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!

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" >>