#and grendel can have little a murder as a treat

[warlordfelwinter]

since i have nothing better to do i keep thinking about that modern day beowulf au, so here’s some more:

- beowulf also hoards dogs a la will graham and has at least one wolfdog that is barely a dog

- grendel is just some asshole who lives in the woods and is Upset about the city encroaching on his land so he changes tactics from occasionally killing someone a la hannibal to just straight up Eat The Rich

- kind of love the idea of grendel being like a professionally trained chef but he uses those skills to create food crimes like josh from mythical kitchen (except with people)

- grendel has definitely sold humanmeat at the farmer’s market

- if it were a tv show, music would play during the scenes where someone’s getting murdered but it wouldn’t be classical or opera it would be like cannibal by kesha and maneater by nelly furtado etc

- i know the book has other characters but i’ve really just been thinking about grendel. hrothgar is probably the mayor or something? idk. beowulf’s definitely like the FBI agent who shows up after word finally gets out that rich people have been disappearing for like 12 years

- grendel kills jeff bezos

[nrth-wind-a]

Thrall Creation Assignment Submission

Thank you to @daylightisminetoconsume​ for this event; this was very fun!

Name: Grendel Pronouns: They/Them Species: Former River Troll

Information Under Cut

Quick Facts Transcribed:

Humans are Food: Has a neutral opinion on humans as a whole

That Fresh Mountain Air: Before being turned, Grendel lived in the mountains nearby to Cameliard

Former Family: Grendel lived with their mother, their one brother, and their three sisters for a good few centuries pre-turn

War Approaches: Grendel was turned in a village raid a few days before Killahead

Commitment Issues: There is the smallest chance that they could be convinced to re-join the Trollmarket Trolls, but only if they can be convinced that eating humans isn't worth it

Friends in Arms: They have a few allies in Gunmar's army that they'd call friends (open for other Thrall creators)

Further Information:

Though their namesake is from a very human-centric story, the legend of Grendel was passed among monsters in a very different way. Grendel, though he was defeated in the end, was seen as a legend. Born of the first murderer, and making himself a name as a vicious warrior who ate human after human, unobstructed for over a decade, trolls who feasted upon humans found a hero in the legendary villain. 

As such, Grendel is a name that begets a similar hope: that the troll named after him will become a fearsome warrior, stoppable exclusively by a human who can only exist in fiction. 

Grendel the River Troll grew up with these aspirations as well, as they did not know how else they were expected to live. It was not a pressure they handled poorly, however; they trained often, made themself strong and fast. They and their family ate well for centuries. Life was good.

And then their little mountain settlement, a small one of only a few close families, was raided by other Gumm-Gumms, and a Gunmar who now wielded something that could change you. 

Grendel did not exactly go willingly, but once they were turned, they used every advantage their new state gave them-- a place among others like them, a steady diet, a reliable leader. They honed their skills in preparation for Killahead, and fought with everything they had. 

When the bridge opened, they were sucked in with many others, and for the nigh eon that Gunmar and his forces dwelled in the Darklands, they never let themself grow soft. They always believed that they’d get out once more, and that they’d follow their leader-- so strong and capable, a warrior they came to respect deeply-- to the surface. To victory. 

When the Trollhunter was declared dead, and the bridge was opened, Grendel rejoiced. They were just so hungry...

They, like many of their comrades, fed in a frenzy the moment they arrived on the surface. They stuffed themself full in mere minutes, and when Gunmar summoned his troops to march beyond Arcadia, Grendel was all too pleased to obey. 

As they spotted the little blue human, they considered it for a moment, the way a fox would consider a chicken coop. But ah, no, they were plenty full. Best to leave it for someone else in their army. Gunmar needed all of his soldiers to be well-fed and ready for battle. One of the younger, newer ones could go for the human whelp-- it would be an easy catch, surely. It was breathing so heavily, its eyes were opened so wide. The poor little thing wouldn’t last long at all. So, Grendel turned back to face front and carried on marching. One breaks formation at their own risk, and they needed to attend their king’s commands. 

The little thing was promptly forgotten, after that. 

