Caswin writes...

"Which members of the Pack?"

Okay, to elaborate slightly less than before on my Pack/Mutates question (as as far as I can tell, mentioning my rationale sounded too much like an idea, hence its deletion)...

Did The Pack - asking about every member here; I guess Fox would be a safe bet, all things considered, but other than her - know about the Mutates while they were together? Do any of them now?

Ricky writes...

Hi Greg. Loving the comics!

I\'d like to know if you\'re gonna take advantage of the revived Gargoyles Universe, in the comics, to tackle the long forgotten matter of Titania\'s whisper to Fox. We don\'t care if it\'s not be mind blowing... just stop torturing us!!! : )

Robbie Bishop writes...

Wow! Max Steel ruined your career for several years!! How?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNK5Fli0JAE it says so on youtube but the camera guy keeps laughing and I can't hear you!

skeeJay writes...

It took me many viewings the "The Gathering" two-parter to appreciate what we are actually being given: finally, this titanic battle between the two men of the Gargoyles universe that are, for all intents and purposes, the masters of their respective domains. They're both accustomed to getting their own way, and what we get to see here is their mutually-reinforced frustration when they both are denied that by each other.

I NEED MORE POWER, SCOTTY
What makes these two such standouts? To a certain degree, I think that power makes us like children. There's a fantastic line from The Wonder Years, when Kevin says something like, "When you're a little kid you're a bit of everything: scientist, philosopher, artist. Sometimes it seems like growing up is giving these things up one at a time." Xanatos is the perfect example of a man who has never had to allow this to happen to himself, and that's why I think it's so much fun that he ended up as a hands-on villain instead of the Lex Luthor, man-behind-the-curtian baddie that you guys originally conceived. Say he always wanted to be an actor as a kid? He gets to ham it up now with Sevarius on a regular basis. He liked pretending to be a mad scientist? These days, he gets to say "It's alive!" and actually mean it. He is not (in his mind at least) bound by the physical laws that govern other men.

IT'S MY GATHERING AND I'LL DO WHAT I WANT
And Oberon, I think, is very similar. As a man who answers to no one, he can bend the rules whenever it suits him--and "interpret" his own laws depending on his mood, perhaps the ultimate in hypocrisy. (Remind anyone else of presidential signing statements?) When you make all the rules, the only person you can really rebel against is yourself. The best parallel I can think of to this kind of defiance, insubordination for its own sake, is in "The Journey"/"Clan-Building: Nightwatch," when Xanatos blows off Daddy Duval's call when an extremely conscious smirk. It is a very simple, childish act of rebellion.

So has Xanatos been humbled by the encounter, having been played to a stalemate by Oberon (or has he?). I suppose we will find out pretty soon whether Xanatos still holds the laws of nature in such contempt, now that he has met his match and in fact had to be bailed out by his mortal foe.

The matchup was so balanced and inevitable, I almost wish that "The Gathering" was longer than just two episodes, so that we had time to get the same kind of glimpse at Xanatos's psyche as we get at Demona's in "City of Stone." "Eye of the Beholder" certainly makes up for anything that there wasn't time for in these 44 minutes, but I'm hoping we get a better look at Xanatos's past at some point in our futures.

CC Bailey writes...

Please interpret the words "I am tired of THIS."

Chicken Taco writes...

Does Morgan find it odd Elisa's been invited to a party at the Xanatos'?

Being that they're convicted fellons and all and Elisa's just a 'normal cop' as far as Morgan knows, wouldn't he find something a miss? I mean, no matter how much faith he has in Elisa has to have enough cop sense to know Xanatos wouldn't invite his arresting officer to a party with New York's highest crust without them having some unseen link... Or is Morgan just so excited to be "getting his shot" he'd have went anywhere without question?

Loralee Dawson writes...

OK In the episode Vows, Xanatos says he is a 'self made man' and shows how he sent himself the money. Then how he got a letter 20 years later on how he did it and to re-do it ect. But how did it happen ORIGINALLY. Like the 1st time wouldn't he of been poor. And never of been able to awake the Gargoyles in the 1st place?

Mostly Harmless writes...

If Terry Chung currently is just a kid in Gargoyes judging by his appearance in issue number four, are we to assume that New Olympians is suppose to take place in the near future in relations to Gargoyles? Was that always planned or is that a recent idea?

Mostly Harmless writes...

In regards to issue #4, could you have gotten away with the last page if it was for television? If so how?

UKHoneyb writes...

Follow-up to my earlier question:

In earlier questions/answers you've alluded to such things as Dread being akin to Xanatos and you having ideas for him that never bore fruit; Mairot being a triple-agent (giving information from Smith to Dread and then back to Smith again) and the 'mole' being N-Tek's own technology and computers; that Laura would find out in some way or another about Josh's dual identity; that there was a reason behind the first series episode titles beginning with 's' which was never fulfilled (but would have been in a later series); we would have met Berto's family; that there were three prior missions to the one we saw in "Strangers".

Basically, anything you can tell me about the above situations, if you can :)

SomeGuy writes...

