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Grendel Tales #3
Grendel Tales: Devil in Our Midst
A lone Grendel warrior bent on suicide is found on the Antarctic coast by a team of scientists, and within hours, everything goes the team gets cut off from the rest of the world, and one by one, they begin . . . bleeding. Now the Grendel who was so eager to kill himself must decide whether to help the others or end his own suffering. With only each other to rely on, and having no idea who will become infected and die next, the group becomes trapped in a deadly game of survival of the fittest! This fast-paced story of suspense is written by Steven T. Seagle (Uncanny X-Men, House of Secrets) and drawn by Paul Grist (Kane). Check out the tale that made them stars!
117 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
31 people want to read
About the author
Steven T. Seagle
498 books51 followersSteven T. Seagle is an American writer who works in the comic book, television, film, live theater, video game, and animation industries.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 3, 2024
A suicidal Grendel washes up on the shores of Antarctica where he meets up with a team charged with protecting a large toxic waste dump. The crew are contracting a virus that makes then ultra-violent and bleed from the eyes in the shape of Grendel's mask. (Looks cool but doesn't make a lot of sense.) Borrows heavily from The Thing. Paul Grist's art looks very amateurish in a Grendel setting.
January 22, 2018
Jonah, Grendel with a death wish somehow finds himself on the shores of the South Pole in a cut-off-the-world biohazard dumpings station where people start to get infected by a strange virus.
Lots of Carpenter's the Thing here, which makes it good 'cos it's a damn great movie and which doesn't make it amazing 'cos it's a damn great movie.
The basic thriller/survival ambiance is beefed up by some characters (notably Alexander) a bit more developped than usual but all are carbon copies of already existing ones and Seagle doesn't really add anything substantial to them. Jonah seeks redemption dor his crimes (you can guess the biggest of them by issue 2). Alexander looks for a taste of what-might-have-been. Caroline wishes she were Sigourney Weaver and Drake is an asshole because this kind of story needs one.
The plot unfolds as expected, strange deaths, action, suspicions, betrayal, etc. Some ideas are cool if not particularly original (the cross), some much less (the cause of the tremors, Caroline's infatuation...)
As for Paul Grist, I really do like his other works but he is probably not the best suited artist for this kind of book. His half-cartoony style prevents the setting of any ominous ambiance.
I rated it 3* anyway because when all is said and done The Thing is a damn great movie.
Lots of Carpenter's the Thing here, which makes it good 'cos it's a damn great movie and which doesn't make it amazing 'cos it's a damn great movie.
The basic thriller/survival ambiance is beefed up by some characters (notably Alexander) a bit more developped than usual but all are carbon copies of already existing ones and Seagle doesn't really add anything substantial to them. Jonah seeks redemption dor his crimes (you can guess the biggest of them by issue 2). Alexander looks for a taste of what-might-have-been. Caroline wishes she were Sigourney Weaver and Drake is an asshole because this kind of story needs one.
The plot unfolds as expected, strange deaths, action, suspicions, betrayal, etc. Some ideas are cool if not particularly original (the cross), some much less (the cause of the tremors, Caroline's infatuation...)
As for Paul Grist, I really do like his other works but he is probably not the best suited artist for this kind of book. His half-cartoony style prevents the setting of any ominous ambiance.
I rated it 3* anyway because when all is said and done The Thing is a damn great movie.
September 16, 2015
¿Es posible recuperar sentimientos largamente marginados tras haber cometido inconfesables atrocidades? ¿Y si aquellos buenos sentimientos fueron la puerta de entrada a la espiral de locura que devastó la humanidad de nuestro protagonista?
Aquí encontraremos alguna respuesta a dichas preguntas con guiños a la primera parte del poema épico en el que se inspira libremente toda la saga del comic.
No tenemos al creador del personaje en el guión ni a los lápices pero sí una buena historia no exenta de épica, dramatismo y tragedia.
Aquí encontraremos alguna respuesta a dichas preguntas con guiños a la primera parte del poema épico en el que se inspira libremente toda la saga del comic.
No tenemos al creador del personaje en el guión ni a los lápices pero sí una buena historia no exenta de épica, dramatismo y tragedia.
August 17, 2020
Weirdly, I'd have given this one four stars except for the monster. The story felt like a good one in the same vein as the one which became "The Thing" in two movie versions, and the killer syndrome was creepy and interesting. Set in the future of the Grendel series, the idea of turning Antarctica into a dumping ground for waste products of chemical production didn't seem impossible, nor did the effects. The monster that comes up during the story, though, just came across as excessively stupid. It doesn't fit and it doesn't work.
