Comics Review: "Grendel vs. The Shadow" #1

- by Señor Editor, 12 September 2014

Dark Horse and Dynamite have teamed up to bring us a noir, pulpy crossover for the ages. Pitting the villainous Grendel against The Shadow sounds like a good idea already, but there are two words that elevate it from “good” to “great”. These words are “Matt Wagner”.

One of the 2 covers. Click to enlarge.

As you might know by now, I am a big fan of pulp heroes, and The Shadow is definitely way up there for me. I am also a big fan of Matt Wagner (both as an artist and a writer) and his “Grendel” comics are something I have enjoyed for a long time. I enjoy things even more when Wagner gets to both draw AND write his stories. Such is the case with this new miniseries. Let’s have a brief look at the plot!

In “present times”, Grendel gets his hands on an old artifact. The artifact is said to be able to grant immortality to whoever reads the scroll hidden within it, but it doesn’t really work as advertised. Instead, when Hunter Rose (that’s Grendel’s real name) reads the incantation, it transports him to New York of the 1930s, during the prohibition era. There’s a power struggle within the Five Families of NY mobsters, and Grendel immediately sets his sights on killing off the competition, in a quest to become the head of mafia.

Meanwhile, Lamont Cranston AKA The Shadow, is going about murdering gangsters in his traditional fashion. Shooting guys left and right and recruiting the people he saves into his secret network. He’s doing a pretty great job out of shooting criminals, but one day he hears about this mysterious masked man, called Grendel, who has been hacking and slashing his way to the top of the mob ranks. Needless to say, The Shadow isn’t very pleased about this new player, and before the issue ends, the two pulp icons meet and are about to battle.

The Shadow, making a mess.

So yeah, as far as plots go, this is pretty standard stuff. It’s written very well and flows smoothly, but the goal is obviously to set up some circumstances in which Hunter Rose and Lamont Cranston can beat the crap out of each other. Still, I’ve seen crossover miniseries like this handled much worse, so it’s safe to say Wagner is off to a good start, as far as the story goes.

Grendel, making a mess, too.

For me, the main reason for picking up this issue (other than me being a fan of both Grendel and The Shadow) was Matt Wagner’s art. And holy crap is this a beautifully illustrated book. Wagner is perfect when it comes to drawing noir-styled comics, and his 1930s New York is a sight to behold.  Just check out how nice the Times Square looks:

I don’t know about you, but I love comics that look like this. It’s just as beautiful as Wagner’s “Batman and the Mad Monk” and “Batman and the Monster Men” books. The colors provided by Brennan Wagner also match the book perfectly. Everything about the art in this comic is a masterpiece. And this is a nearly 50 page long comic, so you get a lot of nice things to look at.

If you’re a fan of The Shadow, you’re gonna get the best looking version of him in a long while if you pick this comic up. If you like Grendel, you NEED this. If you enjoy noir comics, or simply comics that are a lot of fun and look fantastic, then I can’t recommend this one enough.


Pick it up! It looks amazing! And then, when you do read it, leave us a comment! Or leave us a comment now. We like comments either way.

Tagged: comics, Reviews.

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