Gargoyles Creator, Greg Weisman, Reveals Marvel Banned Crossover Characters

Greg Weisman is an old hand at creating legendary animated series at this point. When it comes to adapting the stories of comic book characters, shows such as Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-Man are considered the cream of the crop for both Marvel and DC, respectively. Unfortunately, despite Weisman’s work for Marvel Comics in the past, the company had some strict requirements when it came to creating a crossover for some of New York’s finest heroes, Gargoyles and others.

At DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this fall, Weisman held a panel to discuss his work on Gargoyles, both the original animated series and the subsequent comic book series. During the discussion, Weisman took the opportunity to discuss the recent comic book crossover, Fantastic Four/Gargoyles. In a surprise twist, Greg confirmed that Marvel’s first family was far from his first choice to meet Goliath and his clan.

“I had been working on the Marvel comic, The Spectacular Spider-Men, so I thought Peter and Miles would work as great characters for the crossover. For reasons I still don’t quite understand, Marvel forbade me from using them, and so my next choice was the X-Men. Unfortunately, Marvel also said I couldn’t use the mutants, but then they gave me the green light to go with the Fantastic Four. I think it turned out all right.”

The Gargoyle Controversy

While Weisman was saddened by his inability to use Marvel’s merry mutants and/or New York’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Men, this didn’t stop him from looking back at the comic book crossover fondly. “I loved using gargoyles from Marvel’s past to inject into this crossover. It was so much fun to have villains like the Grey Gargoyle and the Hulk’s Gargoyle make appearances here. Of course, having the superhero, Gargoyle, aka Isaac Christians, actually join Goliath’s clan. We had fun.”

Even though Greg’s dream crossover didn’t come true, this hasn’t stopped him from creating new comic book stories focusing on the former Disney Afternoon franchise. Dynamite Comics is currently printing an ongoing Gargoyles comic book series, and while it might not feature any Marvel characters making an appearance so far, it is expanding on the universe that has routinely created new printed stories since the franchise originally ended in 1997.

Unfortunately for Gargoyles fans, it seems as though seeing New York City’s soaring superheroes hit the screen once again is a pipe dream. Numerous revival series, both animated and live-action adaptations, have been in the works but ultimately fell by the wayside. Fingers crossed that we’ll one day see Goliath, Demona, Brooklyn, Broadway, and the rest of the cast make an official comeback outside of the comics.