Hey guys, I'm back with the Piz... oh...

Well, good to hear regardless that Station 8 is back (even if I didn't know it was temporarily down in the first place).
ontheup&up2semanitcs
posted @ Thu, Oct 30, 2025 12:18:33 am EDT from 70.173.68.31

And we're back to normal....for the time being.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
You're Gonna Carry That Weight
posted @ Wed, Oct 29, 2025 9:38:29 pm EDT from 184.23.35.150

Count me as another person glad to see Station 8 back up again.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Wed, Oct 29, 2025 7:18:45 pm EDT from 68.99.93.213

*cough cough*

*thumbs up*
Matt
"My daughter?! How dare you mock me! I have no daughter." - Demona, 1996
posted @ Wed, Oct 29, 2025 7:17:08 pm EDT from 69.229.197.48

**dusts himself off**

Everyone good?
Phoenician
Gus: "I always forget you're there." Hooty: "I forget I'm here toooooo."
posted @ Wed, Oct 29, 2025 5:39:12 pm EDT from 72.249.221.26

BLAISE> [SPOILER] "CUT TO...an advertisement?"

Ah yes, the one villain even the combined might of the Manhattan Clan and the Fantastic Four can never overcome; Capitalism! XD [/SPOILER]
Algae
'Nuff said
posted @ Tue, Oct 28, 2025 11:16:41 am EDT from 88.87.179.191

Thanks for the review, Blaise.

The title has struck me for a while as very appropriate for a crossover. It establishes the gargoyles and the Fantastic Four as equals - and does so, appropriately for a "Gargoyles" story, with a Shakespeare quote.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Tue, Oct 28, 2025 9:07:12 am EDT from 68.99.93.213

****Blaise drags himself into the Comment Room. He then deposits himself on the floor and leaves himself behind as he walks out. Blaise gets up off the floor and dusts himself off.**** Don't ask. Let's just say it was all I could do to make sure I made time to post. I've already missed Greg Weisman's birthday by A LOT (hope you had a great one, Greg!), and the 31st anniversary of "Gargoyles" and 19th of GargWiki by a bit. Let's see if I can be a bit better about this.

Anyway, on with the crossover!
FANTASTIC FOUR x GARGOYLES: BOTH ALIKE IN DIGNITY> [SPOILER] Going in, I of course knew about the Fantastic Four themselves, as well as the Grey Gargoyle villain and Marvel's own "The Gargoyle" (I had access to Jeff Rovin's Encyclopedia of Superheroes and a fascination with dragons and gargoyles so, of course, I would find out about Isaac). I was unfamiliar with Diablo, though, and oddly enough the surprise character who shows up later in the comic (which probably shows just what a deep cut *that* was). So I knew nothing of Diablo's backstory: not that he was an immortal alchemist, nor that his actual name was Esteban Corazon...De Ablo....
Wait...could that mean my archnemesis "Devil" is actually...Mr. De Ville?!?! (Man, I love some of these comic book shenanigans.)
Regardless, Greg seems to fold these two disparate realities together well enough with Demona and Diablo (what symmetry) having encountered each other in the past. "Somewhat past the age of Gargoyles" (and that is some good, evocative narration, there), while working with El Cid (and I admit I hadn't realized that happened so soon after Demona adopted Angelika), Diablo apparently decided Angelika would be the perfect sacrifice--er, "blood donor" for his immortality elixir. Whatever her failings, Demona can be quite the Mama Bear and swoops in to save her new daughter. I like the detail that Diablo speaking in his native tongue is identified here as "Catalan," which I believe is in keeping with the name of the region and language at that time (a detail missed in "Dark Ages," much to Greg's annoyance, I know). At any rate, Diablo demonstrates his power (as well as a superiority complex and extreme speciesism against gargoyles), and Demona (who, at the end of the day, prizes survival above all else) is forced to flee with Angelika. A good way of establishing our villain (Diablo, this time), his motivations, and his potential power.

CUT TO...an advertisement? Oh, right--I keep forgetting the bigger comic companies actually pepper their advertisements throughout the book as opposed to Dynamite's practice of concentrating them at the end. I'm not too bothered, though. It actually makes me feel a bit nostalgic.
OK, to the title page, and then....

