Charisma82 writes...

Hey! Okay, I have to say that waiting for comic book #5 was VERY hard to do. I had so many temptations to find out what had really happened before getting the comic, but I did not give into them. First, I couldn't get the comic book when it came out because of certain reasons, and was hoping to get it for my birthday in late August. It turns out my sister tried to get it for me online, but the seller never came through with the comic book. Then I found out that the radio play is on You Tube. I watched it up to the point where comic book 5 starts, and it was very hard to stop it. On top of all that, I had to pass by every ramble done on #5 that is on Ask Greg & I couldn't look at any of the characters in the comic book on GargWiki or else I'd find out what happened (and I LOVE to go there and just look around). Finally, the 6th one comes out and I am finally able to get both of them. I order both online at the same time, but what happens? The 6th one gets here before the 5th one! I have had to stare at that 6th one, waiting for the 5th one, 'cause I don't want to spoil anything for me. AHHH!!! I think the worst part of it is being out of the loop here at Ask Greg, not being able to read at my leisure all the recent posts on here. But I now have the 5th one and I can't begin to express my joy seeing as I've waited around 5 months for it! I'll stop rambling on about my difficulties now, and get to the good stuff. So here it is, after much anticipation, the first half of my ramble on Gargoyles #5: Bash.

Gargoyles: Clan-Building
Part Five: Bash

Part 1 Pages 1-12

Page 1: Here we have a shot of Xanatos' place, castle and all. We get to see Sir Ian again, and he's talking to some new faces at the party, or more like old, familiar faces to Gargoyle fans. I really like that teaser, putting Finella and Mary in there (or two women who look exactly like them). I can't wait to find out why they were there, if the story is told either later in this series or, more likely, in Timedancer. Then in the bottom of the page we see Dr. Sato. I can't believe it! What is really funny about seeing him here is that about 2 months before this comic book came out, I wrote here to Ask Greg about Dr. Sato. I had been reading some of your rambles on different shows, was reading the one on Deadly Force, read that you really liked this character, and decided to write to you and see why you liked him (since there wasn't anything about him in the archives at the time). I also asked if he would have some kind of cameo appearance in any of the comics. I had no idea he'd be in the next comic coming out, 'cause he's a character we only see once in the series. How ironic is that?

Page 2: Morgan is finally coming out with what he's been thinking all night on this page. We also see Angela spying on Elisa, still thinking of her father. It's funny that she is judging Elisa on getting a date, but has nothing to say about Goliath bringing Delilah.

Page 3: Thailog being Thailog here. Still makes sarcastic remarks even when the only one smart enough to get the jokes there is dying. It's like he likes to hear himself make these puns, but really, in this scene, who is getting them but him? The clones don't even know if they want free will, so they're not likely to get it, and Goliath is concentrating on dying. I find it very humorous and very much like Thailog to be doing this.

Page 4: So Thailog got in the word "Bash". That's good, seeing as that is the name of the comic. Not much else going on here except Goliath colliding with a wall (which is ruining the castle; Owen won't be happy with that) and Thailog talking about his other 2 "fathers".

Page 5: It's not often we get to hear Xanatos sound genuinely surprised, but we do get to see it on this page. We also learn how many people are in the Illuminate and how their ranking order works.

Page 6: Margot is really being a pain in the… yeah, anyway, I really don't see why Brandon sticks around the woman. There must be some good explanation, just one I'm not seeing. And I LOVED Brooklyn's entrance, with his super-goyle costume, with the big "G" on it (hey, he has something in common with the kid running around in the Labyrinth!). Sadly for him, Angela wasn't there to see his grand entrance. She is much too busy with finding her father stabbed in the gut.

Page 7: So Angela, Broadway, & Lex finally find where the real party is happening. I find it funny that Angela thought that Thailog's voice was her father's. I don't know the tone Thailog used when he said her name, but I guess it wasn't too evil, like I thought it would be, or else Angela wouldn't have asked if it was Goliath. I like Lex's response to Angela blowing up with anger. He quickly gets out of her way. And then, Angela and her language. Wow. I didn't see that one coming. And of course Thailog is quick to tell her (with daggers in tow) "Language…"

Page 8: Wow, there's a lot of slashing with blood going on here with Thailog. There's no way that this episode could've been put on TV with all the blood and stuff. I guess that's one advantage of having a comic book now. Going back and reading this through a second time, I can see now why Thailog was wondering where the other gargoyles were and why he kept changing knives. Interesting bit of info I didn't get the first time though.

