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Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Comment Room Archive

Comments for the week ending January 19, 2020

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Last but not least!
Vinnie - [thomaspeano at yahoo dot com]
Deplorable and loving it!

So I watched "Market Forces" a while ago but forgot to put up thoughts, I'll post them once the chat clears as well as my thoughts on "Competition."
Matthew
Insert Inspirational Quote Here:________

I see Gargoyles is on Disney +awesome sauce and Cucchalain is a halfling or demifae like Fox Renard and some of the new Olympians and if you have plans to bring back a continuation of the series you should tie up some loose ends like Gabriel discoverung who his biological parents are Othello aka the soon to be former Coldstone and Desdemona aka Coldfire and lets not forget Iago aka Coldsteel I believe the Phoenix gate should be used to ressurect those three gargoyles and Iago has an offspring on Avalon Demona needs to go back to her original power set from stone to gargoyleand Gabriel and Angela should be together and have those three future children you mentioned Artus Gwenevere and Lancelot Brooklyn should be with Ophelia and Broadway well he has his pick of 15 rookery sisters on Avalon Ibthink you should take these ideas into consideration.
Cecil James - [mrjamessoundatcartoon12345 at gmail dot com]

This is a great comic. I've enjoyed reading it with my students at school
window cleaning services long beach - [beatrixfandig at gmail dot com]

TSSM’s version of the Lizard is definitely my favorite version of, frankly, one of my least-favorite of Spidey’s classic rogue’s gallery. Making him basically a wild animal, intelligent but acting largely on instinct, and centering the main drama around Curt and his family instead of foiling an evil plan, was a good route to take in my opinion. Contrast to most other versions I’m familiar with, where retaining his human intelligence necessitates giving him a motivation for his evil acts, and his villainous motivations tend to be… well, stupid.

“Rarr, I’m a reptile and therefore evil, and I hate all mammals because evolution or something! Also I’m cold-blooded, which is obviously an influence on my ability to feel empathy and not just a somewhat-misleading term regarding my physiological means of regulating body temperature! Rarrr, evil!”

Not that the episode doesn’t hit my grr-biologist-characters-SHOULD-KNOW-BETTER buttons a few times (“Reptile DNA is more primitive than human”; “I’m regressing…”; like, okay, Curt, you’re having a stressful time and your brain’s probably already being affected, I can give you a pass, but Martha, come on, you’re better than that), but overall just that simple change eliminated about 90% of what I usually dislike about Lizard storylines.

Had the show continued, I could see maybe one or two more Lizard episodes, maybe in the vein of Curt being forcibly transformed (as in the Gargoyles crossover radio play) or being in a situation where he feels he has to use the Lizard to save his family or something; but in that case I would definitely have been hoping that they would stick with him being non-sapient.

Unrelated, but one bit from this episode that I get a good chuckle at is the beginning where the one crook tells his buddies to NOT eat anything from the bakery they’re robbing, because the owner is his great-aunt, and Spidey’s subsequent commentary on his priorities.

“So you’ll rob the piggy bank, but won’t touch the cookie jar? You must qualify for nephew-of-the-year. Twisted division.”

Chiropter

Thanks, though I forgot to put my favorite line of the episode,
" Hey, wall-crawling's my shtick! You start spinning a web, and I'll sue!"

Matthew
Insert Inspirational Quote Here:________

Thanks for another good review, Matthew.
Todd Jensen

Watched "Natural Selection" today which closes out the "biology" arc of Spectacular Spider-Man and Peter's time at ESU for now. You know Peter should really stop tempting fate by saying things like he's making all the right moves and smart choices, with his luck there's no way that wouldn't backfire.

Of course right moves and smart choices (or lack thereof) is a recurring thing this episode. Curt using an untested formula on himself? Not smart. Eddie trying tackle the Lizard to get him to calm down? Not the right move. Peter taking a photo of the Lizard and using that to win the Bugle contest while ostracizing his friends and employers? Definitely not smart.

I do like the little photography touches though, like all of Peter's photos coming out wrong because fighting crime while taking photos means you can't account for things like lighting or proper placement. Not to mention him taking the photos was all to help his aunt with the bills and he was in a pretty desperate situation. And doesn't that just describe the Parker luck? Damned if you do, damned if you don't, no matter what, life just goes out of its way to kick Peter in the...while he's down.

This episode can really come off like a horror story, the really went full regalia when they showed him transform. Seriously the way his head contorts and stretches to a reptilian shape. Really shows off of horribly painful the transformation would be, heck even the scene where he regrows his arm is pretty wild.

The Lizard himself makes for a really good antagonist, he's shown to be consistently stronger than Spider-Man, shows a degree of intelligence during fighting (like specifically targeting his hand) and is without a doubt the most vicious and relentless opponent so far. Honestly Peter almost dies three times and is generally saved thanks either luck or someone or something helping him out.