That said, the rest of the story, both text and visuals, was worth reading, and like the other Grendel stories about Grendels gone astray, it made me want to know more about how and why the world went so wrong in so many ways. This period of Grendels has them as amoral warriors, fighting for whoever pays them the most money, but that's so far afield from the different other versions that I wanted to know why and how things went wrong in this particular time period.
As an isolated story, though, and not tightly linked to the other Grendel works, I can only give it three stars.
That said, the rest of the story, both text and visuals, was worth reading, and like the other Grendel stories about Grendels gone astray, it made me want to know more about how and why the world went so wrong in so many ways. This period of Grendels has them as amoral warriors, fighting for whoever pays them the most money, but that's so far afield from the different other versions that I wanted to know why and how things went wrong in this particular time period.
As an isolated story, though, and not tightly linked to the other Grendel works, I can only give it three stars.
October 3, 2019
This rating is for me - doesn’t mean whoever is reading it won’t enjoy this comic more than I did.
I’m having a hard time with Grendel. With the Grendel tales in particular. they are not written by Wagner so really there’s no real correlation to the original Grendel verse. And Something about them are too messy to compute in my adhd brain.
I did like Wagner’s gentleman assassin crime lord but still, something is too messy about those volumes too and the spin off world following that first Grendel just doesn’t work for me.
I’m having a hard time with Grendel. With the Grendel tales in particular. they are not written by Wagner so really there’s no real correlation to the original Grendel verse. And Something about them are too messy to compute in my adhd brain.
I did like Wagner’s gentleman assassin crime lord but still, something is too messy about those volumes too and the spin off world following that first Grendel just doesn’t work for me.
May 27, 2023
In setting and topic, far too similar to Carpenter's The Thing, with a confused story of obvious character clashes, one spurious—hilariously unlikely—declaration of romance, a pointless Big Monster, and a distinct sense of completely wasted opportunity. Grist's art seems ill-suited here, excellent in character dynamics, clunky in action sequences, but mostly this falls down at Seagle's aimless, hackneyed script.
October 11, 2020
Slightly more interesting story but kind of predictable. The romantic subplot was useless.
Wagner's backup is typically gross and weird. I could only keep up with the plot by reading the summary on the inside cover!
Wagner's backup is typically gross and weird. I could only keep up with the plot by reading the summary on the inside cover!
June 25, 2018
This one had a kind of "The Thing" vibe to it that I liked. I'm not at all familiar with the Grendel universe so I'm not sure how this ties into the larger series.
November 27, 2016
These Grendel Tales stories, which are not written by Grendel creator Matt Wagner, are always hit and miss. Some are exceptional (Grendel Tales: Four Devils, One Hell), others less so (The Devil's Hammer). Grendel Tales: The Devil in Our Midst is somewhere in between.
Steven Seagle (Sandman: Mystery Theater) is the writer for this limited series, which finds a lone Grendel washed up on the shores of Antarctica, where a team of workers is coordinating the disposal of some seriously toxic waste. As soon as the Grendel, who is wracked with guilt and wants to die (but not by his own hand) is taken in, crew members start becoming violently ill (and just plain violent). The story is very reminiscent of The Thing [Blu-ray], and has action and mystery in equal measure, with a surprising amount of character development.
Artwork on this arc was by Paul Grist. This was my first exposure to Grist's simple, quirky, and very effective style, and immediately after reading it I sought out his creator-owned detective series Kane, which is also well worth reading.
I'd give The Devil in Our Midst an overall rating of 3.5 stars. It's not one of the great Grendel stories, but it's a better than average one, and a fun (in a bloody, no one here gets out alive kind of way), action-oriented story with some very compelling artwork.
Steven Seagle (Sandman: Mystery Theater) is the writer for this limited series, which finds a lone Grendel washed up on the shores of Antarctica, where a team of workers is coordinating the disposal of some seriously toxic waste. As soon as the Grendel, who is wracked with guilt and wants to die (but not by his own hand) is taken in, crew members start becoming violently ill (and just plain violent). The story is very reminiscent of The Thing [Blu-ray], and has action and mystery in equal measure, with a surprising amount of character development.
Artwork on this arc was by Paul Grist. This was my first exposure to Grist's simple, quirky, and very effective style, and immediately after reading it I sought out his creator-owned detective series Kane, which is also well worth reading.
I'd give The Devil in Our Midst an overall rating of 3.5 stars. It's not one of the great Grendel stories, but it's a better than average one, and a fun (in a bloody, no one here gets out alive kind of way), action-oriented story with some very compelling artwork.
Want to read
July 23, 2013"Grendel Tales: Los saldos entre nosotros" pinta como un libro muy interesante, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta lo barato que me salió.
April 15, 2019
Edición española que traduce Grendel Tales: The Devil in our Midst.
Want to read
December 16, 2014Edición española de Grendel Tales: The Devil in our Midst.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews