Grendel: Devil's Legacy - A Review

Many years ago, a friend at the time gave me the Grendel: Devil's Legacy TPB. He was absolutely in love with it and thought I'd really like it. At the time, the only independent hero I was really into (aside from some manga - specifically, Kamui and Lone Wolf & Cub) was Badger, but I had heard of Grendel, and I figured I'd give it a shot. I liked it well enough back then, but it didn't just knock my socks off. It's been setting on my TPB bookshelf since then, so I decided I'd give it a reread the other day.

Grendel is Matt Wagner's creation and it's been published by at least a half-dozen different companies but hasn't lasted that long at any of them. The ones from this TPB were collected from Comico which is the company I always associate Grendel with. Unfortunately, Devil's Legacy is not drawn by Wagner; the art is done by the Pander Bros. and it's... well, it's not Matt Wagner.

It's not bad mind you, but there's something missing between it and the story. I can't fault the Pander Bros. completely though, since when something finally does happen (and that's not until about Chapter 3 or 4), the work is great! But up to that point, it's very amateurish; a lot of it literally looks like a student's project. I noticed they didn't even list Devil's Legacy in their website credentials that I saw. Worse, their balloon placement is atrocious; you never know which one you're supposed to read next and half the time, you don't know to whom it's supposed to be attributed. You have to just skim the entire page and then piece the order together.

But like I said, I can't completely fault them; Wagner's story drags so much that it took me two days to read through to Chapter Three. TWO DAYS TO READ TWO CHAPTERS OF A COMIC BOOK!

All I can say for the book is that when it gets good, it's good. But it doesn't get good that often.

Still, Wagner is a bonafide badass and I love most of his work. Further, I really enjoy the rest of the Pander Bros.' works that I've seen. And since this series was done independently around 1986, I definitely find it worth a read, but you're not going to be blown away, by any means.

The most important thing I wanted to touch upon is the brilliant use of setting and backstory without saying a word: all the vehicles are hovercraft and the telephones hover as well (obviously based on the large cellular phones of the 1980s, but close enough to such realities), and other semi-futuristic-type devices and services are omnipresent, yet never specifically mentioned. Not being a big Grendel fan, I'm not sure if this is Grendel's milieu in general or not, but I was always impressed by it. I don't think it was just thrown in to make sure it aged well at all; I think it simply fit into the overall scheme of things.

Still, if Wagner, the Pander Bros., or any of their fans are out there and would like to point me toward some of their better works, I'd be more than happy to check them out. Especially if they send them to me to review (hint hint!). As it is, I have seen some of Wagner's other, newer work, and was blown completely away!