Quick Rating: Good Things Come to Good Ends
Title: Devils’ Demise
All things come to an end.
Writer: Matt Wagner
Artist: Jay Geldhof and John K. Snyder III
Color: Jeromy Cox
Letters: Bob Pinaha
Cover: John K. Snyder III
Asst. Editor: Shawna Ervin-Gore
Editor: Diana Schutz
Grendel is a true anti-hero. He accomplishes heroic ends through non-heroic means. Essentially, the various Grendel comics trace the passing of the Grendel mantle through time, leaping across generations on occasion. In each age, the populace interprets the character of Grendel differently, funneling that understanding through one focal point. Grendel: God and the Devil #10 (Dark Horse) is a reprint from the Grendel series originally published by Comico, now more than ten years in the past. The entire God and the Devil miniseries is a reprint of a run from that original Grendel series. It has been re-colored and fronted with a snappy new cover by John K. Snyder III. This is the final issue in the God and the Devil miniseries. It shows the final confrontation between the Pope, the vampires, Orion Assante, and Grendel. Everything has led up to this.
So, why do I still feel a little let down. I love the self-commentary inherent in the methods used to tell the story. I love harshness of the artwork. And yet, I wanted more. It felt like the end of a one hour television drama with that annoying assumption that the viewers will be back next week, so let’s just say a quick bye and move on to the next show. After everything that has come before it, this issue should have felt like the Lord of the Rings- the books, not the movie. It needed the epilogues, even if they were going to be unhappy.
If you want to know about comic books, you need to know about Grendel as much as you need to know about Superman and Batman and Daredevil and Spiderman. The character never crossed over to the popular imagination, but plenty of great comic books never did. Swamp Thing is essential reading for the comic book aficionado. So is Grendel. Your grandmother might not enjoy it, but it is a great and glorious arrow that flew across the comics horizon.
December, 2003