’t perfect nor that viable as a baseline state for Darkwing. Heck, he explicitly states upon Comet Guy’s return that he was the only one force in the universe capable of causing his kind of destruction. Scaling Darkwing via durability when the episodes paint him as much weaker consistently seems a bit odd at best. The issue is Stegmutt’s example is kind of blatant, and all these examples of him hitting Darkwing (by accident or not) are also rather evident. It simply becomes a point of your standards on this sort of thing, but even then it shouldn’t be seriously used unless in the same ballpark of a high-end statement. 

Conclusion: Mertz feats of shaking celestial bodies are valid. Scaling Darkwing to this via being hit by the Mertz while they are casual, angry, serious, or by accident is possible given numerous avenues, but could fall under the purview of “outlier” and other details. This is reasonably only viable as a higher end argument for his durability only. 

Super-Speed Feats

This one may seem odd to scale back to Darkwing Duck, but it’s surprisingly backed up. For a refresh, Darkwing’s speed was boosted in one episode due to Negaduck’s particle accelerator (and to his chagrin). While running around and doing this, Darkwing at one point moved fast enough to build an entire building by himself in seconds, among other things. Ordinarily you’d chalk this up to the super-speed and nothing more, but the episode explicitly details that, at this point, his thinking was not sped up at all. Negaduck tricked him via this and noted that his thinking was not as fast as his physical speed, hence how he could outwit him to begin with. Darkwing backs this up later when blasted again, outright noting his thinking sped up this time, which is how he could go to freaking university among other things while using his powers. 

All this really means is that things Darkwing did while running that fast can be applied back to his base reactions, as he explicitly did not have his thinking sped up initially. You do need to perceive and react to your surroundings to move adequately while moving that fast to do anything, or you’d just not be able to control yourself. It’s really just rather blatant. In this sense, let’s return to Darkwing constructing that 13-story building. He was briefly tired and winded by this, so that seems like a fair argument of his maximum speed at that point. Moving that fast in such a short timeframe would land about It’s also more believable anyway, considering there are numerous times throughout the series where Darkwing moves and reacts at relativistic speeds, including physically (chasing Moliarty through the planet, painting over the moon, dodging Negaduck’s particle accelerator, vanishing in the timeframe of a camera flash, etc). 

Conclusion: Darkwing very blatantly did not have his reactions boosted while at that speed initially, and would thus scale in reactions to when he constructed that building. 

Bushroot

This one is more of a minor note for scaling and such. Bushroot does a few feats via plant growing that you may question if Darkwing can scale to, in a similar vein to Batman and Poison Ivy for example. The main thing supporting his doing so is a fertilizer macguffin in one of Darkwing’s episodes. Said incredibly powerful fertilizer will cause plants to "grow like crazy," and gained similar hype from the mad doctor upon a simple daisy getting the stuff. Darkwing got beat by this daisy (imagine getting beat by a flower lmao) and then got understandably mad. So, he started training, came back, and manhandled the plant monster in seconds without much issue. Then, Bushroot amped it further, and it crushed him again. After the fact, Honker noted that this fertilizer “drastically increased” the strength of an object by altering cells, thereby making even the regular daisy monster logistically stronger than anything he could do prior with normal plants. 

This matters because, for example, Bushroot growing a massive beanstalk that landed in the ocean when knocked over and even potentially showing up against the curvature of the Earth in one shot, was done with ordinary plants and no extensive amount of effort either. Thus, Darkwing would scale above those ordinary plants and the effort they exerted per his clearly outmatching the super fertilizer flower. While Bushroot has restrained and strangled Darkwing once, every other instance of them fighting has the doctor sic plant minions on the mighty mallard, and lose whenever things get physical. It’s pretty clear Darkwing is consistently beyond him, and this example proves his full physical potential is around something Bushroot could do with relative simple error in regular plants. 

Conclusion: Darkwing outmatched a super fertilizer plant that is narratively above Bushroot’s normal plants, so he would scale to the beanstalk in all likelihood. Stegmutt knocking it over and down on top of him was also attributed as less painful than his being slammed around by Stegmutt as mentioned earlier, which is another method to scale him to it. 

Morgana’s Multiversal Mayhem- IM SORRY WUT

Yeah… didn’t expect this either. 

Keeping it short, Morgana clashed with and beat Duckthulu, who was an established threat to all existence that earned such statements as his being able to “drink the marrow of the bones from our reality.” So, this was a pretty consistent level of power for him, and Morgana manages to beat him in a beam struggle after utilizing spells never before performed in the McCawber family. All of existence in context refers to other dimensions, like Halloweentown from The Nightmare Before Christmas and some variation of Marvel’s Asgard. The problem with this is… we never really know how she does it. It was established earlier her shield would not protect her from all of existence being destroyed, and Darkwing was himself casually overwhelmed by Duckthulu. The aftermath of her encounter with him wasn’t even shown, and she appeared later trapped in another dimension without explanation. Given the astronomical leap in power, little explanation as to why Morgana could do this at all, and other factors regarding the aftermath, there’s no reason to scale Darkwing to this.

Thankfully, other facets of Morgana’s power are much easier to understand. She casually creates storms that cover a good deal of St. Canard or the McCawber castle, and Darkwing has been blasted by her while she’s been angry multiple times in the show. 

Conclusion: Yeah no duh Darkwing isn’t multiversal. He would scale to storms of some degree from Morgana though.

Planetary Arguments from the Ducktales Reboot

While the Ducktales reboot is pretty peak, it doesn’t really add too much to scaling, as it is generally fairly grounded compared to its more cartoony predecessor. However, there is a big asterisk on it thanks to several big figures who can potentially get up to planetary levels. The most direct feat here is Storkules, who was directly strong enough to move the planet, which can get up to 34 Yottatons. While that is well and good, the issue is in the question if anyone should really scale to him. The episodes featuring him pretty directly position him as above the main cast physically, with him only losing the various olympic events to them due to him being too nice. His big disc tossing feat was even preceded by Huey, Louie, and Donald barely managing to toss theirs a few feet in comparison. In fact, later in the episode when he ends up getting brainwashed and trying to beat them up directly, the cast spends most of their time running away from him. We do at least get to see Donald briefly stagger him in this state to defend the boys, along with Scrooge managing to briefly overpower him. That could give a good argument to scale him, but the issue is that Storkules was actively fighting back against the brainwashing, so it’s hard to say he was definitively going all out in this situation. And even then, this state was treated as something Scrooge and the boys were in genuine peril against, so it’s hard to say it’s fully consistent that they should be comparing in terms of might. However, much like Comet Guy, you could certainly argue Donald should scale to him in terms of his own durability, as he does experience quite a bit of slapstick he’s generally unfazed by taking big hits from him, whether that be a crushing bear hug or getting tossed sky high. 

