In the Darkwing Duck episode "Life, the Negaverse, and Everything," Darkwing Duck find himself in an Alternate Universe that is home to Negaduck. Specifically, he finds himself in the Negaverse, where the good people are evil and the villains of his universe, the other members of the Fearsome Five, are instead heroes, the Friendly Four.
This is their story.
In ahilty's
first story, Nightfall in the Negaverse, the origins of the various members of the Friendly Four and how they first come together as a team to fight against Negaduck is explored. It shows how they go from being a determined rat, a crazed toymaker, a friendly lab assistant, and a simple salesman to heroes.
The sequel, Three Years, is an episodic series of adventures in the three years from when the Friendly Four first form to when Darkwing Duck stumbles into their universe. While they claim in the episode to have never been able to defeat Negaduck before the arrival of Darkwing, there are other villains in the Negaverse and they can still make a difference.
Tropes found in this series include:
- Affably Evil: Gyro will be perfectly polite to anyone he talks to, will show his blueprints when asked, offer gifts or a share of the profits to his fellow criminals, but he also intends to steal Scrooge McDuck's money and doesn't have a problem with the idea that his invention might kill someone.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Cara Foxworthy and her family use magical artifacts they obtain by tomb raiding or stealing from museum to use magic. She uses a necklace at one point to animate some terracotta statues.
- Anti-Villain: Liquidator starts off as a Type II before Bushroot and Quackerjack convince him that his family wouldn't have wanted him to become a murderer in order to avenge their death/kidnapping.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The guy who is part plant, the one who can shoot electricity from his fingertips, and the person made completely out of water don't believe in magic. Only Quackerjack takes the threat of Morgana seriously from the start.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Phyros in one chapter, along with Petalhead
- Ax-Crazy: Negaduck
- Badass Normal: Quackerjack, Negaduck, Scrooge McDuck, and Arch.
- Berserk Button: Don't hurt kids. Quackerjack doesn't react well to the news that someone sold out Liquidator's kid to Negaduck.
- Big Bad: Negaduck
- Brain Bleach: Apparently Negaduck... "enjoying Morgana's company" warrants this sort of reaction from the Friendly Four
- Brick Joke: Megavolt bets Quackerjack ten dollars that he can't reach a certain stage in a video game within a time limit. Later, during a different crisis, Megavolt complains about Quackerjack owing him ten dollars.
- Morgana's comment to Gary the Wereduck about the dog-catcher.
- Call-Back: Death's comment about the trouble Drake/Darkwing gave him in the past, which occurred in the episode "Dead Duck."
- Call-Forward: Negaduck receives his frosting-powered flamethrower that he uses in "A Valentine Ghoul" from Gyro. Briefly he wonders how in the world he's supposed to make use of a flamethrower that only runs on frosting, but he gets over it.
- Chainsaw Good: Negaduck loves his chainsaw.
- Cheerful Child: Subverted with Gosalyn. She acts like a sweet, innocent, and cheerful little girl to the point it has almost become her real personality, but she only does it because Negaduck absolutely loathes it and she wants to make him miserable.
- Chekhov's Gun: Quackerjack uses a joybuzzer against Whiffle Boy at the toy museum opening in Nightfall in the Negaverse. Then he tried using it against Megavolt when he first joined the team, but it didn't work very well. He later uses the joybuzzer to save Megavolt in Three Years.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Robert originally fulfilled this role for Billy (the future Quackerjack) until Negaduck killed him. Now the rest of the Friendly Four help to keep him grounded (more or less).
- Consulting Mr Puppet: Quackerjack often has conversations with Mr. Banana Brain.
- Crossover: Thanks to Launchpad and Gizmoduck's presence in the original show, we know that DuckTales exists in the same universe as Darkwing Duck. Thus, there are Negaverse-versions of Gizmoduck, Scrooge McDuck, Magica DeSpell, Flintheart Glomgold, and even Gyro Gearloose running around.
