The Pack
The Pack were some of the most notable human antagonists in the "Gargoyle" animated series, alongside their benefactor and founder, David Xanatos of Xanatos Enterprises, up until the creation of the Quarrymen. Throughout the show's second season most of The Pack's individual members become recurring foes, often reviled by the Manhattan Clan and hated by Lexington, who originally idolized them as fellow warriors prior to them exposing themselves for the criminals they were.
The Pack's members were voiced by the following actors: Laura San Giacomo as Fox, Clancy Brown as Wolf, Jim Cummings as Dingo, Cree Summer as Hyena, Matt Frewer as Jackal, and Jonathan Frakes as the Coyote robots, same as David Xanatos.
History
Industrialist David Xanatos brought together five adapt martial artists and athletes without their knowledge of him doing so as part of a scheme of gaining a strong and versatile squadron, as well as gaining and equal in Fox who could help with his world conquering operations. Fox personally recruited the other four, who at the time were former mercenaries. At first, The Pack starred in their eponymous television show where they showed-off their athletic skills and martial arts training, avoiding traps and fighting the fictional evil ninjas. The show proved to be a massive success, each member garnering numerous admirers and a daily salary of half a million dollars. Despite being satisfied with money and the fame, both members Wolf and Dingo desired a proper challenge, Wolf out of a base desire for physical combat and Dingo in order to test his strength.
Thrill of the Hunt
Xanatos arranged for a meeting between the Manhattan Clan and The Pack, he had his personal attendant, Owen Burnett, transmit the show's broadcast on every channel the gargoyles were viewing every night for several weeks, while delivered to The Pack an envelope containing gargoyle photographs, thus stirring one team's interest towards the other. After a live staged performance at Madison Square Garden, The Pack meet up with Lexington, who had been attending the show in secret along with close clansmen Broadway and Brooklyn. The diminutive gargoyle tries befriending The Pack since both sides were warriors who defended the innocent, but Wolf and Fox convince him to bring along the larger gargoyle, id est Goliath, unaware of their true intentions. Later that night, as well as the one after, Lexington convinces Goliath to meet up with The Pack in person, hoping to make an alliance between the two factions. The clan leader accepts after hearing that Lexington did not reveal their clan's location nor their transformation to stone during the day.
That night, Goliath and Lexington arrive at the studio were The Pack's television series is usually filmed, where the titular fighting team set up an ambush. The fight leads the gargoyles outside the building, atop the roofs of the neighborhood and back down to the streets after Jackal had electrocuted the two. Down in an alleyway a passing family spots The Pack and are scarred to see the injured gargoyles. Wolf covers for his teammates, using his acting to convince the family that the gargoyles were monsters that had been sent by the evil ninjas, and that The Pack were going to 'protect them (the family)". At first, The Pack prove to be a match for the Manhattan clan, but Goliath overpowers Wolf and knocks out Hyena and Jackal with a fire hydrant. Lexington and Goliath use a nearby fire-escape to climb to the roof of a building, but they are followed soon after by their pursuers. The roof happens to be populated by grotesque statues which Goliath and Lexington use to their advantage, hiding among them and one by one separating The Pack's members, starting with Hyena, then Dingo, and finally a scarred Jackal runs off, only to be grabbed by Goliath. Eventually, the two remaining members of The Pack are tackled by Goliath, whose force breaks throw a wall, causing the three of them to fall inside a studio where a swimsuit photo-shooting is taking place. Fox holds one of the women there hostage until she and Wolf can exit the building, but she is knocked unconscious by Lexington. Wolf has one final fight with Goliath, mostly lashing at the Manhattan clan's leader, but he is easily overpowered and tossed against a wall. The gargoyles make their escape just as police car shows up, leaving Fox and Wolf behind to be arrested for holding hostage and endangering the life of the girl from before.
The following morning, Lexington is left greatly disappointed in his better judgement, however Goliath encourages him not to give up hope in people by saying that he was right to attempt communication with humans. At Riker's Isle prison Owen visits Xanatos to inform him that the arranged battle happened just as he had wanted it to, but nothing particularly noteworthy came out of it. Xanatos, however, claims that the battle proved a success in evaluating both The Pack's and Goliath's skills.
