The Devil Inside

This is part of a series of posts on Matt Wagner's Grendel series. There are spoilers for each individual story and for the series as a whole. I recommend reading the series before reading any of these posts.

Being only three issues in length, The Devil Inside's brevity belies its importance to an understanding of the Grendel series. In Devil by the Deed and Devil's Legacy we saw two characters embrace the Grendel identity and achieve incredible power and respect through brutality and strength.

Hunter Rose was an incredible personality who bent most of the North American underworld to his will. Christine Spar was able to transform from a widowed writer into a warrior who overcame two literal monsters in the form of Tujiro and Argent. But the story of Brian Li-Sung found in The Devil Inside is different. It is petty and small scale. Brian will not achieve any remarkable feats, he will not overcome a powerful nemesis or make a significant impact on the world. In this way, he is the most relatable. If Hunter Rose is Scarface, Brian is the kid wearing the Scarface t-shirt.

 

Notably, this is the story that reveals the supernatural nature of the Grendel entity, and its possession of its avatars. The depiction of this demon here, as a nagging influence that causes petty snide comments and a general attitude of disgust with the world and those with whom one should find comfort, such as the also grieving Regina, calls to mind the demons described in C. S. Lewis works such as The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce. The demon is not all conquering and fearsome, it serves its purposes gradually by confusing, harassing and undermining its victim. Much later, in Behold the Devil, its physical form as little more than an imp is also telling.

The murders committed by Brian continue the trend of those committed by Christine. When she psychologically tortured and then killed the police officer who brutalized Brian, it was an extreme overreaction meant to make the reader uncomfortable. Certainly, the reader disliked the officer, and the tension of wanting him to be punished and also wanting Christine to be better than a vindictive murderer made for one of the most intense issues of comics this reader has ever seen. Brian's murder of the racist security guard, who has not committed any violence, is even more clearly an extreme case of Grendel victimizing an undeserving person.

And, of course, the final battle the series leads to ends with a whimper, as Brian is easily shot dead. This is a shorter post about one of the shorter stories in the series.

Next up: Devil Tales