- There is also a descendant of a one-shot character from TaleSpin.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Every member of the Friendly Four counts since Negaduck has killed at least one member of their friends or family. Bonus points for Quackerjack, however. While the other three have modified versions of their counterparts' origin stories, the Quackerjack from Darkwing's universe simply had a Mysterious Past with no explanation of who he used to be before becoming a villain. The Quackerjack of the Negaverse has lost his entire family, his home, his family company, his money, and his sanity due to Negaduck's actions.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to events in Darkwing's universe, the situation in the Negaverse is grim. Negaduck is taking over everything. Police are urged to stay away from bank robberies. Every member of the Friendly Four has lost someone due to Negaduck's murderous behavior.
- Death by Childbirth: Quackerjack's mom in his backstory
- Death Ray: The Friendly Four have mentioned multiple times that "I Have a Death Ray" plans are one of the top three most common super villain schemes they have to deal with, along with "Take Over The World By Collecting a Resource" plan and "Let's Make a Shrink Ray."
- Gyro builds what he calls an "Atomic Death Ray."
- Disney Death:
- Bushroot in "Nightfall In The Negaverse."
- Megavolt in a chapter of "Three Years."
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Drake Mallard dreams about both Darkwing Duck and his future self, Negaduck, shortly after his first encounter with Megavolt.
- Dream Weaver: The Sandman.
- Dumb Dinos: Fossil is a friendly Mad Scientist pterosaur and Stegmutt is a dangerously intelligent Starscream even as a Stegosaurus, making them aversions. On the other hand, when Quackerjack and Bushroot are transformed into dinosaurs they play the trope straight.
- Dumb Muscle: Launchpad serves as this for Negaduck.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Morgana appears on a date with Negaduck before the chapter focusing on her.
- Electric Joybuzzer: Quackerjack made one.
- Expy: Virtuimon is essentially Pokémon, complete with references to
finding something under the truck and Missingno.- Nieslp is admitted to be what happens when they "take an Andalite from Animorphs and kinda modify it a bit."
- The Voice is essentially The Shadow.
- Flash Sideways: Several characters have dreams/nightmares of their alternate selves in Darkwing's universe.
- For Science!: Gyro's prime motivation. Money is just a nice bonus.
- Friend to All Children: Quackerjack
- From a Single Cell: Just like his counterpart in Darkwing's universe, Bushroot makes use of this fact to survive.
- Furry Confusion: There is mention of both sentient dogs and non-sentient dogs in Liquidator's introduction and how the former doesn't howl (usually) and the latter do.
- There are also rodents in the sewer later, even though Megavolt is one of the main characters.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Quackerjack. If it is in any way toy-like, he can make it.
- Golem: Cara animates a bunch of terracotta statues as a distraction against the Friendly Four.
- Green Thumb: Bushroot
- Hammerspace: No one is certain where half the stuff Quackerjack pulls out comes from.
- Hearing Voices: Quackerjack.
- In Medias Res: Nightfall in the Negaverse starts with the group having just lost a battle against Negaduck.
- Insane Troll Logic: Quackerjack can occasionally dabble in this. Of course, he is literally insane, so that's understandable. Oddly, the voices in his head are quick to point out that his logic isn't particularly sound.He couldn't think of any normal reason for there to be deep gashes in the street. That meant there was probably an abnormal reason for them. And since his team was probably the most abnormal group of people around that could only mean it was somehow connected to Megavolt's disappearance.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Quackerjack gets to see what would have happened if he'd never hatched.
- Kill It with Fire: When not using a chainsaw, Negaduck will break out the flamethrower.
- Kitchen Sink Included: Negaduck had multiple kitchen sinks at his hideout. When asked why, Launchpad asked him if he'd seen the bathrooms.
- Laughing Mad: Quackerjack has had his moments of this.
- Living Battery: Gyro tries to use Megavolt as one.
- Logical Weakness: Water short-circuits Megavolt, which put a bit of a strain when he joined the team with someone made out of the liquid. The Liquidator can be evaporated, trapped in cement, or combined into chocolate pudding. Bushroot is vulnerable to fire.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Nicolas Khola and Gyro Gearloose
- Dr. Fossil and Dr. Slug are examples of more benevolent ones.
- Making a Splash: Liquidator
- Man-Eating Plant: Spike, though he's relatively nice
- Mirror Universe: The Negaverse, where these stories mostly take place, and Darkwing's universe from the show are opposites of each other.
