Mon Dec 12, 2016
Grendel is a character that I’ve always found really interesting, partially because of the visual design of the character (and the various iterative riffs on that initial design), and partially because it’s a striking creator-owned franchise.
Matt Wagner’s Grendel comics sprawl out from an initial crime tale of a man driven to violent success to that of a global empire and cult.
Grendel Tales covers some of those later stories; “The Devil In Our Midst” is a story that takes place in a remote Antarctic station, like a kind of Grendel-flavored version of John Carpenter’s The Thing–complete with Jonah (the Grendel) having virus-infested blood that (unknown to Jonah) causes one of the station residents to explode.
The cover shows Jonah in his red Grendel outfit, the fabric over his chest ripped open, as he stands in front of a green background. From the top right corner, a wolf or dog leaps at him, mostly silhouette save for a bright red eye.
Grendel Tales: The Devil In Our Midst issue 001
The series is effectively an anthology, but the comic is overwhelmingly about Jonah’s story; the last 3-4 pages comprise a “part 2” of a story about Grendel Prime (written and drawn or painted by Matt Wagner; this art is incredible). But I’ll focus on the Jonah story here.
I really dig that the art looks so different from a “superhero” comic; the characters aren’t necessarily realistic, but they have clearly “normal” features/postures rather than everyone being unrealistically fit and attractive.
There’s also a vibrant sense of despair and isolation here–and not just in the Antarctic facility. The ship that Jonah is cast away from is manned by a crew of pirates (appearing to be Conan-esque fantasy pirates, honestly) who quickly recognize they need to let Jonah go on trying to die.
I forgot to mention that Jonah is doing his damnedest to die. Like so many “edgy” heroes, he has a mysterious past and is supposedly a super-badass. But unlike the other heroes from this template, Jonah is actively attempting to die–and not violently or quickly, but by starving on the ocean, or drowning in it, or letting wolves rip him to shreds. He almost gets his wish, but he’s saved at the last moment each time–carrying on the Grendel legacy.
As someone who’s not comprehensively familiar with the Grendel franchise, I can’t tell exactly when this takes place; I assume it happens after Grendel-Khan has conquered the world and built an army of Grendels (this is suggested by Jonah’s memories of being branded on the face with the Grendel eye decorations/shapes). The world has definitely gone to shit under GK’s rule … at least, for those who aren’t Grendel disciples.
It’s fascinating to see a superhero cultural phenomenon (in the universe of the comic) where things have turned out so poorly. By this I mean that we rarely see this particular outcome unfold. Usually, the superhero is smarter than humanity and so lifts up civilization (e.g., Miracleman or Superman). Less frequently, the superhero inadvertently causes global disaster (e.g., the Squadron Supreme or Kingdom Come, although in the latter case there’s an effort to make up for that disaster). Less frequently than that is the superhero who snaps and becomes the villain (e.g., Irredeemable). Here, there’s a clear status quo playing out that centers on the Grendel phenomenon, the agents of whom are acting in what they believe are their–or everyone’s–best interests, and humanity is left trying to just get by within that world.
Given that Grendel is effectively Satan (and this may or may not be explicitly confirmed in some Grendel story), that’s a potentially terrifying realization to make and explore.