I don’t know how to start this off, so I guess I will start off on why I like Fang and my evolution of him being my Gargoyles comfort character. When I was a kid yeah I hated him because you know the whole good vs evil being black and white deal and not understanding complex characters. When I found out gargoyles had a comic series I started with Clan Building and found my way to Bad Guys. Reading issue 4 was the start of my love for Fang, his personality, his redemption, just him in general. I’m gonna discuss my observations that I noticed, headcanons and what I hope to see in the future with him and the redemption squad.
This isn’t gonna be a long one. From my knowledge Fang’s real name before he was mutated is Fred Sykes then he got mutated by Anton Sevarius. Fang first debuts in the episode Metamorphosis then again The Cage, Kingdom and The Reckoning in the animated series. In the comics he part of the main cast of The Bad Guys aka redemption squad. Bad Guys issue 4 which was Fang centric is where I made my first observation and how he became my comfort character.
While I was rewatching Kingdom the question hit “why did Fang want to be leader?”. In my opinion definitely doesn’t have leader potential; but definitely have “team player” potential.
He was a team player since his start in Metamorphosis. When Talon gave a order he followed it without question. In the episode The Cage we get more insight to Fang’s style because he still followed orders, see his more bastard with a heart of gold side, but he was still part of the team following orders and giving orders. He even told Maggie good job when she lead them to the clock tower. In addition, this moment where he jokes with Claw about “cat got your tongue” I feel like it was his inappropriate way of trying to make either Maggie or Claw laugh about their situation to lighten the mood.
It could be interpreted that he was indeed was just being a jerk, but I felt like he was trying to be a jerk to cheer them up. He mentions that he loves his new body the only characters who had problems with their bodies was the other mutates.
The last few frames with them in a group together lead me to believing that Fang would be happy with the mutates.
I started reading the gargoyle comics during the SLG Clan Building Vol 1 and 2 then found my way to the Bad Guys comics. Still during this time I didn’t give Fang a second thought. But reading issue 4 is where everything changed because it helped me truly realize what each member is striving for and what Fang is striving for. When we first get to know Fang in The Cage he’s crude, he’s basically a bastard with some street smarts. And he’s like that in issue 4 of bad guys, but he was more antagonistic until a certain point. And then just became the bastard with a heart of gold to me.
This moment here is when Fang became my favorite character and we can see the start of his redemption arc.
As stated earlier when we see more of Fang we see he’s rude crude some would call a bully. And he was content with that. But then this moment when it’s revealed that Sevarius wasn’t going to cure the mutates and was complicit in driving someone to suicide; you can literally see in that panel he didn’t expect this to go that far. In this same panel he then tries to either cope from what he’s done by attempting to make a joke in a inappropriate time or at least try to ease the tension. Which also lead to me falling for characters who try to mask their pain through jokes. After the events Fang joins the team despite the other member’s protest.
He looks so happy and enthusiastic to be joining the team. In this moment I describe him as being the Harley Quinn of the squad. Im really excited and hopeful that we get to see more Fang and the redemption squad in future projects
The main thing I want to see is more of the redemption squad. I want to see their relationship as a team develop more. I want to see if this team relationship going to evolve to the point where they see each other as one big happy family of misfits like the guardians of the galaxy. I want to see what’s next for them in terms of adventures; like are they going to be the lawful chaotic mercenaries for hire or go on their own Avalon type adventure like Goliath did. Also since Fang is my comfort character I am the type of person who wants to see their comfort characters suffer for character development. And one of my favorite tropes is seeing the carefree happy confident being sad broken and driven to despair. In that regard I wonder if Fang will try to reconcile with the mutates and does the death of the other mutate haunt him in anyway. So in a way I want to see if each member of the Redemption Squad reconcile with people from their past. So until then it is just going to be me making headcanons of my comfort character. Thank you for taking time out to read.