Misc. Tidbits:

Their favorite flower is lily of the valley- or, as it would have been known back then, glovewort-- because it is poisonous when consumed; they like that even despite its size, its beauty, its delicate-ness, it could still kill a creature ten, twenty, thirty times its size

They have a crack on their right shoulder from Killahead, and a small, thin gash on their left palm from a childhood training accident

When they couldn’t bring back humans to eat, they would raid human farms and gardens for edible treats there; pumpkins and squash were particular favorites of theirs

They once glimpsed a teenaged Princess Guinevere in the forests of Cameliard; they’d have pursued her as food, except that the sun had begun to rise, and they needed to get to safety

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Absolute Carnage #4 Thoughts

Good but with some issues.

Let me be upfront first.

Stuff happened and delayed me catching up with this event, indeed because I wanted to be primed for 2099 I am kind of off the Carnage hype train for the moment. Still like the book, still think it’s great, but I’m not hotly anticipating every new issue at the moment. I think part of that though is owed to the event taking way to long at the end of the day.

I mean this event started back during ASM v5 #27 and since then we’ve finished the Syndicate arc, done an Spider-Marriage tease issue, done 2 tie-ins to this event, released Amazing Mary Jane and have moved on to the prelude to a 2099 event.

This event is ending whilst the latter is just starting up, it’s kind of nuts.

That doesn’t make this issue bad though.

One more quick disclaimer, the order I’m reading and making posts about this is generally based upon the release order of the relevant issues. If issues are released the same day then I’ve been referring to this website. If you read the link you see that the order given is different to the release order so I’ve been shuffling things around.

If I was to list the actual problems (arguably nitpicks) with the story they’d simply be

a)      Eddie becomes Venom by bonding to all different codices, even though he’s not bonded to his own actual symbiote

b)      Eddie with the codices looks like the regular version of Venom? That’s a little underwhelming

c)       Hulk Venom ultimately doesn’t amount to much beyond fanservice. He stalls Carnage and allows him to get in close enough to absorb the Venom symbiote.

d)      The Doppelgangers power levels are odd. If they’re bonded to symbiotes they should be getting notable power boosts and yet the heroes just treat them like their Chitauri or Ultron drones or something. I guess MAYBE the idea is that Venom and his offspring give hosts huge power boosts but that’s only because they’re replicating Spider-Man’s and Venom’s powers. If the symbiotes from the Grendel symbiote don’t have that lineage or history then the power boosts will be smaller.

e)      Brock persuading Spider-Man to protect Dylan and Normie by invoking ‘whatever he’s been to him [Peter] over the years’ rings a little false. Cates said he views Peter and Eddie’s dynamic as one of brothers and one wherein Peter is the golden boy and Brock is the screw up. So I can get where his head is at with that line, but even if you take in account all the times Brock has been an ally to Peter the facts are that the majority of the time they’ve been at odds. And by ‘at odds’ I mean, Brock’s wanted to violently murder him. I guess TECHNICALLY the line isn’t wrong as there have been moments of camaraderie between them but...Brock half traumatised Mary Jane when they first met!

f)       Peter agrees to protect the boys whilst Brock goes out to fight the horde of Doppelgangers?????? Peter wouldn’t do that. Peter has super powers and Brock is a non-powered guy grossly outnumbered and has some equipment he’s not all that familiar with. Realistically if someone has to hold the line and protect Normie and Dylan it makes more sense for it to be Brock whilst Spider-Man has better odds of holding off the Doppelgangers for 10 minutes. This event is the set up for ASM #831-832, the tie-in issues to Absolute Carnage that see Spider-Man battle Norman Carnage.

I do not know if Cates simply threw that set up at Spencer or if Spencer maybe requested it to be that way or something in between but it needed better justification.

From the POV of a Spider-Man story, it makes a lot of sense for Spider-Man’s specific tie-ins to concern Norman Osborn as Carnage. Equally from the perspective of a Venom/Eddie Brock story (which is  ultimately what Absolute Carnage is) it makes a lot of sense for Eddie to get the big hero moment fighting the odds.

