Gargoyles: Dark Ages #2 // Review
A race of powerful winged beings has entered into an agreement with a group of humans. That group of humans is in a war with another group of humans. Those with wings have never sided with humans before. I've never engaged in their politics. If that changes. There is battle. There is loss. Loss changes things in Gargoyles: Dark Ages #2. Writer Greg Weisman continues a prequel series set at the dawn of Gargoyle-Human relations. The issue is brought to the page by artist Drew Moss and colorist Martine Pignedoli. The series advances into heavy action with the initial drama out of the way.
The gargoyles enter battle with the humans. They're mighty creatures. However, there's no one who escapes the ravages of war. The magic that is claimed by the gargoyles by their very existence is countered by similar magic in a far earlier age of humanity. Invariably there is going to be danger. No one is going to get out of the situation without losing something. There is success of a kind. But at what cost? Perhaps the gargoyles will begin to wonder why it is that they've entered the politics of the humans, to begin with.
Weisman launches straight into the action right away. The second issue picks up directly at the end of the first one. It's essentially an issue length calmed out. Issue length of combat can douse the page in a kind of formlessness that can become its own kind of boring. Weisman keeps the action from weighing down the page with too much intensity by making sure it's all strikingly well-modulated. Oh, there is a degree of complexity that the author is working with that seems to be very aware of exactly how much plot will fill the book without overpowering the action. Weisman's done a good job of keeping everything balanced.
The action slashes across page and panel, accompanied by the occasional flash of magic. Moss has managed a great deal of nuance in the action. It feels both simple and primal on the one hand and delicately rendered, and its drama on the other. It's calm about that. Appears to take place somewhere around dusk in the dark ages. Pignedoli with a fantastic sense of light, as she renders depth with highlights in and around everyone on the field of battle. The radiance of the magic lends a great deal of visual impact to the action.
Given how well laid out each issue has been concerning the dramatic impetus of the ensemble, Weisman has a solid idea of how to keep the momentum of the series going. There is a do you love motion towards the end of the second issue, which we all catapult things into the third. Weisman has the first two issues ending in cliffhangers that feel remarkably strong, given how little story has actually made it across the page by the end of the second issue.