- Mythology Gag: In Bushroot's backstory, Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson start jokingly teasing him about how the potato Bushroot has been experimenting on is his new girlfriend, that it might start sucking his blood like a vampire, and that russets are evil. All of these things refer to an episode of the show, "Night of the Living Spud," where the normal universe's Bushroot tried to create a mutant potato girlfriend for companionship.
- Young Elmo/Megavolt was a fan of the Superpig comics, just like the young Drake/Darkwing was in the other universe, as shown in the episode "Paraducks."
- Names to Run Away From: Negaduck
- The Atomic Death Ray
- Nice Guy: Bushroot. His friends even tell him that he's sometimes too nice for his own good.
- No Indoor Voice: Dr. Khola and Dingo
- Nonindicative Name: Due to this being the Negaverse, many characters with evil-sounding names are actually nice and vice versa. This is lampshaded by Doctor Vulture.Doctor Vulture: "Well that's the ironic thing about this world isn't it? All the people with villain names are good guys and all the people with hero names are bad guys. Take for instance Captain Boyscout, with that name you would assume he is the world's nicest guy. It turns out he is a con and a complete thug…"
- Not to mention Dingo is a kangaroo.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Anytime Quackerjack acts completely serious or even sad is a good indication that things are serious.
- Original Character: Most of the families in the Friendly Four's backstories, Dr. Nicolas Khola, Dingo, Gary the wereduck, the Voice, Phyros, Nieslp, Arch...
- Origins Episode / Superhero Origin: Nightfall in the Negaverse serves as one for Negaduck and the Friendly Four, including Quackerjack whose counterpart in the other universe lacked one.
- Other Me Annoys Me: While he didn't get to actually met his Mirror Self, Megavolt accidentally swaps places with the Megavolt of Darkwing's universe. Everything that he learns about his alternate self and the Fearsome Five horrifies him.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Gary the Wereduck, who is also Morgana's apprentice before Negaduck starts corrupting her.
- Painful Transformation: Becoming the Liquidator wasn't a pleasant experience...
- Nor was Bushroot's transformation.
- Papa Wolf: Liquidator in this universe. His son, Hank, was kidnapped by Negaduck, serving as a major motivation for him to go after the villain.
- And, as Megavolt figures out quickly, Darkwing Duck.
- Pass the Popcorn: Negaduck is perfectly happy to watch the mutated Phyros destroy the city.
- Plant Person / Planimal: Bushroot and Petalhead
- Professor Guinea Pig: Bushroot, but against his will in this universe.
- Rogues Gallery: Negaduck and his goons, Dr. Khola, Dingo, Phyros, Stegomutt, Morgana, Gizmoduck, Gyro, Cara Foxworthy...
- Secret Identity: Technically, only Megavolt actually needs one. However, as he pointed out, "Elmo, Billy, Bud and Reginald just doesn't sound as cool as Megavolt, Quackerjack, Liquidator and Doctor Bushroot"
- Shock and Awe: Megavolt
- Shout-Out: "None of the ducks could follow it, but the mouse did come in contact with a small toy motorcycle in that hole. Unfortunately it didn't know what to do with it. It wasn't a very clever mouse." This is one quick reference to The Mouse and the Motorcycle
- One of Phyros' appearances ended up being a long reference to Godzilla.
- Quackerjack: "Why so serious?"
- A series of pictures include scenes from Epic Mickey, Kingdom Hearts, The Great Mouse Detective, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
- At one point, there was descriptions of events in other universes which included references to Animorphs, Harry Potter, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Warrior Cats.
- The Death that Quackerjack encountered is also the same one as from Discworld.
- A wolverine named Logan.
- Cara learned Latin by mail. Stupid correspondance course.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Both Arch and Gosalyn have a preference for using a bow and arrow, especially when combined with Trick Arrows.
- Tragic Dropout: Megavolt didn't get to graduate high school due to Negaduck's actions.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Thanks to the efforts of the Sandman, the Friendly Four have to face their worst fears.
- White Sheep: Bushroot
- And in keeping with the show, Tank is this in regards to the rest of the Muddlefoot family.
- World of Funny Animals: Just like in the cartoon.