It’s not the destination that’s a problem it’s how we got there. If Cates had tweaked it somehow so that Peter and Eddie were split up and/or Norman Carnage immediately honed in on the boys demanding Spider-Man deal with him as the immediate present danger, that would’ve worked better.

These are flaws in the story but not deal breaker ones.

To be honest the stuff that actually took me out of the story more was stuff that to my knowledge wasn’t Cates fault.

I am of course talking about the tie-ins.

First of all, Venom v4 #19 was not out at the time of this comic’s release meaning there is still stuff relevant to Sleeper that hasn’t been addressed if you are reading this in release order. That’s TWO issues of the main title where you’ve been waiting on a tie-in to explain stuff.

Second of all it’s just weird seeing Absolute Carnage #4 provide a set up for Peter’s tie-in issues considering they already wrapped up by the time this comic came out.

But the biggest problem came from the Miles Morales tie-ins.

Up until now, whatever their quality, the tie-ins did a good job of at least plausibly fitting into the events of the main book. They were also spread out enough that they didn’t step on one another’s toes. Early into the event though the big exception was Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #1. The ending of the issue was supposed to reflect the ending of Absolute Carnage #2 and it didn’t in various ways. The ends were the same, but the events leading to it were not.

Not good but not a deal breaker.

However someone (likely Ahmed or the editors) screwed up because AC: Miles Morales #3 ended with Miles rebonding with his symbiote now in control and rocking a cool new look, ready to take the fight to Carnage. In this issue though he’s still under Carnage’s control, doesn’t look like he did at the end of his tie-in mini-series and Eddie shocks the symbiote off of him. Which now I think about it is another flaw. In the Ultimate Universe symbiotes are vulnerable to electrical attacks, but that is not the case in 616. They can be harmed by them, but you aren’t going to kill them or shock them off of a host with electricity.

I don’t blame Cates for this as he’s writing the main book and Venom’s ongoing. He’s handing the lion’s share of this event and frankly his books are the centrepiece. Even if he made the faux pas, he can be excused whilst Ahmed and/or the editors should’ve been paying attention to Cates’ scripts and following his lead. In essence as this is HIS event story he must get the prerogative.

As it stands though unless some other tie-in fixes this Miles’ entire mini-series was both pointless and possibly not even in continuity????????????

Please do not get things twists.

Much as I’ve pointed out flaws in the comic, this is still good stuff!

As always the art is firing on all cylinders.

I can’t say much more about it than I’ve already said, it’s just gorgeous and it is some of the best Spider-Man art of this decade and some of the best symbiote art of any decade.

The one thing of note though is Stegman’s design for...I don’t even know what we call this guy.

Venom Carnage? Grendel Venom?....Venage??????????????????

Carnage having absorbed the Venom symbiote basically.

It looks fucking awesome!

I’ve held a theory for several months that Carnage’s character is thematically connected to the idea of Death Metal and art work associated to it, which is partially why Cates (going all the way back to Venom v4 #1) folded in Vikings and Elder Gods and stuff like that. This is the next logical step, a Demonic Viking  looking Venom/Carnage!!!!!!!

It is also a wonderful “Oh fuck” moment for the story as now Carnage, already out of everyone’s league, just boosted his strength even more!

Not to mention, intentionally or not, it calls back to Howard Mackie’s run in the early 2000s when Venom stole the Carnage symbiote from Kasady and absorbed it into himself. Although this isn’t the true Carnage symbiote and Kasady hasn’t taken it from Brock personally, it’s something of a role reversal.

And now the stage is set for essentially super enhanced versions of Brock/Venom and Kasady/Carnage to have their grand showdown!

Throughout this issue and this story Cates keeps things nicely zeroed in on Brock’s character, hammering home what we could describe as his mission statement throughout his whole run, which is to develop and explore Eddie Brock. And in this issue, as he often has, he shines. He gets the crap kicked out of him a lot, but he still shines.

You even get the impression Cap is approving or even proud of his efforts which means a lot.

Over all, an issue with some flaws but still delivering a strong story!

