The Stone of Destiny is about to end its journey. Macbeth and King Arthur, Xanatos, and the Illuminati are all vying for it. The gargoyles fight the Steel Clan, while Coldstone and Coldfire fight Coyote and Coldsteel. But is it all a waste? Can any human truly own the Stone?
Miss last week’s? Read Rock and Roll review.
Spoilers are in the 20/20 moments. Info from Ask Greg is in the According to Greg bits.
Gargoyles Clan-Building: Chapter Nine: “Rock of Ages”
Reason(s) for existence: To further the Stone’s story. To develop Coldsteel’s story. To introduce Peredur. To show Xanatos can be devious but remain an ally to the gargoyles
Main antagonist(s): Xanatos’s forces: Coldsteel, Steel Clan, Coyote 5.0
Time(s): November 2nd-16th, 1996
Location(s): New York City, New York, USA; London, England; other locations briefly
The rest of the comics are compiled into a book, Gargoyles Clan-Building Volume Two. So we don’t get a cover for each one. We get a pseudo cover. This one is pretty dramatic, with Lexington, Griff, and Hudson going to battle. We get a blank page after that with the three souls of Coldstone.
November 15th 8:15 p.m. GMT. Knight’s Spur. The gargoyles are talking.
November 15th 12:11 a.m. GMT. Victoria Tower. Coldfire and Coldstone are rescuing Hudson from Coldsteel.
November 7th 2:45 p.m. GMT. Mayfair. Fox finishes buying her shoes.
November 15th 1:31 a.m. GMT. Victoria Tower. Arthur is wondering if they really need to guard the Stone.
November 15th 12:18 a.m. GMT. Lantern of the Abbey. Arthur is looking at the Stone.
November 13th 5:40 a.m. eastern. Nightstone Unlimited. Shari is telling more about the Stone. I kind of don’t care about the Stone anymore. I just want to get to the point and see who gets the Stone in the end.
She’s talking about Edward the First of England, the Hammer of the Scots. He uses the Warwolf catapult. For his victory, he took the Stone of Scone. He installed it in the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey. Now the kings and queens of England get crowned on it instead of the rulers of Scotland.
November 15th 12:12 a.m. GMT. Arthur is in Westminster. The Stone is gone. At Victoria Tower, Staghart is helping Lex.
Arthur has made his way to the Stone while the gargoyles fight Xanatos’s Squad.
The gargoyles take out both the Steel Clan robots’ arms. But Coyote is still shooting. For some reason they con him into shooting the Steel Clan. Coldsteel and Coldfire are turning the tide.
How did they get here? We see with a flashback to November 13th 6:01 a.m. GMT + 8. Tibet. They figure they can find Coldsteel. Coldfire seems to be alerted of his presence, so…did maybe Xanatos call them in? For, like, a distraction? Cuz I don’t know what this band of bots is even doing. They’re just tying up the gargs, it looks like.
Back to the present. Coldsteel is leaving, with Coyote covering his getaway.
November 14th 5:42 a.m. eastern. Nightstone Unlimited. Shari is going on. Robert the Bruce of Scotland who defeated the English at Bannockburn with the help of Irish ally Cormac McCarthy, took a fragment of the Fatal Stone that England had taken from the Stone. That fragment Bruce gave to McCarthy. This is the Blarney Stone that’s said to grant The Gift of Gab. Even Shari’s kissed it a time or two.
November 15th 10:02 a.m. GMT. Coldstream Bridge. There’s a bunch of people watching the Stone being transported. This bunch includes Macbeth, Arthur, and Xanatos.
Xanatos is nonplussed by the events of the previous night.
Coldstone and Coldfire are trailing Coyote and Coldsteel. There’s another little fight. Coyote reveals he has a chainsaw arm, which he puts to good use.
Coldsteel is commenting how he loves these daytime battles. He likes his new robotic body. He has Coldfire in his clutches, but not for long. She roasts him a bit.
Coyote faces Coldstone. The bot says that out of respect for Goliath, David programmed him to “inflict only as much damage is necessary to reach the objective.” But Coyote gets to define “the parameters of necessary.”
I’m thinking that might have not been a great idea, but it’s a moot point considering Coldstone punches him in the face. This is enough to blow up the entire robot.
November 15th 6:16 a.m. GMT. Leith. Coyote’s saying he’s not programmed for free will. Neither are the Amazon algorithms, but they make people’s lives a living hell.
November 15th 10:05 a.m. GMT. River Tweed. Coldstone and Coldfire are chasing Coldsteel.
November 15th 10:40 a.m. GMT. Coldstream Bridge. Coldstone reports he’s lost Coldsteel. the Stone is moving in the convoy again.
November 15th 12 p.m. GMT. Edinburgh Castle. Macbeth reports the Stone’s back where it belongs. Well, at least it’s back in Scotland. A Land Rover passes behind them. It heads into a warehouse at 12:36 p.m. GMT in Leith.
November 15th 3:59 p.m. GMT. Who should meet it but Xanatos. He identifies himself as 36, and the driver, blonde, IDs as three.
She asks if there were any problems. He says only in “finding a duplicate on such short notice.”