Her Brother's Keeper
At this point The Pack is divided: Wolf and Fox are incarcerated at Riker's Isle, Dingo left for Europe and the twins, Hyena and Jackal, are acting on their own, albeit under Fox's orders who in turn is operating under instructions from Xanatos who had revealed to her his plans involving the team. Jackal and Hyena attend a diamond exchange, where they were ordered by Fox to steal the precious Coyote Diamond. Hyena wants to nonchalantly break the diamond's casing and then shoot her way out, but her brother prefers to tread lightly. Right before their eyes the diamond is bought by Xanatos, which along with the sudden appearance of a fan of The Pack's wanting on autograph, causes Hyena to loose her temper and pull out a switch-blade. Jackal goes along and kicks Xanatos from behind, stealing the diamond right before everyone's eyes. The twins make their way to the roof of building, but are stopped from paragliding to safety by the arrival of a police helicopter, piloted by Derek Maza, along with his sister, Elisa. Jackal tries blowing up the helicopter with a rocket launcher, but he is tackled from the side by Xanatos, instead shooting the chopper's tail off. Despite the damage Derek successfully lands the helicopter just in time for Elisa to point her gun at the twins, who were just about to kill Xanatos. Jackal and Hyena manage to escape by gliding to safety. Later that night, back at their gym, Jackal receives orders from Fox to assassinate Xanatos for interfering with the diamond robbery.
Jackal and Hyena follow Xanato's helicopter from the Eyrie Building inside their personal chopper, with Jackal piloting and Hyena operating the weaponry. Xanato's personally shoot at them with his laser-gun, but the beams simply bounce off. Just as Hyena is about to blast the helicopter with a rocket, the twin's are attacked by the Manhattan Clan's Trio: Broadway slams into the cockpit while Lexington and Broadway toss Jackal and Hyena, respectively, out of their seats. However, the twins manage to parachute to safety and begin plotting a second assassination attempt on Xanato at his upstate retreat, Xanadu. Unbeknownst to them, Fox informed Elisa Maza of the assassination attempt just so Xanatos can prove to Maza that she is not a threat to him, as well as reveal that the entire plan was meant to have Elisa's brother officially come work for him. Fox also expresses her profound admiration for David by calling him "the most brilliant man on the face on the face of the Earth!" At Xanadu, Jackal and Hyena try shooting Xanatos, but are interrupted by the arrival of the Trio, now piloting the twins' former helicopter, which Lexington had modified. Lexington blinds Jackal and Hyena (both of whom were wearing night vision goggles) with the chopper's lantern, causing them back away. He then shoots a net on them, but the twins cut their way out. Jackal is punched by Broadway unconscious while Hyena tries desperately to shoot while still blinded. Although she managed to accidentally hit Brooklyn with a tree branch that had been shot down, her gun is destroyed by Lexington's laser cannon and she is left surrounded by Broadway, Brooklyn, Goliath and Elisa. Both of the twins were subsequently arrested and sent to Riker's prison.
Leader of the Pack
Coyote 1.0, with help from Dingo, breaks Wolf, Jackal and Hyena out of Riker's Isle prison, as ordered to by Xanatos. However, Fox stays behind, insisting that she finishes her sentence and even goes so far as to rescuing a guard from one of Hyena's killer outbursts. The Pack escape the island on board Coyote's all-terrain hoover-craft, flying off into the distance. While leaving, Wolf expresses his desire to be the new team leader by fighting Coyote, but he is easily knocked out by Coyote. The android pretends to be Xanatos, swaying The Pack to his side by reminding them that Fox along with the Manhattan Clan lead to their incarceration. The Pack accept the robot's offer at leadership and follow his plan to ambush the gargoyles at The Pack's former television studio. Only Lexington, Brooklyn and Bronx show up and they have a brief, but heated battle with The Pack. Dingo manages to electrocute Brooklyn, while Coyote knocks out both Bronx and Lexington. The three gargoyles are then kept hostage on an oil tanker off the coast of New York, the Otoshianu Maru.
The rest of the Manhattan clan arrive on board the oil tanker, and although The Pack were expecting them with loaded guns, Broadway successfully released the captured gargoyles out off the ship's holding bay. A large fight ensues resulting with the tanker being set ablaze after several barrels spill oil spill out and a fire is ignited by one of Coyote's stray lasers. Coyote is revealed to have been a robot after the left side of its face was bitten off by Bronx. All the men from The Pack are left flabbergasted at the realization, while Hyena finds the robot even more attractive than usual. Coyote is then shot throw the abdomen by Lexington and its head is ripped of its shoulders by a kick from Goliath. The Pack escape the tanker by means of Coyote's hoover-craft, while Coyote's head blasts itself into the air. The Manhattan clan decide the leave without pursuing The Pack. The following morning, the Riker's Isle prison board release Fox from prison early on account of her exemplary behavior and rescue of one of the guards. Xanatos waits for her outside the prison, inside his limousine. Together at last, Xanatos reveals that the jail break was staged solely to offer Fox an early parole, as well as to test the robot Coyote prototype. Fox asks if he is not upset at loosing his chance for vengeance, but Xanatos is merely happy to have her by his side.