[grcndel]

▌ 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄:    Grendael, Grindael, or just Grendel  --  it’s all the same, and to be honest, he doesn’t like any of them.  goes by Gren;  alias on paperwork is G. Kabandha. ▌ 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍:     verse-dependent;  usually single by default in early verses and with Murdoc by default in his later years. ▌ 𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈��𝐈𝐄𝐒 / 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒:     superhuman strength, resilience, and regeneration.  shapeshifting. ▌ 𝐄𝐘𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑:     a very pretty greenish-blue.  swampy in some lighting, oceanic in others. ▌ 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑:     dark brown, almost black.  dyes navy blue into it for a raven-feather affect. ▌ 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒:     Aglaecwif, mother, presumedly deceased  --  again.   /   Cain, father, absentee until Grendel’s already fully grown and integrated into human society.   /  Belial, one of his many long-lost half-brothers on his father’s side, and certainly the one he’s closest to.   /   Holly, Lily, their late mother Maple, Nerissa, Gwen, Mary, etc. are all like mothers, daughters, and sisters to him. ▌ 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐒:     varies throughout the years.  him and Murdoc end up with a possum named Ozzy, a racoon named Geezer, two cats named Aggie and Lemmy, and Muds’ bird Cortez.  prior to that, Gren’s had a pocket pitbull named Lola, a hissing cockroach named Rodney, and a handful of frogs with ridiculous names. ▌ 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄:     authority.  it’s not an unfounded hatred, either  --  he’s a disenfranchised gay GNC black man living in a low-income area of the Bronx.  he has every fucking reason not to like cops. ▌ 𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒 / 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒:     watercolor illustrations, general doodling, storytelling, poetry and short fiction / prosaic writing, playing bass, beatboxing, throatsinging, musical vocals as a whole, burying his nose in overly-complicated philosophy books. ▌ 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄:       yeah.  a lot of people.  he was a fucking mass-murderer in his younger years and he’s still not above killing someone now.  when he warns you that he could put you in the ground, he means it. ▌ 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄:     read point above. ▌ 𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌:     frogs, anglerfish, sharks, seals, any reptilian or aquatic predator, really.  he kind of looks like a big bear, too.  or a french bulldog.  or a cow. ▌ 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐒:     drinking, cussing, being overly blunt, obnoxiously friendly behavior that ends up getting him in trouble, blowing up over little things, self-sacrificing to the point of self-destruction, over-protectiveness, openly abrasive attitude, drug dependencies he can never seem to kick for good, a million other things that annoy both himself and everyone around him that he just can’t bring himself to chop. ▌ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐒:    ��he doesn’t believe in idols and never has.  there are people he wishes the world had more of, but he doesn’t model himself after anyone. ▌ 𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍:     homosexual. ▌ 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐄 / 𝐊𝐈𝐃𝐒:     Grendel’s had his hand in raising children before, and treated them as if they were his own.  he can’t see himself getting married, though, if only for the fact that he views himself as being unlovable. ▌ 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄:       a lot of people.  his found family.  his actual family.  strangers walking by who look like they’re having a good time and spread infectious smiles unto him.  people who give him money when he’s frozen on the side of the street.  the homeless folk he hangs around and goes bar-hopping with.  friends he made in prison that still cross his mind from time to time.  that one warden he was cool with because the dude always bummed him free cigarettes.  his weed dealer.  people who’ve been dead for hundreds of years.  the men he captained when he was in the navy.  his beau. ▌ 𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒:     if you’re funny and a good person, you’re golden.  laugh at his shitty jokes and don’t disagree with him on basic moral premises.  give him his space and respect his bubble.  keep your voice low.  that’s  ...  pretty much all it takes, he doesn’t ask for a whole hell of a lot;  treat him like a person and his loyalty’s yours. ▌ 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊:     cherry brandy or amaretto, if we’re talking alcoholic.  if we’re going the virgin route  --  pineapple juice. ▌ 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐓:     Central Park.  he has a favorite bench. ▌ 𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐌 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍:     the lake.  water’s cleaner.  doesn’t make his hair crunchy or his skin feel like shit.  less people. ▌ 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐓𝐘𝐏𝐄:     someone imperfect, so he can empathize with them.  someone who’s made mistakes.  someone funny and confident.  someone who will love him the way he loves them.  really.  i mean it.  he doesn’t ask for a lot. ▌ 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐎𝐑𝐒:     camping.  if Grendel could refrain from setting foot in another manmade structure for the rest of his life, he would.

tagged by:     i stole it from  @gothsic tagging:     y’all

[phiralovesloki]

How 6x13 should have gone

By someone with no experience writing for television

Here’s how I would have handled this week’s episode:

One flashback story, two Storybrooke stories.

