History ComicBook / Grendel

* ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: Many Hunter Rose stories include excerpts from, or outright are, publications by Christine Spar or Wiggins.

* ExperimentedInCollege: Turns into Crystal's attitude to her relationship with Susan, much to Susan's heartache.

* NiceJobBreaking

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Hitchcock Blue massacring the inhabitants of a BadGuyBar... and then urinating on them all. Through a solid-gold codpiece.

* BullyingADragon: The whole second half of the Christine Spar story is a two-way version of this - both Christine on one hand and Argent and Wiggins on the other just can't stop provoking each other.
* BountyHunter: Hitchcock Blue and the Session Sisters are rival Bounty Hunters pursuing Grendel Prime in "Devil Quest".

* CreepyTwins: The Session Sisters

* EnemyWithin: The Grendel entity to Brian Li Sung, and possibly Wiggins in the end.

* HijackedByGanon: [[spoiler:Pope Innocent XLII is Tujiro.]]

* LaserBlade: Grendel-Prime's weapon of choice.

** Also Hunter Rose's skull.
*** Averted in that the skull doesn't ''do'' anything - it's just part of Grendel Prime's attempt to understand the legacy of Grendel.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Argent is a permanent, immortal, WolfMan who doesn't shift. (How he got that way is a case of MultipleChoicePast: he was originally a Native American but one story has him cursed by his tribe for being gay, another suggests that he deliberately brought it on himself through being a WellIntentionedExtremist.)

* PsychoForHire: The Session Sisters.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Christine Spar's period as Grendel.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Cross's minions Zebra and Kiersch, and the Session Sisters in "Devil Quest".
* TortureTechnician: Mother Aimee for Innocent XLII, and the Session Sisters in "Devil Quest".

* SumbliminalAdvertising: Used by Orion Assante to influence other regions of the world to join his regime.

* GenerationXerox: Definite hints that the same people and roles tend to recur. As well as all the Grendels, Pellon Cross has some similarities to Argent, and Manny McDoone is Orion's version of Larry Stohler.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Argent is a permanent, immortal, WolfMan who doesn't shift. (How he got that way is a case of MultipleChoicePast: he was originally a Native American but one story has him cursed by his tribe for being gay, * PathOfInspiration: In the far future, [[spoiler:the Catholic Church]]
another suggests that he deliberately brought it on himself through being a WellIntentionedExtremist.)

* TheAce: Hunter Rose, an Olympic-level fencer, best-selling novelist, millionaire socialite, master assassin and ruler of the largest criminal empire in North America. Only two other individuals are shown to be able to match him on an intellectual or physical level. One is Argent, an unaging, [[SuperStrength Super Strong]] werewolf, the other (via crossover) is Franchise/{{Batman}}.
* ActionMom: Christine Spar.

* AntiHero: Many of the central characters count as different forms:
** Hunter Rose: ByronicHero, if you're being charitable.
** Argent: GoodIsNotNice to NinetiesAntiHero, depending on the story.
** Christine Spar: NominalHero / TragicHero
** Brian Li Sung: ClassicalAntiHero
** Eppy Thatcher: PowerBornOfMadness PragmaticHero with hints of HeroicComedicSociopath
** Orion Assante: KnightTemplar PragmaticHero
* AntiVillain: Hunter Rose was an early attempt at this in comics. While clearly a VillainProtagonist, he's also explicitly shown to have [[EvenEvilHasStandards a strict]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil moral code]], and deeply cares for both his lover and for his adoptive daughter. His rival, Argent, is shown as a savage killer whom even the police fear.
** The third Grendel, Brian Li Sung, is a more straightforward example. Shattered by his lover's death, his desire to understand what happened to her, combined with his desperate poverty and his returning alcoholism, makes him feel [[DemonicPossession possessed by Grendel]] and driven to commit horrible acts. [[spoiler: He's arguably a subversion, as he succeeds in resisting the most violent instincts, leading to RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]
** Orion and Jupiter Assante, and Grendel Prime are arguably the [[TropeCodifier Trope Codifiers]] in comics. All three characters commit horrible acts, but the former two appear to do so for TheGreaterGood, while Prime himself is very much an EvenEvilHasStandards character.

