![[Elisa Maza]](elisa.jpg)
Gender: Female
First Appearance: "Awakening" Part I
Other Appearances: Every episode of Gargoyles and the Goliath Chronicles except "Kingdom," "Pendragon," "The Gathering" Part II, "Vendettas," "Possession," "Broadway Goes To Hollywood," "Genesis Undone," "Generations," and "To Serve Mankind."
Elisa Maza was born in 1968 to Peter and Diane Maza. She later had two younger siblings, Derek and Beth. When she grew into an adult, she followed in her father's footsteps and joined the NYPD, eventually serving as a detective in Manhattan's 23rd Precinct under Captain Maria Chavez. She became friends with fellow officer Morgan.
On a night in 1994, her life changed forever. She was called in to investigate sounds of automatic weapons fire and falling rubble coming from the Eyrie Building. She was amazed to find claw marks dug into one of the stone chunks. She went to the top of the Eyrie Building, to Castle Wyvern, to figure out from the building's owner, David Xanatos, what was responsible for the automatic weapons fire and falling rubble. Xanatos's assistant, Owen Burnett, tried to explain it off as a faulty, exploding electrical generator, an explanation that didn't fool Elisa for a second. Xanatos then spoke with her, and explained that in reality he had repelled an invasion by a rival corporation. He then sent her on her way. However, this explanation still did not fully satisfy Elisa, and as the elevator took her back to the ground floor, she stopped it and snuck back into Wyvern to look around by herself.
When she got to the castle walls, she encountered the gargoyle beast, Bronx. She was panicked by him, and nearly shot him- but the gargoyle leader, Goliath, crushed her gun before she could, which frightened her so much that she lost her footing and fell from the castle walls. Goliath managed to glide down and save her. He took her back up to Wyvern, and told her his story- the story of his clan's betrayal at Wyvern 1000 years ago, and the curse of stone sleep his clan was placed under until the castle rose above the clouds.
Since Goliath had saved her life, she quickly trusted the gargoyles and became their friend. They still were mistrustful of humans, but Elisa gained their trust after an incident in Central Park. She and Goliath had gone on a tour of New York City, and had landed in Central Park. They were attacked by a group of mercenaries, and Elisa helped Goliath escape. She discovered a tracking device on Goliath that the mercenaries had used to locate him. Unfortunately, he was unable to return to Wyvern before dawn, and he turned to stone, much to Elisa's astonishment. To protect him, Elisa led the mercenaries away from the stone Goliath, and, after a leading them on a chase through Central Park, evaded them. She then protected Goliath until nightfall, when he awoke. Goliath was surprised that she had protected him.
Elisa witnessed Goliath and Demona leaving the Cyberbiotics air fortress as it crashed into the Hudson River. She checked on a corporate logo she had found on the tracking device, and discovered that it belonged to a robotics firm owned by none other than Xanatos Enterprises. She also discovered that Xanatos's claim that three computer disks had been stolen from him was false, and that the disks Goliath's clan had "stolen back" were actually Cyberbiotics property. She met with Goliath later that night, and told him what she had discovered. Goliath had to choose who to trust- Elisa or Xanatos. To his credit, he chose Elisa. Goliath and Elisa headed separately back to Castle Wyvern, and Elisa arrived just in time to save Goliath from Demona, who was about to blast Goliath with a bazooka, by tackling her and throwing off her aim. Unfortunately, the missile hit a tower behind Goliath, causing it to collapse into the castle wall and make both Elisa and Demona fall from the castle. Goliath chose to save Elisa first, but was unable to get to Demona in time to save her. In a rage, Goliath nearly dropped Xanatos to his death, but Elisa and Hudson convinced him not to. Elisa had Xanatos arrested on charges of receiving stolen property, but he was only sent to prison for a few months. Because of this, Elisa tried to convince Goliath that it was not safe to stay at Castle Wyvern. Goliath stubbornly refused to leave.
Then the crisis of Elisa's shooting occured. Broadway came into her apartment after seeing a cowboy movie, Showdown, and began playing with Elisa's gun. It accidentally went off in his hands- and Elisa was hit by the bullet. Broadway panicked, and took her to a nearby hospital. She managed to pull through the surgery needed to fix the damage, and Peter, Diane, and Derek came to see her. Her heart stopped at one point, but fortunately the doctors resuscitated her. Broadway promised never to touch a gun again, and Elisa admitted that she shouldn't have left the gun out like she did, and told him that they both made mistakes. From that point forward, she kept her gun in a locked box in a drawer in her kitchen.
She recovered, but she had to walk on crutches for a few weeks after the accident. She was still trying to convince Goliath to leave, and MacBeth's first attack on the clan got her point across to Hudson and Broadway. She helped them take the Grimorum Arcanorum with them as they left Castle Wyvern. Goliath was angry, but she finally convinced him. The clan moved into the clock tower above her precinct house. Using her salary, Elisa provided them with furniture, food, cooking supplies, and electronics such as computers and television sets.
