Grendel versus the vampires

Matt Wagner's Grendel saga has gone to some very strange places over the years of publication. It's gone far into the future and deep within the darkest psyches, but one thing has been a constant for decades and decades - it's that vampires fucking suck.

Grendel started out as the anti-Batman, but had something else in common with the very earliest versions of the Dark Knight - they both hate bloodsuckers. To be fair, original Grendel Hunter Rose's main nemesis was more of a werewolf, but ever since Christine Spar picked up the forks, vampires have been Grendel's bane.

And far in the future world, where Grendel has metamorphized into something strange and honourable, vampires became a society-threatening scourge, and almost wiped out the sun with the power of bananas before all getting locked up in Vegas (it got complicated).

And the vampires have been there ever since, simpering in the dark before launching into slaughter, throughout the Grendel Tales, and hiding in the arctic snow in War Child.

Wagner's return to Grendel Prime and his fucked-up future world in recent years have seen Prime shot off into the great beyond, and there are no nosferatu in space, although there were plenty of other monstrosities, (the Trump stuff was so on the nose, I'm a little surprised it wasn't commented on more, although that might be because we're all just fucking sick of that guy).

But Prime is back on earth in the most recent series, and the first few issues of Devils Crucible have revealed that the vampires have finally won. Their longevity and animal ruthlessness have conquered the world, with the only technologically advanced part of the planet in a society built on cruelty and base servitude, while gross naked hags wandering the wasteland, all beautifully rendered by Wagner with his typically unflinching line.

The story of Grendel does get very complicated, but can also be utterly direct, and Grendel Prime's latest foe is the oldest of enemies. The demonic influence of Grendel might have blown up the world, but it's also the only thing left standing against the leeches.