There are other arguments related to the reboot continuity that can get characters up to this scale, but we’ve found that these are a lot shakier. From a later episode discussing Norse mythology, we do have Jormungandr, a massive serpent who has world breaking statements and was someone Scrooge had defeated in the past. However, the issue is that his defeats are entirely after he transformed into a far smaller wrestler form. And while it’s not directly stated if this new form is weaker, considering how much larger his true form is and the fact he’s playing into a crowd that wants a fair fight that’s not dragged out, it’s a bit hard to argue that he’s putting his full strength into his battle here. The only way him using his full strength here makes sense is if you assume Scrooge and the gang are just naturally planet level, in which case it’s at best supporting evidence. There’s also Penumbra’s blowing up of the Planetary Engine, which some have used as a method to scale her to the ship’s capability to move the Earth by pushing it. However, exploding the thrusters in this manner would not be a good way of scaling her to the ship’s pushing strength, given she’d be doing nothing to actively stop or tank the ship’s kinetic energy directly, nor is there any real reason to assume she blew up the ship’s power source considering the ship’s systems were still active and the backup engines needed to get specifically sabotaged in order to make sure the ship was useless. 

Conclusion: Much like Comet Guy, scaling anyone to Storkules is a bit of a stretch for anything besides durability, and even then it requires so many arguable caveats it’s hard to treat it as anything more than a debatable high end. Alternate methods of scaling to this level from Jormungandr and the Planetary Engine run into their own issues as well. 

Super Mario Super Show Scaling?

Eagle eyed viewers might’ve noticed we discussed a couple minor feats from Gadget’s biggest crossover, that being an appearance in an episode of the peak fiction that is the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Now first off, there’s no real reason to assume this show is meant to be a canon extension of the games, so fortunately Mainline Mario scaling is off the table (Mario vs Mickey Mouse cross-scaling go-). That said, unlike the many other random crossovers these two have that we didn’t mention, this was directly part of the plot of an episode of the show and both shows were made by the same company, which implies these two are meant to be canonically sharing a world. That said, why didn’t we mention feats he could scale to from the show? Well, two big reasons. 

First off, there’s not much reason to actually scale him to a lot of Show Mario’s more notable feats. His appearance in this episode was just to help them find some buried treasure, and he never ends up actually fighting the Mario brothers, teaming up with them in a fight, or anything like that which could imply scaling. So, there’s not a lot of reason to actually scale him to them based on how he’s portrayed. This is especially so given quite a few of the more impressive feats from the show involved the use of a powerup or some other piece of tech, which there’s even less reason to scale Gadget to due to him only interacting with the Live Action Mario who’s either meant to be before he went to the Mushroom Kingdom or a completely separate version of the character from the one in the cartoon segments depending on how you look at it. Either of which would certainly impact the feasibility of him scaling to said feats even just on a general level. 

The other big reason is that it’s completely irrelevant regardless. The best feats from the Mario Show which Gadget could arguably scale to are Town - City level for AP & Durability and Hypersonic in terms of speeds, at least according to WWW Blog’s discussion on it. These are statistics Gadget can very easily match and surpass just based on media within his own franchise, so there’s not much reason to even bring it up here. For these reasons, scaling to Mario will not be discussed.

Fan Art Section

By u/Supersebi-1

By Professor Hope

Trailers (insert these as YT videos if possible)

https://youtu.be/buou2_wZFYM?si=ZblVdmMcpDMow1dM

https://youtu.be/kCceAJg9OJ8?si=YreIxU-455_heL46

This time, we have a script for the match written by Round 1 Fight. It’s one of his favorites as of late, and he hopes you like it (get ready for references to other DB fights and anime for no reason lol). Enjoy!

Verdict

This match is a lot, so we’ll break it down into five categories, starting with Power. 

Power

You wouldn’t expect it, but both of these wacky detective superheroes have done some pretty crazy stuff, and a lot of the same kind of stuff at that. Both have damaged and taken down giant robots or monsters way bigger than them, and done crazier things like Gadget smashing back giant bombs or Darkwing basically pulling an entire pool out of the ground. Beyond bit feats like knocking out henchmen or blowing up robots, we’ll obviously have to examine their higher feats and scaling to determine where the difference lies. 

Starting with Darkwing, he has frequently tanked attacks that could black out St. Canard, which lands at least 12 kilotons of TNT. Speaking of voltage, he once tanked “8 Quazillion watts” short-circuiting with Megavolt, which yields about 1.912 Megatons of TNT. Such is far from an outlier, as his other enemies like Moliarty have literally dug through thousands of miles of rubble in seconds at hundreds of kilotons, and regular plants Bushroot have grown have lifted entire buildings enough to show up against the curvature of the earth (worth 71.65 Megatons of TNT). His allies like Morgana have also created thunderstorms, and Megavolt has been behind just as many blackouts that could be pushed into megatons themselves based on the aforementioned watt number which involved all of St. Canard’s power. Darkwing has tanked ship crashes in megatons as well, but his greatest scaling comes from when he got so juiced up from herbal cocktails that he jumped up to fly around the moon; crashing down seconds later only stunned before getting up fine. Measuring his speed at over half the speed of light, we can apply his kinetic energy at that point to equal 353.734 Megatons of TNT, which is over 7 times stronger than the deadliest nuclear weapon in history. 

Moving to Gadget, he’s also dipped into crazy waters. He has bombs that can blow up volcano bases in hundreds of tons of TNT, and has himself tanked a catalyst storm dispersion at 1.233 Megatons, or being near a 38.637 Megaton volcano eruption. The ship of his main enemy Dr. Claw also survived a blast from a mountain-destroying gem clocking in at 629.7 Megatons - 40.056 Gigatons, and so far things look pretty even. Both have lower megaton feats they’ve tanked, higher examples Darkwing compares to and exceeds like Bushroot vs the Volcano, and his highest feat is about two times weaker than Claw’s ship’s durability. Still, it’s not wholly insurmountable… until we get to the nonsense Gadget gets up to in his latest CGI cartoon. He once used a gadget to shatter a massive meteor, and while he himself didn’t do it, he survived said explosion just fine. This lands a whopping 170.3 Petatons of TNT, which is absolutely insane, but actually consistent. Remember, Penny, Brain, and Talon were all there as well and tanked it as well, while Talon has also survived a reactor core explosion from a weapon that could scorch the earth’s surface; equaling 646.56 Petatons. These numbers are literally hundreds of millions to over a billion times stronger than Darkwing’s feats, and so, Gadget overwhelmingly takes power. 

