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Taurus Bulba
First appearance	"Darkly Dawns the Duck" (September 1991)
Created by	Tad Stones
Voiced by	Tim Curry

Taurus Bulba is a fictional character in the Disney animated television show Darkwing Duck. He is a very large, muscular bull with dark purple fur most often seen in expensive business suits, and his henchmen are all different types of hoofed mammals. His name was a play on that of the title character from the historical novel Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol. In all three of the episodes he appeared in, Bulba's voice was provided by British actor Tim Curry.

[edit] Darkly Dawns the Duck

Bulba appears as the primary antagonist of the two-part pilot movie, "Darkly Dawns the Duck", at the end of which he is seemingly killed in an explosion. The series' most ruthless and evil villain, Bulba kills Professor Waddlemeyer, grandfather of Darkwing's adopted daughter Gosalyn, to seize his invention, an anti-gravity beam gun called the Ram Rod.

An anthropomorphic bull, he proves a formidable adversary, exploiting Darkwing's ego and getting him imprisoned. Despite serving a 99-year prison sentence in an unnamed maximum-security prison, Bulba carries out business as usual right underneath the nose of Warden Waddlesworth (he eventually escaped at the end of Part 1) and hatches a scheme revolving around the Waddlemeyer Ram Rod, which his three henchmen Hammerhead Hannigan, Hoof and Mouth steal from the army. Because he did not know the arming code for the weapon, Bulba abducts Gosalyn Waddlemeyer to learn how to activate the device, as Gosalyn's grandfather, Professor Waddlemeyer, is the inventor of the Ram Rod.

At the end of Part 2, Bulba builds the Ram Rod on top of Canard Tower, the tallest building in St. Canard, and forces Darkwing to give him the arming code by threatening to drop Gosalyn to her death. Darkwing destroys the Ram Rod, but a large part of Canard Tower destroyed as well. Though injured, Darkwing survives. Taurus is presumed killed in the explosion.

[edit] Minions

Taurus Bulba is depicted as having numerous subordinates in his employ.

Bulba, with Hammerhead, Hoof and Mouth, mocking Darkwing's poses.

• Hammerhead Hannigan, Hoof, and Mouth - Taurus' three main henchmen, a goat, a donkey, and a ram, respectively. They stole the Ram Rod for him and later tried to kidnap Gosalyn. See main article, Hammerhead, Hoof and Mouth for further details.
• Clovis - a surprisingly attractive blonde cow, Clovis is possibly Taurus' most intelligent and reliable subordinate. For the most part she is depicted as being his secretary and assistant, but she also pilots his airship. Clovis is distinguished by her monotone personality and emotionlessness. Despite her attractiveness there is never any indication that she and Taurus have anything other than a purely professional relationship. Apparently, her parents wanted her to grow up to be a dental hygienist, as mentioned when she escapes the exploding Ram Rod. She was voiced by Marcia Wallace.
• Tantalus - Taurus' non-anthropomorphic pet condor, trained to follow his commands. His name is taken from that of Tantalus from Greek mythology. Tantalus often serves as Taurus' contact with his henchmen by wearing a two-way miniature television screen on a collar around his neck, which allows Taurus to literally have a bird's eye view of things. Tantalus' squawks are actually eagle voice recordings.

[edit] Steerminator

Bulba, following his resurrection as the Steerminator

He later returned in the episode "Steerminator", in which he is rebuilt into a cyborg by F.O.W.L. in the hopes that Bulba would replace Steelbeak as their chief agent. "The Steerminator" refuses their offer, however, on the grounds they had not asked his permission to be rebuilt from the dead. Equipped with an impressive arsenal of weapons, including lasers mounted on his horns, the Steerminator casually destroys F.O.W.L.'s headquarters and leaves the entire organization, including its high commands, in terror of his rampage. F.O.W.L. realizes that they had made a grave mistake with Taurus Bulba, as they created a powerful and fearsome enemy of the organization instead of a loyal agent.

Now totally insane, he has since tried at least once to get revenge on Darkwing, but after being defeated (thanks largely to faulty wiring given to his mechanical body by F.O.W.L. which caused him to overheat and shut down when he got too angry), Bulba transforms into a jet and flies away, vowing to get his revenge against Darkwing for his requiring mechanical components to live. Since the series was cancelled shortly after "Steerminator" aired, however, Bulba never makes good on his threat (even though a fourth episode was planned for him: "Yours, Mayan, Ours").

[edit] Other media

Bulba has appeared in a few other media formats licensed by Disney. He is the primary antagonist of the four-issue comic book adaptation of Darkly Dawns the Duck released shortly after the pilot first aired. It is noteworthy that in the comic, Bulba has brown fur instead of dark purple fur. He also appeared as the villain in the book The Darkest Night by Andrew Helfer, in which he hires 12 ducks to impersonate Darkwing, and frame him by committing various crimes. Oddly, Helfer depicts Bulba as being the head of F.O.W.L., and the story is set after the events of Darkly Dawns the Duck and Bulba is shown completely unhurt, and no explanation is offered for his survival. He escapes at the end of the story and the fake Darkwings are arrested by S.H.U.S.H.