Upgrade
The Pack return, now operating as bank robbers in order to make ends meat, with Wolf as the apparent leader and using the hoover-craft as their get-away ride. Dingo is openly upset with their current status, but Jackal and Coyote are complacent. While in the middle of a hist, they are attacked by the Manhattan Clan, who manage to best them yet again. The fight ends in a draw, while Jackal is left slashed across the chest and severely pummeled by Broadway, Goliath is electrocuted and knocked out by Dingo. The Pack escape with only the bag of money Dingo acquired, while Wolf is upset they did not stay and fight. Just then The Pack is visited by Coyote, now a hoovering head that offers to assist them in taking out the gargoyles. Although Wolf and Jackal originally refuse, Dingo and Hyena hear the robot out as it proposes an offer for the Pack: to enhance themselves by means of either genetic engineering, mechanical prosthesis or cybernetic battle armor, courtesy of Xenatos Enterprises. They accept its offer, but Wolf and Jackal inquire as to why Xanatos himself didn't come himself to which Coyote responds that his creator is very busy.
One month later The Pack lure the Manhattan Clan into a trap, atop a building in construction. Jackal and Hyena had had their arms and legs replaced with mechanical limbs, complete with built-in bladed weapons, Wolf had his DNA spliced with wolf DNA, effectively becoming a werewolf, Coyote now inhabits a larger, bulky robot body (named Coyote 2.0), while Dingo is wearing a suit of cyber-armor. In the ensuing battle, Hyena defeats Elisa, Jackal knocks-out Bronx, Wolf defeats Hudson and Goliath is brought down by Coyote, making him the leader according to The Pack's agreement that whoever caught the biggest gargoyle would lead. Although Wolf and Jackal refuse the robot, love-struck Hyena and disgusted Dingo follow up on the agreement. The captures gargoyles and Elisa are held captive in a train housing station. Coyote plans on releasing Bronx around 4:30 A.M. in order to lead The Pack to the Manhattan Clan's hideout and subsequently smash them at morning. Unknown to them, Fox tipped off the remaining Manhattan gargoyles as to their location, and as such Brooklyn organized a rescue. While Brooklyn and Broadway had separated The Pack, Lexington released their friends and a fight soon broke out. Hyena is defeated by the combined efforts of Lexington and Broadway, while Jackal is knocked out by Brooklyn. Wolf is indirectly defeated by Hudson after the latter's sword got stuck in the electrified rail, electrocuting Wolf as he tried picking it up. Elisa captures Dingo with the help of a magnetic crane attracting his armor. Coyote is destroyed after the entire clan gangs up on him, Goliath crushes its head, while the rest of the body is run over by a train. The Pack are left behind in chains to be picked-up by the police. Yet again, The Pack's loose if revealed to have been another one of Xanatos's elaborate scheme, namely to test Fox's cunning wit against his tactical planing. He boosts that he has finally found an equal.
Grief
As part of Xanatos' latest attempt at gaining immortality he has The Pack (Coyote 3.0, Wolf, Hyena and Jackal) travel to Egypt in order to assist The Emir, one of his associates, in capturing the god of life and death, Anubis, and forcing him into giving the secret of eternal life. Beneath the Great Sphinx, inside a ritual chamber, the Emir begins to magically summon Anubis into his trap, but he is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Goliath, Bronx, Elisa and new clan member, Angela. The Pack subdue their enemies and chain them to the walls, just as the god of death makes his appearance. The Emir orders The Pack to leave him alone until he has managed to secure immortality. Wolf and Hyena desire to kill the gargoyles once and for all, but Coyote orders them not to and instead accepts Jackal's offer to spy on the Emir. Eventually, the Emir orders the gargoyles be disposed of and The Pack tries burying them inside a mastaba, but they escape after a brief fight. Unknown to his teammates Jackal had become obsessed with Anubis ever since he arrived in Egypt, referring to the jackal god as being "the original model." As the Emir recites a spell that allows him to posses the god, thus gaining all of his powers, Jackal pushes him aside and in his place becomes infused with Anubis, becoming his avatar. Having acquired the power to control life and death, Jackal demonstrates them by transforming Coyote into a pile of rusted metal. He then turns his sister into an infant, Wolf into a literal wold cub and the gargoyles, plus Elisa, into elderly people. Using the Sphinx as a conduit and amplifier for his powers, Jackal sends out a wave of energy that kills any and all living beings in its path, as he intends to kill all life on Earth. He is ultimately defeated after Goliath knocks him down and hands the Emir his magic scroll, who uses his previous spell to release Anubis from Jackal's thrall. After becoming the new avatar The Emir realizes that Anubis cannot revive the dead, nor can he grant eternal life, instead opting to return the gargoyles, Elisa, Wolf and Hyena back to their proper ages and destroys the ritual chamber so no one can ever try and capture the god of death. Wolf, Hyena and Jackal manage to escape the falling debris.
