Todd Jensen writes...

Bought #5 of "Gargoyles" yesterday, though I didn't get around to writing the review for "Ask Greg" until today.

* SPOILERS *

One thing that got my attention on the very first page was that Judge Roebling was talking to two women who bear a striking resemblance to Mary and Finella, not only in appearance, but attire. Coincidence - or something else?

I was also pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Sato return for the first time since "Deadly Force" - and have him being "brought in on the secret" in tending to Goliath's wound.

The revelation of the Illuminati's organizational structure had two eye-openers in it. First, Duval turns out to be not at the very top of the pyramid, but only one of the two Number Twos - which raises the question of who Number One is. Also, when I sat down to do the math of 36 ranks in the Illuminati, each rank having a number of members equal to the number of the rank (as in one Number One, two Number Twos, and 36 Number Thirty-sixes), I discovered that that added up to 666! I definitely hadn't seen that one coming, though at the same time (given how often real conspiracy theories connect the Illuminati to the Devil), I probably should have.

I got a kick out of seeing Brooklyn in his "Super-goyle" costume - complete with using his wings for a cape.

I got a chuckle out of seeing Thailog address Angela as "sis" (and it struck me as perfectly in character for him to do so), and was surprised to see her call him "You bastard!" (But you've got to admit that the word fits him, in more ways than one.)

I liked the scene between Hudson and Jeffrey Robbins. It even incorporated elements from the equivalent scene in the Goliath Chronicles (which was one of the very few moments in that season that worked for me), including the smell of "old leather and concrete".

Back to Xanatos and Quincy Hemings: I was also amused by Hemings' talk about his history at the White House, including the fun with two presidents sharing the surnames of "Roosevelt" and "Johnson". (As a side-note, I find it interesting - though I don't know if it's significant - that the two presidents whom Hemings mentioned both got into the White House through the previous incumbent being assassinated.)

I really liked Delilah's characterization here, including her rebuke to Angela for suggesting that she was not "truly free to make [her] own choices" and to Goliath for taking her along as a date when he had no true feelings for her - but also standing up to Thailog. She's definitely grown into a character.

I was amused that the one clone who sticks with Thailog is Brentwood (are we seeing another twisted fulfillment of "Future Tense" here?), and Lexington's response.

The scene between Goliath and Elisa as Sato gets ready to tend Goliath's wound was a very moving one. I guess that they've realized now that they're stuck with the problem of "how do you handle an inter-species romance", and that trying to turn away from it won't work.

Intriguing that Thailog and Sevarius are meeting at Nightstone Unlimited, since after "The Reckoning", Thailog would obviously be "persona non gratis" with Demona, and there's no sign that she's lost control of the company to him. (I assume that it's a clandestine meeting that Ms. Destine doesn't know about.) Thailog shows again how he takes after Xanatos in revealing the real reason for his attack on the gargoyles at the end - and I'm looking forward to seeing what he and Sevarius are going to do with those DNA samples. (Something tells me that it's going to definitely outdo the Clones in "The Reckoning".)

But the big surprise was at the very end, when we find out that Thailog's now in the Illuminati - and so is Shari! And that she outranks him. This really is getting very interesting.

The art was also very good - my congratulations to Karine Charlebois on it. The best art that we've had in the comic to date.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming issues now. May they continue for a long time.

* SPOILERS END *