Storybrooke story 1: Gotta Stop Gideon.

In Gotta Stop Gideon, we have Rumple trying to figure out how to control the situation. Not control Gideon himself exactly, but figure out how he can earn Gideon’s trust enough to slow things down. Much of it is the same as what we saw, but with a lot less redundancy and no references to Baelfire.

But Gotta Stop Gideon doesn’t just involve Dad: Mom, too, is trying.

While Rumple works by interacting with Gideon and pseudo-helping him in an attempt to get things under control, Belle is doing what she does best--research. She wants to figure out as much as she can about the Black Fairy because she suspects that getting Gideon to murder Emma is a part of the Fairy’s plan.

She has Killian to help her, because he’s her friend and also good at research. This part of Gotta Stop Gideon is about Belle’s guilt over having to give Gideon up, and how she just wants to make her family whole again, which stirs up Killian’s angst over how he didn’t give Robert that chance. He fesses up to Belle, who encourages him to tell Emma; in return, he acknowledges that it seems like Gold really is learning to be selfless when it comes to his child.

Storybrooke story 2: Bad Boy Robin.

Robin once again approaches Zelena in a similar manner. She at first seems (as she did in the episode) very pleased at how decidedly not good he is. After all, she has been deprived of her Evil Queen Bestie; now she has another Evil Friend to play with.

But she very, very quickly grows uncomfortable, put off by how little Robin cares about Robyn; she knows that Robyn isn’t his daughter, but it just reminds her how much the old Robin did care. She doesn’t want to tattle, but she intentionally is indiscrete about the spell so that Regina will catch them.

She’s moved by Regina’s reaction to Robin wanting to leave, and realizes that maybe she does still feel sympathetic to her sister. Robin also makes a comment about Robyn that gets Regina very angry, and Zelena sees that Regina cares about her niece very much.

We still get the scene in the vault later, but with more explicit apologizing/connection, with Zelena reaching out and both of them acknowledging that it’s better for Regina to be whole. They can both connect by accepting that they’ve both done awful things in the past, but they both want to move forward together so they can be a family.

Flashback: Being Selfless for Family

Rumple is beginning to love his magic. He loves the attention and praise he gets for defeating the ogres, but he mostly just loves how the magic itself feels. After years of feeling powerless and being treated like dirt, he has power. He is power. He revels in it.

Baelfire is afraid of this and, of course, begs Rumple to stop using magic. Rumple sort of agrees, but does not explicitly promise. He uses magic in small ways so as not to arouse Bae’s suspicion.

Beowulf conducts his little revenge plan just as he did in the episode, and Baelfire encourage’s Rumple to try to rally the townsfolk (as opposed to ... I don’t know, just wandering into the cavern himself with nothing???? Did I miss something in the episode?). Rumple tries, but the townsfolk are too afraid, and while they’re happy to use him for protection, they don’t like or trust him.

Baelfire decides to go himself and be a hero, with Rumple following behind to rescue him. Baelfire is the one to discover Beowulf, who is more than happy to have Bae be the next victim of the Grendel. Rumple catches up and is going to use his magic to stop Beowulf. Bae begs him not to use magic, which he does anyway.

But as they leave, Beowulf taunts them, saying that he’ll just spread the rumor that Rumple is actually the Grendel, and everyone will believe him. In retaliation, and as Bae begs and begs for mercy, Rumple turns around and magically snaps Beowulf’s neck.

The townsfolk will eventually find Beowulf’s body and blame Rumple, so Rumple begins to pack everything so they can move. Baelfire, meanwhile, won’t speak to him. But Rumple knows that he had to kill Beowulf, even though it was horrible, even though Bae didn’t want it to happen, because he had to protect his family.

