Grendel: Devil's Reign (Grendel (Graphic Novels))

Description

Thw award-winning team of Grendel creator Matt Wagner and artist Tim Sale deliever one of the most ambitious epic in comics, in this groundbreaking synthesis of politics, war religion, and the devil. The year is 2530, and the corrupt Church, Vatican Ouest, has fallen, spreading upheaval across North America, along with an infestation of vampires. In this new world, Ex-COP leader Pellon Cross is still at large, devil-possessed Eppy Thatcher is missing, and Orion Assante is on an ambitious quest to restore order to the continent and gain legitimate power. But will Orion attain his goals before threats from overseas change the rules in this game for power?

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Customer Reviews

Really just for Grendel purists
I read (and still own) this story in the original comics, waiting month after month. It slowly walks through the future destiny of the Grendel universe. Orion Assante tries to restore peace, stop vampires, and unify the world. Pellon Cross tries to lead his people to freedom and glory.

This book is pretty much unreadable except as followup to the previous one, God and the Devil. But in the context of the complete Grendel series, Devil's Reign is an awe-inspiring epic. And of course it sets the stage for the existence of fan-favorite Grendel Prime. Vivat Grendel!

2010-04-22 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Two and half stars overall
This book consists of two stories: one is like illustrated novel and tells tale of Orion Assante and what happened after he took power. Other is 'real' comic with strong art and tells tale about what happened to some characters from 'God and devil' storyline you HAVE to read. If you start reading this book and didn't read Grendel before OR mentioned story, you will feel confused. Get 'God and Devil' and then this one for continuity's sake. I have hard time recommending this book or criticizing this book in a bad way.

2009-08-27 | Marko V. (Belgrade, Serbia) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Green Hornet: Year One Volume 1 TP

Description

The Green Hornet expansion continues as Dynamite presents the original tales of comics most iconic hero! And Matt Wagner, one of the most creative creators in comics, takes the reins, bringing the characters to their basic roots. Joining Wagner is artist Aaron (Sherlock Holmes) Campbell, whose stunning recreation of the industrial world of 30s Chicago is sure to wow fans across the globe. Reprinting issues #1-6, along with a complete cover gallery.

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Grendel: Behold The Devil (Grendel (Graphic Novels))

Description

For years, the life of the original Grendel, Hunter Rose, has been accessible only through his private journal, but there is a secret too terrible for even its pages, and a section of the journal is missing. Behold the Devil follows Rose through this lost period early in his criminal career, as he is under scrutiny not only by the police and media, but also by the prying eyes of an unseen - possibly supernatural pursuer. Unusually shaken and paranoid, the criminal mastermind is forced to take steps that redefine the evil of the entity known as Grendel!

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Customer Reviews

Revist an old dark friend
To this day I can remember when, as a teenager, I first experienced Matt Wagner's dark crime boss Grendel. With the brilliant three color art work, the story within the story, and the shifting between traditional panels and long form narration, Wagner explored and expanded the understanding of his medium much the same as Alan Moore did in his own work. //Grendel: Behold the Demon// carries the pleasant sensation of revisiting an old friend, even as it transported me back decades to when I first encountered the beguiling anti-hero of the title.

While a new concept, //Behold the Demon// follows the original pattern. Christine Spar, daughter of Grendel's traumatized ward as well as the Devil's chronicler, recalls a missing section of his journals. What experience could so unbalance the dark crime boss that he would excise it from his own journal? That is the tale here contained, as Grendel confronts the magical realism which always lingers beneath the surface of these stories and glimpses the dark depths of his future legacy. Can even the Devil emerge from such a thing unscathed?

Reviewed by Jordan Magill

2010-06-21 | Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Revisit an old, dark friend
To this day I can remember when, as a teenager, I first experienced Matt Wagner's dark crime boss Grendel. With the brilliant three color art work, the story within the story, and the shifting between traditional panels and long form narration, Wagner explored and expanded the understanding of him medium even as Alan Moore did much the same in his own work. "Grendel: Behold the Demon" carries the pleasant sensation of revisiting an old friend, even as it transported me back decades to when I first encountered the beguiling anti-hero of the title.

While a new conceit, "Behold the Demon" follows the original pattern. Christine Spar, daughter of Grendel's traumatized ward as well as the Devil's chronicler, recalls a missing section of his journals. What experience could so unbalance the dark crime boss that he would excise it from his own journal? That is the tale here contained, as Grendel confronts the magical realism which always lingers beneath the surface of these stories and glimpses the dark depths of his future legacy. Can even the Devil emerge from such a thing unscathed?