Versatility

Darkwing’s used to being the odd man out though, literally going up against people stronger than him with superhuman powers stronger than him every single day (Guts ahh). Just like then, his versatility is just as important to the fight, and one of his main boons in any battle. So, how do these guys stack up in arsenals? Well, pretty even across the board. Going over their hammerspace and mountains of gadgets, both can pull out basically any item they want whenever they want, such as their simplest pairs of handcuffs or suction cups to scale spaces. As for amount, Darkwing has “thousands” of crime fighting devices hidden on his person, and Gadget is claimed to have 13,000 Gadgets on his person. So, Gadget likely has more overall, but, frankly, it’s unlikely this will actually come into place given both of them mostly match their arsenals elsewhere in amount/effect, and the other thousands of gadgets in their arsenals are unknown. 

Moving onto said arsenals, both have ways for devastating attack power, like tons of bombs or concussive attacks to blast each other back, like shots from Darkwing’s Gas Gun such as Heavy Gas or Gadget being able to bounce people back with his inflatable suit. They can fly and glide around the battlefield with their rockets or capes/parachutes, though Gadget has more methods like his propeller hat or inflatable coat. They’ve got all kinds of ranged weapons like energy attacks, lasers, arrows, etc, and about equal range in their longest-reaching tools. While Darkwing can’t stretch as far as Gadget’s limbs, his Grappling Hook does the same sort of things, like swinging through areas, pulling him to higher ground, or helping him evade attacks. Their reach is also pretty similar, given Gadget’s limbs can stretch 100-381 meters tall, and Darkwing’s line has reached vehicles like blimps from ground level (at least 300 meters tall). 

Should the fight go underwater, both have scuba gear and underwater vehicles. Should it involve all their other weapons, both have showcased chainsaws, mallets, hammers, and even high-powered blades like drills or the Thing-Cutter. If they need to blast each other back with wind attacks, Darkwing has a high-gear wind setting for his Gas Gun, and Gadget’s copter-hat can burst gusts of wind. They can also counter this kind of thing, given Darkwing has just… run forward against intense wind before, and Gadget’s boots magnetize his feet to stick to surfaces and ignore things like bursts of wind. Beyond these matches in arsenal, both also have a few edges of their own. While both have rockets and missiles that can, say, free them from things like quicksand or launch them several stories high, Gadget’s go to much greater lengths. Bazookas and rocket launchers are cool, but Gadget has missiles to nuke the area (albeit in limited supply), and Full Arsenal gives several missiles shot out at once to tag multiple targets. Both these have more AOE and amount than Darkwing’s examples, and Gadget has also caught missiles with gloves, providing greater variety in their most killer kabooms. 

On the other end, Darkwing also has plenty of his own edges here. For example, both can stop or reflect each other’s ranged attacks with their suits (Darkwing’s cape and Gadget’s Coat), but Darkwing has learned similar martial arts moves to Gadget’s methods of bouncing him back like the Belly Bounce. Both of theirs are pretty OP in retrospect (Darkwing’s makes projectile attacks and blades basically moot, and Gadget has bounced back missiles or gas missiles), but Gadget’s coat breaks after enough damage is done to it, whereas Darkwing hasn’t really shown that flaw in the NES game. Darkwing’s cape is also more useful overall, and he can also just smack back energy attacks like electricity with a plunger, providing numerous defenses against Gadget’s attack methods like lasers or other methods. Both also have a variety of ways to scan each other/the environment; seeing invisible objects or tracking hiding foes, but Darkwing has more methods of this that extend to other skills like tracking foes specific properties (such as his Infrared Ultra-Scan Specs tracking specific attributes of people). Many of his tools would also bypass Gadget’s methods of hiding, like the Digital Disguiser.

Both of their edges are best showcased in their iconic vehicles: the Rat-Catcher and the Gadgetmobile. Generally, both of their vehicles can do a lot of the same stuff, like time travel or fight underwater (granted both Darkwing’s methods of this are from separate vehicles, but neither would likely go to either extreme here). They can also slow other vehicles down in high-speed chases, like Darkwing’s oil slicks and Gadget’s bubbles, or can just break physics as far as their size goes (The Ratcatcher can fit through pipes and the Gadgetmobile can fit into a suitcase). Still, both have their own unique boons. Darkwing can call the motorcycle to his side at any point for it to drive itself there, and Gadget’s car has an AI to pilot itself for him, both serving similar purposes if they need help. Gadget’s vehicle has more destructive weapons such as lasers, mallets, and missiles, but Darkwing has his own defenses that are just as deadly. He has a waffle-launcher, goop-blaster to restrain enemies, and band launcher to wrap around/restrain people. Such would make it pretty hard for Gadget to drive and be even deadlier if he wasn’t in the car, giving Darkwing more hax-based methods to attack that are a bit more unexpected. 

However, if unexpected is your gig, then Darkwing doesn’t have many methods to fly around the battlefield in vehicle-form like the Gadgetmobile does, given it can turn into a jet and helicopter. While he can rocket himself around and glide, he’s very clearly not as good a pilot, and would be pretty much headed for a crash-landing even if he got the Thunderquack. The Gadgetmobile also has more video game powers, like sticky bombs you can’t remove unless you drop them off on other people, full energy shields, and speed boosts. Still, Darkwing’s vehicle breaks logic in more ways than one, such as jumping up and reversing in midair. His ejector seat can launch Darkwing clear over multiple buildings even if he can’t get rid of the bomb, and his bike can jump several stories up onto a building, so he could likely get onto the Gadgetmobile even if it was flying, especially given the lever that launched it several miles above St. Canard once. Still, both pretty clearly equal each other in most regards, and have their own edges elsewhere, so we think it’s fair to call Versatility a tie. 

Skill

So, with power going to Gadget and Darkwing managing to tie in versatility, this still leaves the issue of how much both have to sort through, and their own skill in battle as far as actually countering each other go. In case you weren’t really paying attention to both of them, it becomes pretty obvious the more you go into it that Darkwing easily takes this category. Granted, Gadget has his moments and is certainly better than his worst showings, but there’s no doubt that Darkwing’s highs reach higher while Gadget’s lows are lower.

First, let’s talk experience. To Gadget’s credit, this is likely even generally speaking. Both are adults of unknown age but likely in their 30’s, who have fought basically every kind of enemy there is (robots, monsters, aliens, etc). They have also fought hordes of foes and robotic copies of them, among far larger enemies, while their adventures have also spanned all around the world and even beyond it. However, while experience is comparable, training is not. Regardless of years active as a superhero, Darkwing is thoroughly established to have years of training before all of this across the world in the most esoteric disciplines, and he’s shown it several times over. Gadget has some examples of esoteric skills like Scottish Hammer Throwing, but not nearly as wide a berth as Darkwing has shown (mountaineering, fire tap-dancing, racing, contortionism, disguise from world-renowned artists, ancient bone dislocation techniques, etc). With such ridiculous examples like swimming the channel twice while wearing a straightjacket, Darkwing obviously takes training in sheer examples, and this doubles for pure martial skill.

