Editing Darkwing Duck (section)

==Premise==
''Darkwing Duck'' tells the adventures of the titular superhero, aided by his sidekick and pilot Launchpad McQuack (from ''[[DuckTales (1987 TV series)|DuckTales]]''). In his secret identity of Drake Mallard (a parody of Kent Allard, the alter ego of [[the Shadow]]), he lives in an unassuming suburban house with his adopted daughter Gosalyn, next door to the dim-witted Muddlefoot family. Darkwing struggles to balance his egotistical craving for fame and attention against his desire to be a good father to Gosalyn and help do good in St. Canard. Most episodes put these two aspects of Darkwing's character in direct conflict, though Darkwing's better nature usually prevails.<ref>{{cite news|title=Disney's 'Darkwing Duck' Can't Fly Very High|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=April 6, 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-06-ca-1474-story.html|access-date=2010-10-19|first=Charles|last=Solomon|url-status=live|archive-url= http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20101020153455/http://articles.latimes.com/1991-04-06/entertainment/ca-1474_1_darkwing-duck-disney |archive-date= October 20, 2010|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

The show was the first Disney Afternoon series to emphasize action rather than adventure, with Darkwing routinely engaging in slapstick battles with both supervillains and street criminals. While conflict with villains was routine in earlier Disney Afternoon shows, actual fight scenes were relatively rare.

''Darkwing Duck'' was also the first Disney Afternoon property that was produced completely as a genre parody. Prior shows would contain elements of parody in certain episodes, but would otherwise be straight-faced adventure concepts, this in the tradition of Carl Barks' work in the Disney comics. By contrast, every episode of ''Darkwing Duck'' is laden with references to superhero, pulp adventure, or super-spy fiction. Darkwing Duck himself is a satirical character. His costume, gas gun and flashy introductions are all reminiscent of [[Pulp magazine|pulp heroes]] and [[Golden Age (comics)|Golden Age]] superheroes such as [[The Shadow]], [[Sandman (Wesley Dodds)|The Sandman]], [[Doc Savage]], [[Batman]], [[The Green Hornet]] and [[Barry Allen|the Julius Schwartz ''Flash'']], as well as The [[Lone Ranger]] and [[Zorro]]. The fictional city of St. Canard is a direct parody of [[Gotham City]]. ("Canard" is the [[French language|French]] word for "duck".)