Mayday

Gargoyles #8 by David Nakayama

"Mayday" is the eighth issue of the Gargoyles comic by Dynamite Entertainment. It was released on August 2nd, 2023. [1]

• 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

Goliath's going on trial — but an old enemy would rather that Goliath never makes it to the courtroom. In this issue: Attack on Rikers Island!, or... CELLMATES MAKE STRANGE BEDFELLOWS!

The Story

Coldfire and Coldstone stand on a tower at Castle Wyvern. Coldfire muses that it is still strange to be conscious despite the sun having not yet set. She is easily able to access the time and date: 8:00 P.M. on May 18, 1997 from the internal clock of her robotic form. Still, despite the appearances of her mate and herself, they are still gargoyles. Coldstone admits that while he respects and loves his brother Goliath, he can't understand his choice to remain in the human prison and leave the clan without his leadership. Coldstone doesn't trust the humans and in their species' long shared history with humans, they have always treated gargoyles poorly. Not always, corrects Coldfire, reminding her mate of the alliance the once existed between the two species. Coldstone angrily points out that that alliance ended with the destruction of nearly the entire Wyvern Clan! Coldfire reassures him that they need not trust the humans and instead trust Goliath and his judgement.

Moments later, in his cell at Riker's Island prison, Goliath awakes from his stone sleep still enchained. Tony Dracon, from his prison cell, mocks him, calling him a "drama queen" for his explosive awakening, while Tomas Brod, who shares the cell with Dracon, and Guard Renqvist smile. Brod wishes he had only known that gargoyles were so vulnerable during the day. He'd have crushed them long ago. Renqvist only replies that he isn't paid enough to guard monsters. Pressing a button on a remote, the guard sends a powerful shock through the collar around Goliath's neck. The gargoyle roars in pain. Meanwhile, two robotic figures and one furry figure make their preparations. Then they strike! A laser blast destroys an exterior wall revealing the culprits: Jackal, Hyena, and Wolf. The Pack has arrived!

In Harlem, at the Slaughter Films Building, Izaak Slaughter surveys the damage done by the recent attack with his associates Murray and Alphabet. The latter is confused. The broken and inactive cybots appear to have been stolen from Cyberbiotics by Volkov's gang, but the RECAP visor that controlled the cybots was heisted by Choi's crew from Xanatos Enterprises. So, while Volkov is busy fighting with Brod and Jack Dane and Choi is engaged in a feud with Huracán Sanchez, Slaughter is supposed to believe that Volkov and Choi decided to team up to take him out? That seems unlikely. But someone wants him to believe it.

Back at Castle Wyvern, Coldfire remembers the long journey that brought her and her mate back to their clan. Once young lovers at Wyvern Hill, they were shattered in their sleep by the Viking Hakon. They awoke with their cursed brother 1000 years later in the body of Coldstone. The three souls battled for control of the body and Coldfire and the evil brother were eventually moved into two new robotic bodies: Coldfire and Coldsteel. The two mates pursued their evil brother in his new powerful form and eventually reunited with Hudson and Lexington in London. They were convinced to rejoin the Manhattan Clan and on their first night back they battled The Pack. These adversaries escaped them, but it matters little to Coldfire. What does matter is that these battles and struggles never seem to end for the two warriors. It is easy to lose patience, especially for Coldstone who was never a very patient gargoyle.

Back at Riker's, Renqvist calls for help on his radio. With loud booms in the distance, Jackal laughs at him. Hyena is jamming his communications and the building personnel are certainly too busy with all the explosions around the facility to come to Renqvist's aid. Jackal backhands the guard and turns his attention to Goliath. He'd have loved to have attacked during the day. Wolf reminds Jackal and Hyena that they'll all get their chance to hurt Goliath, but business is first. Priority one is killing Brod. Jackal aims his arm laser cannon at the convict and Dracon ducks away. Wolf teases him that Tony's uncle Dino Dracon seems to be fine with Tony getting hurt... and maybe even wants that. Hyena wants to "play with" Renqvist, but Wolf tells her that Brod comes first. She drops the gaurd to the floor near Goliath's cell. The gargoyle whispers to him that if he is released from his cell, he can save them all from The Pack. Renqvist, overwhelmed, considers the request.

Meanwhile, in a warehouse, Peter Choy and Rosaria Sanchez are in a cage and begging for their release. They promise that their relatives can meet any price. Three humans wearing gargoyle masks scoff at their pleading. They can't be bought off. The leader of the masked men goes on to mock the teenagers for trying to make anyone believe they met when saving a boy from the lake in Central Park. The crime family heirs insist that it is true. That is where they met and fell in love. The masked man laughs at them.

Coldfire lands near the Trio at Castle Wyvern. Brooklyn is berating his brothers for defying his orders. They may have been saving a life, but by not coming to the Second in Command first, they disrespected Brooklyn in a way they would not have with Goliath. Broadway tells his brother that Goliath would've trusted them to follow their instincts. He and Lexington walk off. Coldfire watches the exchange and wonders if the clan will survive without Goliath.