Modern (well, 1997) day and the big two-page splash of what looks like a fight between the Fantastic Four and the three gargoyle teens who went to investigate at the end of the Free Comic Book Day preview. At the very least, if they're not already in the middle of a fight, it looks like they're at the start of one. Seriously, the Gargoyles' eyes are all glowing and Ben looks about to bring both fists down. I remember when I saw the preview thinking this image was very incongruous with the rather civil dialogue, but when I finally read the issue and paid particular attention to Sue's body language I realized that Sue was very intentionally *stopping* the fight that was revving up. Anyway, Sue and Angela make the relevant introductions of each other's side and I love Angela's "We're Gargoyles. But...I guess you knew that." I also love the Lampshade Hanging Ben and Johnny do about missing the fairly typical "Fight Then Team Up" trope in these sorts of comics (also known as the "Marvel Misunderstanding," I believe). Heck, even Susan gets in on the Lampshade Hanging with her line, "Stone by day. Warriors by night. According to what I saw on the television..." Yeah, Sue, I'm pretty sure everyone here is familiar with that bit of narration....
Anyway, while the two tech-heads (Lex and Reed) shake hands, the reason for the flare comes up, and Sue admits the Gargoyles being there is quite apropos: the Grey Gargoyle himself is on a rampage at the Brooklyn Bridge!

The Grey Gargoyle, who by some cosmic coincidence has the same last name as one of the Illuminati leaders, is currently turning lots of people to stone, including the "Gargoyles" universe's favorite pair of chew toys, Brendan and Margot. Okay, I know this wouldn't make any sense whatsoever, but I really would have loved if one of them while turning to stone had said, "Oh no, not again."

Elsewhere--oh, sorry--*Meanwhile,* the other, Marvel Gargoyle is in some sort of contraption that appears to be restraining and/or torturing him. He manages to break free, though, including right out the side of the building and flies off to warn "them." It’s pretty easy to guess who he's talking about, and also not too hard to figure out who he escaped from, assuming a certain villain hasn't changed the color scheme of his lairs in 903 years....

(Now? OK--)
Elsewhere, we finally get what a great many fans have wanted to see for a long time: David Xanatos and Tony Stark sharing the stage! The solicitation said they would "compare facial hair," but instead they actually seem to be comparing...something else (metaphorically speaking). Tony seems pretty sure that he's winning whatever...asset measuring contest they've got going on, but David just remarks that "it's a marathon, not a sprint" and promises to see Tony again "soon." Xanatos also seemed pretty interested in one large capsule in particular, with what appears to be a figure wrapped in bat-like wings inside....

Catching up with the Fantastic Four, Angela, Broadway and Lexington as they confront the Grey Gargoyle at his apparently out-of-character "murderous spree." After some banter, and I especially love Broadway and Lexington commenting on the Grey Gargoyle's name (and how offensive it is), the bad guy starts doing some bad stuff that is also surprisingly clever. In particular throwing a smoke bomb (knowing the Torch would grab it and set it off) to conceal the battle field and throwing an innocent civilian...well, Margot, anyway, over the side of the bridge, forcing Reed to catch her. Unfortunately, all of this, along with Angela engaging in some ill-advised impulsiveness, allows the Grey Gargoyle to turn two very important people to stone: Mr. Fantastic and Angela! I love the touch that even though Sue manages to capture Duval, he's not that bothered. A clear indication this was all part of some larger plan....

And speaking of plans and planners, Xanatos eschews all forms of subtlety and breaks into Stark Industries while wearing his crimson Steel Clan armor to steel that capsule with the winged figure we noted earlier. Of course, Iron Man shows up to attempt to stop him (and get a dig in about Xanatos's "knockoff armor"), but Xanatos wouldn't be Xanatos if he hadn’t anticipated this. Leaving at least nine Steel Clan robots behind to play with Iron Man (who grouses about Xanatos "nicking my Army of Armor gag"), Xanatos flies off with his prize.