What does gargoyle meat taste like?
My guess is chicken.

Todd Jensen writes...

I noticed that in #3 and #4, we got to see a lot of familiar faces from the "minor characters", more than we usually saw in the average episode of "Gargoyles" in its first two seasons. These two issues, put together, included the following cast members (all ones from the first two seasons) besides the clan, Elisa, and the Xanatoses (including Owen): Matt Bluestone, Officer Morgan, Phil Travanti (in the sense that he showed up as Morgan's partner in a couple of episodes such as "Temptation", though unnamed), Margot and Brendan, Agent Hacker, Jason Canmore, Demona, Al, the Mutates (except for Fang), the Clones, Castaway, Thailog, Billy and Susan and their mother, Jeffrey Robbins, Gilgamesh, and Judge Roebling. Perhaps it's only my imagination, but this seems like a larger cross-section of the characters than I remember seeing in the televised episodes.

Does this have anything to do with the fact that you're now telling the story in the medium of a comic book, which means that you don't have to worry about paying voice actors and can thus freely bring more people into each episode? Or is this merely the result of the accumulation of characters in the original 65 episodes? ("The Journey", even in its televised form, itself had a substantial cast, including, alongside the clan, Elisa, the Xanatoses and Castaway, the following figures: Travis Marshall, the Jogger, Vinnie, Sarah Greene, Matt Bluestone, Banquo and Fleance, Margot, and Macbeth.)

Cboy305 writes...

While working on season 2 of W.I.T.C.H., did you ever think about doing a croosover with Gargoyles? I know it wouldn't have been one of the most logical crossovers, but it still would have been nice to see Gargoyles on the small screen again.

Thoth writes...

What date does Gargoyles #5 come out? Will it be available at the Gathering?

Anonymous writes...

I know that when Puck takes on a role he tries to completely become that character, but when he's Owen does he also think to himself in his Owen persona at all times? Once he stops being able to change back, it seems like he would at least want to think like he normally would (since he so loves to have fun and play tricks on people, while Owen does not). Just something that I started wondering after a while.

Charisma82 writes...

Hey! I asked you what your favorite rides are at Disneyland and when you said a Small World and the one where you go into the snowflake, I had to write back. (I might as well put in here that we were at Disneyland over Spring Break and it was great; the scavenger hunt made it even more interesting). For the snowflake one, I asked my parents and they said it was called the molecule ride. They said there was some sort of microscope involved. I think that's the ride where Star Tours is now. I know this because they pay tribute to the molecule ride by putting the microscope on the Star Tours ride. I don't know if you've been on the Star Tours ride or not, but when you first take off in the space station and drop for the first time, look to the bottom right corner and you'll see the microscope on the screen. I didn't think it'd be a big deal, but I looked for it, and sure enough, there it was!

Now for the Small World. I'll never be the same since the last time I rode it. I got on with my family and I ended up in the very back seat. I stepped in and water poured in over the edge and got me soaked! I had no idea why until I looked ahead of me and saw that there were 3 men who were over 300 pounds each in the middle seats. You'd think the people working on the ride would've caught this, but they didn't. We got into the first room and our boat stopped. I could hear the boat scraping the bottom of the ride. Every time someone moved, more water sloshed into the back of the boat. The people sitting on the sides of the boat had to grab the sides of the ride and push the boat along. It took us over 45 minutes to get to the end of the ride. There were no boats in front of us and a lot of boats held up behind us. When we finally finished the ride and heard the song "It's a small world after all…" over 20 times, all the people in the boats behind us started clapping and cheering while we took turns giving bows and waved as we crossed the bridge into the Small World store. That is why I won't get on the ride for another 10 years.

Thank you for you time.

-Charisma82

Valintino writes...

Hello, Your site is great. Regards, Valintino Guxxi

Arondight writes...

1. For Bruno the mercenary, is he still working for Xanatos during the time that the comics are occuring?
2. Do you have any major plans for him in the ongoing comic? Is he going to make any appearances soon?

Arondight writes...

Why did Sevarius switch his employment from Xanatos to Nightstone after Loch Ness? Given what Demona did with his virus, is he still at Nightstone at the time of the comic?

Alex Garg writes...

My review of issue the fourth, SPOILERS a plenty.

There's an emerging axiom in politics during presidential cycles: The candidate whose visage sells as a Halloween mask more than the other's wins the election. Well, maybe "axiom" is too strong a word for the trend, but if the same trendy-coincidental thing applies to the gargoyles, then the people of New York, despite their fears, appear to really like the gargoyles.

And Broadway is winning the "election" by my count of the socialites' costume choices.

Yet I suppose that when Sarah Browne was presented with the choice of having her children dress up as gargoyles or convicted felons, the decision was easy for her; although I wonder if that glance she gave the patrolling Quarrymen was one of continued concern about the gargoyles or concern about what she's gotten herself into.

