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Terror In Times Square

by: Mary "Stormy" Pletsch


Synopsis

Issue 8 Title

As Lex wails over Wolf's dead body and the Pack charges (Issue #7), Broadway fends them off and the two gargoyles flee. Fox wants to pursue when suddenly Wolf appears, alive and well. The corpse was simply a hologram caused by Dingo's gadget. Dingo plans to use it in Times Square that night and kill Xanatos.

The Gargoyles help Lex get over the guilt of causing Wolf's supposed death. Elisa goes to visit the Pack, who are reported to be still in jail, and discovers that the figures in the cells are holograms. Meanwhile, in a new hideout, the Pack are pressuring Dingo to show them VR-X, whom they are all taking orders from.

"Dingo" leaves and drops his hologram field, revealing that all the time he has really been VR-X. VR-X sacrificed his teen years to invent a 3D hologram visible to the naked eye. Xanato's Scarab corporation gave him a grant, but in accepting it he signed away the rights to his invention, and was left with nothing. Reading of the Pack's imprisonment, except for Dingo who had fled to Europe, he decides to assume Dingo's identity and con the Pack into stealing the chips made with his technology. VR-X plans to drive Xanatos insane with his invention, then assume his identity to take over his financial empire.

It is a shame VR-X talks out loud to himself, as Fox has followed him and she calls Xanatos.

Elisa visits Xanatos, bringing the jail videos of the Pack talking to VR-X like he's Dingo. Xanatos denies knowing who VR-X is. Elisa warns Xanatos not to go to Times Square, but he ignores her advice.

Picking up food for the Gargoyles, Elisa sees Haile O'Connor eating dinner with a woman and is rather jealous. She realizes she has no life outside the force and the Gargoyles. As she leaves, Haile is startled to see her outside the diner (suggesting he has no romantic interest in his companion).

Demona is in an exotic penthouse suite with an Asian woman named Gong Li (Issue #7). Gong Li belongs to an Asian criminal organization, and scrolls prophesy her meeting with Demona and the "birth of a new winged one..."

Elisa tells the Gargoyles about the holograms and Xanatos. They decide to help out at Times Square. VR-X, still posing as Dingo, puts the stolen chips in a stronger device. He intends to flood Xanatos' senses with conflicting information and drive him insane. An Asian criminal organization (linked to Gong Li) intends to buy the device if it works.

Xanatos is guest of honour at the "Tech for Tots" charity event he is sponsoring in Times Square. Elisa and the Gargoyles watch from above. Elisa has night-vision goggles which can't be fooled by holograms. Disguised as cops, the Pack arrive. VR-X drops their disguises (though he still appears as Dingo) and attacks Xanatos with a VR field--but yells out his real identity, "Vinnie Richards." Fox attacks him and makes him drop his remote so his true form shows. The Gargoyles attack and fight the Pack; Lexington stops Fox from killing VR-X. Elisa discovers the prone Xanatos on the platform is just a hologram! The Asians see the technology working. When the fray is over, with the Gargoyles victorious, VR-X is gone and Xanatos comes over to thank them--but Elisa raises her goggles and sees "Xanatos" is really VR-X with a gun! VR-X demands that she lower the goggles and attempts to back away. No one knows who he is aiming at...but Bronx's instincts are not fooled by holograms, and he knocks VR-X to the ground.

The REAL Xanatos arrives, and the Gargoyles leave as the police arrive. Foreshadowing "Leader of the Pack", Fox claims she only broke out of jail to keep the others out of trouble; she wants to do her time and go straight. Xanatos will not press charges as the Pack were tricked into robbing him. The story ends with Elisa sensing warmth between Xanatos and Fox and feeling loneliness at her own lack of significant relationships.



Review

I found this story to be rather disappointing. It was very fragmented, with the scene changing in almost every page. The technology was hard to believe in; Lex could push Wolf over when Wolf was really a hologram. How do you push an image? Could the image Wolf hold a real bolo, or was that a hologram too? When VR-X dropped the Pack's cop disguises, he still appeared as Dingo.

In fact, this was a problem with the final scene...it was hard to tell who was who and what was happening. Where did the Xanatos hologram come from (did Xanatos put it there himself with OTHER technology?) What happened to the huge crowd pictured at the opening scene of the Times Square? They all disappear even though no one would have noticed anything unusual until the Pack appeared and VR-X attacked Xanatos.

At the end of the story, Xanatos says he "can't understand what grudge (VR-X) could have against him." Sure, VR-X was a "bad guy", but it was supremely unfair that Xanatos can get off scot-free with stealing VR-X's work and not even acknowledge knowing him!

VR-X was not that interesting of a character as he preferred to hide as other people. (Another character named "Vinnie"...shudder) Xanatos was at his slimiest here, comparable to "Metamorphosis"; the Gargoyles seemed secondary to the main plot.

In the last issue and this one, Fox and Dingo are faithfully rendered, but Jackal is wearing a cape and Wolf has a gold muscle shirt with the Pack logo. Hyena is missing the long tufts of hair in front of her ears and sports HUGE gold earrings with the Pack logo.

Good points: I sense Elisa undergoing a growing sense of loneliness. Fox continued to be portrayed as smart and clever. I liked the subtle hints that set the stage for "Leader of the Pack."


Credits

Writer
Mort Todd
Penciller
Grant Miehm
Inker
Alberto Saichamn
Colourist
Anthony Tollin
Letterer
John Costanza
Editor
Hildy Mesnik

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