SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Welcome to my comic book review blog. Today is Friday, September 19th, 2008.

Today’s Issue:

Gargoyles #1-#8, written by Greg Weisman (Gargoyles the Animted Series, Spectacular Spider-Man the Animated Series) and a plethora of artists over the various issues. Published by Slave Labor Graphics, this series finally reveals the official canon adventures of the Gargoyles after the end of their beloved TV show.

Premise:

Over the 8 issue arc, there really is a lot going on. All of your favorite heroes and villains return for all sorts of adventures. And there are shenanigans with the Illuminati, too. For those unfamiliar, the basic premise of the show is that Gargoyles from 10th century Scotland have been brought into the modern era through sorcery. The show follows their adventures as they deal with new threats as the last of their kind.

The Awesome Parts:

First of all, the art is great. Despite the plethora of artists, the series as a whole does a great job of emulating the art of the original animated series. It’s also written in a similar style so that I can hear the characters speaking when I read. Greg Weisman (who was a co-creator of the original Gargoyles) has done a great job of continuing the series. I’ve been waiting 10 years for more Gargoyle adventures, and it’s about damn time. The story arc involving the Illuminati is superb. (For those who don’t know - the Illuminati is a clandestine organization that secretly runs EVERYTHING). You’d be surprised to know who are in the Illuminati, and I’m excited to see where Greg is taking this. Greg also does a GREAT job of dealing with the various romantic relationships in the series. Overall I have been quite impressed.

The Less-Than-Awesome-Parts:

Issues 7 and 8 had a really funky format that I can’t say I’m a fan of. Greg is playing around with time, having 5 stories that he is telling concurrently, each taking place within the space of about 5 days. Every page tends to oscillate back and forth between these stories. Each story starts with the date in a caption box - but because each of the stories are taking place so close to each other (November 7th, November 14th, November 15th, etc.) and because the caption boxes are overcrowded with the TIME of each event as well (6:46am EST, 2:21pm GST, etc.) I’m having a difficult time following them back and forth. By the 10th page of issue 8, I’m thinking, “Alright, this is taking place right before that scene last issue, but shortly after that scene in the beginning of this issue, and a few days after the previous page, yadda yadda yadda.” And I have to go through that temporal placement process for every new page. I’m not sure what effect Greg was going for with the constant oscillation between stories - maybe he’s trying to confuse us and keep us from having a clear understanding of what’s going on - in which case he is being successful. Now that I am done and looking back on the issues, I have a basic understanding of each of the stories because my mind was able to categorize them by which characters were in them and build my own narrative. And I understand that the stories are intertwined - they all deal with the Stone of Destiny - but I can’t wrap my mind around why Greg wouldn’t just present the stories in chronological order. I can’t think of any way that this format of constantly jumping around time was an improvement. I did not enjoy it at all.
Also, issues 7 and 8 moved away from the Illuminati story that Greg had been building momentum with, so I was dissappointed to not have any further reveals in either of those issues. Again in issues 7 and 8, I feel like MacBeth and Xanatos were acting slightly out of character. So I’ve got to say, I GREATLY enjoyed the first 6 issues, but not these last two.
Final note, I know that Greg is QUITE busy running The Spectacular Spider-Man, but I hate having to wait up to 4-5 months between issues. It just makes the story that much more difficult to follow - and thusly less enjoyable as well.

My Recommendation:

If you’re a fan of the Gargoyles TV show, then I HIGHLY recommend picking up this comic book. Especially the first six issues - which were great. I’ll have to see where Greg takes this current arc involving the Stone of Destiny before I can say whether or not issues 7 and 8 are any good. Maybe Greg can tie this all together and I’ll be able to forgive his confusing layout.
If you don’t know anything about the show, I’m not sure if this comic is for you. I’d love to recommend it to everyone because I enjoyed it so much, but the series is clearly being written for fans of the show. Characters receive little to no introductions - assuming that we are all already familiar with them. However, what I CAN recommend to ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE is that you go buy Gargoyles Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD. It is one of my favorite shows of all time - definitely planned out better than most stories. You can clearly see set ups in the first few episodes that plant seeds for things that don’t get revealed until much later in the series. I don’t think it’s a leap to say this is the most thought out and best planned show of all time. The voice acting is also incredible. It’s just such a good show. You absolutely MUST go buy those DVD’s, THEN pick up the comics to continue the adventure.

That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you next time.
-Searnold

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