David Xanatos

Real Name:  David Xanatos

Identity/Class: Normal human

Occupation: Industrialist

Affiliations: Xanatos Industries, Gen-U-Tech, Owen Burnett, the Illuminati, Demona

Enemies: The Gargoyles, Elisa Maza, Halcyon Renard

Known Relatives: Petros Xanatos (father), Fox Xanatos (wife), Alexander Xanatos (son)

Aliases: None.

Base of Operations: New York, NY

First Appearance: Gargoyles Episode #2 "The Awakening, Part 2" (Buena Vista for Syndication, 25th October 1994)

Powers/Abilities: Xanatos is highly intelligent and capable of constructing complex schemes. These often have multiple goals and often even if his main goal it thwarted, he would still find some gain, even if it were just to learn from his mistakes. Though not a scientist, but he understands a great deal about science and technology, and though not a mage either, he has a limited knowledge of sorcery. He was also very adapt at martial arts and other forms of combat.

History: David Xanatos was the son of Petros Xanatos a fisherman and immigrant from Greece. His family was poor. That all changed, however, when Xanatos received an anonymous letter, which contained a rare coin from the middle ages. The coin was worth a substantial amount and he used it to begin a financial empire. Xanatos rose swiftly in the business world, thanks to large part to a great deal of cunning and a complete lack of ethics. He invested in various hi-tech markets especially robotics, cybernetics, and genetic engineering. He also began to have an interest into the occult, not so much as a practitioner but in hopes of finding the key to immortality. He also at some point joined the secret society known as the Illuminati.

He soon found a rival in Halcyon Renard. This was partially because Renard's company Cyberbiotics was a competitor, but also because they were polar opposites. Xanatos was amoral and manipulative nature, while Renard was a man of uncompromising convictions. Xanatos lured away two of Renard's most valuable employee's: Owen Burnett who became Xanatos's highly competent and extremely loyal personal assistant and Anton Sevarius a brilliant and unscrupulous scientist. This was nothing, however, compared to the fact that he began to date Renard's daughter, Fox. Their attraction was greatly due to the fact that she was as ruthless as he. He in fact set her up as a leader of a group of mercenaries known as the Pack. Strangely, he did grow to truly love her, even more so than he did money or power. He considered this a weakness, yet continued the relationship.

He also soon became the acquaintance of the immortal gargoyle Demona. She convinced him to begin a scheme to free the only other survivors of her clan from an enchantment that had turned them to stone. This required that he buy a Scottish castle, ship it to New York, and rebuild it on top of a skyscraper - for a man of his resources it was not an terribly difficult endeavor. The scheme worked and the clan was reawoken in the 1990's. He soon manipulated them into stealing computer disks from Cyberbiotics. The clan, however, realized that he had been using them and a battle resulted. The gargoyles won out and Xanatos was arrested. His imprisonment was not long, however.

Comments: Voiced by Jonathan Frakes.

Profile by Matthew A. Ilseman. He notes "Xanatos was an interesting antagonist, who unlike the average cartoon villain was not revengeful by nature and did not dwell of defeat. He also truly loved his family. There is a great deal I did not mention (the story behind the mysterious coin, for example) so as not to reveal surprises. More information can be found at www.gargoyles-fans.org."

CLARIFICATIONS: None.

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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