Wes’s Guide to Gargoyles: Gargoyles #12

Welcome back my friends, to the latest issue of Gargoyles and the grand finale of the current story arc. Last time, while Brooklyn, Lexington and Broadway rescued Dino Dracon’s hostages, thus removing his leverage over New York’s crime families, Goliath, after his victory in court, was summoned to the death bed of Halycon Renard where he learned that he was inheriting 2% of Cyberbiotics, meaning the Gargoyles now officially have a legal source of income.

As we open today’s comic, we learn the narration duty this time around falls to good ol’ Coldstone and it seems as though Coldy-Rocks is not as optimistic about the future of  Gargoyle/Human relations as his brother.

We pick up with Goliath returning from Renard’s just as Brooklyn and the others return from their successful mission. Elisa says she and Goliath need to talk, but she’s interrupted by our old favorite, characters turning to stone in mid conversation. The classics never die.

Meanwhile, as the other crime families agree to a summit to put an end to the massive gang war once and for all, Dino Dracon reveals his last resort, go after the police and frame the other gangs. He even mentions having gotten some supplies from John Castaway in case the Gargoyles decide to get involved again. As for that summit, he sends his father, old DD, to represent the Dracon family on this behalf. However, when Antoinette offers to take Grandpa to the summit, Dino warns his niece not to go anywhere near the summit, indicating that he has something nasty planned.

That night, The Gargoyles awaken and Cold Stone wants a word with his brother, fearing he treads a dangerous path. While it’s good, that Goliath was victorious in court, Cold Stone does not exactly like the idea of allowing the humans to decide the future of his clan. Cold Stone has more to say, but he’s cut off by Elisa. Goliath says that what Elisa said on the stands meant a great deal to him, but he worries about what repercussions Elisa will face. Elisa says that consequences or not, she had kept the secret from her captain far too long. Fortunately, Captain Chavez has only decided to suspend Elisa, but how long depends on how Goliath responds to the NYPD’s offer. Before Goliath has a chance to ask “What Offer,” Brooklyn and Broadway show up with Antoinette Dracon. Geez, everyone just interrupting everyone tonight, God Damn.

Antoinette seems to have finally realized that her uncle is a psychopath, and wants to Gargoyles to help stop him before he tears the city apart. Fortunately, the Gargoyles are easily able to foil his plot to blow up several police precincts across the city and frame the rival gangs. That just leaves the Summit, which the Gargoyles break into and disable a bomb planted by Dino. Remember, DD was attending the summit, which means that Dino is so ruthless, he was willing to sacrifice his own father to wipe out the competition. Anywho, The Gargoyles remind the heads of the crime families that they owe the Gargoyles after saving their various friends and loved ones throughout the course of this whole thing. Well, okay, the Russian guy doesn’t owe the Gargoyles anything, in fact Goliath beat the shit out of his mutant werewolf son and had him thrown in prison, but he’s kind of outvoted at the moment. Anywho, the gangsters agree that they owe the Gargoyles and ending hostilities is probably a good thing anyway. Then Dino Dracon shows up holding a high yield explosive, probably something he got from his buddy Castaway, complete with a dead man's switch, and now that all of his enemies are in the same room, he has no problem blowing them all to kingdom come. Naturally, old DD isn’t too pleased to learn that his own son is willing to blow him up, especially once Dino reveals he killed his own brother, so, in a rare moment of lucidity, the old man just shoots his boy right in the chest. You know, Dino offing his own brother is probably the reason his dipshit nephew Tony turned out the way he did, so yeah, by all means, shoot the fucker. Tony falls into the river, the bomb detonating far away from the intended targets.

Our comic wraps up with a summary of the aftermath of the gang war. Recognizing that the Old Man saved all their lives, the six crime families agreed to unite under Dominic Dracon’s wisdom and experience. However, since DD is actually a senile old man who only shot his son in a rare moment of lucidity, it will really be Antoinette running the show.

Meanwhile, Cold Stone informs us that he never got a chance to resume his conversation with Goliath. We do learn that Goliath has now officially joined the NYPD Gargoyle Task Force as a demonstration that humans and Gargoyles are allies, not enemies. Elisa also got off relatively easy, receiving only a four month suspension. Seems like a lot to me, but I imagine the woman has a lot of sleep to catch up on. Goliath thinks his choice to officially join forces with the NYPD will help better protect Manhattan, but Coldstone sees this as his brother and leader surrendering his honor and authority to the humans. And so our comic ends with the bombshell revelation that both Coldstone and Antoinette Dracon have been in cahoots with Demona this entire time! With Antoinette in her pocket, Demona now has control over all of New York’s crime families. As for Cold Stone, he’s struck a deal to serve Demona’s cause in secret, provided she leaves his clan alone and unharmed. Either way, with these two now on her side, Demona is sure to be more dangerous than ever.

This comic was awesome and a worthy finale to everything we’ve been building to since issue 1. Dino Dracon was a solid villain and in this issue, we get to see him go out with a literal bang. They mention that his remains were never recovered, so I don’t know, I wouldn’t mind if he came back one of these days. Goliath, and presumably the rest of the clan, now actively and openly working with the police is a very interesting change to the status quo, and I would be very interested to see how that develops once he get to Gargoyles Quest. And finally, the big Demona reveal at the end had my jaw on the floor. One of the Gargoyles’ greatest enemies now has more power and influence in the human world than ever, and has a spy within the clan. That’s bad news for our heroes and probably all of humanity. But what is Demona’s endgame? I guess we’ll find out when Gargoyles Quest kicks off.