Creative Staff:
Story: Matt Wagner
Art: Matt Wagner
Colors: Brennan Wagner
Letterer: Dave Lanphear
What They Say:
Grendel Prime and Sigma-Seven’s journey through the stars reaches its exciting conclusion as a broken warp drive sends them hurtling toward the farthest reaches of the universe. There, they will encounter a society that not only threatens the success of their mission to find a new home for humanity . . . but also its very reason to exist. Creators Matt Wagner and Brennan Wagner bring their metaphysical odyssey to a thrilling finale as Grendel Prime confronts a force that even he cannot overcome!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey draws to a close with this issue and it’s been a long ride for this eight-issue run thanks to the pandemic. But it’s also likely responsible for what’s coming next, which is a trio of four-issue miniseries from the same creative team as we take Grendel Prime to the next stages of what must come in the journey. This installment does a solid job of bringing to a close the odyssey itself and while it’s obvious where it’s going to go quickly, it’s engaging just to watch how our two leading players handle themselves within the whole of it. And, as always, new places and people for Wagner to illustrate which is always a delight to see come to life like this.
With the finale, Grendel Prime and Siggy find themselves suddenly experiencing a warp as the ship is out of control, or at least out of their control. As it turns out, they’ve been warped a great distance beyond where their charts track and have found themselves in the midst of a massive fleet of ships that are part of The Consortium. With little in the way to resist, both are transferred to the lead ship of Ever Onward where they meet those that are handling dealing with the Earth problem. It’s an amusing sequence just in watching how Grendel and Siggy handle the situation as Siggy goes along and tries to pay attention whereas Grendel finds himself reacting and pushing back against all the invasiveness. But the reality is that the pair are like ants compared to the combined knowledge and ability of The Consortium so there’s a really big play going on here.
The age-old question is basically asked here about whether humanity should be allowed out into the greater community of space itself. The consortium, representing a huge amount of worlds and beings, has watched mankind for some time and doesn’t believe they’re ready for the next step with how violin they still are. Grendel, only existing to serve, is intent on finding a new world for those he’s been put in charge of but that’s all falling apart around him as he’s about to be sent back to Earth – one where almost 500 years have passed since they left. With Siggy staying behind as a newly freed being, he’s intending to figure out how to help as well, but mostly he’s just glad to have some sense of control over his destiny. For the reader, however, it’s time to return home to see how much the world has changed and if the true spirit of Grendel operates there or if Prime has been truly shepherding it all this time.
In Summary:
I’ve really enjoyed this series a lot overall simply because it connected me back with the Grendel property again after so long. Wagner has a lot of fun with two-part storylines across it in exploring worlds and how Prime would deal with it while searching for a new home for humanity. With the way this closes, it sets us up for a bigger understanding of the universe at large – a familiar one to science fiction fans – while also bringing us full circle to see what humanity has been up to after being left alone for so long. I’m thrilled that there is more Grendel coming because each series has me fearing that it’s the one where Wagner will say that it’s time to put it to rest. It’s definitely well done and will be a great binge read for a lot of fans.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 28th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99