With all he’s done in hand-to-hand over the years, Darkwing’s martial arts prowess is more commonly showcased and to greater effect. For example, Gadget matched a Kung Fu Shaolin Master and was briefly taught in the art by him, but Darkwing has trained under legendary martial artists like Goose Lee in Quack-Fu and easily defeated Kung-Fu enemies while trapped in a video game. He’s also been shown skilled in swordfighting and matched other Ninjas, going against these foes more often. Most prominently, Drake is stated to be highly trained in these fighting styles (as is Negaduck, who he has matched and defeated), noted to have attended the best schools of combat in the world, and showcased numerous techniques all on his own like his patented double-flip web kick. Darkwing also stated he’s mastered every known martial art (given context, it’s unlikely he was hyping himself up), which further blows Gadget out of the water. 

That sort of skill extends to other areas, like accuracy and trickshots. Gadget’s marksmanship somehow let him nail a desk with a paper airplane across continents, but Darkwing has combatted and dodged shots from ace marksmen before like One-Shot, all while adapting to and anticipating his moves, so it’s likely he could cope and counteract such skills. In battle, Darkwing has employed greater accuracy, like bouncing shots off walls to surprise foes, shooting targets from buildings away, tagging objects with toothpicks, or a literal curveball that curves around to surprise foes. Of course, Darkwing’s most clear-cut example of tertiary superiority is his intelligence, which at a base level should be kind of a given. Granted, both have lower showings and similar ends at times, like claims and statements of being the world’s greatest detective. Both have surpassed arrogance and miscalculations often in place for comedic effect, but Darkwing is far less prone to stupidity and operates with much more brains on average by example alone.

Gadget has certainly had his moments, like defusing bombs or exploiting flaws in enemy computers in factories, but his errors and short-sightedness are pretty consistent problems across most of his history. Penny is the usual brains behind Gadget’s brawn, and he’s gotten in plenty of trouble without her there to assist him. Breaking this down to a base level, for general knowledge, Gadget knows things like biology and history/culture of various countries (which is admittedly inconsistent), but Darkwing has extensive files on criminals of all kinds that he has recalled at a moments notice, casually recognized vehicle make-up at a given, and owns entire libraries of all kinds of scientific traits. He’s generally prepared for far more random occurrences, like swallowing lockpicks each morning, and is quite methodical in his work, whether that be in finding foes based on knowledge of their powers or defeating enemies based on theories he forms of how their powers work. This includes in-combat intelligence, where Drake frequently employs brilliant strategies in the blink of an eye after ascertaining the environment and his enemies powers, such as stealing enemy weapons for ammo in his Gas Gun. 

Darkwing Duck is kind of famous for unexpected strategies for getting out of a jam, such as making himself a conductor to fry enemies by getting struck by lightning or blowing up his cape via Gas Gun to act as a cushion against a deadly fall. Gadget is claimed to have a sixth sense of a detective, but this is likely just hyperbole, and clearly aimed at deduction rather than combat-oriented ability. Granted, Gadget has showcased robot reprogramming, navigating high-danger areas like laser-filled rooms, and more. The issue is that Drake is a literal genius with far more examples of this and much less holding him back. Reading an entire library of physics books in a single day is pretty nuts, as well as retaining that information. He literally made breakthroughs in accelerated molecular theory to the point that he cured his own powers at the time while creating a slow-motion potion, which is just insane. Darkwing’s ingenuity and unpredictable methods are praised by high-profile individuals as well as his wit, and he’s frequently came up with countermeasures to enemy powers; even in tanks made from literal junk. Combat-wise, he’s also baited enemies into making mistakes and gaining confidence that their tools worked so he could destroy their weapons, which meshes with Gadget’s examples of being tricked by clever M.A.D agents into harming himself quite well.

Overall, given his wider training, greater martial arts showings, and rather overwhelming edge in intelligence, Darkwing Duck solidly takes skill. 

Speed

So, with their arsenals matching and Gadget taking strength while Darkwing takes skill, you’d probably still be asking how Darkwing can keep up long enough to figure out a gameplan with his smarts. Well, “keeping up” is exactly the right word, since Darkwing actually solidly outpaces the Inspector in speed. 

At a general base level, both have done similar speed feats: dodging fireballs, bullets, rockets, and etc. Darkwing has pretty consistently dodged things like soundwaves or Megavolt’s massively hypersonic lightning, but Gadget has also thrown paper airplanes around the world at Mach 8,021. That initially seems like a Gadget advantage, but their true showcases of speed at the highest degrees really let the difference shine. Both have dodged lasers before, with Gadget’s example of moving in tandem landing 0.473 × Lightspeed. Darkwing has actually dodged a particle accelerator’s shots at close range, landing 0.523 × Lightspeed himself, which is about the same as Gadget’s number. For scaling, Penny has also blocked lasers at 0.241 × Lightspeed while Steelbeak and Launchpad have dodged relativistic shots from weapons or literal heat rays, so it’s pretty consistent for both these guys to land such numbers. The problem is that Darkwing achieving these speeds are more consistent, like dodging light from an illusionary Tuskerninni’s camera. 

Should that example seem odd, how about the time he built an entire building at super-speed? While his physical speed was boosted, it was made very clear that his thinking (and thus reactions) were not sped up along with it at first, like when he did this. Measuring said feat lands 1.19 × Lightspeed, and it’s far from an outlier for Darkwing to be able to think, react, or even physically move that fast, weird as it sounds. He vanished from an area and went out of sight from people chasing him in the same timeframe as a camera flash, which is pretty easily faster than light, and something he did without much issue. At his best (and most petty), he painted a massive line over the moon in a short time while arguing with Grizzlykoff, who he was marooned there with. Even a timeframe as long as one hour (they started arguing within seconds of realizing they were trapped for a while) lands 12.304 × Lightspeed, which is over 26 times faster than Gadget’s other laser-timing examples. 

Let me remind you, Darkwing didn’t dodge a projectile this fast and thus keep it to reactions only, he literally moved that fast to paint a massive line across the entire moon, translating such speed to his physical and reactionary speed rather than in short bursts. Heck, this isn’t even inconsistent, given he has literally chased Moliarty (a relatively weak villain physically) through the entire planet in seconds with his Ratcatcher, reaching over 1% lightspeed. He literally just said “F it we ball” and chased him to the actual ends of the earth (Spider-Man could never). Such an advantage in reaction and movement speed is incredibly notable, and consistent no matter what both are given. For example, Gadget has flown around the world himself in vague hour timeframes in video games, but again, Darkwing traveled straight through it in seconds. As another example, Inspector Gadget can also scale to Fidget and Digit, who tagged and latched onto a ship as it was taking off into space. Given the stated distance of 30 million miles it traveled and the shown timeframe, the ship would be moving 2.98 × Lightspeed, which is still 4 times slower than Darkwing’s speed. 

