Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: The Green
Welcome back to Gargoyles mis amigos!
Our heroes emerge from the fog to find themselves in a dense, hot Guatemalan rainforest. Our heroes don’t have much time to adjust to their new surroundings as gunshots are heard in the distance. We soon see a group of loggers are fighting off a pair of Gargoyles. One of those Gargoyles, Zafiro, has a really cool and unique design. Instead of legs, his lower half is that of a snake, making him almost resemble one of the feathered serpent gods from Mayan legend. I still prefer Griff, but if Zafiro had a biker jacket it would easily push him over the edge. I’m not sure why the other Gargoyles in his clan aren’t part snake as well, but I digress. The Gargoyles are holding their own, but the real problem is the loggers hired guns, Jackal and Hyena. It would seem I’ve greatly underestimated the brother/sister bond of these two since Hyena appears to have forgiven Jackal for that business in Egypt. You know, the time Jackal usurped the power of a death god, de-aged his sister into a baby and turned her boyfriend into a pile of rusty scrap metal. All water under the bridge. In any case, the psycho twins quickly overwhelm the new Gargoyles and think they’ve won until Goliath and the others get involved. The loggers run away but Jackal and Hyena aren’t so easily frightened off. Goliath manages to send them packing by hurling part of a bulldozer at them, but not before Hyena manages to slash Bronx pretty bad.
Goliath and the others free Zafiro and the other Gargoyle, Obsidiana. The Guatemalan Gargoyles are grateful for the assist and, realizing that Jackal and Hyena may be back soon, agree to take the new Gargoyles with them to their home. On the way, Bronx’s cut from Hyena’s blade seems to be bothering him, and with sunrise six hours away, it could likely become infected. Fortunately, these Gargoyles are hippie naturalist types and use plants in the forest to help with the wound. Very nice. Later, Zafiro explains that most of his clan was wiped out long ago, and now only four remain. The others, Jade and Turquesa, greet them at the home of the clan, a large Mayan pyramid in the middle of the forest. We also learn that these Gargoyles wear four magical pendants to prevent themselves from turning to stone at night. Apparently, some Mayan sorcerer crafted them in ancient times using ancient sun amulet. Unfortunately, the amulet has been lost for centuries, but as long as it remains intact, the Gargoyles of the forest can protect their domain day and night.
Unfortunately, Jackal and Hyena have been listening in on this little exposition dump and have hatched a sinister plan. Back at Jackal and Hyena’s sweet villa, I guess being the hired guns for people destroying the rainforest has its perks, Jackal has found the Sun Amulet using the internet. I guess the pyramid doesn’t have a wifi connection. Coincidence of all coincidences, the sun amulet is in the museum of natural history back in New York. Hyena books herself on the first flight out.
Later that day, Zafiro takes Elisa out on patrol with him so she may see more of the forest. Along the way, Zafiro frightens away a couple of farmers chopping down a tree. Apparently Zafiro’s clan makes a point never to hurt the locals, merely frighten them. Elisa thinks that Zafiro’s methods are a bit extreme since the farmers need to cut down the trees to grow food to feed their families. Still, Zafiro feels that cutting down even one tree cannot be tolerated. Goliath seems to be buying into this as well, but Elisa thinks there’s a better way to protect the forest besides frightening innocent farmers.
Back at the villa, we learn exactly who hired Jackal and Hyena, our old buddy Preston Vogel. Nice to know even after Renard forgave him, he’s still an amoral snake. Anywho, Jackal tells Vogel about his plan to have Hyena destroy the amulet in New York and then, in a rather disturbing dream sequence, explains in disturbing detail how much he’ll enjoy destroying the Gargoyles while they sleep. There’s even a creepy moment where Jackal chisels his own face into Goliath’s. You got issues Jackal, lots and lots of issues. Vogel doubts that Renard would approve, but with the boss tending to his illness, Vogel’s in charge of Cyberbiotics now and could care less about Jackal’s rather twisted methods.
In Manhattan, Hyena breaks into the museum to steal the Amulet. Fortunately, she was spotted by Broadway and Lexington and a cool fight ensues, Hyena revealing a few upgrades to her cybernetics, including the ability to compress herself into a ball like Samus Aran from Metroid. Hyena manages to find the amulet, but Broadway and Lex catch up to her and manage to stop her before she destroys it. After a game of keep away, Lex manages to incapacitate Hyena. Broadway contemplates destroying the Amulet, thinking that Hyena wanted it to cast some sort of evil spell.
Back in Guatemala, the Gargoyles engage Jackal and the loggers in battle, Jackal proving he’s no pushover given that he manages to outfight four powerful Gargoyles on this own. However, Jackal finds the edge when he lights the forest on fire, thinking the Gargoyles will be too distracted putting it out to realize that the sun will rise soon. The sun indeed rises and we see that Obsidiana has turned to stone. However, turns out this isn’t because the Amulet was destroyed, but rather because Obsidiana dropped his pendant while putting out the fire. The rest of the Guatemalan clan charge Jackal, including Bronx who managed to pick up the dropped pendant. Jackal fights his hardest, but Zafiro and Jade punch him so hard he flies all the way back to the villa and lands in the hot tub. Back in Manhattan, officer Morgan finds an unconscious Hyena infront of the precinct and we zoom up to the Clocktower to show that Broadway still has the sun Amulet. Our episode ends with Jade and Turquesa going back to Avalon with Goliath and the others with samples from their forest to ensure that even though they will never be able to fully get rid of the humans who would do harm to their forest, a part of it will always bloom and thrive.
This was an odd one for me. On one hand, the animation was stellar, getting Lexington and Broadway involved was great, the fight scenes were especially awesome and the new characters were really cool. However, I had a few issues. One was that odd argument between Elisa and Zafiro. I actually thought they were going somewhere with it, maybe something to the affect of a compromise between the Gargoyles who protect the forest and the humans who rely on its resources, but nothing ever actually comes of it. Also, that ending had me scratching my head something fierce. They say their taking Jade and Turquesa to Avalon with the samples, but obviously, the two Guatemalan Gargoyles don’t travel with the others so… did they stay in Avalon? Did they get their own Skiff to return to the rainforest? Did they go on their own magical quantum leap adventure? What gives? Also, this ending would also seem to imply that our heroes have been going back to Avalon every time and starting over. What is this, a videogame where you die and have to go back to start? That’s gotta be frustrating as hell. Well, whatever, we’ve seen that there are surviving Gargoyles in London and Guatemala, but what would a thriving community of humans and Gargoyles like the one Goliath’s clan had with the people of Castle Wyvern look like in the modern era? Well, wonder no longer, because next time, we head to Japan for Bushido.