Villainous reporter Bianca Beakley
Bianca Beakley (April Winchell) is the main villainess from "Fraudcast News," episode 3.09 of Darkwing Duck (airdate November 7, 1992).
Introduction[]
Bianca Beakley was introduced as the host of a newsmagazine known as Canard Copy (an homage to the actual series, Hard Copy), and she was shown reporting on the appearance of the famed Merriweather the Cockroach Mime, as well as Darkwing Duck's latest capture. Her show was watched by Drake Mallard (Darkwing's alter-ego), his daughter Gosalyn Mallard and his friend/sidekick Launchpad McQuack, with Gosalyn mentioning that Bianca was her idol.
However, Bianca is later shown berating her crew due to the low ratings on the show, and even firing them before taking one of her underlings' suggestions to do a series on Darkwing Duck, as Darkwing boosted their ratings by a tiny bit. After hiring her crew back, Bianca followed Darkwing on the job, but managed to catch the caped superhero on a slow night, which reduced him to going after petty crimes instead of major villains.
Heel Turn[]
Bianca Beakley as The Bug Master
Bianca's fury increased because of Darkwing's lack of action, which was caused by an absence of supervillains. Realizing this, Bianca turned heel and became a supervillainess herself, and she later donned an insect-based costume and invaded the St. Canard Center for the Arts as "The Bug Master," after which she abducted Merriweather and called out Darkwing Duck with her crew filming. Darkwing (after ignoring Gosalyn's comments about the Bug Master's familiar face) arrived at the scene and was interviewed by Bianca, after which Darkwing and Launchpad encountered the villainess in her guise at the museum, where Bianca took off with the Golden Scarab of Quackankhamun.
Following her heist, Bianca basked in her newfound heel persona and boasted about her victorious act of villainy, and upon realizing that the Scarab was worth more than what she was making as a reporter, the evil Bianca decided to change her original ratings-grabbing plan and become a permanent criminal--while adding that her final broadcast would see the elimination of Darkwing. Later on, Bianca is visited by Gosalyn, who still had her suspicions but gushed over meeting her idol. However, upon seeing the Bug Master headgear, Gosalyn glumly realized that her suspicions were correct and that her idol was a supervillainess. Bianca covered her tracks by stating that she was acting the part of a villainess to boost ratings, continuing her manipulation by claiming that she would let Darkwing defeat her to make him more admirable, and that she would return what she stole.
Defeat[]
The Bug Master caught in her web
Bianca convinced Gosalyn to join her during their latest recording, which saw Darkwing and Launchpad appear at a warehouse after being challenged by the villainess. The pair were captured by Bianca, with Gosalyn appearing as a villainous partner in crime known as The Grub and ordering Darkwing, Launchpad, and Merriweather to be hoisted above a vat of hot wax. By this time, Darkwing figures out that the Bug Master is Bianca, who unleashed her wasp gun at the captured trio. Gosalyn asked Bianca to release Darkwing as part of the plan, only for the villainess to insist on the "ruse" for a good story.
As the trio were lowered closer and closer to the wax, Gosalyn realized that Bianca was dead set on killing her intended victims, after which she took her evil former idol's weapon and caused a distraction while Darkwing freed himself and the others. While Gosalyn records, Darkwing fights off the henchmen, but is trapped by Bianca's cobweb blast and attempts to escape. However, Darkwing freed himself and inserted a sample of the web into his gas gun and fired at the jet pack, clogging the left exhaust and causing the villainess to spin around before her cobweb belt activated on its own, leaving Bianca caught in her own web. Bianca--whose villainous identity was made public--ended up fired and arrested.
Trivia[]
- April Winchell later voiced an alternate reality villainess on Goof Troop.
Gallery[]