Walkabout
Dingo returns to his homeland of Australia after being completely disillusioned with The Pack having willfully perverted their bodies with Xanatos' modifications. Likewise, he had grown fond of his previous status as a hero and wanted to start over. To that end he was advised by an Aboriginal Shaman to go on a walkabout and find The Dreamtime. At the same time, Dingo had been hired by Fox to assist in keeping a local science project of hers in check. At a Xanatos Enterprises laboratory located in the Australian outback, Fox, along with her mother, Anastasia Renard, were experimenting on the artificial intelligence called Matrix, a colony of nano-bots that were designed to reshape the planet to suit Fox and Xanatos' needs. Unknown to them, Matrix managed to escape its containment and begone consuming all matter around it, perpetually self-replicating itself, resulting into a grey goo that threatened to consume the entire planet. As it turned out, Goliath, Elisa, Bronx and Angela where brought by Avalon to help prevent the upcoming apocalypse, begrudgingly allying themselves with Dingo. As the Matrix consumes the laboratory, Fox and Anastasia narrowly escape and enlist Goliath's help, telling him and Dingo to fly over the lab and deactivate the A.I. before it assimilates the laboratories nuclear power plant. Their plan fails as they cannot get close enough without being assimilated themselves, so Matrix those consume the plant and becomes unstoppable.
The Shaman suggests a back-up plan, that they should try reasoning with Matrix, but Fox thinks this impossible do to Matrix thinking at an accelerated speed compared to organic beings. So Iinstead, the Shaman proposes a journey into The Dreamtime, a parallel world of the mind where one of them could communicate with Matrix at even pace, convince it to stop assimilating matter. Goliath and Dingo undergo a brief ritual that transports their minds into The Dreamtime, where they meet up with Matrix, there an abstract mind shaped like an atom that believes in creating order out of random chaos. To that end it attacks the two. A scuffle ensues, with Goliath and Dingo using their imagination to create weapons against the artificial intelligence, but are defeated soon after. Goliath tries reasoning with Matrix, explaining to it that order is an ever changing motion and not a stagnant relief. The entity is left befuddled, its programming compels it to create order, but is now uncertain as to how. Dingo, on the spur of the moment, brings up the notion of "law and order", basically law enforcement, and Matrix immediately gains interest. Back into the physical world, Goliath and Dingo have woken up and Matrix has receded its expansion. The artificial intelligence shapes itself into a human form and begins communicating on par with the others, wishing to learn more of law and order. A reluctant Dingo briefly brings up his and Fox's time on The Pack television series and how he expresses interest in becoming a crime-fighter. Matrix is moved by his words and accepts Dingo's request for a partnership, fussing itself with his armor in order for them to enforce the law together.
The Green
Jackal and Hyena went off on a separate venture, now under contract to protect a Guatemala rain-forest cutting operation for Cyberbiotics, a robot manufacturing company which rivals Xanatos Enterprises. As it turns out, the local rain-forest is protected by an indigenous gargoyle clan operating out of a Mayan pyramid and fighting during both day and night on account of magic amulets that prevents their diurnal petrifaction. This local clan is further assisted by the arrival of the Avalon globetrotting gargoyles: Goliath, Bronx, Angela, plus Elisa. Hyena and Jackal spy on the gargoyles, overhearing the Guatemalan gargoyles history: a Mayan sorcerer desired to have the gargoyles defend the pyramid day-in and day-out, so he created a golden sun-shaped amulet encrusted with sapphire, obsidian, turquoise and jade, then had it imbued with a spell which caused four gargoyles wearing one of four amulets made out off the same gem stones to become immune to the sun. Three years ago, poachers raided the pyramid while the four gem wearers were out in the forest, destroyed the rest of their clan and stole the sun amulet. Because the four gargoyles' amulets continued preventing the stone sleep they had assumed that the sun amulet must still be intact, somewhere. Instead of killing the gargoyles at their base of operations, right there and then, Jackal locates the sun amulet, coincidentally being housed at the New York Museum of Natural History's Mayan section, and has his sister travel their in order to destroy it, thus breaking the spell and kill the Guatemala clan at morning.
