What’s a 1990s series without ninjas? Today we’re up to our eyeballs in them as they attempt to fulfill a prophesy about an egg. Demona is in the thick of it, pursuing her eternal goal of taking down the human race.
Miss last week’s? Read Terror in Times Square review.
Gargoyles Clan-Building: Issue 9: “The Egg and I”
Reason(s) for existence: Disney wanted to make more money.
Main antagonist(s): The Triad, Demona
Time(s): Between Thrill of the Hunt and Reawakening
Location(s): NYC, NY
This is issue 9. There are two more in the series, or at least two more that I have access to. This is called The Egg and I. We have a cover with Demona busting out some disco moves with a disco ball. Wait, I guess that’s an egg. Looks kind of like an emu egg. Behind her are black and pink ninjas. Oh, the 1990s.
Elisa is visiting the police department morgue. I’m not sure if the police department has a morgue. In most places, it’s the city or county morgue. Anyway, she’s talking to Halie. He has a body of one of the Triad gang members. There was a big shootout in Chinatown. One of the gang shot this guy before he could talk. BTW, this gang controls 90% of Asian crime.
In Chinatown, the crazy Triad leader chick is torturing the team leader who failed in that shootout. She’s got a spike glove and barbed wire going on. This never would have made it past S&P on the TV show.
She’s pissed because they failed, and one of the gang got taken alive. Well cripes, why don’t you give everybody cyanide pills?
Elisa is grilling the perp at the station. Goliath is watching from outside. He spots a ninja sneaking up to plant a bomb on the window. G intervenes.
Rather than try to kill Goliath, the ninja actually pushes him away from the bomb, apologizing in Mandarin that he has a mission to do, even if Goliath is one of the winged ones. G tries to save him from falling, but the guy would rather die.
Goliath’s intervention saves Elisa and the suspect.
Meanwhile, in a mysterious hall, Demona is enjoying oysters while her devotees honor her. They’re planning to fulfill the prophecy regarding the egg hatching. Demona is quite looking forward to it, since she will be able to “subjugate the human race.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is an improvement on what she normally wants to do, which is wipe out the human race.
Elisa fills the gargoyles in on the Triad. They figure Demona is the winged one. Not a bad guess.
As Elisa leaves, she meets Halie. He asks her out, but she says no. Both of them regret it.
There’s a storm brewing. But that’s a good thing for the Triad. They’re right now dragging the egg into the Empire State Building. A group of tourists is about to go up to the top.
The police are looking for the Triad, but the radio goes out, thanks to Demona ripping off an antenna on the ESB. Somehow this also takes out TV, because all radio stations and TV stations work on the same tower and come from the same place in New York. Sure. Convenient.
The Triad makes their move at the Empire State Building. Most of the tourists are actually gang members.
The gargoyles are coming in to stop Demona and the Triad, but the storm makes it difficult to get there. So do the ninjas that are raining down on them.
Elisa takes one out in the stairwell and steals his PJs. I dunno, I think this would take more time than what the writers think…
There’s a decent amount of fighting, and a good amount of destruction gets done.
Goliath confronts Demona. The sacred scroll says the time to awaken the .
But that’s when Elisa arrives, dressed as a ninja, and intercepts the gang. While Elisa holds the gang at gunpoint, the gargoyles come up behind to take them out.
Goliath takes on Demona. In the struggle, the scroll to wake the egg is lost.
Demona tries to whack Goliath with the radio antenna, the one that she stole, but gets zapped instead from the lightning. This doesn’t seem to phase her. It does, however, mess up the plan. So everybody pulls out.
Before she leaves, Demona takes the opportunity to tell Goliath that he has ruined their chance of having another gargoyle. He may have spoiled their chance to resurrect the race. I don’t know, Demona, you’re the only female around. If it’s anybody’s job to repopulate the planet with gargoyles, it’s yours.
So it’s a victory and a loss. Or so thinks Goliath. We don’t really know what would have come out of the egg. It might have been a giant Easter Bunny that would have destroyed the world.
Final Thoughts
I realize this was a short post. There was actually a lot of words and dialogue in the comic itself. You can go read it if you like. The plot itself, though, involved the crazy Triad gang – which is really a cult along the lines of Islam or other suicidal ideologies – trying to fulfill the prophecy. I don’t know, it’s not much of a prophecy if it doesn’t come true, or if it can be averted. In every other series, whenever you try to change a prophecy, you just end up fulfilling it.
The bad guys were stereotypical cult types. What type is actually quite interesting. They value their ideology more than life itself. Which is perfectly fine. Very admirable. But the whole killing others and yourself because of it is not. That’s a special kind of crazy and an even more special kind of evil.
I’m not sure if Demona’s time with the Triad is over. Don’t they still worship the winged one? Or is it kind of like those heretics who say they can predict when the end of the world will come? After they fall flat, people leave. I would think that if nothing else, since this gang controls 90% of the Asian crime market, they would continue the cult just for the power sake.
Xanatos and Company were not in this issue. That makes me sad.
Tune in Tuesday: We discover how Elisa got her badge. I don’t actually care. But we’re going to read it anyway.
Thoughts? Comment!
Demona would have to be over one hundred feet tall to wrap her legs around the radio tower like that.
I have Demona and the mysterious hall image, and rest of page, original artwork for sale if interested. Hand painted by Anthony Tollin