Young At Heart

Gargoyles #11 by David Nakayama

"Young At Heart" is the eleventh issue of the Gargoyles comic by Dynamite Entertainment. It was released on January 3rd, 2024. [1] The digital version of the comic was briefly available on Kindle on December 20th, 2023 (before being removed for all but customers who already had it on December 21st).

• Writer/Creator: Greg Weisman
• Pencil Artist: George Kambadais
• Color Artists: Giulia Giacomino & Giovanna La Pietra
• Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
• Editor: Nate Cosby
• Main Cover Artist: David Nakayama

Solicitation

With the Manhattan Clan back together again, Brooklyn and Katana ask Broadway, Lexington, and Angela to stand as their Seconds during the all-important Commitment Ceremony. The Clan has never felt stronger - which is a good thing, because a desperate Dino Dracon is about to make one last play to take over all of New York City!

Review

The next-to-last issue of "Here in Manhattan" contains both some expected moments and some unexpected ones.

The Trio (accompanied by Gnash, who serves as narrator for this issue) learn from Antoinette Dracon that Dino – who appears to becoming suspicious (with good reason) that the cracks in his scheme to set the rival organized crime families of Manhattan against each other are appearing – has decided to kill Rosaria and Peter. They come to the rescue, defeating the kidnappers and carrying the two teenagers off to safety. while I suspect that the readers of this comic had expected that the Trio would do this – especially since the kidnappers were wearing Trio masks – we get a neat surprise; Dino brings in a few more henchmen, in exo-frames similar to the ones Demona was using at the start of "The Reckoning", and wearing masks of the remaining original clan members (Goliath, Hudson, Bronx, and Angela). (Dino's information on the clan apparently stemmed entirely from the period before Brooklyn's TimeDancing adventures – to be precise, the period between "The Gathering" and "Phoenix"; we see no masks of the Coldstone, Coldfire, Katana, Nashville, or Fu-Dog, and Dino's Brooklyn mask is of Brooklyn's pre-TimeDancer self, something Brooklyn points out.) Fortunately, the Trio defeat these new opponents and emerge victorious, to Gnash's delight. Apparently much of the friction between them has healed.

Elisa is facing new friction from Chavez, however – something that the audience had most likely also anticipated. Now that Chavez knows that Elisa's been friends with the gargoyles for the past three years – and keeping her out of the loop – she's understandably not pleased, and Elisa has a hard time defending herself (after all, her reason – as she mentioned back in "Revelations" – was that she liked the special feeling of being the gargoyles' only human friend, which, as Matt points out, is "a tad selfish"). We only get two pages of this thread in the issue, but it ends with Matt having a solution to the problem – though we will have to wait for the next issue to find out what it is.

And Goliath, Fox, Anastasia, Xanatos, Alex, Owen, and Vogel attend the passing of Halcyon Renard. This was another development that we'd expected from the ending of #10 – had expected even from #9, where it's clear that Renard's health is failing – and for that matter, Greg Weisman had mentioned having plans for such an event in the never-aired Season Three. But we get an even bigger surprise than the Dracon exo-frames; Renard, after leaving 49% of Cyberbiotics to Fox, and another 49% to Alex (with Vogel acting for him until he comes of age), deeds the final 2% to Goliath! Goliath is taken aback, even alarmed (I can imagine him thinking what he'd stated in "Double Jeopardy") – "Money is a necessary evil in Xanatos's world, but not in ours"), but accepts it, as he understands why Renard had done this; he recognizes Goliath as the one most suited to guide Alex down the right path, and tells his dying friend, "Then I will strive to honor your trust". We have some effective scenes between Renard and his family as well, particularly a poignant moment for him and Anastasia, before he passes on in the final panel.

Although Dino's plans have received a setback, he announces that he still has one last plan, which will "bring all of Manhattan to its knees". Which leads to two big questions that we will have to wait until #12 to be answered – what is Dino's plan, and will the last issue have enough room to do it justice? Let us hope that it does.

Featured Characters

Gargoyles	Humans	Oberon's Children
Gnash Lexington Broadway Brooklyn Goliath Thailog (Mentioned Only) Angela (Mentioned Only)	Tony Dracon Izaak Slaughter Dino Dracon Choi Yingpei Glasses Grisha Volkov Jack Dane Huracán Sanchez Antoinette Dracon Maria Chavez Elisa Maza Preston Vogel Halcyon Renard Fox Alexander Fox Xanatos Anastasia Renard Matt Bluestone Peter Choy Rosaria Sanchez David Xanatos Owen Burnett Pal Joey (No Lines)	Titania (Mentioned Only)

Tidbits

• The solicitation for the issue is an error, as Brooklyn and Katana are already mates, the cover depicts Broadway and Angela, and in the fifth issue, Broadway and Angela discussed a Commitment Ceremony.

• Not only does Dino Dracon refer to Rosaria and Peter as "Romeo and Juliet" again, but Renard pays additional tribute to Shakespeare's play when he describes Preston and Owen as "both alike in dignity".

Cover Gallery

Links

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