2010-06-07 (Sacramento, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Speak of the Devil...
Some guys can do it, and some just can't. Frank Miller embarrassed himself going back to his most famous work with Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, and a certain bearded filmmaker who shall remain nameless managed to decimate decades of goodwill, love and praise by returning to his most famous creation twenty-two years after the fact and producing a steaming pile of Bantha poodu. Sigh...

Clearly, Matt Wagner does not have this problem. He is one of the guys who can do it, and do it well.

In 2007 to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his most famous creation, Matt Wagner returned again to the world of the Hunter Rose Grendel, the black-and-white suited ruthless supervillain who dashes off elegant prose with the same aplomb that he skewers people on his giant electrified fork, and whose only true threat is a monstrous Native American wolfman called Argent.

It is interesting that the Hunter Rose Grendel is the most famous of Wagner's creations, as he has seen relatively little screen time. Starting in the anthology series "Comico Primer" in 1982, Hunter Rose's success was limited with a short three-issue series and some back-up pages in Wagner's other creation Mage. Aside from a few short stories and appearances here and that, that was it for the young genius Hunter Rose who is an award-winning novelist by day and the most feared gangster in the world by night. Almost all of Wagner's other Grendels, such as Christine Spar, Orion Assante and Grendel Prime (sorry Brian Lu Sing...you just don't count...) got far more page-time than the original Hunter Rose. But somehow it is Rose that remains the iconic figure.

With "Grendel - Behold the Devil" Wagner slips back effortlessly into the world of Hunter Rose. Taking his lead from the 1986 Grendel: Devil By The Deed which used the trope of being a novel about Hunter Rose written by his successor Christine Spar, "Behold the Devil" covers the "missing two weeks" from Rose's journal.

These missing two weeks are fully played out as Hunter Rose goes about his slaughtering business nagged by the feeling that someone is watching him. The unmistakable presence of...something...is throwing him off his game, and the unthinkable is happening as a result. Grendel is making mistakes. This is, of course, unacceptable, as Hunter Rose has defined himself as being in total control of himself and his environment, and cannot permit lapses in will-power or second-guessing. He begins to search for whoever this mysterious observer is.

In the meantime, a reporter named Lucas Ottoman is slowly dogging Grendel's trail, trying to find out something about the mysterious figure who rules the underworld. He follows leads where they take him, builds up an impressive collection of interviews and supporting evidence, but soon finds that getting too close to the Devil is a more dangerous game than he bargained for.

Both Lucas and Hunter are searching, and neither is going to like the answer they find. Grendel's hunt leads him into the uncertain worlds of Voodoo masters and magic potions, places where Rose's ability to control his environment has no meaning and he must trust in red potions of virgin's first blood mixed with the tears of murder victims. Certain truths will be revealed to Hunter Rose, things he does not want to hear, and it puts him in no mood for Lucas's final revelations.

Along with his storytelling abilities, Wagner has clearly not forgotten how to draw his favorite Devil, and that is one of the real treats of "Behold the Devil." Wagner has not gone solo on a Grendel project for over ten years, yet there is no clumsiness or disappointment. Grendel looks like Grendel, and the Wolf looks like the Wolf, and it is great to see old friends again.

Again taking his lead from "Devil by the Deed," "Behold the Devil" is printed only in black, white and red. This is a technique that Wagner knows how to use effectively, with the reds adding slices of drama to the thick blacks and stark whites. Like his costume, the world of the Hunter Rose Grendel is black-and-white without too many muddling shades of grey.

This series is something of a present from Wagner to his long-time fans, and it must be said that if you are new to Grendel the climax of the book might leave you scratching your head. All twenty-five years of the Grendel legacy are dealt with, including some hints at Grendel history that Wagner has yet to show us.

This hardback collection from Dark Horse comics collects together all eight issues of the "Behold the Devil" series into a sturdy single volume, including issue #0 and the bonus pages that were released only to MySpace. It is a ridiculous bargain for the price, and Grendel aficionados would be fools to pass it up.

