Customer Reviews

Batman/Grendel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love Matt Wagner's work on Batman. I have every trade paperback featuring Batman written by this guy. In case you don't know what they are here is the list:

Batman: Faces
Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman: Trinity
Batman and the Monster Men
Batman and the Mad Monk
Batman/Grendel

As you all know by now, Batman/Grendel collects both mini-series of the Batman and Grendel encounters. The first mini-series features Batman and the Hunter Rose incarnation of Grendel. Hunter Rose manages to cleverly and ruthlessly blackmail two women who are close friends/roommates, a man named Leonard Ross, and at the same time fool the police and Batman as well. All the fighting and action doesn't really take place until the second(and final) issue of the mini-series. I won't spoil anything beyond that. The second mini-series features Batman against a cyborg Grendel called Grendel Prime. Grendel Prime has come from the future to steal the bones(specifically the skull) of the now deceased Hunter Rose. The bones were part of a museum exhibit called Gotham City Killers, which was displaying artifacts of Batman's enemies. Unlike the first mini-series, this was an all out fight and Batman gets beat up badly at one point. Robin makes a brief appearance in the final battle and plays a key role in defeating Grendel Prime. Even though Wagner never reveals the identity of this Robin, I'm going to assume that it's Tim Drake because thankfully Robin's costume did not feature short shorts and pixie boots. Tim was the first Robin to have a costume that did not feature shorts and pixie boots(not counting Dick Grayson's Robin costume in Nightwing: Year One). With all that being said I thought this was a very nice collection and I liked the fact that a sketchbook was included at the end of the book as well. If you liked Matt Wagner's other works on Batman, make sure you get this one as well.

I'm not familiar with the character of Grendel at all, but am very well read when it comes to Batman. This trade collects two stories, the first being Batman's confrontation with the hunter rose version of Grendel, the second being a Grendel from the future being sent back to present time. The first is more or an intellectual story, less fighting more talking. While the second is more of a straight up Batman fighting Grendel story. So you get a little of each with this one. Definately worth picking up if you're into either character.

I've been a Matt Wagner fan for a long time. I think his Grendel is a very compelling character, and his previous Batman work (Batman: Faces) was very interesting, so I was intrigued by the idea of these two characters crossing paths.

The first half of the book is the original 1993 Batman/Grendel crossover. The story appears to be set quite early in Batman's career, and features the original Grendel incarnation Hunter Rose. The crossover was a nice change of pace from the typical "heroes meet for the first time, beat the crap out of each other before realizing they're on the same side, team up and fight the real bad guys" story. Grendel is a villain, and a really dangerous one at that. Honestly, he's so cool and calculating that he'd make a great addition to Batman's gimmick-obsessed rogues gallery. This story does a fairly good job of capturing the classic aspects of both characters, as well as the classic Matt Wagner style. I thought there was perhaps too much time spent on the supporting characters, but the parallels Wagner established did make for a more interesting overall story.

The second half of the book contains the 1996 crossover, which apparently takes place several years after the first (Jim Gordon is considerably grayer and the Tim Drake Robin makes an appearance). In this story, Grendel Prime (from the Grendel: War Child epic) accidentally travels back to Gotham, wreaking massive havoc in his quest for the skull (and perhaps soul) of Hunter Rose. This story was a little disappointing, as it came off as a Terminator rip-off. Unlike the War Child series, I had a hard time mustering any sympathy for Grendel Prime in this story. He might as well have been a runaway robot that Batman had to put down.

The first half of the story is worthy of 4 stars; the second half barely 3. If you're not already a Grendel and/or Matt Wagner fan, I don't know how much you'd get out of a collection like this. As Batman stories go, it's perfectly decent, but not essential by any means.

Let me start by saying that I'm a fan of Matt Wagner's work, both on Batman and his own "Grendel" series.

This book contains two Grendel encounters with the Batman: the first featuring Hunter Rose and the second featuring Grendel Prime

And the problem in both is that Wagner clearly wants his baby to shine.

In the first story, with Hunter Rose, Grendel is portrayed as the far more brilliant tactician and always seems to be a step ahead. Wagner's Batman, unfortunately, seems devoid of the "World's Greatest Detective" trait that's almost as well honed (if not more so) as his physicality. And here again, Wagner plays favorites. While Grendel is portrayed as more agile and stealthy, Batman seems almost clumsy by comparison.

Even Bruce Wayne suffers, being called an immature teenager by one of the female protagonists. Hunter Rose, on the other hand, gets fawning raves as a sophisticated bon vivant.

Batman fares slightly better in the second story where he seems to have been given back his powers of deductive reasoning. He's able to solve several of the mysteries this new Grendel presents. However, Wagner still spends epic prose on his cybernetic Grendel from the future...portraying him almost as a noble Warrior God. Batman, on the other hand, is treated as almost just another cop but with cool toys.

I was hoping for a story where two darkly similar "vigilantes" matched brain and brawn in an interesting game of "cat and mouse" ("bat and mouse?") unfolding. Instead, Wagner seems to want to use the Batman as a secondary character against which to showcase Grendel.

I got this book only because of the reviews in this page and for this reason only. Oh man, I should keep searching for reviews out there. I am (after this at least) not a fan of Matt Wagner... not his way to write nor his way to draw Batman. The ilustrations are square and dry as so his way to write; I mean, if you read this you must realize how BORING this is on the first part of the book. The way Hunter Ross gimmick both GCPD and Batman is good though, I'll give him that, but he's more into the secondary characters story that from time to time you can't avoid to flip pages in order to check if Batman is in the story at all.
The book have a couple of good things, but I personally regret of buying this. Of course, I'm not the owner of truth and this might like it to you. Matter of taste!.