Everything in Storybrooke can tie back to this: parents doing terrible things or making sacrifices to protect their children; people trying to protect their families. The Regina/Robin/Zelena story doesn’t connect as well, but maybe someone else can brainstorm how to connect it better (either by adjusting the flashback or the Storybrooke story). Belle is part of the narrative about her own son, and we don’t have to shoehorn what should have been a MUCH bigger Captain Swan moment into this episode. We don’t retcon Baelfire.

You’re all welcome.

[comixconnection]

Counter Monkey John Arminio reviews ‘Beowulf’

Beowulf is simultaneously one of the most intimidating and one of the most approachable works in the Western Canon of literature. Yes, it is an epic poem originally composed in Old English some time in the 7th Century, but the basic story is straightforward and accessible. It’s a story of debt and servitude, revenge and redemption, violence and blood, and a search for worthiness. It even is an easy read when compared to other pieces of classic literature. It cuts and thrusts like a well-honed blade in its alliteration and rhythms. It’s good bloody fun, as well as an invaluable cultural artifact for our common ancestral language.

Still, its history and age might intimidate some readers, so how best to entice such readers to actually pick up the story? Rather than adapt Beowulf into a more modern form for present-day readers, Santiago Garcia and David Rubin have translated the epic poem in a rather direct fashion into their medium of choice: the graphic novel. While much of the actual poem’s text has been excised, leading to pages with sparse amounts of dialogue, the entire story remains, with the spirit of the work firmly intact. This is a beautiful graphic novel full of demonic fury and madness. Reading it feels like breathing through gritted teeth, passing more blood and demon breath between one's incisors than oxygen.  

The plot of Beowulf itself involves a kingdom in the land of the Danes (probably on the island of Zealand in Eastern Denmark) plagued by the monster Grendel, who attacks the mead hall known as Heorot ("Hall of the Hart," a hart being a male deer) at will. After years of suffering under the constant terror of this demon and losing countless warriors to its bloodlust, King Hrothgar is in a state of despair for himself and his kingdom. Hrothgar inherited Heorot when it was known as the “foremost of halls under heaven,” so its fall into bloody disrepair is of a particularly painful ignominy. It is no wonder, then, that Hrothgar is so eager to accept the help of Beowulf, this stranger from the land of the Geats (Southern Sweden), full of braggadocio and piss and vinegar. When told of the monstrous plague, Beowulf vows to rid the kingdom of this scourge, while telling tales of his own heroics.

Grendel is given little physical description in the actual poem (other than being a vaguely misshapen humanoid and very large, with claws and impenetrable scales). Instead, he is referred to as a “shadow walker” or a “night goer,” while often being shrouded in darkness. The beast’s appearance in Garcia and Rubin’s adaptation is breathtaking in its beauty and its savagery. It is a true embodiment of what a “shadow walker” could be, of what dark things lurk in our darkest of nightmares. It is a beast of the deepest forest, all thorns and armor, with glowing eyes and gleaming teeth (better to eat you with, my Beowulf), and it tears through men and their works with unrelenting savagery. The battle between the titular hero and the tale’s first monster is appropriately blunt and brutal. Their wrestling and brow-beating goes on for pages, as one pure male Id seeks to dominate the other. There is an unmistakable sexual dynamic in this battle as well. Not that Grendel and Beowulf are attracted to each other, but that their virility is directed correlated to their prowess in battle. All of this action-packed psychodrama is played out over several wordless pages, letting the images tell the blood-and-viscera-soaked story. It’s a remarkable work of storytelling through imagery, full of equal parts pandemonium and characterization.

One way all this is accomplished is illustrator David Rubin’s use of windows of art within certain panels to elucidate and expand upon the action. The sheer physical size of this book allows these smaller windows to further illuminate the scene, whereas its utilization in a smaller graphic novel or standard sized comic might prove cumbersome. Not only is their more art due to the length and width of each page, but there are more images within those pages than in most sequential art. Rubin is also able to contrast this technique with open splash pages, showing off his detailed ink and pencils and color in all their mad glory. 

