Launchpad McQuack
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Launchpad in DuckTales
Through the course of the DuckTales series, Launchpad's character was fairly well developed. As revealed in the episode "Top Duck", he came from a family of barn-storming stunt pilots known as the Flying McQuacks, but he left home when he was a teenager because he felt his constant crashing was too much of an embarrassment to the family name.
Not long after setting out on his own, he met Scrooge McDuck (or, as Launchpad usually addresses him, "Mr. McDee"), when Scrooge came to the airfield looking for a cheap pilot. The plane from Scrooge and Launchpad's first adventure was a rickety bi-plane Launchpad built called 'The Sunchaser' which ultimately ended up in an aviation museum for being the first plane to fly through the Earth. The account of this adventure (since Launchpad was drawn as a skinny teenager) places his series age in the mid-20's.
In the episode "Launchpad's Civil War", it is learned he is of direct lineage to the (in)famous American Civil War General Rhubarb McQuack, who Launchpad, for much of his life, believed to have been the hero of the Battle of Duckridge. This illusion was shattered during a recreation of the battle when he encountered surviving Civil War soldiers who informed him that "that lousy, rotten, bungling, polecat McQuack lost us the Battle of Duckridge." He subsequently helped the Civil War survivors get even with the townspeople for making fun of them for so long.
Launchpad also tangled with the forces of F.O.W.L. (Fiendish Organization for World Larceny), a criminal organization that would later carry over into the universe of Darkwing Duck. Launchpad thwarted a F.O.W.L. plot to destroy the world's money supply after the D.I.A. (Duckburg Intelligence Agency) and Scrooge McDuck persuaded him to impersonate an enemy agent who was his exact double. This is shown in the episode "Double-O-Duck".
In the episode "Armstrong", Launchpad is pitted against a robot in an air-race. The announcer refers to Launchpad as a famous adventurer. In some other episodes, the public seems to know him by this description, totally unaware that his achievements were only possible through his dimwittedness, such as getting his scarf tangled on a wing propeller, thus causing his plane to loop and swerve in what must seem like an incredible stunt.
Launchpad has also served as a youth baseball coach and a scout master for the Junior Woodchucks. Launchpad holds this organization's record for earning merit badges.
When DuckTales spun off into its own comic book in 1988, Launchpad made the jump to comics along with it. His first comic appearances lay in the form of stories produced by the Walt Disney Studios, featured in Gladstone Publishing's DuckTales comic book. But Launchpad was written weakly in these stories, to the point that one reader wrote that in them, "the pilot resembles a weak carbon copy of Donald rather than a character in his own right." In the same comic book, however, a more characteristic Launchpad starred in stories written and illustrated by William Van Horn.
Launchpad in Darkwing Duck
Launchpad's character was altered somewhat for Darkwing Duck, becoming generally more dumbed-down, though he wasn't exceptionally intelligent to begin with. Whereas in DuckTales he had possessed a full head of hair, Launchpad often appeared as balding in Darkwing Duck, having only the forelock that protruded from beneath his aviator's cap (though in some episodes, he was not balding at all.)
In the series premiere, "Darkly Dawns the Duck," Launchpad and Darkwing meet after Darkwing bodily crashes through the roof of an airplane hangar where Launchpad is working. Upon taking notice of Launchpad's occupation, Darkwing demands him to fly him up after Taurus Bulba's henchmen. Launchpad obliges, claiming to be Darkwing's biggest fan. Launchpad then volunteers his services as a sidekick, but Darkwing refuses, insisting that he works alone (and annoyed because he failed to catch Bulba's henchmen). Eventually, Launchpad's persistence pays off and he wins the caped crimefighter over, perhaps sealing the deal by unveiling the Thunderquack, a high-tech airplane he built specifically for Darkwing.
Although Darkwing has a secret identity (Drake Mallard), Launchpad is always called Launchpad, and has no crimefighter disguise, except on occasions where he serves as a decoy for Darkwing. Following their initial adventure, Launchpad appears to live with Drake. Throughout the series he was occasionally reunited with fellow DuckTales character (and rival to Darkwing), Gizmoduck.
Launchpad remained a regular player in Darkwing's life in the animated series as well as the comic stories based on the series, most of which were published in Disney Adventures. Although the DuckTales comic book had been cancelled around the time Darkwing Duck premiered, Launchpad still showed up in new DuckTales stories published in Disney Adventures, even occasionally mentioning Darkwing to his old co-stars.
Although no products bearing Launchpad's likeness can currently be found at Disney Stores, the character turned up again in new stories written for the Disney Comics published by Gemstone Publishing. These new comic books have also occasionally reprinted Van Horn stories starring Launchpad.
Foreign translations of Launchpad's name
Launchpad is known as Turbo McQuack in some European translations. In other European translations, he is known by a plethora of names:
- Czech: Rampa McKvak
- Danish: Max Motor
- Dutch: Turbo McKwek
- Finnish: Heimo Huima ("huima" could be translated as "greatly daring" or "amazing")
- French: Flagada Jones
- German: Quack der Bruchpilot (Quack the Crashlander)
- Hungarian: Quack kapitány
- Italian: Jet McQuack
- Polish: Śmigacz McKwak
- Portuguese: Capitão Bóing
- Norwegian: Rotor McKvakk
- Russian: Зигзаг МакКряк (Zig-Zag McCryak)
- Spanish: Joe McQuack
- Slovak: Tryskáč McKač
- Swedish: Sigge McKvack
External link
| Main Characters | Scrooge McDuck | Huey, Dewey and Louie | Launchpad McQuack | Webby Vanderquack | Mrs. Beakley | Duckworth | Gyro Gearloose | Donald Duck | Doofus | Bubba | Gizmoduck |
|---|---|
| Villains | Flintheart Glomgold | Magica De Spell | The Beagle Boys | Ma Beagle | The Beagle Brats | The Beagle Babes | Black Pete | Dijon the Thief | Merlock |
| Minor Characters | Mrs. Featherby | Glittering Goldie | Gandra Dee | Little Bulb | Gladstone Gander | Ludwig Von Drake |
| Misc | Duckburg | Calisota | The Money Bin | Scrooge's Number One Dime | List of DuckTales characters |
| Media | List of DuckTales episodes | DuckTales DVD releases | |
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