The plan ultimately fails on both fronts. Although Hyena finds the sun amulet, she is beaten by Broadway and Lexington who leave her behind at the police station to be arrested and bring the amulet back home for safe keeping. Meanwhile, because of his sister's failure to break the spell, Jackal's plan to stole time until the sunrise turns the gargoyles to stone is ruined, so he is beaten by them. Do to their failure to stop the Guatemala clan, Preston Vogel, their contractor, terminates Cyberbiotics' contract with the twins, as well as terminating the rain-forest operation altogether.
Strengths and abilities
As a team The Pack proved difficult to beat do to their well coordinated attacks and tactical ambushes. On three separate occasions (during Thrill of the Hunt, Leader of the Pack, Upgrade) the Pack successfully lured the Manhattan clan into a trap, and during the later three they had even succeeded in capturing three of their members. First time around, The Pack took advantage of their knowledge of terrain, setting up traps and using falling debris to knock out the hardy Goliath and the evasive Lexington. Second and third time around, The Pack brought down the clan do to Coyote's help, first time do to his leadership and arsenal, and third time thanks to the augmentations they each received. As such, their weakness lied in the fact that they were less formidable while separated. Goliath and Lexington defeated the entire Pack, ironically, the same they had been attacked, by luring the Pack into a trap and then picking away at them. During the episode Upgrade, the Manhattan Clan yet again took advantage of dividing the Pack, especially against Jackal and Wolf, both having been defeated do to their arrogance. Jackal ignored Wolf's help in taking down Brooklyn, thus he was easily knocked out by the later.
Wolf, who mostly just lunged at his enemies, could not defeat the likes of Goliath or Hudson without someone's help. Wolf needed assistance from Hyena and Jackal during his first fight with the Manhattan clan leader, and he needed Coyote 3.0 to restrain him during their fight in Egypt. And Wolf had only beaten Hudson after being genetically engineered into a werewolf, thus matching strength with the elderly warrior.
Hyena and Jackal relied mostly on their acrobatics and martial arts, coupled with their erratic behavior, often confusing their targets before delivering a finishing blow. Jackal could be easily knocked out by any gargoyle after he got ahead of himself and paid no attention to his surroundings, with Brooklyn punching him unconscious after getting his claws stuck into a wall, while Zafiro and Jade of the Guatemala clan jumped and punched him simultaneously. Similarly, Hyena was brought down twice by the combined efforts of Lexington and Broadway, with Lexington outmaneuvering her while Broadway delivered attacks with precision.
Dingo was one of the more careful members of The Pack, opting to fight the gargoyles at mid-range through the use of weapons such as boomerangs, guns, nets and even grenades. Because of this, he was always the least injured member of his team on every occasion. He only began fighting them head-on after acquiring his cybernetic battle armor.
Members
The Pack's members were from across the globe: Fox, whose real name Janine Renard implies French heritage, Wolf was a descendant of a viking, this giving him partial Danish or Norwegian heritage, Dingo was a white Australian, while the fraternal twins Hyena and Jackal were English speaking Canadians.
1st line-up
2nd line-up
- Coyote 1.0
- Dingo
- Wolf
- Hyena
- Jackal
3rd line-up
- Coyote 2.0
- Wolf
- Hyena
- Jackal
- Dingo
4th line-up
- Coyote 3.0
- Wolf
- Hyena
- Jackal
Trivia
- Aside from Hyena, all other members of The Pack have been affiliated with a supernatural being or have had experiences dealing with the supernatural: Fox is the daughter of Titania, queen of the Third Race(as is fairies in the Gargoyles universe), Wolf worked alongside the ghost of his ancestor, Jackal took possesion of Anubis, Coyote was rebuilt from The Cauldron of Life and captured the trickster Coyote, while Dingo travelled to The Dreamtime.
- Hyena is the only member of The Pack who is named after a feliform carnivoran mamal, while the others were named after animals belonging to the canidae family.
Gallery
