The last episode of the Marvel Gargoyles comics. Elisa has a final showdown with a serial killer from her past. The trio searches for Bronx, who’s found a new friend.
Miss last week’s? Read Out of the Past review.
Gargoyles Clan-Building: Issue 11: “Into the Future”
Reason(s) for existence: Disney wanted to make more money.
Main antagonist(s): Slasher
Time(s): Between Thrill of the Hunt and Reawakening
Location(s): NYC, NY
This is Issue 11. It’s the last issue. A twelfth issue was announced, but it was never finished. This issue is A Bronx Tale and also has Elisa’s Lament. The overall name of the issue is Into the Future.
The cover has Bronx straining toward the reader. The trio is trying to hold him back with ropes. This never actually happens in the comic.
A mage is in his stone fortress / castle / dungeon. He is making punch for the party he’s about to have. Wait, I guess it’s actually a spell. He has an image of Goliath and Hudson in his brew. This is not the Archmage. Apparently it’s someone from the past, or maybe the distant future? The narration panel says “time and space are manipulated by a master mage.” Maybe if we had a 12th issue, we’d learn more.
He needs the gargoyles to help him on what he calls his “campaign, hopeless as it may seem.” All right, if even you think it looks hopeless, you need to reconsider it. He points out that he doesn’t think the gargoyles will help him.
However, one might. This one is Venus. He casts a spell to bring her back to flesh. Now, she’s currently on the bottom of the Atlantic. You might want to bring her to the surface before you turn her to flesh.
That’s the last we see of the mage. He’s not mentioned at all for the rest of the story.
We pick up with Elisa. Fuzzy is slashing at her. He is right on top of her, but she decides to go for her gun. Here’s the thing, a knife is actually better than a gun at close range. What’s close range? Ten yards. Yep, they’ve done studies, and by the time you recognize a threat and get your gun out, a person can easily cover ten yards to attack you.
He lunges at her, knocking the gun from her hand. Somehow, though he is on top and she’s on her back, she manages to charge him in the gut.
She reaches for the gun, but ends up on the ground again. He straddles her and goes for a strangle.
Luckily she manages to find the heel she broke off her boot. She punches him in the face with it.
He tries to run off, but she jumps on him. Grabbing him by the hair, she proceeds to break her knuckles in his face. Well, that’s what would happen, given the way she’s hitting him in middle panel there.
She gets him cuffed, then gets a confession out of him. Very convenient. Turns out he was the original killer. He thinks the hookers on the street are evil, just like his mother. Elisa looks like his mother… Cliche much?
Now we cut to a completely unrelated story. This is Unrelated Story Number 3 of this issue. The trio is still looking for Bronx in the subway. They’re also arguing with each other.
Meanwhile, Bronx is stealing donuts off bums. Bronx finds himself in South Bronx.
A group of highly diverse kids – Asian, Ginger/carrot top, Latino/Indian?, and black – are planning some hi-jinks. The black kid is the smallest and youngest, and taking flack for being the baby of the group.
He’s eating chips. Bronx is hungry. Thus we have their meeting. The kid accepts Bronx amazingly quickly, but he leaves the garg beast as he goes with his friends.
Back to Elisa. She is in Captain Chavez’s office. She’s feeling sorry for herself because she made a mistake with the first arrest. She tries to hand her badge over, but Chavez won’t have any part of it. Chavez says that she is human, and everybody makes mistakes. Elisa is a good cop and should stay as detective on the force.
Well. That settles that. You destroyed a man’s life more thoroughly than if you had shot him. You made a severe error in judgment. This would be malpractice if this was the medical world. But you’re sorry, so that makes it a okay! And heck, we all make mistakes. Granted, usually they’re in the realm of buying something stupid or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, not sending an innocent man to prison.
So…that’s it? No disciplinary action, no sort of recompense for this guy? I guess we’ll see.
Back in the subway, the trio has come out on the same stop Bronx did.
The kids are going into an abandoned building. The leader, the ginger, pulls out a match.
I’m sure you can figure out what happens next. Yes, he drops the match, which starts a fire. Bronx has to go in and save them.
Now we go to Rikers Island. The innocent man whose life Elisa ruined is about to be set free. But first, he has a visitor. It’s Elisa. She lamely says she’s “sorry.”
He summarizes how his life has been destroyed: The woman he loved is dead, he was thrown in jail, and has “suffered the most hellish degradations imaginable.” And for what? So that she can “make an arrest that makes her detective.”
While she’s been enjoying life, he’s been locked in the dungeon of Rikers.
He’s going to go rebuild his life, but he hopes she forever lives with the guilt.
Bronx busts in and saves the kids with the help of the trio.
The ginger conveniently pledges never to play with fire again.
Elisa is getting comfort from Goliath. He says some things happen that we don’t have control over. It looked like the guy she arrested first was a murderer. The jury even convicted him. Oh, good, Elisa. Now you have twelve people who have to live with the knowledge that they sent an innocent man to prison on circumstantial evidence. I’m sure they’re cussing you out right about now, Elisa.
The issue claims there will be a 12th issue, the Day the Sun Kissed the Earth. But it was not to be. For whatever reason, Marvel cancelled the contract with Disney. That’s unfortunate, because Greg Weisman would have started writing eventually. His story line did not go to waste, though, because he used it in the sixth volume of the SLG comics.
Final Thoughts
If this was the TV series, Greg would have linked the two stories by having them display the same theme. Sorry, but Bronx running off and saving kids doesn’t go with the theme of coming to terms with the past and owning up to mistakes. Not without an awful lot of mental gymnastics, anyway.
Well, this is it. We’ve gone through the episodes, the SLG comics, and now the Marvel comics. I’m not doing the Goliath Chronicles, because they frustrate me. I’ll be moving over largely to the lcchamplin.com site. It’s my author page.
It’s been fun, guys. I’ve really enjoyed revisiting my favorite series. This series has had a huge impact on my life.
Thanks for reading!
Thoughts? Comment!
I’ve got the original artwork for the donut scene, hand painted and signed by Anthony Tollin, and I’m selling if you are interested
Well while elisa did arrest that man she wasn’t the one that convicted him, a jury did that. Elisa shouldn’t be written up because while she did make a mistake and her accusation made an innocent man go to jail, the evidence that she found “supported” her belief that he was the killer. And obviously is it was enough evidence that the jury believed he was the killer as well. There’s really nothing she or anyone can do to give that man back the time he lost. The most he can do is sue the city.