Comic book review: Grendel Vs. The Shadow- Book One- Starring Grendel, the biggest douchebag in comic book history

Writer & Artist: Matt Wagner
Colourist: Brennan Wagner
Publisher: Darkhorse Comics/Dynamite Entertainment
Released: 3rd September 2014

I was a little confused with one of the lines in the opening segment of this book. A sociopathic asshole called ‘Grendel’ appeared to go through some kind of time travel device and whilst surveying a New York city skyline (I knew it was new York because it featured the unmistakable image of the Empire State building) asked, Where are the twin towers?’

My initial reaction was very favourable. Brilliant, I thought. I’m finally going to get a Shadow story set in a post 9/11 world. I’m finally going to see the Shadow deal with contemporary concerns like NSA surveillance, criminal wall-street banksters owning everything and everybody, illegal foreign wars based on lies, the deliberate collectivisation of a dumbed down, television watching slave population and all of the other nightmarish realities that are rapidly destroying America in 2014. But no, after reading on I quickly realised that the reference to the missing twin towers didn’t mean that he was in the present, no he was in the past, before they were built. In the 1930’s, and that’s unfortunately where the Shadow still was.

The obvious question then is, what era is this Grendel piece of crap coming from? After a quick Start Page search (I refuse to use the NSA search engine of choice Google) I learnt that this Grendel moron (I immediately took a vicious dislike to him) is a 1980’s creation by Matt Wagner. So rather than bringing him into the present day (which would make him far more relevant and interesting) I guess he’s still stuck somewhere in the 1980’s. That’s a choice of convenience. It’s the easy choice. You have your character staying in the safe 1980’s and you don’t have to talk about any of the issues that are effecting the world today. I hate it when my comic books do that. I find it cowardly, very cowardly.

Having got all of that off my chest I want to quickly state that I didn’t hate this book. It was enjoyable, and as long as you don’t think about things too much it’s a good little comic. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll list the pluses and minuses of the book, and see whether or not I can recommend it. First off, the pluses:

The colouring in the book is vivid, dramatic and very effective. It creates an atmosphere all of it’s own, and together with the BADDA BADDA BADDA textual sound effects (that was a gun) it’s almost like a cheesy episode of Batman from the 1970’s. It’s silly, very silly, with very bad villains and very good heroes. The plot is childishly simple to follow and the Shadow himself keeps popping up in the err, well Shadows with his trademark HAHAHAHAHA laugh. It’s a lot of fun, it’s just well, it’s a lot….silly.

The minuses of the book are very apparent. The female characters are either angels or sultry, seductive vixens. They are add-ons to the male characters, and that really does stand out in 2014 where female characters are portrayed as the protagonists. A lot of modern readers will hate that. I don’t hate it; I just find it a little strange, a little old-fashioned and a little bit insulting, even though I myself get fed up of contemporary comics where the females are always in charge.

The character of Grendel, as you’ve probably already noticed from my brief descriptions of him, is extremely unlikeable. The guy is pretty much the living dictionary definition of a complete and utter twat. A drug dealing kingpin who doesn’t value human life, at all. In this book he’s portrayed as a super dashing, ultra-cool, handsome, debonair, erudite Nietsche ubermensch. In other words, uggggghhhh, he’s repulsive and I want to see the Shadow hand his ass to him for two books straight. I can’t believe that this twat was a major character for so long in the 80’s and 90’s. What the Hell were people thinking, buying books about this repellent douchebag?

This assbag Grendel character comes across as a wish-fulfilment fantasy character for writer Matt Wagner. In this single issue Grendel uses his awesome acrobatic ability and the super technology of a knife on a stick to bring an entire Mafia family to it’s knees. Oh, and he’s also a brilliant author as well, somehow knocking out a society adored best seller in about ten minutes flat, and he’s extremely handsome and all of the hot girls want to sleep with him, obviously. Oh God, this is verging on the laughable. It’s like a bratty, twatty fourteen-year-old has written himself into a comic book. Aggghhh, unbearable.

So why did I largely enjoy this book? It wasn’t just the colouring, was it? Strangely enough, I think it largely was about the colouring, and the knowledge that the Shadow is lurking in the backgrounds just waiting to kick lumps of crap out of the bag of shite douchefarm known as Grendel. You know what? I’m going to get the next two issues of this book. Matt Wagner has made me hate his Grendel character so much that I want to hang around to see him get kicked out of the 1930’s and sent back into the safe, nowhere land of the mid 1980’s, hopefully to never return and darken the Shadow’s path ever again.

I would have been absolutely thrilled to read a book with the Shadow in a post 9/11 world, but I didn’t get it here. Hopefully somebody out there in comic book land is reading this rant/review and they can do that? Go on, be brave. DO IT. But for the time being I’ll take what Shadow action I can get. His red scarf looks really cool in this book, and I’ll keep on reading just to see him hand Mr 1980’s Grendel his ass in a handbag.

Rating: 7/10