I'm glad to see Terry introduced as a child in order to leave plenty of room for character development - in the hopes of the license's longevity, of course - but I was most excited by the (re)introduction of Robbins, even if it did make me sad that Paul Winfield is no longer with us. Robbins' appearance, however brief, does make me wonder though just how much he knows about Hudson. I view Robbins as a perceptive fellow, and so I wonder if, perhaps, tonight is a tipping point in Robbins' understanding of who Hudson really is.

To party Wyvern and the sudden boom in the gargoyle population: Again, it would appear that deep down at least New York's ruling elite are pretty warm to gargoyles - or at least the concept of them - Judge Roebling not least among that crowd. I also find myself sympathizing with the anonymous partygoers who spotted the waitress in the center of the bottom panel on page five.

I mean, seriously.

Of course, it's not at all lost on me the humor in Margot digging the gargoyles. She may hate that everybody has dressed up as gargoyles, but she's not taken aback enough to engage in passive conversation with at least one of them, despite having "seen them up close" as the monsters they really are. I wonder how much emphasis she places on the reliability of eyewitness testimony in her trials.

The gargoyles' costumes are appropriate to their characters, although Lex's in particular gave me the greatest reason to smile. Angela as Dorothy makes plenty of sense - her Kansas is long gone - although I'm curious as to when she got a chance to see the "Wizard of Oz." But of all the costumes sported by both gargoyles and humans I like Morgan's the best, and he seems comfortable enough - even in the awkwardness that ensues, and boy is there awkwardness.

And again, awkwardness settles heavy over Brooklyn. Granted, it's still the same night as the last issue, but for someone who is obviously pained by the closeness of Angela and Broadway it seems logical that he would stay far away from them, not lurk nearby, much less near them *and* Delilah. Frankly, though, I think Angela's response to his lurking is inappropriate, and then her reaction to Elisa's escorting Morgan to the party is just downright hypocritical. Sure, she's okay if her relationship with Broadway is hitting an obvious sore spot with Brooklyn, whose choice of mates (at present) is even slimmer than Goliath's, but it's not cool for Elisa to show up with a new suitor. If not hypocritical, it shows that Angela crosses that thin line separating naïve and just plain dense towards the latter camp.

Jumping over the Labyrinth at the moment to go to the White House: Greg, is that how you see the parties of D.C.'s elite going down? I understand the value of juxtapositioning as a literary device, don't get me wrong, and I'm not saying the Clinton White House was "Animal House" gone political, but it's hard to get people to show up to parties around here in large numbers if there *isn't* an open bar, especially the ruling elite.

All I'm saying. That and I was amused by Fox holding a replica of her tattoo as a "mask" in order to fit in with the party's subdued nature.

I was also unsurprised to find out that Xanatos' high-level Illuminati contact in the White House was a "lowly" servant. The personal staffers of powerful people tend to have the best access to said powerful people, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that the Illuminati would choose to put one of its higher-echelon members in such a capacity to remain connected to the administration.

To the Labyrinth, and combat! Clearly Talon's clone reprogramming initiative has not gone as planned, nor has Maggie seen much cause to step up her combat training, to her painful detriment. And if Thailog didn't let out a maniacal laugh upon learning about Goliath's date with Delilah, I would have been immensely disappointed. Immensely.

I'm still ambivalent about New Girl. Granted, I want to know why she's decided to take it upon herself to at least make the effort, however futile by issue's end, to warn Goliath about Thailog's impending attack, but at the same time I just have a hard time seeing what new role she can play in the gargoyles' universe that isn't in some way already cast.

I'll keep my faith in you on that front.

Elisa appears to be having a particularly, and really peculiarly, difficult time coming to grips with her emotions about how her relationship with Goliath has unfolded - or hasn't as the case may be. What's disturbing about that is how level-headed she's typically been in times of crisis, and so to see her unravel about something that was *her* decision is bothersome.

Thailog's timing and attack are brutal - and, again, I would expect no less from him. Owen also handles the situation well within his boundaries, even if Goliath doesn't ultimately fare too well. Although by that last panel I have to admit that I wasn't thinking about how much pain Goliath was in as much as I was wondering about what Delilah's going to think of the whole affair once she arrives on scene.

On the whole, I liked this issue a lot. We're finally making some mileage on new canon, and we're getting to see some more-than-interesting developments on both the story level and the character level. But I have to admit that I'm not too hot on the artist combination in this one. I like it well enough, don't get me wrong, it's just a matter of personal preference - I'm not big on thick outlines, I'm more of a thin line/detail kind of person. The coloring works, but the thick penciling/ink work seems to rob some of that away.

Oh well.

One real gripe, though, is on quality control. Wrong name in the credits? Missing title and logo? I appreciate your coming forward with the errors in a ramble block here on Ask Greg, and having been in an editing gig myself for a while I can appreciate that "it" happens, but these strike me as some very easy-to-catch problems. It's not much of a trade-off for the fans if regular updates are coming at the cost of quality.

I'm certainly looking forward to the next issue, however, and I'm still very much enjoying the series' return. Thank you and your team for all your work!

And to offer my own mea culpa: I confused Al as one of Fang's cronies from "Kingdom," hence my "minor villain" comment in my last review, which you caught and I didn't. Sorry.