November 15th 10:12 a.m. GMT. Coldstream Bridge. Xanatos stands between Arthur and Macbeth as they all watch the convoy go by. David hits a button, which flips a secret compartment in the back of the Land Rover. This substitutes one box for another.
November 15th 10:38 a.m. GMT. Coldstream Bridge. The bomb squad clears the area. They just found an empty shoe box.
November 7th 7:19 p.m. GMT. London. David asks if he can dispose of Fox’s shoebox.
November 15th, 4:04 p.m. GMT. Leith.
Good grief, these time changes are growing so tedious.
Number three pulls up in the Land Rover to meet a member of the Borg. This guy identifies as two.
Three tells him to bugger off. Two isn’t too pleased about this.
A blond, curly haired man emerges. He acts as mediator, saying he loves these two people the most in the world.
Three says she brought the Stone.
November 13th 5:40 a.m. eastern. Nightstone Unlimited. Thailog has Shari in check. She goes on with her story. She tells how Macbeth and a band of Scottish Patriots broke into Westminster Abbey to steal the Stone. Problem was, they broke it. Luckily, Macbeth brought Super Glue.
The Stone glows and thanks Macbeth, calling him by his full name, but it says it’s pointless.
November 15th 1:06 p.m. GMT. Leith. The Stone there says it’s pointless for Xanatos to substitute yet another Stone to fool the Illuminati. (He likes to live dangerously.)
It’s pointless for Arthur Pendragon to waste time protecting any particular Stone. Arthur has also found the Stone.
Pointless for Peredur Fab Ragnal to have gone to extremes to possess a rock. He’s there November 16th 1:06 a.m. GMT. in Castle Carbonek.
Macbeth is also looking at the Stone. Xanatos has his own.
The Stone says the Spirit of Destiny cannot be contained in one vessel. It is the Fatal Stone, the Lia Fail, the Stone of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Egypt, Samothrace and Portugal, the Stone at Terra and of Mora, at Iona and of Scone, in London and Edinburgh. It’s the Blarney Stone, the Coronation Stone, the Hero Stone. It’s the Pillar of Stone, the Stone of the Sword, the Stone of the Waters, Clach-Na-Cinneamhain.
It goes on. And on. And on. It finishes up by saying it is the Rock of Ages. No mortal can possess it.
Three is talking to Peredur. She informs him that Arthur is awake. This throws a wrench in the man’s plans, since they didn’t expect him for another 200 years. What was supposed to happen at 200 years? Why would he awaken then? Who said it was supposed to be in 200 years?
He stamps off, saying that he must contact the “upper echelons” immediately.
He leaves the Stone in a chamber of the castle. It’s sitting next to a bowl. They greet each other with, “Hey.” I love sentient inanimate objects.
November 15th 2:23 p.m. GMT. Leith. Coldsteel drops off Coyote 5.0 before Xanatos and hands him back the Coyote Diamond. He says, “Here’s your rock.”
Xanatos replies that he’s just its “minder.”
They complete their bargain: Xanatos deactivates the tracker. Do we trust that there isn’t a backup way of tracking him? I sure don’t.
November 15th 8:13 p.m. GMT. Knight’s Spur. Macbeth said he knows it doesn’t really matter, but he’s glad the stone is in Scotland again.
Griff invites Coldstone and Coldfire to stay awhile, but they have to go hunt Coldsteel.
November 16th 5:44 a.m. eastern. Nightstone Unlimited. Thailog finally checkmates Shari. She goes on with the story. She says some people say a replica was installed at Westminster. It was undisturbed until yesterday when it was transferred to Edinburgh without incident.
Thailog is unhappy with this amount of story. Shari knows another story, but who can say if it be true? And what do we have in the background but the very first page of this whole story, with Owen and Macbeth standing behind a stone Goliath.
Final Thoughts
You’re telling me I put up with three comics – that had such a disjointed, scattered composition of events that I spent most of my word count on dates and times, and gave myself a headache – for this? What the heck is this Stone even supposed to do? Is it going to grant immortality, or power, or the Gift of Gab? I’m thinking Fox’s shoes were the most interesting bit of this. The only other really interesting bit was the fact that Xanatos calls himself the minder of the Coyote Diamond. Is this because he realizes no one can really own one of these legendary stones? Or is he in fact its minder for someone else? The Illuminati, maybe? The development with Coldsteel was intriguing as well.
Speaking of the Illuminati, what will they make of Arthur’s awakening? I still want to know who prophesied the 200 years, and what the plan was when that time arrived.
And who’s Peredur? If Arthur is his master, how’s he still around?
All in all, it was a pretty interesting story. We got some nice historical bits, and we also got great fights. Seeing Xanatos scheming around and even confronting – but not personally – the gargoyles as their opponent while still remaining their ally was quite interesting.
Tune in Tuesday: we finally are done with the Stone. We check in with Brooklyn. He’s about to have an adventure, courtesy of the magical artifact we thought long lost, the Phoenix Gate.
Thoughts? Comment!
Arthur was supposed to awaken 200 years later? So around 2198? 😀