Soon after Elisa brought the gargoyles to the clock tower, Captain Chavez gave her a partner, Detective Matt Bluestone. She wasn't too happy having a partner, but they got used to one another. After an incident involving Xanatos and the Steel Clan, Elisa was shot with a poison dart by Demona, but fortunately, it hit her badge. She tried to lay low for a while at Goliath's suggestion, but it wasn't very long before Demona discovered that she was still alive. After that incident, however, Elisa had to deal with the crisis of her younger brother, Derek, leaving the police force to work for Xanatos. Despite all her efforts, Derek still became Xanatos's helicopter pilot and personal bodyguard.
After the crisis in winter with Coldstone and the return of the Pack under their new leader, Coyote, Elisa had to deal with a further crisis with her brother. He was mutated by Dr. Anton Sevarius into a creature part human, part bat, part cat, and part electric eel, and took the new name of Talon. When she discovered what had happened, her hatred for Xanatos, whom she knew had done this on purpose, increased even more.
Ever since they met, there had been something special between Goliath and Elisa. The events centered around Titania's Mirror brought the feelings they had for one another to the surface. During this, the Child of Oberon, Puck, transformed Elisa and the rest of the humans in Manhattan into gargoyles. Being the same species strengthened the feelings that they already had felt. Unfortunately, after Goliath had Puck return everything to normal, he tried to talk to Elisa about those feelings, but she was not yet ready to admit them.
Elisa had many adventures with the gargoyles. With the gargoyles, she fought threats like Tony Dracon, Demona, MacBeth, Thailog, and the Pack. During the infamous City of Stone incident, Elisa was affected by Demona's spell and Demona nearly smashed her while she was stone. Fortunately, Bronx was there to protect her stone form. She rescued the clan from the triple threat of Demona, MacBeth, and Coldstone's evil personality, who was in control of Coldstone's body. Thanks to the Illuminati Society, Matt Bluestone learned of the gargoyles' existence and Elisa's connections to them. She allowed him to meet the clan. After an adventure involving Goliath and Matt, Matt asked her why she hadn't told him about them. Elisa told him it was because being their only human friend made her feel special, and she didn't want to lose that. Elisa also saved Broadway's life when he turned to stone in midair during a battle with a MacBeth android. The clan was very grateful.
Then came the night when Tom, the Guardian, came to Manhattan to enlist Goliath's help against the Archmage and his forces, who threatened the humans and gargoyles of Avalon. Elisa and Bronx accompanied them. During the battle with the Archmage's forces, Elisa awoke the Sleeping King, Arthur Pendragon, so that he could help them in the battle. She also helped save the wounded gargoyles on Avalon from Demona, who was under the Archmage's control. After Goliath defeated the Archmage, Angela accompanied them as they left for Manhattan, but the four did not know that "Avalon does not send you where you want to go, Avalon sends you where you need to be." And thus began the sequence known as the Avalon World Tour.
Elisa was involved in many adventures during this journey. She was with Goliath when he confronted the ghosts of Hakon and the Captain of the Guard in Wyvern, Scotland. They battled Raven in the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Sevarius at Loch Ness, Tomas Brod in Prague, Demona and Thailog in Paris, the Pack in Egypt, the Banshee in Ireland, and the Matrix in the Australian Outback. In Nigeria, Elisa encountered her mother Diane, and informed her of the gargoyles' existence. Diane was angry at not having been told, but after they, the gargoyles, and the werepanthers Fara Maku and Tea battled the trickster Anansi, Elisa and her mother reconciled.
There were further stops on the journey. After the incident involving Odin and his Eye in Norway, they traveled to the hidden island of New Olympus. There, Elisa was met with the same hatred that the gargoyles were met with by most humans in the rest of the world. She was imprisoned for her own protection, but after helping to defeat the shape-shifting criminal, Proteus, she was freed. Then, they traveled to Guatemala, where they helped a clan of gargoyles defend their rain forest against Jackal and Hyena. Then, there was the incident on Easter Island.
On Easter Island, the alien being, Nokkar, thought he rescued Elisa from the gargoyles, whom he thought were evil aliens. Elisa tried to convince him that he was wrong, but this instead made him believe that the gargoyles had Elisa under some sort of mind control. To eliminate this supposed programming, Nokkar subjected Elisa to a "mind-cleansing" process designed to remove mental tampering. It had the additional side effect, however, of giving the subject temporary amnesia. As a result, when he released Elisa, she wandered, not knowing who she was. She was picked up by two archaeologists, Lydia Duane and Arthur Morwood-Smyth, who took her to their hotel room. They had a doctor check her out, but then Goliath came to get her. Not knowing who Goliath was, Elisa would've shot him if her gun hadn't been out of bullets. He took her with him and left, but Nokkar used a hologram of Angela to capture Goliath, and then took Elisa into his subterranean ship, where he explained what he thought was the truth to her. However, when Nokkar nearly executed the gargoyles, Elisa felt a loyalty to them that made her help the gargoyles escape. Nokkar was about to destroy them all, but he asked Elisa why she helped the gargoyles, and she told him that she felt an unexplained loyalty to them. He asked her if she trusted that feeling, and she did. This made Nokkar decide to let them go, because, he said, the "brain-cleansing" process only destroys false memories, and the loyalty she felt returning must be genuine. The group left, and eventually Elisa regained her full memories.
