Grendel: The Devil Inside

Grendel #3

by Matt Wagner, Bernie Mireault (Artist)

Set against a backdrop of urban chaos and corruption, Matt Wagner's Grendel is the saga of the supernatural alive in the brutal world of tomorrow.

After the gruesome and mysterious death of his lover Christine Spar, Brian Li Sung's life collapses under a whirlwind of depression and misery. Dissatisfied with his job as a stage manager, Brian succumbs to the pressures building inside him, and Grendel—the masked spirit of aggression—finds a new host in Brian.

Matt Wagner has successfully created a realistic and evocative tale of a man and his race against time and the devil. The unique visual narrative of Canadian artist Bernie Mireault heightens the surrealistic journey into the unknown.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Comix, Comic Book, Fiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Matt Wagner is an American comic book writer and artist. In addition to his creator-owned series' Mage and Grendel, he has also worked on comics featuring The Demon and Batman as well as such titles as Sandman Mystery Theatre and Trinity, a DC Comics limited series featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

Reviews

[Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The point at which this series really coalesced for me back in the day, and it still works beautifully today. Spinning out of repercussions from the previous storyline, this works better for its brevity (three packed issues, as opposed to the previous, rather languorous twelve) with the twin dialogue conceit of both Grendel and Li Sung in both alignment and opposition, setting up act one and two climaxes of ingenious narrative impact, and—considering the intimacy of the story and scope—setting up the sprawling epic that is to come.

Quirky and effective, Mireault's art suits the tale perfectly, his unusual style and willingness to experiment, a perfect visual complement to the script.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone was mean and nasty. Hard to root for anyone. I found it more interesting than the Christine Sparr stuff (that went on forever)

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may well be the least grendel-ish Grendel story in the lot.

It's still a damned good Grendel story though! Although it does help to cement the gap between the Hunter Rose Grendel and that of Christine Sparr (wow, I'm amazed I remembered her name without having to look it up), it is still a very good stand-alone story.

Having read it in its original "floppy" form, the later buying the trade paperback and reading that as well... then you all just know that as soon as the hardcover was released, I just had to get that as well, so I guess, this would make it the 5th or 6th time I've actually read this story... and I still enjoy it immensely. Wether that be because it shows us a side of the Grendel monster that is NOT as powerful as its other incarnations, or wether it gives us the story of a flawed and disturbed human being is anybody's guess.

All I know is that Matt Wagner hardly ever fails to entertain with his stories... even the stories written this early in his carreer... Now, if only he could write some more Grendel tales for us famished fan-boys!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Devil Inside. This is an interesting comic because on the one hand it suggests a descent into madness and on the other it posits the fact that Grendel could be some sort of demonic idea. However, it’s also almost unreadable with its teeny notebook pages, its constant dull-life dialogue, and its Grendel thoughts [5/10].

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read this in memory of Bernie Mireault. God rest his soul.

I certainly do appreciate this book a lot more now than I did as a teenager. I got a copy of this right after I had finished reading Grendel: Devil's Legacy and didn't quite settle into the tonal shift of 80s cyberpunk to a more late 70s aesthetic; reminiscent of Taxi Driver (1976) as Brain Lee Sung falls into Paul Schrader's archetype of God's Lonely Man (or in this case, the Devil's).

And now that I've read this again, a little older and a little wiser, I can properly appreciate the direction this story took. And the amazing, subtle art direction Mireault take this book into.

This book can still be a bit tricky to read however, with its three methods of narration: Brian's notes, Brain & Grendel's inner thoughts, and the comic itself. It pays to re-read groups of pages here and there, focusing on one of the narratives. Other times, its best to follow all three to get into the flow of the story.

Apart from the tricky narrative, again I have to say the art in this book is great. Mireault was a very good artist, and deserves so much better than fading into obscurity and falling into poverty. I will certainly be trying to look into his other works in the near future, now that I've finished revisiting this book.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really cool visually and nice to see a new take on Grendel, almost making it disease-like. But holy shit the constant journal entries being everyone on page and everyone so miserable made this the least enjoyable series of the bunch.

[Samantha Osborne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess it was ok but I should have read the other ones I just didn't know there was more

[Coll · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't realise this wasn't the first in the series. I didn't like the layout of the story.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once Grendel became a 'force' or 'legacy' that got passed from person to person, the story lost some of it's fun. Hunter Rose, the original Grendel, was a great character, these other Grendels were just tools Wagner was using to tell his story about the various way violence is used and it's effect on people.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my favorite sequence in all of GRENDEL, or at least equal to the Hunter Rose original (Eppy Thatcher/Christine Spar/the difficult transition section would probably all tie next - never cottoned to the android Grendel and the vampire future, honestly). A better review when I reread it.