A Station Eight Fan Web Site

Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Search Ask Greg

Search:
Search type:

Displaying 1 record.


Bookmark Link

Matt writes...

My Review For Gargoyles #6, "Reunion"...

- My friend Ryan and I went to pick up our copies of Reunion the day it came out. The store we went to told me they had received 12 copies and when we left only one copy was remaining, which is good. The cover is awesome, one of my favorites so far. I like the dynamic nature of it. All the covers have been gorgeous so far, but this one really pulls you into the action and the story.

- There are a lot of neat little details that I loved in this issue. The fact that it was snowing in New York, Lex's continuing preoccupation with Brentwood's choice, Brook's face when Angela puts her hand on his shoulder (another poor Brooklyn moment), the arrival of the travelers in the laundry pot, Elisa's line about Hawaii, the way Coldstone picks up Bronx, and others.

- The art in this issue was... alright. I think Mr. Purcell did an excellant job on all the human characters (Elisa, Shari, Xanatos, Dawa and Sangpo), but I wasn't impressed by his depiction of the gargoyle characters. The sketches look too rough, like they were unfinished. Some of the faces and poses seemed way off. My friend Ryan said that in the top panel of page 2, Angela looks like a velociraptor. I think Coldstone and Coldsteel were well drawn, but it irked me that some drawings (particularly Gabriel and Iago) were traced right off the GargWiki pictures. Out of the four artists we've seen in the books so far, I'd have to rank Purcell my least favorite. It isn't terrible, it's just I like the style of the others so much more. Charlebois and Hedgecock are my favorites, so I look forward to them taking on the bulk of Gargoyles and Bad Guys issues from here on out.

- Greg, I know you are tired of hearing about the errors, but I wanted to mention my own impressions of them briefly. Ryan and I read the comic together and we both sat there scratching our heads trying to figure out the 12th page. It's funny that the first couple frames seem perfectly fine. Anyway, it's a shame, but with the reprint and trade paperback coming out, it isn't a big deal. I'm more annoyed by the wrong "Vows" ending being on the DVD. As for the title page and Scarab logo errors, I didn't notice that until it was pointed out to me, I feel those are very minor, frustrating for the staff, I'm sure, but minor.

- The story of this issue is one I've been looking forward to for years. I always loved the various Coldstone episodes, and it intrigued me that this story had been written to be in comic form many years ago. That said, it felt very rushed. I'm sure that was somewhat unavoidable, but in a way I feel leaving some things out would've resulted in a more natural pacing. Angela going on about Gabriel seemed jarring. I like that anyone could look and see that Gabriel was Coldstone's son, but having Angela spell it out bothered me a lot. If anyone would talk about biological parentage, it would be her, but still she really seems to not care about the Gargoyle Way here at all. At first, I thought Coldstone was acknowledging Gabriel as his son, and then I caught the quotes around biological. I was thrilled that Coldstone didn't care much about Angela's revelation. It's almost like he didn't understand what she was talking about, which was awesome, probably my favorite part of the story. He sees Gabriel and Angela and the others as his rookery children. All of them.

- Now, obviously Goliath and the others want Coldstone to return to the clan, but Coldstone points out what Goliath should already know. Coldstone is dangerous and unpredictable. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, in the middle of this explanation, Coldstone pretends the "evil one" takes control to illustrate the point. This seemed extremely rushed and odd. Coldstone didn't even wait for Goliath to try to understand before just assuming he has to take matters into his own hands. He attacks the travelers, throwing them around, shooting at them, and, most alarmingly lifting Elisa off the ground by her neck! This really makes Coldstone look really bad, worse then the so called "evil one". Hes a good guy who is attacking his family to prove a point before trying to show his point with simple conversation. And on top of that, it would be one thing to simply stun them all and send them on their way, but what he did to Elisa could've seriously injured her. I'm not sure whether to blame all this on the rushing of the story or on Coldstone's character or maybe something else was going on, I dunno. It just seemed outrageous. Coldstone tells Dawa that "They would never have left [him] behind." and "[He] had to make them believe the evil one had taken control..." but honestly, he hardly even tried to convince them. I know I'm rambling now, so suffice to say, I hope there was more going on here that we don't know yet. Shari's lines concerning the adventure hints that more was going on before, during or because of this event, so who knows.

- I liked that Coldstone went to Dawa for help in his internal battle. I like that Sangpo correctly sensed that the evil one had not taken control. These were great characters and it'll be fascinating to learn more about them in the future.

- Finally, as for the bookends of this story we have Thailog and Shari and Xanatos and Coldsteel. Suffice to say I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see how their stories will play out. A story for another night indeed...

- All in all, I have to say that though I liked this story, the art was not my favorite and the story seemed too condensed. The ending leaves us all wanting more though, so I guess thats a good thing. And since Greg claims this story "will have major ramifications in the issues to come", I'll be interested in looking back at this one in a year or two with the advantage of hindsight.

Looking forward to Issue #7 and Bad Guys #1!!! Thanks again to the staff!

Greg responds...

Not sure what to make of the fact that your "favorite part of the story" comes directly out of something you're suggesting I should have trimmed out...

Response recorded on November 13, 2007