After that adventure, the travelers went to Ishimura, Japan, where they helped save a Japanese clan of gargoyles from the manipulative Taro. Next, they helped save the Kachina Coyote from Xanatos and Coyote 4.0 in Flagstaff, Arizona. While there, Elisa introduced the rest of her family, Peter and Beth, to the gargoyles. Then, she was present when Goliath, Angela, and Gabriel fought Oberon on Avalon. She donated her gun to help make the iron bell that defeated him.
They finally returned home after that, although Goliath had his "Future Tense" dream en route. Goliath returned Elisa to her apartment, and she slept through the battle with Oberon thanks to the mass sleep spell that Oberon had cast on all of New York City. She next went undercover to infiltrate Tomas Brod's gang, who were in a turf war with Tony Dracon's gang, under the alias of Salli. She helped defeat Brod's gang, with the help of the Trio and Angela.
During their Avalon journey, Goliath and Elisa's feelings for one another deepened greatly. Their relationship faced its greatest test during the events centered around the Hunter's Moon. Elisa was given a new partner, Jason Conover, who had many of the traits she was attracted to in Goliath. There was a mutual attaction between them, which led to an unexpected kiss between them in her apartment. She felt conflicted between her feelings for Goliath and her new feelings for Jason Conover.
Also during this time, Angela was attacked by three masked men who called themselves the Hunters. They nearly killed Angela, but, fortunately, Elisa managed to save her life using CPR. When the Hunters destroyed the clock tower, Elisa was rescued by one of the Hunters, who turned out to be none other than Jason. She tried to prevent Goliath and Jason from trying to kill one another at a dam, but she and Jason fell into the waterfalls coming from the dam. The clan and the Hunters thought that Elisa and Jason were dead. In reality, however, Jason managed to save Elisa, and Jason finally came to his senses about the gargoyles. Elisa and Jason arrived in time to prevent Goliath from killing Jon Canmore in a mad rage, but not in time to prevent Jon's descent into madness. Unfortunately, Jon Canmore, in the guise of WVRN reporter Jon Carter, had revealed the existence of the gargoyles, and blamed them for the destruction of the clocktower, causing them to be hunted by the police as well as the citizens of New York City. Goliath and his clan were narrowly rescued from capture by Xanatos, who owed the clan a debt for helping save his son Alexander from Oberon. The clan moved back into Castle Wyvern, and Elisa went to see Jason, who had been accidentally shot by Jon and was now paralyzed. Elisa made it clear that she was willing to help Jason, but there was someone else who would always come first. That someone was Goliath, and they finally admitted their true feelings for one another in a kiss as the the sun rose.
A few nights later, Elisa and Goliath tried to go on a sort of date, but it was interupted by an attack from the Quarrymen, an anti-gargoyle organization organized by Jon Canmore, who had changed his name to Jon Castaway. They were nearly killed by Castaway, but they were saved by an odd man named Vinnie, who had joined the Quarrymen but betrayed them because of their harsh methods.
In the Goliath Chronicles, Elisa was involved in many more adventures with the clan. Elisa and Goliath's relationship went through another test when the shapeshifter, Proteus, escaped to New York City and imitated Goliath and Elisa in an attempt to destroy both of them. Elisa nearly lost her trust in Goliath, but she regained it after they, Taurus, Angela, and Hudson defeated Proteus. Then, the gargoyles were lured into a Quarryman trap and were seemingly destroyed, with the exception of Angela and Bronx. However, Xanatos had saved them, and told Elisa of this. Margot Yale, a gargoyle-hater, had Elisa help guard Angela and Bronx when they were put on a train that was to take them to another city to stand trial for charges of terrorism. Elisa told Angela the truth, but the Quarrymen attacked, trying to destroy the train so that the gargoyles on it were destroyed. The clan came to save them, and the humans on the train saw the gargoyles trying to save them from the Quarrymen. The humans on the train, including Margot Yale, finally saw the truth, that the gargoyles were good protectors, not evil monsters. The train was saved, the Quarrymen were arrested, and humans and gargoyles lived together once again.
In Greg Weisman's Master Plan, Elisa would have taken the time to discuss her relationship with Goliath, and determine that it would never work, asking him to "see other people". They would have gone on a double date, Elisa with either Jason Canmore or Morgan and Goliath with Delilah. The end result would have been them realizing they were destined for each other. They would have had a Commitment Ceremony eventually, and by 2198, Elisa Maza would be dead.
Elisa Maza is a normal but very athletic human, with many self-defense, detective, and police-related skills that she gained from her training as a police officer and detective.