November 26, 2007

Grendel vs. Argent

Comics You Should Own--Grendel #1-12Although Wagner doesn’t give us much information about Argent, in the earlier series, Hunter Rose asks him who he is, and Argent, we learn, is a 300-year-old Native American who was cursed by a wolf god. He is drawn to violent acts, and he made criminals his targets so that he could exist in society. It’s interesting to contrast Argent to Grendel, because without being too obvious about it, Wagner makes it clear that they are two sides of the same coin. Argent needs to fight, and he focuses on criminals because before he was cursed he was a pacifist. Therefore, violence is repellant to part of his personality, but he still needs to express it. He focuses on Grendel because Grendel--as Hunter Rose--was the perfect criminal.Comment:  GRENDEL is an independent comic from the late 1980s about which I know little.

The Indian as a savage beast...hmm. Not much of an original idea there.

Does the fact that Argent was a pacifist make up for depicting him as some sort of vigilante werewolf? Hard to say without reading the stories.

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