* ArchEnemy: Argent is Grendel's archenemy
* ArcherArchetype: Brian Li Sung as Grendel.
* AscendedExtra: Brian Li Sung, Captain Wiggins, Susan Veraghen
* AteHisGun: [[spoiler:Larry Stohler, when the cops come to arrest him for his involvement in Hunter Rose's crimes]].
* TheAtoner: Susan Veraghen, in ''Grendel: Past Prime.'' It was her clan that was on guard duty the night [[spoiler:Jupiter Assante was assassinated]]; as a result, everyone except her commits ritual suicide, and she herself goes on a worldwide pilgrimage to locate the missing Grendel-Prime.
** Brian Li Sung is an unusual case in that he's TheAtoner for actions he hasn't committed yet, and desperately tries to avoid.
* AxCrazy: Eppy Thatcher, when he really gets going

* BadassNormal: Hunter Rose has no powers, nothing except fighting skills and an [[ExoticWeaponSupremacy electrified fork-sword-thing]], but he regularly battles Argent the Wolf, who has superhuman strength and ''claws''.
** Most later Grendels also qualify, though Grendel Prime is an EmpoweredBadassNormal, and Brian Li Sung is an IneffectualSympatheticVillain.
* BastardUnderstudy: [[spoiler:Pellon Cross]] to Tujiro.
* BigBadassWolf: Argent the Wolf

* BreakTheCutie: What happens to Stacy, beginning with Hunter's death and ending with her husband/therapist raping her and killing himself.
* BrotherSisterIncest: Orion Assante, [[{{Twincest}} with twins]], even.

* ButchLesbian: Susan Veraghen.
** BuryYourGays: Susan's lovers did not often have long lifespans, and if that wasn't bad enough...

* CampGay: Larry Stohler, by much innuendo.
* TheChessmaster: How Hunter Rose was able to take over the entirety of New York's mobs within a month
** How Orion Assante takes over the world. He's less effective against vampires, however.
** How Abner Heath and Laurel Kennedy plot to take over the Khanate as Jupiter's regents. It doesn't turn out so well.
* CreepyChild: Stacy Palumbo, especially given that she's the cause of Hunter Rose's death.

* DirtyCop: Pellon Cross, the leader of C.O.P. in the future, is purely self-serving [[spoiler:even before he's turned into a vampire]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Hunter Rose is against the idea of harming children and as such stopped child prostitution as part of his role as mob boss. He also withdraws from [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Gotham]] when he endangers the life of a child he was trying to hold ransom.
** Also holds true with the Forx gang of Grendels, who burn crude oil instead of using it, and definitely true of the post-Assante Grendels, who take sharp issue with nuclear weapons.
* {{Flanderization}}: In ''Devil by the Deed'', Matt Wagner takes great pains to balance out Hunter Rose's criminal activities with his compassion towards Stacy; later works revisiting this particular character turns him into an unrepentant killer and implies that Hunter believes Stacy is the reincarnation of his dead lover Jocasta. Wagner has admitted he is less fond of Hunter Rose today.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Hunter Rose was once a boy by the name of [[EmbarrasingFirstName Eddie]] from the suburbs gifted with superhuman intelligence.

* GentlemanThief: Hunter Rose seems like this '''until he ups and stabs some innocent bystander in the eyes.'''

* HeroAntagonist: Argent the Wolf, an AntiHero example who's determined to take down Hunter Rose.
** Captain Wiggins is another example.

* IHateYouVampireDad: [[spoiler:Pellon Cross to Tujiro.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Tujiro. [[spoiler: Until he gets what he deserves centuries later.]]
* KnightTemplar: All of the Orion's Sword Grendels who hold true to the code qualify to some extent, but Grendel-Prime lives and breathes this. Also Argent, and Wiggins.
* KnowledgeBroker: Larry Stohler acts as Hunter Rose's informant in high society and spy on the mob.

* LegacyCharacter: Hunter Rose to Christine Spar to Brian Li Sung, then a centuries-long gap until Eppy Thatcher. Orion Assante inherits the title from Eppy, and while his son Jupiter eventually becomes Grendel-Khan, the true heir of the Grendel identity at that point becomes Grendel Prime.
** Hunter Rose sees himself and Stacy as this.