We finally get back to Marvel's Gargoyle as he arrives at "Castle Wyvern atop the Eyrie Building" (everybody got that?), and pretty much immediately gets put in a choke by Hudson before the latter groks what he just grabbed. What follows is a rather sweet scene with The Gargoyle meeting the Manhattan Clan, or at least most of them: Goliath, Brooklyn, Bronx and the Cold-Duo have arrived to greet the new arrival. Bronx certainly seems to like him! We get The Gargoyle's real name, Isaac Christians, and basic backstory about being a human whose soul was transferred into a gargoyle creature, here with the added element of being an actual gargoyle's deceased body. Coldfire remarks on the familiarity she and her mate have with such a situation, though Coldstone allows his own speciesism to come through again at the thought of a human soul in a gargoyle body. But Isaac manages to shake off the good vibes to finally remember why he actually came here in the first place: to warn the Gargoyles about Diablo, the guy he escaped from earlier. It seems Diablo's on the hunt for gargoyle blood again and had tried using Isaac but the latter's reanimated body precluded that. I love Hudson here immediately guessing that Diablo's doing this for immortality. Hudson doesn’t roll his eyes and say "here we go again," but it definitely feels like he's thinking it.

It's at this point a couple of our heroes from the other side of the story, Johnny and Lex, arrive on the scene to fill everyone in on the rest of the plot. Hudson is briefly distracted from the whole "Angela has been turned to stone" thing by recognizing Johnny from Celebrity Hockey (naturally), though he has difficulty remembering the group's name, referring to them as the "Fantastical Fours." He has no problem remembering that they lost their match to the Yancy Street Gang, though, much to Johnny's chagrin. Goliath, however, is a bit more on topic, and no surprise considering it involves Angela. But Johnny says they have hope of turning everyone back to normal, though it involves tracking down and dealing with "an old enemy." Of course, Isaac can already guess that this old enemy is Diablo (hey, great! That solves the whole "tracking down" part of the plan). Cut ahead a few minutes to everyone being on the same page and then splitting up. Coldfire and Hudson head in one direction while Goliath, Lex, Isaac and Johnny head in another. Brooklyn and Bronx head into the castle to bring Katana and Gnash up to speed, with Brook ordering Coldstone to maintain the watch. Which is convenient for Coldstone, as it allows him to contact someone by radio....

We finally see Xanatos delivering his stolen cargo to someone in return for a portion of an elixir, once it's prepared, that provides eternal life. Yes, it turns out that our favorite scheming, amoral billionaire is in cahoots with Diablo!
ME (ala Fry in "Futurama"): I'm shocked. SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.
Yeah, as soon as it was clear Diablo was futzing around with immortality, I knew Xanatos would want a piece of that pie. Of course, I would also expect Xanatos to have done something to the capsule before he delivered it (placed a listening device on it or similar), especially after his experiences with Demona in "City of Stone." Diablo's line about Xanatos receiving his "fair share of eternal life" is the sort of thing I would be very suspicious about in David's shoes.

Diablo talks to the figure in the capsule, calling him an "old companion" (ah, Marvel Comics lore), and relating every stroke of his masterplan to this silent audience (and us, too!).
1. Let Isaac escape with the hope that the "false gargoyle" would warn and bring the real Gargoyles to him.
2. Hire the Grey Gargoyle to go on a rampage with the hope that one or more of the real Gargoyles would intervene and be frozen in stone for him to cure and then "bleed."
3. Tempt Xanatos with the promise of the elixir to bring this "old companion" to Diablo to apparently deter anyone who attempts to interfere with his plans.
On the one hand, Diablo's assuming a whole awful lot, and leaving a lot of things to chance. On the other hand...his plan isn't exactly failing....

Goliath and the rest of his group from the Eyrie building meet up with Ben, Sue and Broadway in the Fantasticar (I think?) on what I figure is the top of the building Diablo's made his lair in. Angela's stone form is there, too, as Broadway just couldn't bring himself to leave her behind. Everyone else was too "entwined" (that's definitely the case for Mr. Fantastic), so the cops were called in to protect them (is that Morgan and Phil?) along with Iron Man, and Coldfire and Hudson had been sent there, too.

However, Diablo hasn't missed their arrival and sends up his "old companion": Dragon Man!
Wait, you mean there's already an actual, established comic book character named Dragon Man? [pulls out phone, calls past self] Hey, little Blaise! You know your "Dragonman" character?...Well, Marvel has a Dragon Man character already...Yeah, a giant android that looks like a purple humanoid dragon with wings and fire breath and everything, sometimes being controlled by a villain named Diablo, been around for a while, apparently...Yeah, well, no sense getting too upset about it, I mean you just took "Condorman" and replaced the animal, anyway...Just thought you should know. Bye. [Hangs up] Man, EVERYTHING is in comics!

