Grendel: Black, White and Red #3

Written by : Matt Wagner

Art by: see below

Matt Wagner's anthology of Hunter Rose Grendel stories continues in sparse black white and red. So far this series has done a good job of filling in and fleshing out some important events and people only glossed over in Devil By the Deed. This book gives further insight into the world of the man under the mask.

Devil's Apogee - Mike Allred

In this story we see an early contract killing by Grendel and his reflections on his youth in suburbia and a fated trip over seas. The story is fairly straight forward, and Mike Allred's art is clean and almost perfect.

A good read, but the hit takes a back seat to the love story. Not quite enough bodies. Keep reading, Hunter gets bloodier and bloodier each issue.

Devil's Curse - Arnold and Jacob Pander

I really liked this story; it's about a voodoo priest trying to conjure up Grendel so that some marked men can take him on face to face rather than have their throat slashed during the night. Needless to say, the Devil always gets what is his - whether you call him or he comes calling. The thing that makes this story is the priest, D'oro. He lives in an abandoned oil refinery where he is surrounded by zombies of his own making. The Panders always please with this kind of story.

Best in the book.

The Devil's In the Punctuation - Stan Shaw

This story centers on Hunter's editor, a man named Cush, and his rise to stardom on Hunter's literary coat tails. This story is more about how it is presented that what it has to say. It is written as a book pitch by Cush - it just feels kind of forced. The art is nice; it has a kind of angular grace about it.

Art is nice to look at, story is a bit unnecessary. There's a very nice splash page of the fight between Grendel and Argent.

Devil On My Back - Teddy H. Kristiansen

Flashbacks abound in this issue. This is a story of an arsonist who sets fire to some of Grendel's waterfront property and provides a mirror for Hunter to see his past. Grendel lets the kid live...total let down. The art is sketchy and minimal - not very nice to look at.

Does give us another glimpse at how ruthless Hunter is - a sprinkler of gasoline. Awesome. But I'd still call it the weakest of the 5 stories in this book.

Devil's Labyrinth - Guy Davis

Now this is a Grendel story. Argent setting up Grendel who is really setting up Argent. They fight, Argent can't keep up, splice in some images of Stacy (they both care deeply about this little girl) and ultimately ends with Grendel looking off into the distance and telling Stacy he loves her. Almost feels text book; but in a good way. Guy Davis' art is good, but his style doesn't lend itself to action very well.

This book ends on a high note.

If you want to pick this or any issue up, get it from MyComicShop, they have the best back issue pricing around. Trust me, I've looked.

Well, that's it for tonight. One more issue of Black White and Red, then the Devil heads to Gotham...