by Matthew Amuso. This is RETROGRADING, where we share an interesting literary motif and a history of taunting.

THE COMICS: Batman/Grendel: Devil’s Riddle & Grendel/Batman: Devil’s Masque

THE YEAR: 1993. Batman is the world’s most famous and profitable comic book character. Meanwhile, one of independent comics’ heaviest hitters is ready to dip his toes in the corporate waters.

THE SPECS: Written and drawn by Matt Wagner; colored by Joe Matt; lettered by Ken Bruzenak; published by DC Comics and Comico. 

THE MAKE: By the early Nineties, Matt Wagner was ascendent, still riding the shockwaves of the Eighties independent comics boom. With Mage: The Hero Discovered and the ongoing Grendel series, he’d established his credentials as a stylish, design-forward artist and an innovative writer. His creator-owned work during this period wasn’t just personal and experimental; it aimed squarely at mainstream audiences, featuring larger-than-life characters and genre conventions turned inside-out. Someone inside the old DC headquarters at 666 Fifth Avenue must have noticed Wagner’s talent because it was there a diabolical plot was hatched to create the first-ever crossover between a DC superhero and a fully independent, creator-owned character: Batman/Grendel.

The shared heritage of these two characters is easy enough to trace; the swashbuckling elan of Zorro and the grim urban milieu of The Shadow clearly influenced Grendel decades after they set the pace for Batman.  Before evolving into a spirit of aggression passed down through the centuries, Grendel began as a man: Hunter Rose, bestselling novelist and sophisticate, inspired by boredom and pride to become an assassin and master criminal. Batman, you may know, is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy playboy by day, compelled by his parent’s death to wage war against crime. Both are driven, brilliant men using terror and violence to impose their will on the world. One works to eliminate the chaos surrounding him, and one seeks to become its master. A Dark Knight and a Devil.

A crossover between the two might have felt like a coup to Wagner, but the project was thrown into limbo for three years when Comico, his then-publisher, went bankrupt. In the meantime, Wagner began co-writing the neo-pulp Sandman Mystery Theatre series for DC and helmed the classic Batman versus Two-Face story “Faces” for the anthology series Legends of the Dark Knight. 

This was a foundational period for Dark Knight; two hit movies and a revolutionary animated series had turned the Batcave into primo fictional real estate. By the late ’80s and early ’90s, Batman had become the superhero to play with if you wanted to experiment with the genre. Once Batman/Grendel finally moved forward, Wagner didn’t saunter into those crime-ridden alleyways alone; he brought back up. His art school buddy, the late Joe Matt (Peep Show), provided colors, and Ken Bruzenak (American Flagg) was recruited to handle lettering. DC editorial more or less stayed out of their way. This indie all-star squadron had made it inside Gotham City limits, and they had the run of the place.

THE REVIEW: At the beginning of Batman/Grendel: Devil’s Riddle, we find both men in a rut, lacking fresh challenges in their respective cities. Hunter Rose solves this problem when he books a trip from New York to Gotham, ostensibly to negotiate a publishing deal for his next novel. His true aim is more nefarious and involves the Great Sphinx of Egypt — in a nice bit of pulp-mindedness, it’s been hauled into a Gotham museum for repairs. However, the mystery of what Grendel is up to and the subsequent cat-and-mouse between him and Batman is only a backdrop for the real drama. Grendel’s machinations hinge on two women, Hillie and Rachel, roommates whom he drags into a nightmare of blackmail and deceit. 

Devil’s Riddle and the second issue, Devil’s Masque, are true noir comics. In the stylings of the pulps that influenced them, this crossover event doesn’t dwell on who committed a crime or how to catch them; rather, it explores how ordinary people can be battered down by the torrential currents of life and how corruption and desperation often poison or even destroy those who enter impossible situations with the best intentions. 

The narrative dances betwixt all four characters; their perspectives are deftly interwoven, often on the same page, courtesy of the finely tuned balance between Wagner’s parallel plotting and virtuoso layouts. These are dense comics packed with visual information — some panels only take up 1/30 of a page, and extreme close-ups and silhouetted body language are often used to stunning effect. Wagner puts his love of design to use — he draws the hell out of clothes, architecture, and interior decor, all while keeping his line supple and storytelling clear. Matt’s color work matches him by taking advantage of blue-line printing, a game-changing process at the time. He loads shirts, skirts, and carpets with vibrant patterns, smothering Gotham in an unreal atmosphere that simmers with potential tragedy.

Visual density is matched with verbal density. Common wisdom these days says to pair dialogue and narration down to let the art breathe, and while there’s some sense in that notion, it can also be a creative straitjacket. Wagner knows when to let the pictures do the talking, but he isn’t afraid to let his characters speak, both with each other and to themselves. Thankfully, Bruzenak’s design skills are a match for Wagner’s, and he makes it all flow. Each character has distinct narrative captions; Batman types succinct digital reports, Hillie’s thoughts are always a bit off-kilter, Rachel’s frustrations are rushed and torn at the edges, and Hunter’s arch, urbane musings are penned in flowing script. 

Wagner keeps the dialogue and pacing relaxed and naturalistic in the early scenes, letting the reader get to know Hillie and Rachel so that when Grendel upends their lives, we care about the suffering he inflicts. There is pathos here, tied directly to real issues; the secrets Grendel unearths from Hillie and Rachel’s pasts speak to debates over women’s bodily autonomy that, unfortunately, continue today. And even though Grendel ultimately underestimates them both, there are no winners here. 

Still, there’s plenty of action and derring-do afoot. When we first see Batman in costume, he takes out a street gang so methodically that they barely qualify as a light workout. Later, in a show-stopping scene, the GCPD lay a trap, having been misled into thinking the Riddler is their quarry. Instead, Grendel slices a bloody path through a dozen flatfoots right under Commissioner Gordon’s mustache, making clear that he’s a different beast than any Batman has hunted before. And the climactic rooftop duel between the two is so tense that you can practically feel the pages hum between your fingers. If Grendel were a resident of the DC Universe, he’d be a top-three Batman nemesis without breaking a sweat. 

NOSTALGIA-FEST OR REPRESSED NIGHTMARE? More than a stylish, emotional, and energetic pulp noir, Batman/Grendel is a well-executed comic crossover, an outstanding distillation of Matt Wagner’s influences and a thrilling showdown between the complex heroes borne from them. 

RETROGRADE: A 

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