Well, The Thing says the thing and starts fighting Dragon Man alongside Goliath and Isaac the Gargoyle. While that's happening, a green portal opens above Angela's stone form and sucks her in (and it's the shade of green energy that you know means it's evil). Sue, Broadway and Lex notice this, but Sue stops Broadway from calling out and turns the two of them invisible to infiltrate the lair and find Angela there.
Dragon Man is giving the rest of the heroes trouble, though, knocking Isaac away so hard that his wings disappear! Actually, the wings are a bit of an issue throughout this comic, unfortunately, what with the wrong wings on Demona, Angela and Brooklyn. I hadn't noticed it on my first readthrough, I admit, but once Phoenician pointed it out, I can't unsee it. Granted, the wings are my only real complaint with the art--the rest of it is really good, and I even like some of the sillier bits, like the lightbulb that pops up next to Lexington when he learns that Dragon Man is actually an android, thus placing this enemy firmly in his wheel house.
Also loving the fun dialogue here, with Goliath mentioning having fought dragons before and the Thing's "Aunt Petunia" crack.

In his Evil Villain Lair (tm), Diablo has already chained Angela and determined she'll serve his purpose. Broadway and Sue are there invisible, but Sue has to hold Broadway back while they wait for Diablo to reverse the stone transformation. He does so (invoking Mephisto's name, even), and thankfully it's not just limited to Angela--everyone Grey Gargoyle touched during his rampage gets turned back to normal! Although, poor Reed now has to deal with an irate Margot.
Just want to highlight some more dialogue I love from before everyone "wakes up," though, with the implication that Hudson’s knowledge of famous people is largely based on "Have they been on Celebrity Hockey?" and Tony's sort of embarrassed excuse for *not* being on that.

Unfortunately, things aren't going so well for Our Heroes as Diablo knew Sue and Broadway were there and uses a spell (or whatever he wants to call it) to immobilize them both. But the reversal of fortune reverses on the reverser as Demona has arrived. When I saw her in the armor here, I initially thought "Did she stop to change into the same armor she was wearing when she first faced Diablo?" before I remembered that this would all have been hours (at most) after her attack at the museum. At any rate, Diablo is thrown off guard by Demona still being alive, so I can only imagine how much further off balance he's thrown with the additional wrinkle that he picked the daughter of Demona for a "blood donor" *again*! I mean, really, what are the odds?
Diablo tries another Immobilize technique, but Demona is quicker, more experienced than she was in the past, and better armed now, and throws not only a bolt of lightning (courtesy of Gungnir), but some of Diablo’s own taunts from 1094 back at him. Demona, have you been holding that line in your head for over 900 years, waiting for a chance to say this to him? No judgement if so--it's a cool moment.

Upstairs, Dragon Man appears to be winning, with Johnny asking Lex to hurry up and "execute" his plan "before ol' Draconus executes us!" ("Draconus?" Is that a reference to the old computer game?) Well, no sooner said than done, as Lex is able to modify the Fantasticar to fire an electro magnetic pulse at the giant android and knock it out of the fight.

Back in the EVL, Angela and Broadway are securing Diablo, with Angela glad to reverse their situations and Broadway grumbling that the bad guy's getting off easy, though Sue promises they'll try to make sure he doesn't. Honestly, I would have figured Demona would have at least tried to execute his @$$, but Sue mentions, as she locks Diablo in a force field for good measure, that Demona has already disappeared. I love Broadway and Angela's discussion of Demona here as Angela admits that "complicated" is a "kind way" of describing things with her mother, and Broadway is just happy that Demona saved Angela.

Later, checking in at the respective teams' home bases, we see that Mr. Fantastic is trying to recover Dragon Man’s "benevolent programming," something Sue says the kids will love, while Goliath, Brooklyn and Issac confront Xanatos about his part in this plot. David seems perfectly calm about having lost out on Diablo's elixir and says that he never would have wanted it at Angela's expense, though neither Goliath nor Brooklyn are sure if he was as ignorant of the full plot as he claims. Thing is, I totally buy that Xanatos could have known that a gargoyle's blood was needed, but at the same time wouldn't want it to be any of the Manhattan clan. Now Demona, maybe Thailog (or one of the other clones, assuming they would work), or heck, any gargoyle Xanatos didn't personally know and care about? They could bleed. Maybe not young kids, though.
Both scenes end with a call from Tony Stark, announced by The Thing over at Baxter and by Owen over at Eyrie. Got to love those old 1990’s cell phones! And the way Xanatos greets Tony on the phone, too (the audacity!).