Frankly, this is also kind of a lowball on Darkwing’s end. Again, they started arguing within seconds of realizing the situation, so it could have taken them even less than an hour to paint it. This also assumes it was a group effort, when this joke is a reference to earlier in the episode, where Darkwing single-handedly painted a line over the island they were trapped on to divide it up. It could be argued it’s more likely Darkwing did it all himself given he did so earlier, but even by itself with lower-end interpretations, it gives him a solid edge in speed no matter how high Gadget can reach. While Gadget does have skates to move faster and rocket settings to further that, Darkwing has inflatable shoes to boost his running speed and a hoverboard, matching such faster methods. Even the Gadgetmobile's speed boosts can't match the velocity of the Ratcatcher. Going over it all, Darkwing’s cleanly takes speed. 

Hax

Now that most of this is laid out, we have the final category; hax. We mentioned most of their powers and technology equaled out, but not everything, which is what we’re here for. With Gadget’s power against Darkwing’s speed and skill, while their arsenals match each other in various ways, this then goes into who can actually win, and their best methods for taking each other out despite the noted advantages. 

Starting this with perhaps Darkwing’s biggest advantage is his sheer overwhelming resilience in his toon-tastic regeneration, which makes Gadget’s far greater power almost a moot point. He’s repaired body parts fully blown up, shrugged off getting flattened/splattered by stronger enemies, and healed from gunfire and broken bombs. Because of that, none of Gadget’s projectiles or blasts, even if they mutilate him to some degree, can do any lasting damage. Even just raw strength will only flatten his body if he smashes him on the ground, but he’ll just get up ready for more without a scratch. Furthering, Drake has repaired his arms after they shattered punching stronger opponents just like Gadget, ensuring he can easily repair any damage Gadget deals defensively. Lastly, Darkwing has instantly healed from his entire body getting vaporized besides his head, and came back from getting actually vaporized into ash 4 times (2 of which were immediate). Even beyond Negaduck (who he compares to) surviving getting sucked into Oblivion, Gadget doesn’t really have the physical ability to put Darkwing down. 

None of his blasts or rockets can destroy him beyond ash assuming they land, and most of his other weapons are things Darkwing can heal from all on his own. While Gadget has showcased toonforce himself, he doesn’t really have an actual healing factor in the same way. He’s inflated his flattened body with pumps and can survive without his heart, but that’s pretty much it. Gadget’s own healing methods extend to mere items from video games that can run out, but Darkwing also has healing items from games to further help his regeneration. Even aside from that healing, Darkwing has heavily exerted himself for entire days, and taken on armies of zombies in “slow nights.” He easily outdoes Gadget’s examples of regeneration, and has fought for as long as he needs to in regards to stamina, ensuring he can keep up the pace even against Gadget’s firepower. Even people like Comet Guy, who is way stronger than Gadget, haven’t dealt any damage he can't come back from. Against such a solid counter to his mechanical might, Gadget will need to dive deep into his arsenal to see if he even has a way to off Darkwing, and surprisingly… he doesn’t. 

Let’s break all of this down one after the other to explain. Firstly, Darkwing has shown weaknesses to things Gadget can utilize, like hypnosis and being frozen solid, which has incapacitated him for extended periods of time. That sounds like a good way to solve the problem, since Gadget has a freeze ray with the power and AOE to freeze an entire crowd solid, which is much more reliable than Darkwing’s noted Freeze Gas (that he hasn’t shown the effect of, while Gadget has resisted such temperatures before). So, is that a win-condition? Well, it would be… if Darkwing didn’t have a flamethrower and blowtorch among other fire blasts, which have shown the ability to rapidly melt through ice and thus combat this blast. OK, well, how about hypnotizing him with the Gadgetmobile, since he doesn’t have mental resistances like that in the show? Well, he’s wielded the Radar Cape to block hypnotizing signals before, providing a perfect countermeasure to this, especially since the weapon that does this is extremely telegraphed and easy to counter given the design. 

Next, there’s potentially immobilizing Darkwing; preventing him from moving and thus fighting. In that vein, Gadget has gum blasts from an auto-turret, sticky caramel to trap you, and some glue traps. There’s also a camera flash to stun you, the Stopwatch that can freeze you in place for 10 seconds if it hits you with its blast, as well as a game photo flash item that stuns all enemies on-screen for a time, plus some good old fashioned nets from his games for example. Such seems pretty useful, since these traps have proven hard for Darkwing to escape before… but he’s also wielded perfect counters to these in the show. His Teflon-coated suit for example has directly allowed him to ignore adhesives from Quackerjack, making all the gum, glue, and caramel Gadget has moot. The Stopwatch seems impressive, but only lasts a short time and can be dodged due to it being a projectile. The Flash item in the game has the opposite effect with wide AOE but the same problem, only freezing enemies for a short time. His camera isn’t doing much beyond a brief stun, and Darkwing has numerous ways to break out of nets via lasers or his buzzsaw cufflinks (which have shredded spider-webs or full-body prisons before). 

Still, Gadget has a few possible options left. For example, what about his G-Portal Vortex? This sucks in people like a black hole to teleport them elsewhere, which sounds like a solid option to get rid of Darkwing, given his cartoon teleportation hasn’t showcased reach far enough to pop right back from wherever he gets sent. What about that then? Well, Darkwing can pretty easily resist the vacuum-effect with his grappling hook or teleport elsewhere in the room to dodge it, on top of his experience getting away from a psuedo-black hole in-between universes during Negaduck’s brush with oblivion. Even if he was sucked in, silly as it sounds, Darkwing could just… run back to fight again. Remember, this is the same guy who is determined and petty enough to literally chase his villains across the entire planet in seconds, or move around the moon just to give himself space from Grizzlykoff. No matter how far Gadget would send him, it’d still be on Earth, and Darkwing could reasonably just run right back (just saying it sounds hilarious actually). So, despite his many gadgets and gizmos, the Inspector simply doesn’t have a way to actually take down Darkwing Duck. Still, because he is so much stronger, Darkwing also has a similar issue of taking down Gadget. So, how does his hax stack up to Gadget?

Well, stepping into things, Darkwing actually has better versions of a lot of Gadget's potential options for combat in general, leaving him better off overall. Looking back at ranged tools from their versatility, Darkwing has more ranged tools/projectiles to fall back on that are mostly equal in AOE, and plunger settings to drag people toward him via rope to ensure the Inspector can't escape him easily. Speaking of escaping, Darkwing’s teleportation is majorly useful here, and Gadget doesn't really have a countermeasure to it. His own potential examples of this are likely scene transitions he's never used in combat, and Darkwing consistently uses his smoke bomb-based teleporting to get the jump on the enemies he fights. Such provides a pretty easy way to escape danger and any dangerous situations or Win-Conditions Gadget could display from the above, or to just plain confuse Gadget in general. Even beyond his countermeasures to the tools above like freeze rays or the G-Portal, Darkwing can always just teleport away to get more breathing room, providing much better battlefield control. Still, there's obviously the issue of how Darkwing can take down such a foe. Surprisingly, he actually has numerous weapons across his arsenal capable of doing the job, including a rather ironic edge in his go-to weapon; the Gas Gun.

