Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Gargoyles #4

Welcome back friends, to the FIFTH Gargoyles article I’ve posted today. Can you tell I’m excited to finally be talking about Gargoyles again? Anywho, last time, Talon and Maggie welcomed Michael their new baby into the world while the crime families of New York were shitting their collective pants over the impending release of Dino Dracon from prison.

We open issue four to learn that the subtitle for this chapter is “Tale as old as Time.” As I’m sure you can tell from my header, I’m all about the parallels between Gargoyles and Beauty and The Beast, so I find this incredibly cute. In any case, we open on Goliath and Elisa sharing a passionate kiss as it’s Goliath's turn to take over narration duties. Goliath tells us how happy he is to have found love in Elisa, especially after having lost Demona so long ago. Despite how alien she can sometimes seem to him, Goliath considers his and Elisa’s love to be a miracle.

That day, at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, we finally meet the much storied Dino Dracon as Pal Joey, one of Tony Dracon’s lackeys arrives and opens the back door of the car for him, accidentally splashing Dino with some mud in the process. Dino says that he’s not royalty and insists on sitting up front. Dino then smashes Pal Joey’s head against the steering wheel, boots his ass out the car, gets behind the wheel and peels out, leaving Pal Joey on the side of the road, presumably with a concussion, all while Antoinette watches from the back seat in horrified silence. Later, Dino asks to be brought up to speed about the state of the Dracon crime family. Apparently, in the time Dino was in the slammer, The Dracon’s have gone from the top dogs of New York City’s underworld to a complete laughingstock because his nephew was, and still is, a colossal fuck up. Glasses, Tony Dracon’s right hand man, informs Dino about Brod moving in on the Dracons’ territory as well as the frequent interference of the Gargoyles. Dino is taken aback a bit by the revelation that he now has some winged monsters to deal with, but stands firm that he’s taking his city back and no one, human or Gargoyle, is getting in his way. Glasses says that’s all well and good, but right now, they simply don’t have the man-power to wage an all-out war against the other crime families. Dino says not to worry since he read something in prison that should help

That night, our heroes awaken. Both Broadway and Brooklyn have plans with their respective mates and Lexington, clearly feeling left out, storms off to the computer lab. Goliath and Hudson take notice of how the trio seems to have grown apart and find it rather distressing. They decide to discuss it further while out on patrol. Goliath worries that the trio that was once so close now seems to be taking one another for granted but Hudson seems think that one day a crisis will come that will force them to fight side by side once again. Goliath, in his narration, laments the fact that he finds himself wishing for a crisis.

Somewhere in Central Park, a young couple is having a romantic rendezvous when they’re jumped by a group of armed thugs wearing masks that resemble Brooklyn, Lexington and Broadway. The kid says something that would indicate that he’s well connected and probably worth a hefty ransom but before we get any elaboration, Goliath and Hudson swoop in and start fighting the goons, Goliath disgusted that these lowlifes are using the visages of his clan for their evil purposes. During the fight, three attack helicopters arrive and demand that Goliath drop the human. The goon, who may or may not be Dino Dracon himself, claims that the helicopters aren’t his people, but instead are probably working with The Quarrymen, an anti-Gargoyle hate group not unlike the KKK. As the thugs retreat, Goliath is overwhelmed by the attack helicopters, our issue ending with Goliath captured in a net.

This issue was pretty awesome. I’m interested in the plot thread of Lexington feeling isolated from his rookery brothers and I’m wondering where this will go in the future. Goliath’s meditation on his relationship with Elisa was also welcome. However, this issue belongs to Dino Dracon. We’ve been building this guy up since issue 1 and now that he’s finally put in an appearance, we can see that the hype was warranted. Right from the word go, we can see that Dino is everything his dipshit nephew is not. While Tony was a nuisance at best, Dino feels like a force of nature. What I find especially intriguing is how he reacts to the state of the Dracon family. This guy gave poor Pal Joey a concussion and left his ass on the side of the road because he accidentally splashed mud on his shoes, but upon learning that the criminal empire that he presumably helped to build now stands in shambles, he’s unsettlingly calm. This clearly indicates that he’s extremely confident that his plan to take back the city will work, leaving both the other members of the Dracon family and the reader to wonder just what in the holy hell Dino read in prison that he thinks will give him such an edge. We’ll be covering issue five when it comes out, but until then, thank you for reading. Wes, out.