Of course, the fact that this story is called Beowulf and not Grendel is a pretty fair clue as to how this first battle ends. Beowulf is bloody but victorious and Grendel’s arm is ripped from his body and afterwards the creature slinks off into the woods to die. Once the foe is vanquished, Heorot houses much feasting, celebrating, and boasting along with burying the dead, but the tale is far from over. The very next night, it is Grendel’s mother who creeps into the hall to slaughter Hrothgar’s men, and thus the second stage of Beowulf’s saga begins. 

The quest to find and slay Grendel’s mother is a more cerebral and subterranean venture than Grendel himself, as that beast openly approached  Hrothgar’s mead-hall with obvious murderous intent. Grendel’s mother, on the other hand, makes her dwelling in an underground cavern underneath a lake, forcing Beowulf to plunge deep into murky depths and explore hidden caves. The psychological symbolism of a Great Male Hero venturing deep underground to slay a Monstrous Mother is at the root of this section of the story, and that lack of subtlety is not lost on Garia and Rubin. The Great Mother’s form is just as monstrous as her son’s, if not more so, yet her story is far more compelling. While Grendel attacked Heorot merely to silence the rollicking noise and singing of the mead hall, his mother seeks blood vengeance with the same motivation that any self-respecting Geat or Dane would if his son were slain by a foreign enemy. While various translations refer to her as a “hag,” troll,” “monster-woman,” or even a “monstrous hell-bride,” some scholars and readings see her as a warrior-woman or even simply a “water woman,” as Beowulf acts as monstrously towards her (and on occasion to his fellow warriors) as she does to him. This plays out in Beowulf’s demeanor in battle, but also in how he responds to his fellow humans; how he treats his subordinates, as well as authority figures. Despite his valor in battle, he is not brave when it comes to confronting his personal flaws, which only increase over time. 

And time does take its toll. Beowulf’s great feats earn him kingship over the Geats and we meet him fifty years later at the end of a profitable reign. However, he hears of a dragon guarding a might horde and he feels compelled, even in his old age to confront it. His own beastly nature is seen clearly in the feasting imagery in the book before he ventures off to fight the dragon, treating his own food and even his courtiers in an animalistic fashion. He is consuming all before him, behaving much like Gendel did in the mead-hall when they first met in battle.

While Grendel and his mother were monsters of a pre-Christian, unconquered wilderness, the dragon is rendered by Garcia and Rubin as a nearly unfathomable leviathan from Hell. Its size is more comparable to mountains and canyons than other beasts. It does not breath fire so much as it manifests all the flames of the Earth from its gullet at once. Battling with it, cutting it open, and being wounded by it results in torrents of gore and viscera. It’s a horror that would drive most men mad, but this is the kind of madness Beowulf was born for and he does achieve victory, of a sort. *Spoiler alert for a poem that is over a thousand years old* Beowulf is mortally wounded as he slays the dragon and dies a hero’s death. But what was the point of his honorable existence? His glorious viking funeral, his body set ablaze on a longship? His most trusted thain lambastes the Geats who call themselves warriors but would not fight with Beowulf out of cowardice. These weak men, with nothing but fear in their bellies, would doom the Geats to conquest and slavery by the neighboring Swedes. There is a reason why “Geatland” (called Götaland in Sweden) is within the boundaries of Sweden and not the other way around. Beowulf passed on his avarice and ego to his followers, but failed to pass on his strength and honor to along with it. He is a tragically flawed hero, so flawed that his fellow Geats are doomed to meet the same fate, though slain by the dragon of progress and the passing of pagan ways rather than a literal leviathan. 

Although Santiago Garcia and David Rubin’s Beowulf is clearly one interpretation of the work, it is a genuine and faithful one. It is almost impossible to read a work of early medieval poetry and interpret it in the same manner that its original intended audience would have, so the best we have is to imagine ourselves in that world. A world of creeping darkness and fire, where the only respite from the ravages of nature is the hearth and the hall and any violation of that safe place was surely the work of wicked things from the bowels of a cursed Earth. It did not have to be a literal monster. A powerful snow storm or a poor harvest could be just as devastating a disaster as any Grendel, so to comfort us, we wrote of men like Beowulf. Heroes who could slay our demons and become monsters themselves to defend us because we could not. We can lose ourselves in their actions, thrill to their heroics, and weep at their failures, both personal and in battle. If any work exists that reconnects us to the primal need for such essential stories, it is this Beowulf by Santiago Garcia and David Rubin. A remarkable achievement in graphic storytelling. 