If you paid attention to his weaknesses, Gadget is… actually explicitly vulnerable to gas attacks in video games and other media, explicitly needing a gas mask to protect himself from something like insecticide in the main cartoons. He's never actually showcased a resistance to gas attacks, with the closest example being his appearing fine while gassing an area with his own fumigator. However, such was only mildly annoying that caused coughs to other characters, and not nearly as deadly as Darkwing’s best tools. Consistently, Gadget doesn't have any real defenses against gas attacks, which is majorly damning considering this is literally Darkwing's main weapon and opening move while using it. 

Such a weapon is incredibly dangerous to Gadget, and has numerous effects that he'd be subject to. Drake has used irritating Itching Powder that works on cyborgs like Taurus Bulba, as well as other hindrances that would stun Gadget like Tear, Laughing, Tickle, and Stink Gas, plus other things like smoke and smog to trip Gadget up. Even better, several of these Gasses provide outright win-conditions, like knockout gas putting him to sleep, acid (?) pellets that have directly destroyed technology before, and nerve gas to wreak havoc by paralyzing him or causing respiratory failure (...kinda dark but eh, he had it in the show and that’s what nerve gas does). “But wait, what if Gadget bounced his gas projectiles back? Wouldn't that KO him instead?” You'd think that, but no. Darkwing has been just fine subjected to his own gas numerous times in the series by this same strategy, as well as the gas of others, and has been just fine. That goes double for Gadget's Tranquilizer Darts, given IRL ones function similarly to knockout gas, which Darkwing has ignored before. And, since Gadget's only method of defense is a gas mask he's used in one part of his kit (insecticide) which Darkwing can easily destroy, he has no real method of countering this nor forcing similar effects back on DW.

Still, beyond this go-to tool (which he has more of even if it gets destroyed), Darkwing still has numerous ways to take Gadget out, many of which are better versions of the Inspector's own proposed win-conditions. We floated around freezing Darkwing in place, right? Well, Darkwing can actually do that in multiple more effective ways to either set up plans for better win-conditions or defeat him outright. For one thing, his Ultra-Sonic Pitch Device creates a noise that stuns foes to the point of immobilization when pointed at them, which Gadget can't really dodge or block (it's basically invisible even then as a simple noise). Such would stunlock Gadget and allow Darkwing to follow up with whatever he wants, like the Slow Motion Potion. Said vial, when drunk, turns you into a frozen statue within seconds, and Negaduck doing so lasted for at least several hours where he was still frozen by episode's end. Given how esoteric this is, Gadget has no way to stop such an attack, especially given Darkwing's mobility with teleportation, smoke bombs for distraction, and his established edges in both speed and skill making it easier to give him the potion. Making him drink it might still seem tricky, but he got Negaduck of all people to, and Gadget is pretty notorious for being tricked by his enemies into doing things that harm him. 

Even for general immobilization tools like glue, nets, and some such, Darkwing has more methods of this in his go-to weapon. Gadget can break out of nets via saws, but he doesn't have much of a defense against Darkwing’s glue or gum bombs/blasts. His Steam Cleaner is only a hypothetical counter that removed honey covering his body when he could still move, which is a bit different. Even still, Darkwing’s being passive compared to reactive leaves him better off overall, and any slip-up in Gadget's defenses leaves him open to Darkwing's other tricks. Take elemental attacks for example: despite resisting cold temperatures, Gadget actually has pretty poor showings against things like heat and electricity. He wasn't actually hit by the volcano erupting, and required pods protecting him from the heat of re-entry. Against electricity, he was explicitly shocked and harmed by it until he reversed-polarity on the continuous effect.

Put into practice, Darkwing's multiple fire attacks and lightning bolts then become solid ways to damage the Inspector. Reversing polarity is more for a continuous bolt rather than a striking lightning bolt that passes through you. For fire, Darkwing has shrugged off flames several times, but Gadget's own lack of notable heat resistances leaves him open to things like Darkwing's Fast-Heating Ouchie Strips, which have been used on shape-shifting enemies to heavily damage them before. Speaking of attacks that bypass traditional defenses, Darkwing’s Magnet Gun is actually quite effective here. While both have magnets to drag them through the air towards objects or objects towards them, Darkwing has the edge in that, well, Gadget is part-robot. Thus, he is extremely vulnerable to settings like Darkwing's reverse-polarity setting that has thrown back metallic enemies like living suits of armor, providing yet another way to force Gadget off his back and into his hands. While Darkwing was magnetized in spin-off material due to having a “magnetic personality,” this is pretty clearly a joke the main series directly contradicts (having his tools magnetize him to a wall by Megavolt and him breaking out by dropping all his tools). Even still, he has Anti-Magnetic Coils to prevent such hindrances. 

Given all these crazy and powerful weapons, you'd probably be curious if Gadget could steal these to turn the tables on DW. That is a fair point, since his magnets like the Metal Detector have pulled items even as large as a cruise ship to him, and the Saccuum has done similar (or inhaled people to get stuck inside it. The problem is Gadget never actually tried doing that with Amy of his weapons; only accidentally achieving that while not in combat. Even as far as that sort of thing goes, Darkwing has actually stolen various items and tools off his enemies mid-combat via plunger or grabber functions from his Gas Gun. Heck, we know Gadget is vulnerable to this given how many times M.A.D agents have stolen his tools, and using anything dangerous against Gadget gives more ways still to damage him. Even if Darkwing was sucked up by the saccuum, he could blast his way out with bombs given he’s done similar against 2 tons of cement, or just teleport out lickety-split. 

As we go further, there's still plenty of ways for Darkwing to harm or take down Gadget. He carries deadly acid in his Cufflinks that can dissolve metal, and Gadget hasn't showcased resistances to anything like that (unlike how Darkwing has). Speaking of tools Gadget can't resist, there's also attacks directly on his psyche. We already established Darkwing can counter Gadget’s own hypnosis despite being vulnerable to it, but Gadget has the same problem without the same solution. He's never really ignored hypnosis and mind control, with the dance machine example being something like Broadway Force. None of the parties affected were actually controlled mentally; just forced to dance in some bodily control. All of them were fully conscious of what they were doing and unable to stop themselves, so it's different from hypnosis that dominates their minds and forces them to do something. Such is pretty noteworthy, given Darkwing has three different methods to hypnotise his enemies. While playing a flute to charm snakes likely isn't stopping Gadget, he's still at risk of being hypnotized by Quackerjack's tools that make him hallucinate mental illusions, or Darkwing’s pendant that froze others while erasing memories and making them listen to his commands. 

