Third!
It was a bit of a slog to get "Demona" no. 4 for some reason. My regular shop, as I mentioned before, failed to order it (and to date still hasn't gotten it). The second shop I tried didn't seem to have it either, and the third did have it but stacked in back of a number of other issues. I am getting the bad sense that print editions of this issue might be in short supply. That sense is enhanced by having run into a couple of other people over the weekend who were dodging spoilers. Whether this foretells more distribution problems or is just a string of bad luck, I don't know. Whatever the case may be, out of an abundance of caution, I'm going to selectively spoilerize my notes below.
As usual, I haven't read anyone else's comments so far, although I know there were plenty (and the quantity of spoilered text in the past couple of weeks definitely increased my appetite for this issue). Unusually, I did have a vigorous discussion about it in chat over the weekend, so my reactions will be somewhat colored by that.
The one thing I noticed right from the title page is that Demona's smiling like a used-car dealer all throughout the issue, a sure sign of trouble. No shock there (as it is Demona) but the cue is unusually direct here.
Right off the first page, we welcome back one familiar face [SPOILER] (Shahrizad) [/SPOILER] for certain. But (and this is one of the things we discussed vigorously in chat) is that [SPOILER] Puck hanging back in the crowd behind Tom? If it is not, it is absolutely a dead ringer for him, and if it is, it tells me that (a) he is keeping an eye on someone, possibly Tom, possibly Demona, possibly even Shari; or (b) this is a neat little Easter Egg with no special significance; or (c) the Puck is trying to escape the bonds of fiction and snuck into this frame even though he has no business being there. Compositionally, having that face right about at the center top-quarter of the panel means he's not hidden in the crowd: we're meant to notice him there, even though he doesn't seem to show up again and doesn't (yet?) seem to have any direct connection to this storyline. It is too obvious a face to be a coincidence. The thought of Shari and Puck sort of working in tandem, though, has some weird possibilities. [/SPOILER] Perhaps we're going to learn more in the next issue.
I am digging the character design of Modi here, for some reason. I'll confess that, when the "iron box" came up the first time, I had assumed it would show up again as the doom of the now-Constantinople clan (given the discussion there of what would happen if it sank into the sea) and am glad it was not.
We get (by my count) the third instance of "that's a verity" in the overall series so far (once in "Dark Ages," once in "Manhattan," and now here). It's always tricky to assume that's just a repeated phrase; it seems likely that it is, and I haven't sussed out a common thread, but it is interesting.
It's good to see Angelika and Magni getting more time together. I don't suppose it's a surprise they would. The art on page 8, and the way the shading is applied to their faces, makes both of them look much older, though.
The fact that Al-Kammad is [SPOILER] Shari's "old friend" is intriguing, and perhaps sheds a little light on what she was up to at the time, [/SPOILER] although I wouldn't swear to that from here. Demona's face at the end of page 9 is brilliant, though: something has gone awry, clearly.
Having [SPOILER] Shari [/SPOILER] play the detective is a brilliant choice, for the reason she gives.
And we get a faceoff between [SPOILER] Tom [/SPOILER] and Demona, and I find this one somewhat interesting for a couple of reasons. Demona is plainly not quite genocidal at this point: much as she would be expected to want to wipe out humans, and given her anger at this point in the story, she'd be completely expected to break her neighbor's neck, or something (and could certainly write it off to "taking off his own life in recognition of his guilt" or some such thing), and yet she does not: she evidently takes him at his word when he denies a prejudice against gargoyles. [SPOILER] All the better for him she doesn't recognize the "thief" of her clan's eggs! [/SPOILER] It's just as well he doesn't get a chance to explain himself, quite aside from the plotline's need to hold that revelation for the end (for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, anyway, and I confess I was one of them).
I have the nagging feeling I've heard the story of the bloodied weapon before somewhere [SPOILER] (trust the storyteller to spot it as well, perhaps) [/SPOILER]
I'm pretty sure we're getting a major clue in the denouement of the main story about wheels that are turning behind the scenes. [SPOILER] To have Shari bring up Cain and Abel, I mean...that has to be something, hasn't it? [/SPOILER]
And then we get the wrap-up of this chapter of Demona's story, in which the division between Angelika and Demona is made clear. And, I suppose, the division between [SPOILER] Angela and Demona is also made clear in a different way. Little kid Angela is cute as a button, and the affection between her and Tom is really endearing here. [/SPOILER] Thus, onward to the final issue.
Something that struck me, somewhere between this issue and the chat I was in. We are seeing in this series just how important it is to Demona to have companionship. The major story driver here has been Demona's need to control that companionship, despite the fact that the other half of that relationship has their own needs and desires. This goes all the way back to the beginning, though. The need for the gargoyles to have company is apparently intense, intense enough that Demona sought out other clans from the start of her solo journey, but also intense enough that Goliath effectively gave up his life rather than live without his clan, intense enough that Angelika hooked up with Demona and (frankly) puts up with her crap for so long. To see this illustrated in this way is terrific. What's the password? [SPOILER] "Alone." [/SPOILER] (OK, that one shouldn't really be a spoiler, but it's the effect I'm after.) To feel solitude so keenly as to drive all sorts of atrocities, to fight viciously rather than to make those connections that might ease the solitude...I mean, none of this is news, I suppose: it's Demona, and it's at the core of her character. But somehow it's coming into focus here.
Brilliant work, Greg and Frank. I'll be intensely sorry to reach the end of the arc and yet I eagerly anticipate the next issue.
morrand - [morrand276 at gmail dot com]
posted @ Mon, Dec 1, 2025 1:41:51 pm EST from 108.69.72.60