2010-05-24 | japanreviewed.com (Seattle, WA, USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Flawed creative direction
I've been a Grendel/ Hunter Rose fan since his Comico B&W appearance. Each Hunter Rose stories was a delight especially when Matt Wagner was drawing the masked harlequin. His Black, White & Red series were extremely delicious to read. So when Behold the Devil was coming to trade I immediately awaited for the book release. What a delight when I realized the series were collected into an affordable priced hardcover. The verdict after finishing this story arc. I had difficulty attempting to finish the book in one sitting. My erratic interest to complete more than one issue at time was becoming a labor. It's obvious the art is somewhat designed for production speed. Inking in technical pens subtracts the beauty of line weight and spontaneous energy. Nonetheless, I was still thrilled to see Matt Wagner drawing Hunter Rose again. Although the caption writing and Hunter Rose dialogue is smart and twisted. The imperfection surfaces in the one dimensional dialogue and cliche portrayal of the island 'voodoo' doctor and Korean mob. Problem arises again when the story is moving forward as a foul-mouth demon shows up. Now I'm seriously having difficulty finishing the comic as I roll my eyes. The creative direction in the 2nd act and 3rd act is starting to fall apart. Verisimilitude is no longer part of the storytelling vocabulary. As we reach to the last act the climatic pay off seems forced and tacked on like a formulaic conclusion. Highly disappointed. There were promises in the beginning, return of Hunter Rose, Grendel in action, narrative manipulation, symbolic relationship and Matt Wagner's too cool for words Grendel figure poses. But the pros is not enough to purchase the book. Only for the die hard Grendel fan who is adamant to read every story arcs.

2010-05-04 | jazzthief (California) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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the best grendel book after 25 years
i like this one the best after the 1st original released more than 20 years ago.
the pictures are gorgeous black, white, red... and the story is exactly the style of the 1st book - crime story with 2 super forces. nobody is good here, everybody is evil...

2010-04-08 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Batman and the Monster Men

Description

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Customer Reviews

Matt Wagner's Monstrous Mess
Matt Wagner mailed it in on this book. His cover art is extremely well rendered, atmospheric and detailed.

But the interior art appears to have been drawn in ink without first using pencils. John Byrne "pioneered" the concept when he was simultaneously writing and drawing Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight. Then, as now, the result is extremely undetailed and dark renderings. Wagner's interior art is cartoonish and sloppy. The story is too "super-hero" for Batman and doesn't fit the character's noir motif.

Loeb and Sale were able to incorporate super hero/super villain elements into The Long Halloween because Sale's moody, atmospheric art and Loeb's clever, suspenseful scripting made it all "believable". Here, however, Wagner's writing misses the mark, as does his "art".

For a great Batman TPB, pick up Steve Niles' and Kelly Jones' magnificent Batman: Gotham After Midnight. The story is not great but it works. Kelly Jones' art captures the horror-classicism of Bernie Wrightson and some of the flow and pacing of Frank Miller.

2010-02-19 (San Ramon, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Fun Gothic Tale - But not as good as Frankenstein
Monster Men is an early, Gothic tale that introduces the character Dr. Strange to Gotham City and the world of Batman. The plot is set "...one year since the mysterious Batman first appeared..." (back cover) and post "Red Hood ...fall[ing] to [his] doom after [the] Ace Chemical heist attempt [was] foiled." (pp. 3) Monster Men has a very Gothic touch that echoes the classic horror novel and film. The Monster Men title lettering droops and oozes in the classic horror film style. The front cover features the dark, mysterious protagonist standing atop a Gotham tower before a waxing moon and surrounded by creatures of the night - a scene evoking the essence of Dracula. Similarly on the back cover a menacing Batman, back lit by a blood-red sash, enraptures the reader with his cloak, as if he were about the drain his very life-blood. Inside, the frontispiece carries on the Gothic motif with Batman fleeing from an enormous, blood-drenched maw. Two additional scenes on the back of the frontispiece continue the Gothic suspense. One is of the Dark Knight brooding before a dungeon cell, while the other shows him carrying an overcome beauty in a white gown.

In its plot Monster Men echoes Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein. In an effort to improve man's condition and the world, science has gone beyond the constrains of Christian morality and entered into a pragmatic "If it is possible and could work, do it" mentality epitomized by Dr. Hugo Strange. Like Frankenstein, Dr. Strange created Monster Men for the betterment of science. However, where Frankenstein stooped to grave robbery, Strange experimented on living humans by altering their genetic makeup. In the end, the result was the same - monsters that destroyed whatever came across their path. These twisted human forms lashed out at a world that denied them equal human dignity, but, at the same time, were unable to come to terms with civilization and either fled into an ice-cold isolation or cannibalized and murdered.

Monster Men proved to be a fun read - though it pales when compared to the better Shelley novel (Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus: The 1818 Text), which I highly recommend reading. I took one star off for the plot being unequal, in both staying power and content, to Frankenstein. I took an additional star off for the several scenes that promoted the Bruce Wayne playboy motif.

2009-05-21 (Williamsburg, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Highly Recomended
First off I'd like to say this belongs right beside Long Halloween and Year One. A very satisfying read. Don't overlook this one.