Finally, one of the worst aspects for Gadget is Darkwing’s overall better competence; being a genius inventor. We've talked about it a bit before, but remember, Gadget's weapons are often prone to glitches or malfunctions, especially when compounded with his intellectual slip-ups from time to time. While he's certainly better off at his best, it's still a bad place to be in when compared to a genius with state of the art technology that doesn't usually showcase such problems. Similarly, his own ego and arrogance don’t much hold him back at his best, and not nearly to the same levels Gadget’s miscalculations do. Darkwing also has a minicomputer for formulating strategic attacks with technology, so he has ample methods to strategize against Gadget’s powers. Even if he struggles finding an easy solution, he’s been known to spam all the gadgets in his arsenal rapid-fire until something works, such against foes like Cat-Tankerous. Looking at that fight for example, the threat was far stronger than Darkwing, but Drake's healing factor and arsenal kept him in the fight for an extended period of time, explicitly trying everything he had until he landed on something that would get the job done. While Cat-Tankerous was stopped through other methods, this still raises the point that Darkwing can and will use any item he has access to until he finds one that works, and given he has numerous that can defeat Gadget, on top of his other advantages, he certainly has the time to do so.

Such skill and ingenuity also lends a rather humorous possibility. Once, Darkwing was pitted against Negaduck's larger and stronger mech, without much to stop it. His solution? Rapidly disassemble the entire thing with a regular wrench in seconds. Not only can Darkwing likely do this to vehicles like the Gadgetmobile, but also Gadget himself, since he is a cyborg who has lost weapons and functions numerous times before. It may seem a bit abnormal to discuss literally, but Darkwing could likely just… take Gadget apart piece by piece, helped in no small amount by his other advantages like speed. While Gadget has rewired Claw's machines to go haywire with his screwdriver, this was an accidental incident, and not nearly as meaningful given the lack of opportunity to tag Darkwing’s vehicles or how close to his cheat his weapons are. 

The last piece of the puzzle is the Inspector’s often crazy luck, and how often it's saved his shiny metal keister from trouble. This is certainly a fair point, so let's discuss this luck of his. Examples of this include coincidentally pulling out items to protect himself while not being aware he was in danger, and coincidentally turning someone's weapons target on himself. He has coincidentally cut the right wire for a bomb so that it is diffused, and accidentally deflected needles heading toward him with random tools. His luck is unpredictable enough that a goddess who could see the future was left surprised by how he accidentally destroyed a bomb due to how ridiculous it was. Despite how annoying this is initially, it doesn’t really mean much in a drawn out battle like this one, primarily because it's not an actual ability like, say, supernatural luck from Phineas & Ferb. Gadget has been put in mortal danger various times throughout his cartoons and other media without this luck acting as a catch-all, and it’s not a legitimate ability that causes his opponents to just make mistakes out of nowhere that would destroy them. I’d compare this to Nathan Drake for example, where his luck is certainly notable but not a safety net that can consistently do much other than make things easier for him at times. Examined here? Gadget's luck can only really prolong the inevitable.

To recap, Gadget's raw strength and vast arsenal simply can't get rid of Darkwing given his healing, while Darkwing has several ways to bypass the stat gap and take the win for himself, on top of matching or surpassing his overall arsenal. There isn't really much that his examples of luck can do to break through such a wall, especially given Darkwing is faster and more skilled. Heck, he's even countered literal supernatural luck curses before, like when he was cursed and had to fight Negaduck. Not only did he survive everything that happened to him (granted he got pretty injured) but he even turned it on Negaduck despite not being subject to the curse via his own skill; sharing the effect and thus flaw with him. He’d certainly recognize such luck if it were literal, be able to survive all that could happen from it, and work up counters to it given his other overall advantages. Even if it was truly an actual ability and not just happenstance that hasn't protected him before, Darkwing actually has a shockingly esoteric way to ignore the very probability that Gadget is subject to; freezing the plot. 

Now, that may sound ridiculous when you say it out loud, given Darkwing is a Batman parody of all things, but DW is a pretty prominent 4th Wall Breaker that has done all the same kind of things Gadget has (halting effects like a closing screen or ending the episode vs causing transitions). Best of all, he has literally frozen the plot of his own show when on the back foot against Professor Slug, and just left the fight while later appearing elsewhere in St. Canard to do whatever he wanted. This was the plot of an entire episode for crying out loud, and no luck in the world can stop anything that happens while the plot itself is frozen. Granted, Gadget has appeared to pause time in educational shorts, potentially offering the same win-opportunity, but not only has he not done such in a fight like Darkwing has, he didn’t/couldn’t do anything while time was frozen. Basically, think of Smokey Bear vs McGruff the Crime Dog, where both do similar things, but one is clearly better (Gadget's was from an edutainment series not related to his usual adventures, just for reference).

So, looking at all their levels of hax and powers, Darkwing takes the cake and the final edge with his wider array of counters layered with unstoppable attack methods. 

Conclusion

“I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am Morgana Mccawber’s boyfriend. I am Launchpad McQuack’s best friend. I am Gossalyn Mallard’s father! I am Darkwing Duck: the one and only!”

Advantages:

• Solidly faster in reactionary and especially movement speed; also matching potential speed boosts to keep that advantage

• Healing factor and endurance are pretty much impossible for Gadget to bypass

• His Gas Gun is incredibly effective given Gadget's lack of resistances to it, and it wields numerous win-conditions (Knockout, Nerve, and Acid Gas)

• Has several ways to bypass Gadget’s durability and defenses for damaging or killing him (Fire/Heat, Electricity, and Acid)

• Can hypnotize Gadget with multiple weapons or stunlock and freeze him in place with the Ultra-Sonic Pitch Device and Slow Motion Potion; all things Gadget has no counters or resistances to

• Can just… dismantle Gadget's vehicles or Gadget himself

• Better overall methods of scanning the environment, which can track down Gadget and see through his or the Gadgetmobile’s disguises

• Wields greater area control with teleportation, stealing Gadget's weapons, and magnetizing him with reverse-polarity

• Resists glue, gum, and caramel entrapment thanks to his Teflon suit, while Gadget has no solid defense against these same sticky methods being used on him

• Able to freeze the plot and follow up with whatever he wants

• Wields far better training, martial arts skill, and is much smarter

• Better theme song than most of Batman’s themes

• Jim Cummings

Equal:

• Similar overall experience

• Matched versatility across most of their arsenals

• Vehicles (mostly)

Disadvantages:

• Much weaker

• Generally worse AOE in moves like missiles

• Less gadgets overall beyond what we've seen from both

• Can be briefly stunned or frozen by moves like the Stopwatch provided he is tagged (game moves circumvent this with wide AOE)

• Could potentially be incapacitated by a few weapons Gadget has if he isn't careful (despite having counters to them), such as hypnosis

• Gadget could potentially steal some of his tools with magnets

• Inspector Gadget’s luck will prove annoying for him for a time, even if it won’t save him overall

• His catchphrases are way too easy to make dirty.