[grcndel]

it fucking blows my mind  --  and also makes me incredibly angry  --  that TWAU’s iteration of grendel is on the villains wiki at all.  like.  i know that, by definition, because he opposes the protagonist, it’s fair to label him as antagonistic;  his anger towards bigby  &  the fabletown gov’t was beyond justified, but if we’re going by the technicalities of it, that doesn’t matter.  even if he makes a good point, and even if he doesn’t use or condone violent force unless he feels it to be necessary, he is, by the book, an antagonist.  that’s fine.  i’ll accept that term.

--  but by fucking god, grendel is not a villain, and here’s all the shit IN THE GAME  --  not in the novel, not in those obscure animations i like, but in the game itself  --  that we have to prove it.

grendel doesn’t get physically aggressive unless he feels like himself, his friends, or their livelihoods are being threatened.  he can get verbally obnoxious, sure, but that’s more of an attention-seeking thing than anything else;  he feels like that’s the only way he can get people to listen to him  --  because clearly, if the ‘booting him out the door’ line is any indication, diplomacy doesn’t fucking work.  he only gets violent with bigby after repeated warnings from multiple bar patrons to just get the fuck out, only gets violent when he senses tensions rising and decides to intervene, only gets violent after WEEKS of the government ignoring him and holly’s efforts to find out where lily’s gone, WEEKS of pain and stress and worry only to finally have a cop sent over just to INTERROGATE them, not even to ask about lily, and beyond that?  --  CENTURIES of systemic oppression under a government specifically designed only to help human / human-passing fables  --  and to punish everybody else for shit they can’t fucking control:  siphoning constant money out of them just to keep themselves from indefinite imprisonment at  ‘The Farm,’  and never offering them the barest scrap of protection  --  or privilege  --  otherwise.  if you were in grendel’s situation, you’d be fucking itching for a fight, too.

gren is disgusted by murder, sexual violence, and the abuse of impoverished / desperate people.  his commentary during the trial, and the way he treats the crooked man, are evident of this much;  he calls him a sadist and a crook, spits on him as he walks by, and scorns him for wanting mercy when he took two innocent peoples’ lives away.  when he finds out georgie also had a major hand in this, and that the pudding ‘n pie was a sexual slavery ring more than it was a strip club, he hisses ‘georgie ...’ like he’s ready to go kill the fucker, himself.  some people find it hypocritical that he claims to hate murder only to then call for the crooked man’s death, but here’s the thing  --  grendel hates murder when it isn’t deserved.  if you’ve willingly been hurting and killing other people for your own benefit, though  ( i.e. the CM ),  he thinks the punishment ought to fit the crime  ...  and maybe my own morality is twisted, but that seems pretty fucking fair.

gren tries his best to set his own grievances aside in order to maintain the greater good  &  care for everybody else.  he’s the strong and understanding one in the face of lily’s death, and is beyond willing to give holly the time and space she needs to grieve.  during and after the trial, he acts predominantly in defense of bigby’s actions, even if bigby has been violent, handled things wrong, and treated him like shit in the past.  he knows the only way to avenge the deaths of his friends is to sit back, shut up, and let the sheriff do his job  --   &  while he has a few outbursts, despite himself, he generally manages to do Exactly That.

gren is protective to a fault, constantly standing between his friends  ( namely holly )  and anybody he perceives as a threat.  he’s tossed himself into harm’s way, time and time again, just in an effort to try and keep them safe, often self-sacrificing  --  or willing to  --  in preservation of everyone else.  this one is self-explanatory.  just watch his fucking body language throughout, you know, the entirety of the game.  you’ll see exactly what i’m talking about.  he is not a selfish person.  he cares so little about himself, in actuality, that he lets himself get shot and beaten and torn apart and degraded and a million other awful, painful things  ...  just to spare his loved ones an ounce of the same.