2009-02-09 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Dark and Chilling with a side of Disgust
I loved this book! it had all the right themes and tones of a great Batman story. The monsters plus the Mob is awesome and thrilling. This is truly a great cobination. The only element in the story I didn't care for so much was Bruce's love interest, with the exception of her father.

2008-06-23 | sclabguy (Los Angeles, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Great little retelling of Batman's first encounter with Hugo Strange
For those who follow Batman continuity and appreciate Batman's early historical villains from 1940 and that period, then this story is a great read. Wagner has a brilliant command of Batman continuity and weaves a tale consistent with Batman Year One, etc. The story is young Batman's first encounter with the more exotic of Gotham's villains, Dr Hugo Strange. Batman is forced to deal with much more than your garden variety street thug; the sci-fi villainy of the pulp era arrives for our intrepid dark knight. Along the way, Bruce Wayne deals with a modern version of his old 1939 love interest and damsel in distress, Julie Madison. Gotham's mob element (from Year One and Long Halloween) also play a role in the story.

This story doesn't try to be Alan Moore's Watchmen. It's a just fun modern canon-laden nod to Batman's 1930's/1940's early pulp adventures (though no knowledge of Batman canon is required to enjoy the story). I think Wagner succeeds in his goal. Wagner really understands Batman and Bruce as characters.

Also, I love Wagner's art in this story. Some may not. But Wagner's art is, perhaps coincidentally, similar to Batman The Animated Series.

2008-02-10 | fan (Ohio) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Doctor Mid-Nite

Description

One of DCs classic heroes, Doctor Mid-Nite, is reinvented for the 1990s in this colourful, painted graphic novel. When a dangerous, super-powerful steroid hits the streets of Portsmouth, Dr. Pieter Cross fights back, resulting in a tragic accident that costs him his sight! He soon discovers that the accident enables him to see in total darkness, and he turns this to his advantage as the costumed hero Dr. Mid-Nite.

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Customer Reviews

Beautifully looking book, but disappointing in every other way
Matt Wagner's re-boot of Doctor Mid-Nite portrays a very interesting character at first: A "midnight doctor", operating outside the academic community, working the streets, taking care in the most desperate and unique cases (including our eventually deadly boring narrator).
There would be some material for some sort of second-hand, less crazy Batman here, but it's squandered in a dumb plot, featuring a trio of industry moghuls launching a mad scheme to pollute and re-build a whole town to become richer still, causing the accident that gives our doctor the ability to "see darkness" (actually promptly forgotten in favour of the doctor's selfless efforts and al-around technical genius (which doesn't extend to planning and detective work though) and telling him all of their plans, like loony doctors of old retarded pulp stories, at the second available chance. And consistently using a single henchman (their steroid-pumped lawyer!) to try and thwart the doctor's meddling.
If there's any homage her to ancient pulp fiction (NOT the Tarantino movie...) greatness or more voluntary self-parody than I'm willing to see, it's all lost on me.
Provided there isn't, though, I must say this is the worst effort I've ever seen from Matt Wagner (who's otherwise never sort of brilliant), barely saved by his old Grendel cohort John K. Snyder III, who pulls off another great job instead: A rich, expressive palette, perfectly at ease in Doc's dark world, gettng the best out of a bunch of grotesque characters.
Nothing can save this book from oblivion, though, and I am really surprised to learn that this is still the current Doctor Mid-Nite of the DC Universe...
But I am also pretty sure that most of the street pulp setting Wagner had created (which was nullified by the naive and superheroic aspects) has been let go. At least I hope, because, this book is a surprisingly faled attempte by Wagner to re-do for superheroes what he brilliantly did and does with his own creations mage and Grendel.

2010-06-09 (Egelsbach (Hessen), Deutschland) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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THREE and a half stars overal FIVE STAR ART
I liked Matt Wagner's work both as writer and illustrator best in Batman VS Grendel (Hunter Rose) limited series. His artwork in Devil's Quest was outstanding and you can see more of the same by his colleague, JK Snyder.

Story is so so, although tempo is good, but ART...I loved this book!!! It is not best trade/graphic novel but it is definitively good enough to buy it for Your collection.

2008-05-04 | Marko V. (Belgrade, Serbia) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Graphic SF Reader
Wagner has come up with a new incarnation of the old Justice Society character. This man is a doctor, a surgeon, and as such is very useful to a superhero organisation. However, it is fairly standard stuff. An accident makes him blind, but he gains complete and total night vision, which leads to a bout of costumed adventuring after dark.

