Gargoyles #1-3

[gargoylekitty]

In the mid-late 90s Marvel put out a Gargoyles comic to run alongside the television series. In all it ran 11 issues, and canceled without a real end(literally, the last issue ends with talk of the next issue that never came). While it had its moments and some Amanda Connor drawn Elisa Maza to make nice, a fair amount of it was rather awkward and some just plain wtf(not as much in this post, but definitely in future ones). Regardless, or perhaps because of, this I positively had to have it. And now I do. :)

So, a post.
Well, a series of posts. But it takes one to get to two and so on, so here's the first.

To start off, allow me to set the mood.

Okay, so I might be screwing this post up already. You see, in Gargoyles fandom there are two main categories into which everything created falls. Basically, Greg Weisman approved/involved in = canon. This would be the first two seasons of the television series and the more recent comics put out by Slave Labor Graphics(Clan Building: Volume 1 and Volume 2, along with the spin-off Bad Guys). Everything else is apocrypha, re: not canon. So this? Firmly out of the accepted story, but still worth getting.

Written by Martin Pasko and Mort Todd with art by Amanda Connor and Grant Miehm, the series can be dry in parts though fun in others. So while you get a poor attempt at pairing up Elisa and random guy(who's totally human, unlike Goliath who is totally not), a weirdly incest-drawn female!Thailog type character, and a fair number of flubs, you also get Demona having a cult of followers, Broadway dating a vampire, and Elisa adding a little more variety to her wardrobe. Granted, whether those things are good or bad is a matter of opinion.

The series kicks off with a classic moment.

Demona blasting a human, or more specifically, Demona blasting Elisa. This, of course, leads to Goliath quickly swooping in to help and Demona, having blasted them both and Elisa's partner, taking off.

((In case it wasn't clear, Elisa plays narrator for most of the series.))

That done we get a small fight between them as apparently Elisa had told Goliath not to help, yet he'd clearly ignored her. Love the stare-down.

:)

So Elisa goes on to explain the case and how she got on it, basically by asking for it, while elsewhere we get the dramatic moment of confirming that it was Demona in the suit.

Re: the note, that episode involved Demona shooting Elisa with a poisonous dart(see: Demona going after Elisa = one of the staples of the Gargoyles fandom, spawning some femslash of the two) but not sticking around to see that the dart didn't hit her but the badge inside her jacket. D'oh.

And she's working with Xanatos. I kinda missed the end of their horrible team-ups later on, though who could blame him?

No clue how her tail fits in that suit.

So, while Demona is off scowling, Elisa takes a moment to fill anyone who wasn't familiar with who these winged beings are with a quick recap.



The rest of the issue goes off in pretty standard form, nothing too out there for the first few issues. Lexington uses his computer skillz to figure out the building being attacked was owned by Xanatos. Concerned by this news, Goliath heads over to check it out only to find Elisa and Matt being blasted at... again. There's a fight, Matt gets blasted, Goliath gets blasted, Elisa gets blasted, and Demona tries to take off with Elisa in tow only to be stopped moments later by the combined badassery of her captive and her ex.


Yet, of course, Demona gets away. But other than that the day is saved.

In issues #2 and #3 they spend some time setting up for future stories in between a main plot involving the trio(Lexington, Brooklyn, and Broadway) witnessing a shooting then sleeping in a place that ends up with them getting mistaken for normal statues and toted off to various locations. Lex ends up at the home of the bad guy, Brooklyn ends up at a museum, and Broadway hits the jackpot by ending up at some couple's lawn ornament place.

Why would that be considered the 'jackpot'? Well, aside from being the only one not having to deal with someone trying to hurt him upon waking, he also ends up with a homecooked meal.

Heh. Okay, so I kinda liked these two. I mean, what's not to like about a pair who have one of their statues is really one of those gargoyles they'd been hearing about and decide to welcome it in and stuff it with food?

While he's contently maintaining his girth, the issue offers a few other moments of note. For example, Elisa being badass.

Albeit, I'm not so sure shooting in the direction of an unarmed person in a pool hall is exactly good cop behavior, even if, or perhaps even more, it's just to knock something over to stop them, but it's a comic in the 90s so some can be forgiven.

We also meet Elisa's little sister, this issue actually sits between the first time the character was mentioned and the first time we actually meet her so if this was canon it'd be her first official appearance, and get a look at Elisa's desk.

The pics of Cagney and of her mum & dad please me, though wtf @ the whoopie cushion, candy necklace, and what looks to be chattering wind-up teeth. Did she go undercover as a clown at some point? A sign of Conner being the artist, I think.

Moving along, we also get a little side moment of Bronx chewing gum that's too amusing to leave out.



After that they head off to retrieve Broadway...

...and beat up the bad guys.

Then, with the incriminating bullet in hand(and the question of 'why the hell didn't they just use the lazer guns on the other guy so there was no bullet?' ignored), Elisa has what she needs to get the bad guy locked up and all is well, at least for this story.

Not too much to say on these first few. Though for a side note, check out Captain Chavez over the course of these three issues.

The third is what she looks like in the show. All three issues are credited to the same colorist, so I'm not sure what happened there, though the comic seems to settle on the first again by the last issue.

Perhaps someone actually realized how bad the gradual whitening looked? Perhaps the colorist/editor/someone just had an 'oh, shit' moment? Either way, her expression in that panel amuses me.

In the next post I'll cover #4-6 in which things get really awkward when they attempt to introduce two new female characters back to back.

tags: title: gargoyles, creator: amanda conner, creator: martin pasko

Comments

[silverzeo]

About time somebody posteed Gargoyles related stuff here!

[big_daddy_d]

Maybe it's just me but anyone else noticed Elisa looks like Anita Blake? At least how I picture Anita.

[seriousfic]

Nah, Eliza has clothes on.

[introverted_excavator]

That made me laugh harder than it should have.

[proteus_lives]

And she's only banging one gargoyle not all of them.

[blake_reitz]

I'm finding the art style here fascinating! Such a strange mix of Amanda Conner bodies and Disney faces (and sometimes the other way around).

[20thcenturyvole]

Hooray, Gargoyles! I just marathoned the first two seasons a week ago, and I heard tell of canonical comics, but I didn't know where to look, so thanks for the links!

Plus, even if these ones aren't canon, the artwork in this is rather pretty in a clearly 90s way. Plus that bit with Bronx and the bubblegum is adorable. :D

[proteus_lives]

Oh god, I loved that show. So, so, so good!

Still in my animated top ten of all time.

[bluefall]

You know, all of those 90s cartoons had pretty cool intros. B:tAS was of course epic, Spider-Man had that crazy faux-techno thing going, I still rock out to the X-Men theme when I hear it...

The Gargoyles theme was head and shoulders above them all, though. (Or possibly I just have a mild fetish for Keith David?)

[gargoylekitty]

Indeed. I mean, it might be the nostalgia talking but cartoon intros in the 90s were typically just awesome.

Of course, I'm completely biased in agreeing about the Gargoyles theme as well.

[halloweenjack]

Thanks for posting this--it's always pretty cool to see an artist that you like in their early years, and spot the bits that have yet to reach their full bloom.

[sandoz_iscariot]

If only the new Gargoyles comic had been able to get Amanda Connor on art.

And much love for Demina, I wish I still had the action figure of her I had as a kid.

[gargoylekitty]

I still have mine from when I was a kid. She's missing a wing and her tail, but other than that is good. :D