I remember Greg once spoke on a podcast that he felt the Lizard was one of those villains you could only really use once. And while I do feel there are plenty of "one and done" kinda villains in comics (the Court of Owls comes to mind) I don't know if the Lizard counts as one. Though we have no idea if we'd ever see the more intelligent take on the Lizard like what showed up in the comics we do see that Curt really doesn't want to relive this experience.

A couple of final things, it's funny that Martha brings up Billy being interested in the skinks at the lab as skinks are known for their regenerative properties, as well as the fact most of them burrow underground. Suddenly makes sense for him to head to the subway. We get our first use of the gene-cleanser this episode and you can bet that's going to be important in the future. One last thing, I just remembered that the first episode from "Spider-Man the Animated Series" dealt with the Lizard and Spider-Man even went out of his way to prevent Eddie from publishing a photo of him. Kinda funny how things reversed here isn't it?

Matthew
Insert Inspirational Quote Here:________

Algae> Phototrophic endoliths (aka cyanobacteria) could indeed be either incredibly damaging or incredibly mutualistic. They could basically be a photon-absorber that also leads to breakdown of the stone state or something that supplements the energy conversion process of said state, kinda like our own gut flora (and no, a phototroph is NOT necessarily photosynthetic).
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

BRAINIAC> Something like an endolithic microbe might give the gargate immune system a run for its money...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endolith

Algae
"Of course, we all wear costumes." ~Double Trouble

Don’t listen to them, Jordan, asking the same question over and over again is a great way to accomplish things!
Johnny Modlin

Thank you, Todd "Fifth" Jensen. It's manageable but not pleasant at ALL. It's more draining than anything else. I had a bunch of things I should have done this weekend and I just...couldn't. This has been going on for about a week now and I've had MORE than enough.

Actually, to tie things back into Gargoyles, that's one thing I've always been curious about, gargates and infections. I'm currently suffering from what was referred to as an inflamed/infected submandibular (under the jawbone) gland. We do know gargoyles are at least aware of infection potential and as I've pointed out before, viral infection that can directly integrate into host cell DNA could bypass the curative nature of stone sleep. What else does anyone think might be a potential danger in terms of microorganisms for gargates?

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

BRAINIAC - I hope you'll be feeling better soon.ce
Todd Jensen

Fourth.

Jordan> Your repost means you are not actually unaware as I thought might be the case in my attempt to make things clear at the end of the previous week, but just deliberately attempting to spread misery.

That's honestly a pity, I was hoping I'd edified someone; it was a slight possible good thing to compensate with the pain and sickness I'm going through right now. Ah well, back to ignoring a troll desperate to scream.

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

Hi everyone, I’m Jordan!

Even though last week, everyone in here told me that Greg isn’t going to answer my question here, I’m still gonna ask it! Because I’m Jordan! It doesn’t matter that they pointed out how entitled that I am, trying to skip over the line, or how rude I am, with my foul language. It doesn’t matter because I’m Jordan! I deserve answers because I bought stuff! It doesn’t even matter that several people actually ANSWERED my question, because I’m Jordan!

Sincerely, Jordan.

Anonymous

Third
Algae
"Of course, we all wear costumes." ~Double Trouble

Hi Mr. Weisman. I have a question for you:

I don't know if you are aware, but in the "Early Warning" episode of Whelmed: The Young Justice Files (back in Oct. 2019) the host quoted you on something you told him in conversation. This is something that used to happen now and then, but lately it happens in almost every episode: "Greg texted me this", "Brandon emailed me that", "Greg/Brandon told me whatever", etc.

So, looking at your 2-year-3-month-and-19-day backlog of 1204 questions, I'm wondering: why are you giving BTS information to this one person while the rest of your fanbase has to submit questions and wait months (at least) or YEARS (worst case and more likely scenario) for an answer???? It must be really cool to be so intimate and chummy with one's idol, and I bet the host feels super important and validated, but this is some double standard bullshit!

Are you aware of this? And if you are, how can you be okay with it? Don't you think this is unfair? You have thousands of fans who support your work whichever way they can, but 99.9% of them have never even met you in person, let alone exchanged emails or text messages with you.

If I make an entire podcast dedicated to kissing your asses, will I earn the same privileges? Will I be able to ask all my questions without a waiting queue? Will I get to hang out with you, have lunch together or exchange personal contacts?

(Originally I posted this on AskGreg, but then I decided I shouldn't have to wait 2 years for an answer, for all the reasons above.)

Jordan

Second
Chip - [Sir_griff723 at yahoo dot com]
Never learning the truth that what feels as though a burden pushing down upon our shoulders, is actually, a sense of purpose that lifts us to greater heights. Never forget that fear is but the precursor to valour, that to strive and triumph in the face of fear, is what is means to be a hero.~~~Trollhunters

FIRST.
Phoenician
"The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts" -- Willy Wonka