Derek Maza AKA Talon

Not many people remember this guy. But he was one of the characters from the 1994 TV series "Gargoyles", which starred Keith David as the voice of the main protagonist Goliath. For those of you who don't know, Keith David was also one of the actors from the 1982 horror film "John Carpenter's the Thing", which was about an organic shape changing alien that terrorizes a team of scientists in the South Pole. He was also the character King in the 1986 film Platoon, which also starred actors Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, and Tom Berenger.

Anyway, Talon is a winged panther whose abilities include great strength, agility, flight, and the ability to charge up and release powerful blasts of electricity from his hands. His real name is Derek Maza. He is Elisa Maza's brother, and is the leader of the Mutate Clan, who include Maggie Reed, his love interest, Claw, a mute winged tiger, and formely Fang, an ambitious and rebelious mountain lion who later betrayed Talon and the rest of the clan. Upon his betrayal in the episode Kingdom, Fang has since become Talon's rival.

Talon, along with the rest of the mutates were once human, but have undergone a transformation into their humanoid feline forms as a result of genetic manipulation courtesy of Dr. Anton Sevarious. Talon once held a grudge against Goliath for his mutation until he realized that he got the wrong picture and that Xanatos and Sevarious were in on the conspiracy together. He has since allied himself with Goliath as an ally, but he leads his own team independantly.

As far as I know, Talon is one of the lesser characters who sadly doesn't get much appearances in the show despite being Elisa's brother. In fact, he's only appeared in a few episodes of the series as far back as I can remember, which is unfortunate given that he's one of the Gargoyles' allies. Regardless, I always thought Talon was an interesting character, and I always thought he was original enough to have his own spin-off series. Anyway, this is my first sketch of him. I'll probably have some more Gargoyles fanart posted sooner or later. But until then I hope the few Talon fans out there can appreciate this.

Gargoyles is the property of Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista Television.