Nearly 30 years after it first premiered, Darkwing Duck is back with a new rebooted cartoon. The new adventures follow Drake Mallard, a mild-mannered citizen of St. Canard who moonlights as the crime fighter, Darkwing Duck. The original cartoon ran for three seasons and developed a loyal fanbase.
The show was a fun parody of noir crime fighters like Batman and The Shadow, but Darkwing Duck actually developed his own impressive rogue's gallery over the course of the series. The bad guys he faced off with were as fun and memorable as the hero and helped make the fun even more entertaining. Here are the very best villains Darkwing Duck has faced.
10 Morgana Macawber
Darkwing Duck might usually focus on the superhero genre for its fun, but it occasionally shifts into the supernatural realm as well. Morgana Macawber is one character who helped bring that element to the show as a wicked witch who has a few run-ins with Darkwing Duck.
She has an array of magical powers that allow her to carry out her crimes. She is also able to distract Darkwing Duck with her beauty. But while she is introduced as a villainess, she soon falls for Darkwing Duck as well and eventually leaves behind her criminal ways.
9 Paddywhack
Despite being a kid's show, Darkwing Duck was bold enough to introduce a villain based on Pennywise from Stephen King's It. In the show, Paddywack is an ancient evil duck who was trapped inside a jack-in-the-box for centuries until he is accidentally released. From there, he is free to continue his evil ways.
Paddywack feeds off of negative emotions and thus sets out to insight fear wherever and whenever he can. With his deranged appearance, Paddywack is probably the scariest villain the show ever introduced.
8 Splatter Phoenix
Splatter Phoenix is one of the show's most inventive villains and one that they have a lot of fun with. A rejected artist, Splatter becomes a criminal armed with a magic paint brush which allows her to enter into paintings and even bring to life things that she paints herself. This makes her quite a powerful enemy.
Splatter pokes fun at the persona of the self-indulgent artist in some pretty funny ways. She also reveals that she herself is a painting brought to life and later claims that all the characters on the show were drawn by some unknown creator, hinting she might know that she's on a cartoon.
7 Taurus Bulba
Taurus Bulba is the most feared crime boss in St. Carnard. He is first introduced while serving a life sentence in prison for his crimes, however, he is still able to run his criminal empire from behind bars before making his escape.
With a heavy Russian accent, this dastardly bull is an extremely intimidating foe. He is a criminal genius who even has his loyal henchmen scared of him. He is also extremely annoyed with Darkwing Duck's ego as he sees himself as an intellectual superior to the hero.
6 Steelbeak
While most of Darkwing Duck's villains are parodies of atypical superhero baddies, Steelbeak is more of a James Bond villain. He is the top agent of F.O.W.L, a nefarious organization bent on world domination. He is a suave and capable rooster with a steel beak.
Unlike the more incompetent villains on the show who tend to get in their own way more than anything, Steelbeak is actually an effective criminal mastermind. He usually gives Darkwing Duck a run for his money and always comes back for more trouble.
5 Bushroot
Bushroot is a classic villain trope: the scientist whose experiment went terribly wrong and transformed him into a supervillain. In this case, Reginald Bushroot was a brilliant scientist who was working on an experiment that would combine his DNA with that of a plant. Things inevitably go wrong and he is turned into a duck-plant hybrid.
Like the Batman villainess, Poison Ivy, Bushroot has the ability to communicate with and control other plants. This power makes him quite a match for Darkwing Duck. Most of his criminal activities involve trying to turn other people into plant hybrids like him so he's not alone.
4 Quackerjack
It seems like every superhero needs a clown-themed bad guy as part of their rogue's gallery. In the case of Darkwing Duck, he gets the foolish trickster, Quackerjack. Though once the successful owner of a toy store, Quackerjack's store went out of business after the rise of video games, which led him to a life of crime.
Quackerjack is one of the most entertaining Darkwing Duck villains, mostly due to the fact that he is totally zany and unpredictable. He hatches countless ridiculous schemes, all using his weird array of gag weapons. He also has a sidekick named Mister Banana Brain, a lifeless toy who Quackerjack seems to think is real.
3 Negaduck
Like any good superhero, Darkwing Duck needs an evil counterpart who is almost his exact opposite. That's what makes Negaduck such an effective and memorable baddie. He comes from an alternate universe in which Drake Mallard is not a heroic crime fighter but a master criminal.
The natural hatred the two opposing characters have for each other makes Negaduck the ideal archenemy. He is just as arrogant as Darkwing Duck as well as being cartoonishly evil. He is also the leader of the Fearsome Five, a group of Darkwing Duck's most famous enemies.
2 Liquidator
Liquidator is certainly Darkwing Duck's most powerful enemy. He was once Bud Flood, the owner of a bottled water company who tried to boost sales by contaminating his competitors' water. Bud accidentally fell into the contaminated water and thus became a being of living water.
Liquidator is a loudmouth and ambitious villain who hasn't lost his salesman tendencies. He uses catchy slogans and jingles even in his life of crime. Of course, being made of water and being able to control it, he is a very difficult villain for Darkwing Duck to fight.
1 Megavolt
A good case could be made that Megavolt is Darkwing Duck's archenemy. He was the first bad guy the hero ever faced off with and has appeared in the show more than any other villain. His real name is Elmo Sputterspark, a rat who has the ability to control electricity.
Elmer and Drake were high school classmates and outcasts. While Drake sought attention, Elmer focused on his experiments, which ended up giving him his powers. Over time, he became a megalomaniac. His long history with Darkwing Duck and his zany persona make him one of the show's most entertaining characters.