Taurus Bulba

Taurus Bulba is the minor antagonist from Disney's 1991-93 television series Darkwing Duck. He is first introduced as a criminal mastermind serving a 99-year sentence. Even though Taurus Bulba only appears in three episodes, Darkwing Duck regards him as one of his deadliest enemies. He is the main antagonist in the hour-long pilot episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck". He was voiced by Tim Curry.

Background
Not much is know about Taurus Bulba's background. In "Darkly Dawns the Duck", Taurus is shown serving a 99 year jail sentence yet still involved in criminal affairs from the prison. In fact, he seems to find being incarcarated to only be a minor inconvenience, seeing his prison cell as the perfect hideout and cover for his activities.

After his henchmen stole the Waddlemeyer Ram Rod (an experimental weapon that seems to envelop its targets in an anti-gravity field, destroying buildings and the most heavily-guarded banks) Bulba escaped and gave orders to kidnap Gosalyn because he believed, as she was Professor Waddlemeyer's only living relative, that she knew the secret code to active the Ramrod. At the end of "Darkly Dawns the Duck", Bulba forced Darkwing to give him the arming code by threatening to drop Gosalyn to her death. ("She'll make a rather nasty stain on the pavement.") Darkwing fought Bulba and ended up destroying the Ram Rod, as well Canard Tower. Though heavily injured, Darkwing survived, but Taurus was presumed killed in the explosion. Thanks to the efforts of F.O.W.L, Bulba managed to survive and was made into a cyborg.

F.O.W.L. subsequently assumed that Bulba would accept their offer of employment following their restoration of him. Bulba pointedly declined the offer. destroying the F.O.W.L. labratory and terrorizing Steelbeak in the process; and elected to attempt to gain revenge on Darkwing and Gosalyn. After being once again defeated by Darkwing and Gosalyn, he managed to flee into the sky thanks to his cyborg enhancements, swearing that he would get his revenge. As the Steerminator, Taurus now suffers from an over-heating probem, which causes his mind and body to "lock up" just like a troubled computer.

In Boom! Studios current Darkwing Duck comic, Taurus Bulba returns in the first story arc the Duck Knight Returns, as the CEO and mastermind behind the mega-corporation Quackwerks, in an attempt to get revenge on Darkwing Duck and his companions, but more importantly, to give St. Canard a new kind of villain, as he considers the other villains unprofessional. (This appearance does not adhere to the cartoon, changing the circumstances surrounding Bulba's resurrection from involving FOWL to involving Gyro Gearloose.)

He also contacted Gyro Gearloose in order to possess his Gizmo-Duck suit. He threatened to blow up Gyro's little friend if he didn't give him the password. He gave him the password but the suit didn't recognize him as person due to being a cyborg. So, Bulba took over St. Canard to net him the Gizmo-Duck suit and have all his prisoners say the entire English language to get the password. Later, Gosalyn defeated Bulba once and for all after saving St. Canard and registering the Gizmo-Duck suit.

Personality
Apart from a few wry comedic moments, Taurus Bulba is considered to be a dark and menacing character, and probably the most malicious villain ever to appear in the series aside from the psychotic Negaduck. He is possesed of incredible cunning as well as prodigious physical strength. In "Darkly Dawns the Duck", it is strongly implied his henchmen murdered Gosalyn's grandfather Professor Waddlemeyer, on his order (though apparently they did so in reverse order, killing him before getting the machine's codes from him), and his men and pet condor Tantalus also nearly kill Gosalyn as well. Gosalyn is afraid of him in both of his cartoon appearances, though she overcomes her fear during "The Steerminator" while caged alongside Honker.

After being rebuilt as the Steerminator, Bulba has become completely unhinged, with a singleminded obsession to destroy Darkwing Duck. Had the series continued there would have been a concluding episode to the cliffhanger which showed Darkwing confronting Bulba in Africa--along with an African version of Darkwing Duck. This obsessions is also born out in the Boom! comics where Bulba actually uses Darkwing's sihloette as the insigina for Quackwerks.

Minions

 * Hammerhead Hannigan
 * Hoof and Mouth
 * Clovis
 * Tantalus

Trivia

 * Bulba in his original form seems to be modeled after the Kingpin from Marvel Comics.
 * Bulba is said to be the leader of F.O.W.L. in the book, Darkwing Duck: The Darkest Night.