Hey there, Pop Culture Retrorama fans! Ashley Thomas aka The Nerdy Blogger here, getting back to my reviews of Marvel Comics’ 1995 Gargoyles series. In the time since my review of Gargoyles #4, I was able to secure the remaining 3 issues of the Marvel Gargoyles run that I was missing, so I’ll be able to give you the full rundown of the series here on the Pop Culture Retrorama!
Let me give you a brief teaser on the plot of Gargoyles #5, and this time, no spoilers! After that, I’ll share a few scans. We’ve got lots of great time capsule ads for this book, so let’s get started. Enjoy my synopsis of “Venus in Stone!”
“Venus in Stone!” starts off with Elisa bidding her younger sister Beth goodbye at the airport. After Beth’s brush with the gargoyles in the last issue, she was more than ready to head back to school in Phoenix. After they say farewell, Elisa gives the gargoyle gang the rundown on the “discreet raid” she and Goliath are going to lead to what they suspect is a Xanatos Gen-U-Tech lab. What will they find? You’ll have to read Gargoyles #5 to find out!
Here are a few of my favorite panels from Gargoyles #5 and some delightful ads.
Beth Maza’s brush with the gargoyles really shook her up, but Broadway, undeterred, had to say goodbye.
Gargoyles #5 wasn’t one of the books I had as a kid. If I had, I’d have learned the word, “slatternly,” which is a word I didn’t learn until I was in college! It amuses me that this is a book for kids, but it doesn’t dumb down the vocabulary. The Gargoyles cartoon played a huge role in my literary education. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that the comic book would expand the vocabulary of its young readership.
I didn’t get into tabletop RPGs until I was an adult (thank you, satanic panic!), so whenever I run across ads for RPGs in older comics, I always stop to take a closer look. Take a peek at this ad for the Palladium RPG series! I’d definitely love to check out that Robotech book.
We didn’t frequent our local Pizza Hut too often when I was growing up, so I was interested to see this ad for their “Munch Down Meal” promo with the Mascot Misfits. They look kind of like sports-themed MadBalls to me. Did you ever snag one of these? I’d love to know what they were like.
Occasionally, we’d go to McDonald’s when my sister and I were out running errands with our mom. I want to say that I was able to secure either the Hobgoblin or Doc Ock toy while McDonald’s had these premiums from the 1994 Spider-man animated series, but I could potentially be conflating these with my Spider-man action figures. The fact that they took out a double-page spread is very impressive to me!
I definitely drank more than my fair share of Kool-Aid growing up. Truthfully, I still drink a fair amount of it as an adult! We were more of a Kool-Aid packet family than Bursts though, so sadly, I don’t think I ever got my paws on these super cool Spider-man collector cards.
Finally, the back cover of Gargoyles #5 features a promo for Fleer Ultra trading cards from the 1995 Casper movie. They made trading cards for practically everything back in the day and I definitely watched that Casper movie. I don’t think I got to catch Casper in the theater, but I did get it on VHS for Christmas that year. I remember being so jealous of Christina Ricci, getting to kiss Devon Sawa at the end of the film. Then, the lucky duck got to kiss him AGAIN later that year in Now and Then, which I lamented in my review of Now and Then on Fangirlish a few weeks ago.
I digress.
Anyway, I never snagged any of the Casper trading cards back in the day. I feel like I had trading cards for nearly everything else though!
That’s all I’ve got for Gargoyles #5! Thanks for your patience with me, as there was much more time between reviews than I intended. Stay tuned for my review of Gargoyles #6!
In the meantime, I’d love it if you’d recommend to me a few good episodes of the show Hill Street Blues. If you’ll recall, in my review of Gargoyles #1, I mentioned that Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman listed Hill Street Blues as influential in the creation of the Gargoyles series. I’d love to get a feel for the show and learn more about one of my favorite shows’ influences!
Leave me a comment, and let’s talk Gargoyles.
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