Todd Jensen writes...

Bought Gargoyles #8 today. After this, I'm all the more certain on one thing: the Stone of Destiny story is my favorite story in the Gargoyles comic to date.

I enjoyed the continuation of Shari's tale about the Stone of Destiny. Some of it was familiar to me (Jeremiah and Tamar bringing the Stone to Ireland, the Stone's links to Fergus, Columba, and Kenneth mac Alpin), but there were some surprises. The Stone turning out to be the stone that Moses struck to get water for the Israelites, for example. Cuchulain breaking it in half (though that explains how there's still supposedly a Lia Fail at Tara). Pity that even Shari can't reconcile the Gathelus and Scota version with the Jeremiah version (I liked Thailog's response to that)!

I wasn't surprised that Merlin was responsible for the Stone showing up at London for the young Arthur to pull Excalibur out (especially since he's got a reputation for taking stones from Ireland and bringing them to Britain for the benefit of the Pendragon family). What did surprise me was King Pelles' role in the story. And Merlin wearing a cowboy hat.

I liked the nicknames for Constance and Staghart as well. Now I know for certain where Xanatos gets that recycling habit that he displayed in "Cloud Fathers".

We also get to learn more about the London clan and their own customs (pity about the no beasts part).

And great surprise entry for Coldstone and Coldfire, too.

Finally, I enjoyed the little tidbits along the way: the number of Vinnie's flight to Japan, the name on Arthur and Macbeth's coffee cups (and it's even in the Gargoyles font), Arthur's line "All things are true... few things are accurate" (a good commentary on Shari's story, incidentally, though I doubt that Arthur knows about it), Hudson's "So many books" line (how appropriate, with Arthur and Macbeth both in the room), Lexington's "electric sheep" line, and Thailog and Shari's "The Edge" moment.

Now I'm looking forward to #9 all the more, to see how it all turns out (and the significance to Vinnie's cameo, Fox's shoe-buying, and Xanatos pressing the red button).

Thanks for a great issue, Greg!