* LikesOlderWomen: Hunter's first lover was Jocasta Rose. She was '''36'''. He was '''14'''. Repeated on a slightly less cradle-robbing scale with Christine Spar, who is Grendel at the time, and Brian Li Sung, who will become Grendel after her death.
* LivingLieDetector: Captain Wiggins' cybernetic eye lets him read biopatterns.

* MadnessMontage: Eppy Thatcher gets these every so often.

* MoralityPet: Stacy Palumbo to Hunter Rose and Argent, which ends up becoming the downfall of Rose and the spiral towards insanity for Stacy.
* MundaneFantastic: Hunter Rose is a completely normal man who takes over the New York mob. His archenemy is a werewolf.
** Orion Assante's essentially a well-meaning but slightly perverted bureaucrat. He also takes over the world in a dictatorship, despite being unquestionably the least militant lead Grendel in the series.
* MutualKill: [[spoiler:Christine Spar and Argent]].
* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: Implied to be the source of Hunter Rose's exceptional physical and mental abilities- his autopsy suggests the he may have had "some advanced genetic mutation, resulting in much higher usage of our almost limitless mental capacities".

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Argent is a permanent, immortal, WolfMan who doesn't shift. (How he got that way is a case of MultipleChoicePast: he was originally a Native American but one story has him cursed by his tribe for being gay, another suggests that he deliberately brought it on himself through being a WellIntentionedExtremist.)
* PlotRelevantAgeUp: Jupiter Assante in ''Grendel: War Child.''
** Also his father in Devil's Reign.
* PsychoSerum: The Grendel drug that is the source of Eppy Thatcher's abilities and madness.
** Vampires eventually succumb to this in the blood of The First.
* RapeAsDrama: Stacy Palumbo was raped by her husband (and psychiatrist) on their wedding night. He promptly committed suicide, while she remained catatonic for the rest of her life. This produced her one and only daughter, who would grow up to become Christina Spar and the new Grendel.

* ReligionOfEvil: In the far future, [[spoiler:the Catholic Church]]
** Much less-spoileriffic: the various Grendel cults, as well as the vampire cult.

* RetiredBadass: Argent, in ''Devil's Legacy''.

* SecretKeeper: Aside from serving as TheConsigliere, Larry Stohler also knows of Hunter Rose's secret identity, having figured it out himself. [[spoiler:He chooses to take the secret to his grave]].

* SkunkStripe: Hunter Rose and Christine Spar. In one case, it leads to the former being recognized by someone from the same small-town suburbs that he was born in. [[HeKnowsTooMuch His fate is a given]].
* StraightGay: [[spoiler: Argent was cast out of his tribe and cursed to his current form for being this. Jupiter Assante also qualifies.]]
* SuperSoldier: The Paladin/Grendel-Prime
* SwordCane: Hunter Rose's "fork on a stick" can collapse into a cane for disguise purposes.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Brian Li Sung's whole narrative and Eppy Thatcher's point-of-view sections.

* VillainExitStageLeft: Tujiro after his encounter with Christine Spar.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Hunter Rose is an uppercrust bestselling author, as is Christine Spar. Tujiro is a respected Kabuki performer and [[spoiler:centuries later, Pope.]]
** To say nothing of the Khans themselves.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Susan Veraghen, whose natural hair color is bright green. In ''Past Prime,'' she states that all the Veraghens had been genetically modified for green hair and pale skin several generations previous, and comments that "one of my great-great-grandmothers must have liked the look."

* TheApunkalypse: Both the post-WWIII environment of "The Devil Is Hormonal" and later Grendel Prime's era.

* HolyBurnsEvil: As a vampire, Cross is apparently repelled when Orion brandishes a makeshift cross at him. Subverted, since the sight of the cross brought his memory of being turned back and reminded him that Innocent was his main enemy.

* KnightTemplar: All of the Orion's Sword Grendels who hold true to the code qualify to some extent, but Grendel-Prime lives and breathes this. Also Argent and Wiggins.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The USSR still exists in 2120, at which point the simultaneous assassination of its Premier and the US President lead to WorldWarIII.