Grendel: Behold the Devil by Matt WagnerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
From a series of journal entries torn from the diary of Hunter Rose - While monitoring his criminal empire, Grendel feels someone or something stalking him. Can he get to the bottom of things while evading a nosy reporter and an unofficial Grendel Task Force?
I've been an admirer of Matt Wagner for quite a while but never managed to get into Grendel aside from Devil by the Deed and the Batman/Grendel crossover in the 1990s. I found this for cheap at InstockTrades so I figured it was time to start catching up.
Matt Wagner returns to the original incarnation of Grendel after more than a decade. His artwork is stellar, minimalism at its finest. There are no wasted colors and Matt proves there's no need to use all 64,000 colors at your disposal when you can do some amazing things with just black, red, and a couple shades of gray.
The writing is almost as slick as the art. You can't help like Hunter Rose despite him being an amoral criminal. Narrated by Christine Sparr, the second Grendel and daughter of Stacy, Hunter Rose's ward in the future, and by Grendel himself, Behold the Devil sees Grendel taking care of business while trying to catch whatever is tailing him and throwing him off his game. The book is loaded with action, intrigue, and blood.
I wouldn't say it's perfect but Grendel: Behold the Devil is a gorgeous, fun, well-written book. Five out of five sword canes.
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