Wes’s Guide to Gargoyles: Gargoyles #11

Before we begin, a message to the unpleasant individual who hacked Greg Weisman’s Twitter account.

Kindly shove your head up your ass and choke to death on your own shit.

Thank you.

Welcome back at long last to Gargoyles. Last time, Goliath and his lawyer Tobe Crest won a huge victory in court, officially proving that Goliath, and by extension, The Gargoyle race is sentient and deserving of basic human (for want of a better term) rights. However, all was not well. During the hearing, Elisa spilled the beans about her connection with Goliath, something that will no doubt have consequences regarding her career. In addition, not long after the hearing, Goliath was called away to the death bed of Halcyon Renard, whose passing is now inevitable.

As we open today’s comic, we learn that this time around, narration duties fall to young Nashville. Gnash tells us that his whole life, his father would go on and on about the strong bond he shared with his rookery brothers. However, since he and his family got back from their trip across time, that bond hasn’t exactly been as strong as the young one was lead to believe. At the moment, Gnash is accompanying his father and uncles to save the two star crossed lovers whom Dino Dracon kidnapped a few issues ago. As a flashback reveals to us, Broadway received a call from Antionette Dracon, who has learned that Dino basically green lit the murder of her dipshit brother Tony. Now personally, I think the world would be a better place without Tony’s skunk haired ass, but I’m also not the man’s sibling. Anywho, Antoinette has finally realized that her uncle is far too dangerous to the city and is entreating the Gargoyles to help rescue his captives and thus removing Dino’s leverage of the other crime families. And there’s no time to waste since Dino is planning to execute the captives later this evening. Brooklyn smells a trap, but ultimately decides that it’s worth the risk if innocent lives are at stake.

Elsewhere, Captain Chavez is reading Elisa the riot act for not telling her about the Gargoyles despite having multiple opportunities to do so over the course of the past three years. And now, the press and the commissioner are up her ass and it’s all Elisa’s fault. Elisa tries to explain herself but Matt pipes up. The Captain is none to pleased to learn that Detective Bluestone was in on this Gargoyle business too, but Matt says that before Chavez busts them both down to meter maids, he has an idea that may solve all their problems.

Alright so in the next section of the comic they do a lot of cutting between the trio fighting the gangsters and Goliath at Renard’s death bed. It actually works for the comic better than it may sound, but it does make it difficult for someone recapping the events of the story, so I’ll recap both events separately. Just know that I’m skipping around a bit here.

Starting with the raid on Dino Dracon’s base, while the Gargoyles watch from the rafters waiting for their moment to strike, Dino and his goons, wearing masks of the Gargoyles, are getting ready to murder the hostages. The Gargoyles attack, but Dino was prepared for this as some of his goons are piloting huge mech suits. As the trio battle the mechs, Gnash frees the hostages and leads them out Dino’s warehouse while the bad guys are distracted. As Brooklyn uses one of the bad guys’ ray guns to take out the mech suits, Gnash manages to take down Dino himself, making the young Gargoyle 2 and 0 against human villains if we’re counting the Halloween special. As the Gargoyles escape with the hostages in tow, a pissed off Dino assures Glasses that he still has one card left to play, and it’s one that will bring all of Manhattan to its knees.

And now we recap Renard’s final moments. Renard says that forty nine percent of Cyberbiotics has been left to Fox, whom he also names as the new CEO. Fox is grateful, but says that this isn’t how she wanted to acquire it. Renard smirks and says “don’t I know it.” Another forty nine percent has been left to baby Alex, which will be held in a trust by Preston Vogel, who has also been named the new chief operating officer of Cyberbiotics, until young Alex comes of age. Xanatos is curious about the remaining two percent. According to Renard, the remaining two percent of the company and the responsibility of acting as the tie breaker should the two majority share holders disagree, goes to Goliath. As Xanatos congratulates the big guy on coming into a fairly significant sum of money, a stunned Goliath feels himself unqualified for the responsibilities that have been set before him. As it turns out, Goliath’s arrest and hearing were, in part, orchestrated by Renard in order to ensure Goliath have legal standing so that he may legally inherit, an act for which Renard begs Goliath’s forgiveness. Renard goes on to say that there is no one he trusts more to protect his grandson’s inheritance and teach the lad to use it with integrity. Goliath vows to honor the trust that his friend has placed in him. Next, Renard thanks Vogel for his loyalty and is even nice enough not to bring up that one time he almost screwed him over by sabotaging the company airship. Renard tells Xanatos to take care of his grandson or he’ll haunt his sorry ass. Okay, he didn’t actually say that, but we all know he was thinking it. To Alex, he simply tells him that his grandfather loves him with all his heart. To his daughter, he admits he wasn’t always the best father, but he always loved her. Fox likewise admits she wasn’t always the best daughter either, but she loves him too. Next up is Titania, who has assumed the form of her human alter ego, Anastasia Renard. Renard says she need not pretend to be Anastasia for his benefit, but Titania insists there was nothing false about her life as Anastasia, least of all the love she felt for him. And so, with his closest friends and loved ones all having had the opportunity to make their peace and say their goodbyes, our comic ends with Halcyon Renard peacefully passing into the next world.

This comic was great. It was nice to finally see the trio get their groove back, something that we’ve been building to since issue one. However, the real high point of this comic was the final moments of Halcyon Renard. From his first appearance, Renard was shown to be a man big on personal integrity, a rigid mentality that gave him a strong moral compass, but also cost him much, including his relationship with his wife and daughter. Now, on his death bed, Renard is shown to be a man with many regrets, but also a man who is confident that his legacy is in good hands and can pass on knowing that the next generation has been taken care of. It was a fitting tribute to one of the major characters of the series, and also a moment that will have major implications going forward. Think about it. Goliath now owns two percent of a multi-billion dollar company, which means, for the first time, the Gargoyles now have a legal source of income and a fairly substantial one at that. That may not sound that significant, but when you think about it, it’s actually kind of a game changer, and I am very curious to see how this affects the Manhattan clan moving forward. Speaking of moving forward, as any good Gargoyles comic should, this comic leaves us with many questions. What is Bluestone’s big idea that he thinks will solve the precinct’s problems? What is Dino’s final play that he claims will rock Manhattan to its very core? Well, I guess we’re going to have to find out in the next issue of Gargoyles.