Image via Marvel
CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
Greg Weisman, the creator of the Gargoyles, is not just an accomplished cartoon writer, but he is also a very talented comic book writers whose work for Marvel has shown a true love for the shared universe aspect of the Marvel Universe, in terms of there being so many cool characters out there in the margins of the Marvel Universe that are just ready to be used anytime a writer sees the need to use them.
That was made very clear in the brand-new Fantastic Four/Gargoyles crossover one-shot, as Weisman (working with artist Enid Balám, colorist Raúl Angulo, and letterer Joe Caramagna) brought back an obscure Marvel superhero, the Gargoyle, and made him actually JOIN the Gargoyles!
Who is the Gargoyle?
Created by J.M. DeMatteis and Don Perlin, Isaac Christians was an old man who sold his soul to a small collective of demons in order to keep the small Virginia town that his ancestors had founded from falling apart. The demons places Christians' soul into the body of a Gargoyle, and then sent him to fight against the Defenders. However, Isaac was a good man, and in the end, he sided with the Defenders. After they defeated the demons, he was trapped in the Gargoyle body for, in effect, eternity.
In this issue, Gargoyle meets the other Gargoyles, and they are shocked to see a Gargoyle that they don't know (and are a bit irked at the idea of a human soul taking over a gargoyle body), and he, naturally, is also shocked to know that there are other gargoyles running around, considering the fact that he always referred to himself as THE Gargoyle...
Image via MarvelGargoyle wasn't the only nod to Marvel continuity that Weisman did in the comic, as the heroes also face off against the Grey Gargoyle, a longtime Marvel supervillain.
How did Gargoyle join the Gargoyles?
Gargoyle was brought into the fight because the main villain of the issue, Diablo, tried to use Gargoyle's blood to create an immortality elixir, but discarded him because he wasn't a TRUE Gargoyle. So he sought out these "real" Gargoyles, and, working along with the Fantastic Four, the heroes defeated Diablo.
Image via MarvelAt the end of the issue, the Gargoyles clan decided that he deserved to be part of their clan, so they offered him a spot, and he gladly agreed. It doesn't seem like he intends to actually LIVE with them, but it does appear as though they make a permanent connection at the end of the issue, which is a nice change of pace for a crossover issue, which rarely try to make any sort of major changes (with the WildC.A.T.s/Aliens crossover being the most notable exception to this sort of thing, of course).
Source: Comicbook.com
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