Musings on ‘Batman/Grendel: Devil’s Riddle and Devil’s Masque’

“Wayne.  Bruce Wayne.  And you are…?”

“Hunter.  Hunter Rose.”

I would imagine that some of you who read my review of the first Grendel Omnibus may have noticed that I made mention of a Batman/Grendel crossover but never elaborated on it.  As a Batman fan, this may have infuriated you.  For that, I apologize and hope that your anger has died down in the time since you read that article.  To make it up to you I am going to discuss that very crossover in this article.  Aren’t you excited??  I know I am!  Now, on with the info!

Batman/Grendel was released in 1993 and was both written and drawn by Matt Wagner.  It consisted of two books entitled Devil’s Riddle and Devil’s Masque, which have recently been combined with the books from a later Batman/Grendel crossover featuring Grendel Prime into a Batman/Grendel trade paperback.  This is convenient as the two crossovers take place within the same continuity, although only the first features Hunter Rose.  That being the case, I will only be detailing the first crossover here.

This crossover is told from four different points of view, each with their own internal monologues dominating their presence in the story.  Of course we have the perspectives of both Bruce Wayne and Hunter Rose to follow, but in addition the story follows two women who are dragged into the conflict between the Bat and the Grendel.  Although this story is told mostly in your traditional comic book format, it does tend to be creative with the presentation of the different character perspectives.  This can become a bit muddled when you have two scenes of mostly dialogue alternating back and forth from one panel to another.  I also found some plot points to be a tad bit unclear at the start, but was able to get into the story as I got used to the two female leads.

The gist of this story involves Hunter Rose deciding to take a trip to Gotham to provoke the Batman.  You may be wondering why an intelligent man like Hunter Rose would decide to antagonize the Dark Knight on his own turf.  Well I will let Hunter Rose himself explain it to you in his own words…

“Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.”

Remember folks, while brilliant, Hunter Rose is also both extremely confident in his own abilities and a complete sociopath.  The guy operates on a slightly different wavelength than the rest of us, and to him pissing off the Batman simply to see what happens is a completely worthwhile and entertaining challenge.  Instead of just charging into Gotham and taking the direct approach to finding and taking on Batman, he attracts the Caped Crusader’s attention by committing crimes that appear to be perpetrated by one of Batman’s other famous enemies.  It’s this roundabout way of achieving his goals that ends up sweeping the two main female characters into the dangerous game that is being played on the streets of Gotham.

If you go into this story expecting a lot of action you may be disappointed. The story primarily concerns itself with Grendel’s scheme as it plays out and sweeps the rest of the characters into its wake. Don’t despair, though, because as you may be able to predict with uncanny precision, Batman and Grendel do end up crossing paths and it does make for some very interesting storytelling. It’s unfortunate that there is only one meeting between these two characters, because Grendel is really an ideal villain to pit Batman against. Wagner manages, with a decent amount of subtlety, to show you how alike Bruce Wayne and Hunter Rose actually are at times, and it’s this comparison that really sold the story to me in the end.

So, I’d definitely recommend this as a companion piece to the Grendel Omnibus: Volume 1. That said, make sure to read the omnibus first if you haven’t introduced yourself to Grendel. Understanding the two adversaries is pretty important when it comes to fully appreciating this story.