Tale Old as Time

Gargoyles #4 by David Nakayama

The fourth issue of the Gargoyles comic by Dynamite Entertainment was released March 22nd, 2023.

• Writer/Creator: Greg Weisman
• Pencil Artist: George Kambadais
• Color Artist: Arancia Studio
• Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
• Editor: Nate Cosby
• Main Cover Artist: David Nakayama

Solicitation

Dino Dracon has just been released from prison. Determined to take over the New York underworld, Dino won't let anyone - human or Gargoyle - stand in his way! So when Goliath and Hudson go out on their nightly patrol, they're in for a couple of extremely nasty surprises!

Review

With this issue, the story's pacing has improved - no doubt thanks to the fact that the re-introductions are over and the cast are firmly established for new readers. By the end of this installment, the adventure is well under way - and what a story!

Dino Dracon is out of prison, and quickly proves himself to be a dangerous opponent, someone whom you should not cross - as Pal Joey learns to his dismay. Indignant at the setbacks his family has suffered since the gargoyles awakened in Manhattan, he's determined to undo the damage - leading to a dramatic confrontation with Goliath in Central Park. He's also kidnapped Rosaria Sanchez and Peter Choi, the two teenagers who were mentioned in "High Noon" as rescuing a drowning child, and who now become on-stage characters, apparently relatives of two of the leading rival families in the New York organized crime scene. Dino's clearly planning something involving them, that will make the Dracon family the dominant crime family in Manhattan, though just what his plan is we don't know yet - except that it involves something he read in prison....

Goliath (who becomes narrator in this issue) has his own worries; the trio are drifting apart, have been doing so ever since Brooklyn's TimeDancer adventures. It's understandable, since Brooklyn and Broadway both have their own lives now (Brooklyn with Katana and Nashville, Broadway with Angela), while Lexington is feeling increasingly left out and seems to be growing bitter about it. Goliath discusses the problem with Hudson while they go out on patrol; Hudson suggests that some crisis might heal the rift between them. And, in the familiar pattern of "Be careful what you wish for", the crisis emerges, with Goliath captured by a group of mysterious helicopters (he believes them to be Quarrymen, but from the way the pilots speak, they're apparently police)....

(Dino Dracon's operation in Central Park forms a striking contrast to the trio's lack of unity; the three operatives in it, all wearing "trio masks", successfully carry out their operation, abducting Rosario and Peter and facing down Goliath until the helicopters show up. Dino's also clearly researched the gargoyles. The masks capture Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington's likenesses perfectly - it's still obvious, as Goliath notes, that they're humans wearing gargoyle masks, thanks to the suits they're wearing, but it's unlikely that the masks' purpose was to deceive onlookers into believing that - and the leader of the operation is the one wearing the Brooklyn-mask, indicating that he knows that Brooklyn's the leader of the trio.)

The humans of Manhattan are clearly still puzzling over just what the gargoyles are; note that the helicopter pilots address Goliath as if he was a human being arrested, yet uncertain over whether he can comprehend their words, and Travis Marshall in a news broadcast is similarly doubtful about how intelligent the gargoyles are. (A silhouetted figure is watching Travis's broadcast, expressing concern; we'll presumably be seeing more of him in succeeding issues.) The next few issues will no doubt cover more of this matter. And we're introduced to another mystery at the re-opening of the clock tower, when Margot shows Matt *something* on a clipboard....

One last little touch I liked was Nashville wondering why he needs history lessons when he's already experienced a lot of history on his TimeDancing adventures. I'm curious over what events and eras he's visited, and would like to know more some day.

To sum it up this issue fixes the pacing problems that had appeared in the first three issues, and launches us into what looks like a serious challenge for the clan.

First Appearances

Characters

• Dino Dracon
• Peter Choi
• Rosaria Sanchez

Tidbits

The story title is a reference to the song Tale as Old as Time from Disney's 1991 film Beauty and the Beast. The title was to be exactly the same as the song, but Disney requested the alteration for unspecified reasons.[1]

Charles Chalmers' remark that the gargoyles "are menaces! Or threats!" is an allusion to J. Jonah Jameson's habit of referring to Spider-Man as a threat and a menace (including in "The Spectacular Spider-Man"). This habit of Jameson's was even referred to in the "Religious Studies 101: A Handful of Thorns" radio play, when Goliath, meeting Spider-Man for the first time and getting the wrong impression about him, cries, "The Bugle was right about you; you are a threat and a menace!"

Cover Gallery

Links

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