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Grendel is a long-running series of comic books originally created by author Matt Wagner. First published by Comico, the property has now passed to Dark Horse. Originally a noir comic concerning a criminal mastermind, it has evolved into, in Wagner's words, a study of the nature of aggression.
Plot
Warning: spoilers below.
After a three-issue black and white miniseries introducing Hunter Rose and Argent, Comico published forty issues written by Wagner, with a new artist on each arc. The series left the original character and followed a series of avatars, each of whom took up the name and symbol of Grendel, until the ideal achieved worldwide domination.
When the series moved to Dark Horse, a ten-issue miniseries (War Child) sketched out the post-ascension world, and introduced the final avatar, Grendel-Prime.
After War Child, several miniseries were published by various authors and artists under the title Grendel Tales. The series published amateur submissions on at least one occasion: Darko Macan and Edvin Biukovic submitted their work and were subsequently not only published, but asked back to do another miniseries.
Hunter Rose
The story begins with an extraordinarily gifted boy, his name only given as Eddie. Because victory in his endeavors came so easily to him, it all seemed meaningless. In despair, he threw a world-championship fencing match.
He was then befriended by Jocasta Rose, a champion fencer herself. After a torrid love affair, Rose died. Eddie left behind his former life, deciding to take up a crime. He fashioned a mask and a fork (a two-pronged blade at the end of a staff), and gave himself a new persona and a new name---Hunter Rose.
By day, Hunter Rose was a successful author and socialite. By night, however, he was Grendel, a master criminal striking fear into his enemies and jockeying for position as crime lord of the entire east coast. He was hunted relentlessly by Argent, a man-wolf cursed with a thirst for violence, working for the police in an effort to turn his curse to good.
Eventually, he befriended a child, Stacy Palumbo, the daughter of a slain mobster. She lived with Hunter, knowing nothing of his secret identity. Ironically, she also had befriended the wolf.
Stacy would prove to be his downfall. She discovered his identity and pitted him directly against Argent. They met on the roof of a Masonic temple. When the battle was over, Argent was paralyzed, and this first incarnation of Grendel, dead.
This arc (the original miniseries and Devil by the Deed) was illustrated by Matt Wagner.
Stacy Palumbo eventually married her therapist, Eric Powell. Upon their wedding night, he cruelly raped her and then hung himself. This act conceived Christine Spar (nee Powell). Following Christine's birth, Stacy goes into a perpetual catatonia and dies twenty five years later.
Christine Spar
Christine Spar was the child of Stacy Palumbo. She wrote the book, Devil by the Deed, and was commonly known as Grendel's Grand-daughter. She becomes Grendel after an evil vampire kidnaps her son, Anson. In her quest to rescue her son, she comes into conflict with Argent. The eventual meeting between them results in a fight to the death, with both participants dying.
Devil's Legacy comprised Grendel #1-12.
Brian Li Sung
Brian Li Sung was the stage manager with the vampire Tujiro's Kabuki group. He met and romanced Christine Spar during her time as Grendel.
After her death, he became more and more confused. Eventually he becomes Grendel and is stopped during a murder attempt by Chief Wiggins.
The Devil Inside comprised Grendel #13-15.
Captain Wiggins
Albert Wiggins first appears as a chic, flamboyant New York detective with a cybernetic eye (presumably through injury) that can function as a lie detector. Immediately suspecting that Christine Spar might be connected with the early murders using Grendel's stolen paraphenelia, Wiggins enlists the aid of Argent in tracking down the new Grendel. After Christine's demise, Wiggins immediately hounds Brian LiSung suspecting that Brian might have stolen Christine's journals. Dodging Brian's many attempts to assassinate Wiggins, Wiggins cooly disposes of Brian just as the latter is about to shoot him. Many decades later, a happily retired Wiggins is persuaded by friends and Grendel enthusiasts to write something on Grendel since he is now the only person left alive who was actually involved. Not wishing to dredge up old ghosts, Wiggins elects to tell stories concerning Hunter Rose who was before Wiggins' time. Wiggins' books are an immediate success and he finds himself caught in the trappings of wealth and success. At the same time, Wiggins notices that his vision is distorted in his cybernetic eye. Everyone appears as grotesque caricatures, even his new young wife. Doctors finding nothing wrong with the cyber-eye, they conclude that Wiggins may be stressed out due to his age and new celebrity status. What Wiggins is seeing out of his lie-detector eye is the true ugliness of the sycophants that now surround him; their greed, shallowness and their desire to simply use him for his fame and wealth. All of this comes to a climax when Wiggins is finally pushed over the edge by his young, spoiled wife's incessant nagging. Murdering her in a brief fit of liberating rage, Albert Wiggins waits calmly as police come to arrest him.