Page 9: Yes! It's Robbins again! I didn't think we'd see him again for a while. I thought after the last comic, you'd leave us in the air for a while about what Robbins thinks of Hudson and if he knew he was a gargoyle or not. But no, we get to see it here, which was a big, but great surprise for me, since Robbins is one of my favorite characters. I knew the way Robbins was talking to Hudson in issue #4 that something was up with him, and figured that he knew about Hudson's secret. In fact, that's what I wrote in my last review, and I'm really thrilled to see I was actually right about it. I'm really glad that Hudson no longer has to pretend any longer and that Robbins knows the truth. I love how they finally shake hands. I think this was one of the best parts in this comic book.

Page 10: It was really funny to hear Hollywood say "Gar-girl" in reference to Angela. I also love Angela's look as she fights in her Dorthy outfit. That's one side of Dorthy Kansas never thought they'd see.

Page 11: Again with the free will thing. Thailog's response to it is great. "Why does everyone insist on pitching free will to my minions?" Funny, funny (scary) Thailog.

Page 12: And now arriving to the party is Brooklyn and a distraught Elisa. Brooklyn has another nice entrance (using his already used "forgery" line from the episode "Reckoning") until we see that Thailog has no problem in taking him out. Elisa's short speech on her being part of the clan as Goliath dies is a nice touch. And then Thailog knifes her. I didn't quite expect him to do that, seeing as she wasn't fighting him (and I didn't know that he was collecting their blood the first time I read this) and he had never wanted to attack her before out of the blue like that (unless she was in his way). I guess I just assumed that he was doing it to make Goliath even madder than he already was. But still, I wasn't expecting that.

So there you have it. The first half of my review on comic book #5: Bash. Hope you liked it, and I'll get right on to the next half soon enough.

Thank you for your time and all that you do.

-Charisma82

Matthew writes...

We know that there is faerie magic and mortal magic. Mortal magic seems mostly to be used by humans. Is it less common for gargoyles to study magic than humans? If so why?

Matt writes...

Hey Greg,

Well, there seems to be some confusion over what exactly is going on at Nightstone Unlimited. Maybe some of the confusion is intentional on your part to keep us guessing, but the fact that you were clarifying some facts at the GargWiki suggest to me that we are all not on the same page. So, in an attempt to figure out whats up, I have some questions. I'll totally understand if you won't/can't answer some/all of these. I wouldn't want to you to reveal anything before you are ready.

1. Okay, in "Hunter's Moon" it seemed pretty obvious that Ms. Destine was running Nightstone. No one was sure if Mr. Thailog had survived the Coney Island fire yet, so there is no issue here, I guess. My question is does Demona know as of "Invitation Only" that Thailog is alive? If so, when/how did she find out?

2. Was Nightstone Unlimited ALWAYS Thailog's and Demona only took it over when he was assumed dead?

3. Has Demona returned to Nightstone since "Hunter's Moon"?

4. Is Sevarius an employee of Nightstone now, or is he just doing occasional contract jobs for Thailog?

5. Has Sevarius heard from Demona since "Hunter's Moon"?

6. Is there anything else you feel like telling us about the whole Thailog/Demona Nightstone situation? Did Thailog and Demona have a prenup or something? The transition from their business to her business to his business is just kinda hard to figure out.

Thanks Greg!

lolo writes...

hello greg i love fox very much but how fox and xanatos meet
and he realy loved her or not

fox writes...

where did Fox and David Xanatos get to know each other?

Charisma82 writes...

Hey! Do you ever miss teaching in a classroom setting, like at a school? I seem to remember you saying that you taught English at a college. I am in the process of becoming a high school English teacher (though most people think I'm crazy to do so), & I was wondering what your favorite part was about teaching English, & what you might have done differently.

Thank you for your time and all that you do.

-Charisma82