As they walk away, Goliath states that Isaac fought beside the clan like "a true Gargoyle" and so extends an offer to join the clan. Isaac is honored (and probably happy to not feel so alone), and seems to accept.

We close out with two group shots of the Fantastic Four and their extended family (Alicia, H.E.R.B.I.E., all the kids and the dog) and the whole Manhattan Clan plus Isaac (including the only appearances this issue of Elisa, Katana, Gnash, Fu-Dog and Egwardo) as Ben and Goliath sum up how both groups now have allies "just a few skyscrapers away."
Some quibbles with the art (the wing issue, just where the clan is in that final shot) aside, this is a fantastic (didn't mean for a pun, but I'm not going to hunt for another word) issue. It was a lot of fun with some great, thematically appropriate Marvel characters brought in and did a very good job of juggling *so many* characters in this one issue. I'm not surprised to learn this was a bit longer than the usual comic, as it needed to be to pack so much in. I'm so looking forward to "Gargoyles x Fantastic Four" next month! [/SPOILER]

Here's to more material and (hopefully) posting in a bit more of a timely manner.
****Blaise checks his watch...and gets sucked into it.****
Blaise
"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."--The Doctor
posted @ Mon, Oct 27, 2025 11:30:27 pm EDT from 45.48.46.39

[SPOILER] That and his schemes in the crossover are good reminders that he's definitely not on the side of the angels. But he has no problem aligning with them when it suits his needs.

Which brings up another thing I had been mulling over. Exactly what are the Xanatos family going to do following the abduction of Egwardo? On the one hand I can see David and Fox just leaving this to the clan to figure out. On the other, the two of them are quite proud and I can't imagine they'd take losing their wills to Demona without issue. [/SPOILER]
Matthew the Fedora Guy
You're Gonna Carry That Weight
posted @ Mon, Oct 27, 2025 10:54:47 pm EDT from 184.23.35.150

Phoenician > [SPOILER] Good point! I can't believe that one slipped my mind; it's one of my favorite moments in the Dynamite run so far. [/SPOILER]
Craig
posted @ Mon, Oct 27, 2025 5:06:11 pm EDT from 69.118.30.106

Craig: [SPOILER] Manipulating a judge's ruling is quite the Xanatos Tag, even if it was in Goliath's favor. I suspect he aims to take full advantage however he can now that gargoyles have legal rights. [/SPOILER] :--)
Phoenician
Gus: "I always forget you're there." Hooty: "I forget I'm here toooooo."
posted @ Mon, Oct 27, 2025 4:46:10 pm EDT from 72.249.221.26

Third.

I'm really enjoying all your thoughts/speculation on the upcoming Demona issue, Todd. Thanks for sharing. It's getting me even more excited.

One thing that occurred to me about the first Fantastic Four crossover issue is that [SPOILER] it's the first time we've seen Xanatos do something villainous since...the Stone of Destiny storyline, I think? I do miss his devious scheming side, and hope to see more of that in canon soon. [/SPOILER]
Craig
posted @ Mon, Oct 27, 2025 4:39:38 pm EDT from 69.118.30.106

MATT - So am I. As I mentioned, I've noticed from the solicitations some hints of parallels between those two issues and #0, #1, and #2. Both #2 and #4 feature (or will feature) Magni and the Eye of Odin, not to mention Constantinople as a setting (though from the evidence, in #4, it will be the main setting rather than one of several). And #5 will have a young Katana as (apparently) an echo of Angelika as a child in #1 (not to mention it'll be most likely shedding light on her decision not to visit the exhibit in #0), and the possible return of the Hunters (whose origin story we got more of in #1), assuming that they're the gargoyle hunters mentioned in the solicitation; I'm really hoping that they'll be Canmore Hunters.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Mon, Oct 27, 2025 9:14:27 am EDT from 68.99.93.213

FIRST!

A little over a week to go before Demona #4. I'm really excited about these last two issues.
Matt
"My daughter?! How dare you mock me! I have no daughter." - Demona, 1996
posted @ Mon, Oct 27, 2025 8:39:00 am EDT from 204.184.178.1