Tyrants is the eleventh issue of Slave Labor Graphics' Gargoyles.
Summary[]
Brooklyn is still stranded in Scotland in the year 997, traveling with Mary and Finella, wondering how he could return to his own time. Reuniting the pieces of the Phoenix Gate seemed the best hope - so the three of them set out for Castle Wyvern to reclaim Goliath's half. Unfortunately for Brooklyn, Goliath's pouch turned to stone with him, rendering his half of the Gate past Brooklyn's reach. Brooklyn's only consolation is that he won't have to confront Demona for her half now. But he finds the old castle an unsettling place - first from a comedic standpoint, as he looks at himself in stone sleep and then, on a more solemn note, as he sees the remnants of his fellow clan members after the Viking massacre, still strewn about three years later.
Since he's stranded in the past, Brooklyn decides to accept it and join forces with Kenneth and his army. Aware that they need more than one gargoyle, however, he realizes that he shall have to seek out Demona after all, despite his dislike for her. Demona - while she has not undergone the full thousand years of solitude and bitterness - she is still filled with anger towards the humans who slaughter her kind. Her first thought is to seek revenge rather than to hold a Wind Ceremony for the dead - yet, when she meets Brooklyn, she frantically lies about her whereabouts during the Wyvern Massacre, still gripped with the unacknowledged guilt over her part in it.
Brooklyn is all the more uneasy about gaining an alliance with her, for he does not even know the events in 997 well enough to tell if he's doing the right thing. At one point, he even breaks the fourth wall for a moment, advising the readers to study history just in case they find themselves in a similar plight.
We see more of Constantine as he makes Gillecomgain his squire (not to Mail Brigti's liking), and applies warpaint to his head in a precursor of the Hunter's mask. He shows his villainy all the more as he puts to death Kenneth's herald, against the rules of medieval warfare. Battle is joined in a satisfyingly great moment - especially when Demona's gargoyles arrive. But we learn on the last page that Demona is plotting treachery against the humans on both sides - and Brother Valmont makes his own, equally treacherous bid for power.
Notes[]
- Tyrants was not released individually, it was released in Clan-Building: Volume Two.
Trivia[]
- Constantine's shaving his head is based on his historical nickname, "Constantine the Bald".
Memorable Quotes[]
Episode Guide[]
