Greg Bishansky writes...

Gargoyles #4
Masque.

First of all, SLG needs to do much better quality control. David Hedgecock got the credit for the pencils when this is Nir Paniry's work. I'll get to the art in a bit.

Sarah Browne is taking her kids, Billy and Susan trick or treating.... wow, I am stunned that she is letting her kids dress as a pair of convicted felons (Jackal and Hyena). We also meet a young Terry Chung, obviously the son of Ambassador Chung, who we meet later in the issue.

Good to see Jeffrey Robbins again, when Hudson mentioned that he and Bronx had a prior engagement, that's where I thought he was going. After all, who else does he know?

Margot is, as always, a bitch. How does Brendan Quarters (after all these years, we finally get a last name... and a very waspy sounding one, like his wife's).

The gargoyles' costumes. I laughed my ass off. Angela as Dorothy and Broadway as the Cowardly Lion. Why do I get the feeling both costumes were Angela's idea? Lexington... well, I should have seen that coming, but I didn't. Future Tense Lexington is back.

Elisa shows up as Princess Jasmine, and she looks good. Looks just like her. Does she always dress as Disney princesses? Morgan looks good as Sherlock Holmes, and he makes sense as Elisa's date.

Which brings me to Elisa's choice. For years, we didn't know if she was going to date Morgan or Jason for this story. I'll admit, I was rooting for Jason for a while, because he and Elisa always had chemistry. But, Morgan makes more sense. For one thing, Morgan has less baggage, and I'm glad we didn't get another big back story in this issue. For another, Jason not being in jail, or even a hospital under police guard so soon after "Hunter's Moon" would have defied believability.

Judge Roebling looks very animated. Obviously his attitude changed, considering last time he was mostly freaked out when he saw Goliath and Demona. I'm guessing he's had quite a bit to drink.

I am so glad that Elisa did not meet Delilah for the first time off camera. Her first face to face meeting with her clone is something we had to see for ourselves. Obviously she doesn't get down to the Labyrinth too often. Good scene, there's a difference between intellectually knowing something, and actually having to face it.

Poor Brooklyn, still thinks he has a chance with Angela. Can't wait to see his costume next issue.

Ah, the White House. We don't see the President, but I didn't expect us too. Saves us from having to see a generic President, and saves us from heavily dating this comic by depicting him as Bill Clinton. Ambassador Chung, I believe, is plannd to be a major character in the planned "New Olympians" spin-off, which shouldn't take place for a few years since Terry is obviously way too young at this point.

"Thirty-Six"/"Two"... HA! I figured this was a ranking system. Xanatos, Matt and Castaway are at the bottom of the pyramid, Hacker is higher up. Now, we meet someone near the top. And he's a butler. Usually you'd epxect it to be an advisor to the President, the Karl Rove equivilant. Nope, I like this. He's near the top, and not high profile at all.

Thailog is back, and he's having a good time. I love how he called Maggie "Norma Rae". Ten points to anyone who gets that joke. Here's a hint, "You like me, you really like me!" He's got a lot of fun lines in this comic.

Another peek at "New Girl in the Labyrinth", is she going to get a name any time soon? I'm getting a little tired of typing out "New Girl in the Labyrinth". Something is up with her, not sure what, but I'm definitely getting a vibe.

I feel so bad or Morgan. I know some people see Elisa as being out of character, I don't. But I still think she's behaving like a flakey bitch. I know she's scared, but dragging Morgan and Delilah into the middle of this thing with Goliath is really unfair. I'm hoping she pulls herself together soon, because she owes three people an apology. Angela is right to be pissed at her.

Owen is cool. Love how he has the Xanatos Corporate Guard ready for action at a moment's notice. I also like how just because Xanatos' ended his feud with the gargoyles doesn't mean that Owen, and by extension Xanatos, is their friend. He's perfectly willing to give up Delilah, because she's not worth the damage to the castle.

... yep, Thailog's armed to the teeth. I need to ask Greg how he planned to get away with this on television. Obviously, since this is a comic book, no one will bat an eye. But a stabbing on an animated series... would never fly.

Great story, a lot more focused than #3 which was all over the place (but I did enjoy it). I can't wait for #5, especially to see Karine and Steph doing the art (who, I think should have been doing the art for this book from the get go). And on that note, it brings me to...

...Nir's pencils. He's not a bad artist. He's definitely better at conveying emotion on the characters, and staging scenes than Hedgecock is. I hear he's a storyboard artist, so that makes sense. That being said, and I did not care much for the way he chose to stylize the characters.

Overall, good issue. #5 can't come soon enough.

dph writes...

My Review of Comic #3

I enjoyed some of the old characters make appearances.

1)'Nice Mask' - Is that a reference to a certain line spoken during Awakening Part 2?

Nice to know that Jeffery Robbins hasn't quite put together 2+2 in regards to Hudson yet. The line "we all wear masks" seems very appropriate.

It was nice to see our favorite bickering couple, but Margot not knowing what a cyborg is seems odd.

2)Is Angela's choice of clothing a reference to The Wizard of Oz?

Broadway sorta looks like Leo in his get-up, but I guess more importantly he looks like the Lion from Wizard of Oz. Elisa Maza as Princess Jasmine is something to think about. I'm sure that there's more symbolism behind that choice than I can think of at the moment.

It's nice to see the battle between Thailog, Talon, and Claw.

It's interesting that Judge Roebling remembers Goliath.

Elisa meet . . Deliliah.

3)Why are the guests seemingly try to make Alexander quite older than he is?

Ambassador Chung and Son Terry - that's a reference to future plans for New Olympians. Nice way to introduce references to them for future development.

4)if this question will be covered in the next issue of the comic, please ignore it: Who is David Xanatos speaking to in private?

5)Aside from David Xanatos hosting a party, is there any particular reason that Thailog chose this particular time to 'liberate' the clones?

Morgan talking to Deliliah. What could they possibly have in common to talk about?

It's nice to see that Owen was prepared for seemingly the worst. It's also nice to see Owen's diplomatic skills at work.

It was the worth the wait to see more future seeds for stories thrown out with this issue.

dph writes...

Where was Thailog during present-day events of City of Stone?

dph writes...

Was either Fang, Claw, Maggie, or Talon in Manhattan during present-day events of City of Stone?

dph writes...

Banks (and other businesses) usually have security cameras running during their normal office hours and throughout the night recording footage in case of a robbery. During City of Stone, assuming nothing happened to those cameras, the cameras would have caught people turning to stone on film. What happened to those video tapes showing evidence of Manhattan's human population turned to stone?

dph writes...

Could you give us approximate dates for the present day events of City of Stone?