Back at the prison, Goliath pleads with Renqvist to release him. Finally, reluctantly, the guard relents and presses a button. Goliath's shackles fall off with a clang and instantly he moves to attack. he roars and batters down the prison bars right on to Jackal's head knocking him out. Wolf orders Hyena to handle Goliath while he finishes off Brod. "No one dies tonight," says Golath as he uppercuts Hyena. "Wanna bet?" she mocks as she wraps her extendable legs around the gargoyle. Goliath headbutts her and she falls to the ground unconscious. Goliath now has Wolf's full attention. The mutate and gargoyle battle while Dracon and Brod watch on helplessly. Despite Wolf matching Goliath's strength and battle prowess, the gargoyle ultimately prevails and stands over the beaten Wolf. Renqvist asks Goliath if he intends to escape now, looking through the hole in the walls at the night sky. Goliath reminds him that if escape was his plan he would've left with his clanmates. Brod can't believe it. Goliath is really going to let himself be put on trial? Renqvist quips that it is a hearing, not a trial, but Dracon says that it is a pretty big risk. Goliath ignores them and asks for help locking the three Pack members in a cell. "Then I shall return to mine."

At Castle Wyvern, Coldfire continues her pondering. Perhaps things are not so bad after all. Her clan has survived many things, including it's relocation. She herself has even survived death albeit encased in her robotic body. She knows that the following night the humans will "sit in judgement of Goliath - and of us all." Until the verdict, the gargoyles' judgements must wait. She looks out into the night thoughtfully.

Review

The focus of this issue is Wolf's break-in, set up two issues before – and the results are impressive.

As most readers must have expected, Wolf brought his fellow-Pack-members, Jackal and Hyena, along with him. Their presence makes sense; with security beefed up after Brooklyn's unsuccessful attempt to free Goliath, Wolf would have recognized he'd need help – and these two were the logical helpers. Which means we get to see the terrible twins on-stage for the first time in Gargoyles since "The Green" (unless you count "Broadway Goes to Hollywood" – and since it's a Goliath Chronicles episode, most fans don't). They display their familiar tone – Jackal, in particular, is clearly still fantasizing about changing Goliath's features in his stone sleep, as he'd done in "The Green".

Goliath now enters one of his finest moments. He comes to the rescue of the Pack's other targets – impressive, given that these are two organized crime leaders in jail (Tony Dracon and Tomas Brod) and a sadistic guard who's enjoyed tormenting him – rescuing all three. Another display of "Gargoyles protect". To top it off, although he has the opportunity to escape afterwards, he again refuses to take it – to the astonishment of the aforesaid three. Truly a grand moment.

This issue's narrator is Coldfire. While she doesn't take part in the main action, remaining in the castle with the rest of the clan, we see her thoughts on Goliath's plight, as well as a brief conversation with Coldstone on the subject (Coldstone is still bitter towards humans and baffled by Goliath's decision to submit himself to human justice). We also receive a brief summary of the Coldtrio's story through her eyes – including a possible explanation for why they had no memory of what happened to them between the Wyvern Massacre and their revival in "Reawakening". And we see the continuing friction among the Trio, as Broadway and Lexington challenge the leadership of a troubled Brooklyn. (In a neat touch, the page on which this takes place faces a page where we see Rosaria and Peter's kidnappers, all three of whom are wearing their "trio" masks from #4, confronting their young captives.)

Speaking of this thread, we also get a brief scene with Izaak Slaughter discussing the late attack on his life with a couple of his assistants. We now get a hint as to what Dino's back-up plan was; the Cybots that had attacked Slaughter were believed to have been stolen by Volkov's gang, and the RECAP Visor used to control them was likewise believed to have been stolen by Choi's gang. Evidently the plan was to dupe Slaughter, if he survived the attack, to believing that he'd been targeted by these other gangs, intensifying the war between them. Except Slaughter notes just how convenient this seems – Dino's master-scheme may be starting to unravel . . .

An exciting issue – with a touch of humor at the end through the various "Next" captions (except for the last one) crossed out – but with it being clear that we'll be leading into Goliath's Hearing.

Featured Characters

Gargoyles	Humans	Others
Coldfire/"Desdemona" Coldstone/"Othello" Goliath Coldsteel/"Iago" Hudson (No Lines) Lexington Broadway	Renqvist Tony Dracon Tomas Brod Hyena Wolf Jackal Murray Tenafly (First Appearance) Alphabet City (First Appearance) Izaak Slaughter Grisha Volkov (Mentioned Only) Choi Yingpei (Mentioned Only) Jack Dane (Mentioned Only) Huracán Sanchez (Mentioned Only) Hakon (No Lines) Peter Choy Rosaria Sanchez Glasses Pal Joey (No Lines) Dino Dracon	Cybots

Tidbits

Matching the title of this issue, Coldfire, on the first page, mentions that the events in it are taking place on May 18. ("Mayday", in fact, is derived from the French "m'aider", meaning "help me", and is not linked to the month – but it makes a good piece of word-play.)

The picture of Coldfire battling Hyena during the (hitherto off-stage) fight with the Pack in Times Square at the end of "Clan-Building" depicts Hyena in her pre-"Upgrade" design.

Cover Gallery

Links

<< Previous Episode: "Here In Manhattan" Chapter Seven: "Everywhere"

Next Episode: "Here In Manhattan" Chapter Nine: "Your Witness" >>