• Where the hell is the reboot Disney…

“You see little gadget, as long as there are good people like you, the Spirit of Christmas will never be defeated!”

“Thank you Santa”

Advantages:

• Far stronger and more durable 

• Wielded more overall gadgets beyond what we've seen

• Has a few methods that could potentially incapacitate Darkwing (Freezing him in Ice, BFRing him, hypnotizing him)...

• Generally better AOE, as well as carrying more missiles

• More varied and consistent flight methods like his Coat or the Gadgetmobile

• The Gadgetmobile is generally more versatile and suited for combat than the Rat-Catcher

• His luck will prove annoying for a time and potentially allow better shots at Darkwing

• His theme song has definitely been stuck in your head for years.

• GO GO GADGET MURDER GOKU

Equal:

• Similar overall experience

• Matched versatility across most of their arsenals

• Vehicles (mostly)

Disadvantages:

• Slower (especially in movement speed)

• …but Darkwing has reliable counters or answers to all of them

• Lacks any concrete or consistent way to get rid of Darkwing given his regeneration

• Vulnerable to several hax and attack methods Darkwing wields despite greater strength (Fire, electricity, Gasses, Hypnosis)

• Lacks counters to other tools like acid or technology-destroying weapons

• Can be frozen in place for as long as necessary by the Ultra-Sonic Pitch Device, or pretty much permanently by the Slow Motion Potion

• Darkwing could easily just… take apart his body or vehicles 

• Can't counter Gadget freezing the plot and fight around him

• Solidly outdone by no small metric in most tertiary factors (training, skill, intelligence, etc)

• Inspector Gadget’s Field Trip 

• (he also canonically explains what a womb is)

• I like to build brown bricks with Minecrap!

Stepping into this debate from the outside, it might seem pretty weird to come to this conclusion, but it's the only logical one once everything is laid out on the table. Despite his greater firepower, Inspector Gadget really doesn't have a solid option to get past Darkwing's regeneration, and DW counters most of the stuff in his arsenal that he could try on him. Beyond what equals out, he has clear edges in tertiary factors like skill and training, while taking intelligence by leaps and bounds. Add in his solid speed advantage, and Darkwing can definitely turn things in his favor with his greater battle control thanks to things like teleportation. With things to control the pace of the fight like reverse-polarity with his magnet gun, mostly matching Gadget's vehicles with the Rat-Catcher, and more varied ranged or close-up weapons? Darkwing just has way more methods to control the pace of the battle.

At the end of the day, he still wields numerous ways to take down Gadget or incapacitate him (Acid, tech-destroying tools, immobilization via Glue, Slow Motion Potion, Gas Attacks, and Hypnosis), let alone other ways to hurt him like fire and electric attacks. He's less prone to intellectual error and wields technologically superior gear without much flaw in way of malfunctioning, and even Gadget's insane luck can't do much more than slow Darkwing down. Even still, Gadget has no counter to Darkwing freezing the plot itself (which he has done in fights) to follow up with whatever he wants, like literally dismantling Gadget's body piece by piece. No matter how you look at it, Darkwing's speed, skill, and broken powers paired with his devastating gizmos outmatched Gadget's strength, even with the Inspector’s vast arsenal. I go-go-guess Inspector Gadget's finally out of luck, because…

The winner… is Darkwing Duck.

Final Votes

Darkwing Duck (7) - (Capejedi, Round 1 Fight, Professor Hope, Toppat Torchwick, Tru, door-kun, Girlkisser)

Inspector Gadget (0) - (Go Go Gadget Sweep?)

Sourcelist:

• Darkwing Duck Respect Thread by u/AzureBeast

• Darkwing Duck Wiki

• Lieutenant Gadget Respect Thread by u/seoila

• Inspector Gadget Wiki

• VS Battles WIki

Afterword

So, it’s been a minute for this one, huh? Sorry it took us a while, but we think the final product is pretty worth it. It was a blast working on all of this (research, art, script, trailers, etc) and finding out all the wacky cartoon nonsense these two get up to. This match is a favorite of ours for many reasons, so, let’s tell you about some of them!

For connections, both these guys are wacky cartoon detective superheroes with an affinity for gadgets and gizmos galore. Their own mental flaws like ego and arrogance often cause them to undergo slapstick wanton harm to themselves and others, often causing said bystanders to label them idiots or otherwise. Despite those moments, both have hearts of gold and truly do mean well; always managing to save the day. Journeying across the world and working for international peace organizations (S.H.U.S.H and W.O.M.P), both have defended humanity from various villains or even terrorist threats from organizations with Shadowy leaders (F.O.W.L with its high command and M.A.D with Dr. Claw). Helping them with all of this are their essential family/team, featuring helpful sidekicks who often suffer the same slapstick they do (Launchpad and Brain), but also surrogate daughters who help them out on adventures despite their insistence not to for fear of them getting hurt (Gosalyn and Penny). 

There’s probably more to list, but this match is simple in all the best ways that go into all the right beats for the characters, with plenty of good contrasts or additions as well. For example, Gadget’s demeanor and attitude has angered many more intelligent individuals due to his unintentional success and gags, which is definitely something Darkwing would be subject to. In fact, Gadget is quite similar in attitude and role to Gizmoduck, a super-powered mechanical hero who Darkwing envies and is at his most funny when arguing with. Such a moral comparison, as well as how Gadget would probably assume Darkwing is a villain and thus act similarly to Gizmoduck in his episode with DW, makes for a perfect dynamic and dialogue fest. 

This gets even better once you look into all their wacky gadgets, with so many ways to bounce off each other and show how they act in their stories. Darkwing could play as a more intelligence and skill-based fighter; using his toonlike healing to work around Gadget’s “superpowers” (or greater strength, like Gizmoduck), while the Inspector’s luck and unintentional attacks could further anger him for greater banter potential. Both of them can combat each other in high-speed vehicles chases, try to trap each other with nets and glue, reflect their attacks with their suits (Cape and Coat), and counter each other with the most random of tools. There’s potential for aerial swinging between buildings through grappling hook and Gadget’s arms, sprite game interactions calling back to their NES/SNES titles, or maybe even further plot shenanigans like Darkwing freezing the fight to speak to us. With Darkwing’s more abrasive attitude and Gadget’s more carefree one, there’s a perfect line for all of this to play on, let alone so much more potential for such a unique idea. We hope you enjoyed the blog, script, and everything else we managed to squeeze in. See you next time! 

…and, speaking of…

Next Time