Note: One of Wiggin's stories centers around rather ordinary police Lt. Lewis Polk who investigates a diamond smuggling affair supposedly engineered by Grendel. The other is an expanded story on informant Tommy Nuncio, who was briefly mentioned in Devil by the Deed.
Devil Tracks appeared in Grendel #16-17; Devil Eyes appeared in Grendel #17-18.
Eppy Thatcher
God and the Devil comprised Grendel #24-33.
Orion Assante
Devil's Reign comprised Grendel #34-40.
Grendel-Prime
War Child was published as a ten-issue miniseries. This story arc is set after the death of Orion I, in which his son Jupiter has been kidnapped by a lone Grendel (known hereafter as Grendel-Prime, although none of the characters in the story call him that) from his home/prison at a based in the Dakota Black Hills. The regent, Laurel Kennedy, aided by her minister Abner Heath, (widow of Orion) sends the empire's elite Red Devils after the renegade Grendel and his hostage, further neglecting and alienating her daughter Crystal in the process.
Jupiter and the Grendel flee through wastelands and the wreckage of cities, across the ocean, and into the jungles of Africa. Along the way, they encounter not only the Red Devils but also bandits, mutants, pirates, dangerous wildlife, and other Grendels (both friend and foe).
During this period, Crystal begins an affair with her green-mohawked guard, a Grendel named Susan. The two escape the Black Hills complex and flee into the wilderness.
In the OPEC wastes, the pair is saved by a band of rebels who are opposed to the misrule of Laurel Kennedy. While in their custody, Grendel-Prime reveals himself to be the paladin of Orion Assante, a solar-powered cyborg created to protect Jupiter from political manipulators until the crown prince is old enough to assume the throne of the Grendel-Khan.
During this time, Jupiter is abducted from the rebel base by a group of vampires who take him back to their lair in Siberia. The rebels and charismatic their leader, Azif a-Barouk, accompany Grendel-Prime to rescue the boy, and Grendel-Prime manages to slay the vampires' lord in the process-- who turns out to be none other than Orion Assante's old foe, Pellon Cross.
Ten years pass; Laurel Kennedy, on the brink of insanity has been quietly displaced and imprisoned by Abner Heath, who takes on the role of world leader. Heath is attempting to hold the empire together and learn how to activate the Sun-Disc, Orion's most formidable weapon. It is during a televised worldwide broadcast that Jupiter-- now a young man-- and Grendel-Prime make their move. Grendel-Prime and his team capture the Imperial palace, and Jupiter raids the Black Hills complex, encountering a wasted and frail Laurel Kennedy in the process. Activating the Sun-Disc, Prime enables Jupiter to hijack Heath's broadcast in order to make his claim to the title of Grendel-Khan.
After Jupiter's coronation, Grendel-Prime takes his leave of Jupiter and disappears off into the wastelands.
Grendel-Prime is shown in a black leather skintight outfit which covers his entire body, as well as his Grendel mask which features the Devil's Eyes which are the emblem of Grendle throughout the series. Underneath his leather and mask, he is a combination of flesh and visible metal and machine parts.
Collections
Original works
- Devil by the Deed
- Devil's Legacy
- The Devil Inside
- God and the Devil
- Devil's Reign
- War Child
Grendel Tales
- Four Devils, One Hell
- The Devil in Our Midst
There is also an illustrated novel by Greg Rucka (illustrations by Matt Wagner), Past Prime, ISBN 1569713987.
External links
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