2007-09-03 | - Research Finished | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Doctor Mid-Nite
One of my favourite painters is a fellow named Seurat, and one of my favourite paintings I've ever seen is Seurat's Invitation To The Sideshow (English title), so it's not surprising that I quite like the painted art featured in this stylish origin-story for the new Doctor Mid-Nite. Pointillism as an art technique is not to everyone's tastes, and technically speaking, I guess John K. Snyder III's art here is not Pointillism as per its rigid definitions, though I think it verges on it. Certainly the gritty feel in some of the panels is achieved by a dotting effect; are things grimey, or in shadow?--And when the dirty look of the speckling is combined with some bright washes of colour, you get this dirty-beautiful effect. Panels where everything is grey, even though everything cannot possibly be grey, or green, or blue. Again I'm reminded of Seurat's use of colour to determine a mood, and the use of colour in Doctor Mid-Nite keeps the book from becoming too grim an affair. Interestingly, the art's beauty is what also keeps the reader from being emotionally attached to the story at times--colours and dots highlighting their own blatant artificiality, maybe even causing a soporific effect now and then (a criticism that can be levelled at Seurat). A cool style that does tend to hold one at a distance. But then art, like superhero comics, is not life.

As for the story, we have Doctor Pieter Cross poking around, trying to find out who is manufacturing a weird and dangerous steroid called A39. This gets him nosing around A39 user Camilla Marlowe, who forms a strange sort of bond with him once she discovers he's doing more for the city behind the scenes (he's kind of a disgraced doctor) than just writing cheques to charities. But, his and Camilla's persistent investigations into the nature of A39 draw the attention of the so-called Terrible Trio, heads of the company called Praeda, who make illegal steroids, conduct bizarre mystical rituals while worshipping elemental spirits, and plot to destroy the affluent portion of Portsmouth City so that the slums, which they own, can become valuable. Their plan turns out to be quite complex, involving multiple forms of filthy city-wide contamination, like turning Portsmouth River into one big oil slick, and pumping toxic waste throughout the city's sewer system. But first they want to get rid of the pesky Doctor Pieter Cross. Their big attempt to destroy him backfires; it creates Doctor Mid-Nite.

The lead-up to Dr. Cross actually donning tights and a cape to fight evil is unique, because he's just a nudge away from becoming a superhero anyway. He has a cadre of secret helpers placed around the city--people like Lemon, Auntie Scum, Nite Lite, and Ice Sickle...all street-people or other fringe elements--who already helped him distribute condoms to prostitutes, meals to the needy, and run a needle exchange program. Soon they become a hidden army for Doctor Mid-Nite, even going into battle with him at times! Also, Mid-Nite turns his knack for gadgetry to weapons-making, and kits himself out with a nifty arsenal, starting with Black Light bombs. The owl nesting on the grounds of Cross's estate decides it wants to be a sidekick. And Cross himself is portrayed as "quite agile". All of this, plus his discovery that his blindness-- thanks to the machinations of the Terrible Trio--actually allows him to see in the dark, sets him on a superheroic crusade to save the city from being soaked in noxious chemicals, drowned in spilled oil, and overrun with steroid-dependant Praeda-controlled zombies.

The story features a Deathtrap for Doctor Mid-Nite, stealth missions into the chemlabs of the enemy, an underwater skirmish, robotic vultures for the owl to fight, and numerous attempts by the Terrible Trio's chief muscle--merciless Mr. Sham--to destroy our hero once and for all. In the end, it's all a bit familiar; villains seem to like to destroy cities during superheroes' origin stories, these days...to cash in on real estate investments, or, uh, just to destroy. And aspects of Doctor Mid-Nite's debut remind me of Daredevil and Batman, a lot of the time. So this is quite fun, with the art giving it its own special look, but there's nothing new here. Doctor Mid-Nite, in costume, does look great throughout, though I'm not keen on the injections-as-weapons aspect of his arsenal.

2007-03-26 | Seth (Ontario, Canada) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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By the book boring
Sorry, but Matt Wagner is capable of so much more than what was displayed in this book. There's nothing wrong with it; however, there is nothing inventive or original contained in these pages. Cliche after cliche, our lead character progresses from injured doctor to superhero. While the artwork is nice and definitely a good start for Mr. Snyder, there's not much substance on which to draw on.

2006-04-10 (Canton, OH) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

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Batman Riddler graphic novel / Matt Wagner

Description

Welcome to my Amazon storefront. All comics are bagged & boarded, and in near mint condition (unless otherwise noted). Standard shipping for comics is $3.99 for one listing, and only .25 more for each additional comic listing when you order at one time (the excess shipping is refunded after comics are shipped). This listing is for Batman Riddler graphic novel (near mint)

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