From: panda@Micor.OCUnix.on.ca (Elizabeth Holden)
Subject: Re: Grendel War Child is boring
Organization: M.B. Cormier INC.
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 05:04:36 EST

jjfink@skcla.monsanto.com writes:

> In article <1gkv39INNc8c@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, fau@po.CWRU.Edu (Francis A. Uy
> > 
> > I've been buying Grendel War Child because[...]
> >  - The plot's got to go somewhere eventually, right?
> 
> > That last reason is starting to bug me.  The plot
> >  hasn't moved more than 3 millimeters since the 
> >  first issue.  Grendel keeps getting in pointless

What?  Going from city to bayou to desert to Africa isn't enouch movement 
for you?   Or do you just think it isn't "going anywhere" because there 
aren't short-term resolutions?

I think we have tons of story here.... much more than in most comics.  
It's just subtler than most, and not over-dialogued.

> >  destination.  All we know is he's supposed to take
> >  care of the Cub, and he's doing a bad job of it.  

Why?  The Cub is alive, isn't it?  And learning.  That's the point - one 
of the points - the Cub is learning about freedom after the stifling life 
it led under its mother.

> 
> Well, I have a few justifications for you:
> 1) It's an obvious homage to Lone Wolf and Cub (as you recognized), which Mat
> Wagner drew covers for the late First Comics' translations.

Agreed, but it's more than that; more than a homage, more than a copy.  
There are numerous underlying themes (like the relationship of the 
individual to society) that are handled very differently than in Lone 
Wolf and Cub.  Among other things, *this* Cub is not Grendel's child and 
his actions with regard to the Cub have very different motives.

>    b) There's a lot more to this Grendel than meets the eye.  Initially he

...As is the case with all of them; but there's much we haven't been told 
about this one.  For one thing, we don't know who he is, don't have a 
name for him.  My suspicion is that when we learn his name, we will 
recognize it.

>       looked merely quite tough, but there's a few hints in the latest issue
>       that he must be something more:  Someone says he must have one heck of

Just the fact that he was planted by Orion Assante is intriguing enough.  
Orion must have given him the formidable technological capabilities he 
has; no one else in this world seems to have the equivalent.  What this 
implies about knowledge, power and freedom (three of the big themes of 
the series) we have yet to see.

> 3) There's a lot of politics to catch up on.  To drop it on us in a bolus
>    (look it up, it's a keen word) could alienate a lot of new audience to
>    the Dark Horse stuff.  However, MW has done this to us before.  The

And would be absolutely unnecessary.  For one thing, the background isn't 
entirely relevant.  For another, the situation is changing - fast - as we 
watch.  Since I've already made a few rash guesses, I'll add that I think 
when the smoke clears, power will be in the hands of the Cub's sister.

> 4) It certainly beats entire issues of, say, Cerebus pissing, as has been kno
>    to happen in the past of that book.

What, do I sense some disaffection with the perfection of CEREBUS?  :-)

> 5) It's a storytelling experiment, as many of the Grendel stories have been.

Many?  Which ones were not?  This goes with the territory.

Namaste,
Elizabeth




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