Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Gargoyles #3

Welcome back everyone, to our ongoing look at Dynamite Entertainment’s Gargoyles series. Last time, Talon’s pregnant wife Maggie was kidnapped and even though we the audience know it was Thailog, all the clues point to Xanatos being responsible and Talon, ever the hot head, barged through his front door like the Kool-Aid Man and threatened to fry Xanatos like a fly in a bugzapper if he doesn’t tell him where Maggie is.

Our issue opens where the last one left off and apparently it’s Broadway’s turn to serve as narrator. Broadway kindly recaps the events of the previous issues and tells everyone how we ended up here with Talon’s hand around Xanatos’s throat. By the way, even though his life is in danger, Xanatos still isn’t flinching and maintains his trademark smug grin. Coolest man in the room, always. Even though all the clues have lead our heroes to Xanatos, Broadway still can’t help but feel that something here doesn’t add up. Fox prepares a magical attack and Broadway’s narration reminds us that Fox doesn’t have complete control over her latent magical abilities. Considering last time she unleashed her magic she managed to knock an all-powerful god-like being like Oberon on his ass, this could get real ugly, real fast if someone doesn’t put a stop to it. Broadway, not wanting Talon to end up like the cat from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, tries to get everyone to calm down. Xanatos tries to explain that while he indeed knew that Maggie was about to give birth, he had nothing to do with her going missing. Xanatos explains that he knows what it’s like to have someone threaten to take his child from him and while he freely admits that there are very few things he wouldn’t do to further his ends, kidnapping and potentially splitting up a family isn’t one of them. Talon still isn’t convinced, but Goliath, who was there when Oberon tried to take Alexander, believes him. Now that everyone is on the same page, they put their heads together and it doesn’t take long for Xanatos to figure out that Sevarius and Thailog, are the ones behind all this. With a clear target in mind, Xanatos suits up and our heroes head out to deal with Thailog and save Maggie.

On the way, Xanatos explains how Thailog is the secret owner and co-founder of Nightstone unlimited. While it’s not clear if Demona abandoned the company or was forced out but either way, Alexander Thailog is CEO of the company. Broadway finds it interesting that Thailog chose the same name for his human alias that Xanatos chose for his son, but is anyone really surprised? Thailog is basically an Oedipus Complex with wings. Xanatos chalks this up to great minds thinking alike, and speaking of, once our heroes reach Night Stone, they find that it’s safeguarded by the same forcefield tech that Xanatos used to stall Oberon. Fortunately, Xanatos always has a contingency to disarm his own tech and quickly overcomes that obstacle.

Our heroes crash through the building and but Thailog comes out swinging, as does his sidekick Brentwood. Oh, right, I haven’t explained that yet. After Thailog made clones of the rest of the Manhattan Clan, most of them went to live with Talon in the Labyrinth, but Brentwood, the Lexington clone, went back to serving Thailog some time during the SLG run. Xanatos scolds Thailog as he would a misbehaving child, but Thailog laughs this off and suggests that he take a poll since all three of his dads are present, apparently Sevarius is proud of Thailog’s initiative. Goliath says nothing and just puts Thailog in a headlock but before the fight can continue, Mary delivers the baby, and it’s a boy. Everything stops as we see that the child looks completely human. According to Sevarius, the child did not inherit his parents genetic mutations, making him useless to Thailog, who just tells our heroes to take the child and leave.

After that, we get a brief scene of Jack Dane, Tomas Brod’s second in command, meeting with the heads of the other crime families about the impending release of Dino Dracon and how they need a plan to deal with him, comparing him to the scene in The Shining where the elevator opens to a river of blood. Dino Dracon means that soon the cops, the feds and the grim reaper will be working overtime, which is very bad for business.

Back with our heroes, Maggie and the baby have returned safely to The Labyrinth and are now joined by Peter and Diane Maza, who are very happy to meet their new grandson. The Doctor proclaims that the baby is perfectly healthy and Maggie and Talon give the boy the name Michael Peter Maza. And so our comic ends with Maggie putting the child to bed, a spark of electricity in baby Michael’s eye indicating that he may have inherited some of his parent’s mutations after all.

This series continues its run of quality. I will admit, the conflict with Thailog ending with him just letting everyone go felt a bit anti-climactic, but the rest of the comic was completely solid. I loved the back and forth between Xanatos and well… pretty much everyone. All these years later, Xanatos is still the coolest mother fucker on the planet. Broadway’s narration was nice and I liked how it leaned into his fascination with becoming a detective like Elisa. I also appreciated how Goliath, who back in the day probably would have been the first to blame Xanatos, is now the first to leap to his defense. He still doesn’t trust him completely, but this shows that their relationship has grown less antagonistic over the years and that Goliath has gained a greater understanding of his former foe. Also, the revelation of Talon and Maggie’s baby having powers leaves the door open for future developments. However, the real intrigue here is still coming from the impending arrival of Dino Dracon. We haven’t even seen this man’s face yet, but the way the crime families talk about him, you’d think he’s a bigger threat than Oberon. They straight up compared him to a scene from a horror movie. The build-up to this guy and the threat he represents has been so well handled that it’s managed to do the impossible and make me excited to see a character from Gargoyles with the last name Dracon. Will this buildup be worth it? Find out in issue 4 when we are finally properly introduced to Dino Dracon. Until next time.