{"id":130,"date":"2014-12-09T19:13:17","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T19:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegrinnellbeowulf.com\/?page_id=130"},"modified":"2014-12-09T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T19:13:17","slug":"beowulf-dragon-slayer-dc-comics-1975-76","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/beowulf-adaptations\/beowulf-dragon-slayer-dc-comics-1975-76\/","title":{"rendered":"Beowulf: Dragon Slayer, DC Comics (1975-76)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1970, Marvel Comics, having bought the rights to the character of Conan, released the first issue of Conan the Barbarian <\/em>to great approval from its fan base, the series quickly becoming so popular that it would produce a feature film within a decade.\u00a0 D.C. Comics, Marvel\u2019s rival, saw Conan <\/em>as a threat to their own comic empire, and began a number of different comic series which they would hope to unite under the banner of a \u201cSword and Sorcery\u201d line to compete with Marvel. \u00a0To challenge Conan<\/em> D.C needed their own barbarian, so they set about reimagining Beowulf in the same vein.\u00a0 Beowulf:\u00a0 Dragon Slayer<\/em>, first released in 1975, was one of the first of such attempts to piggyback off Marvel\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

This is immediately apparent merely by looking at the cover page of Issue #1.\u00a0 Beowulf:\u00a0 Dragon Slayer<\/em> is everything Conan is and everything the original poem is not.\u00a0 Beowulf swings an oversized mace at Grendel, who is carrying a bikini-clad Amazonian love interest in need of Beowulf\u2019s saving, while in the background stands an imposing mountain fortress that is supposed to be Heorot.\u00a0 Dressed in a loincloth and horned helmet, Beowulf is the quintessential barbarian, nearly a spitting image of Conan himself, down to the clothing and the damsel in distress.\u00a0 D.C. apparently thought copy-pasting Conan into a slightly different universe would be the easiest way to appeal to Marvel\u2019s audience.\u00a0 While the comics claim to be an adaptation of the Old English poem, and while the poem\u2019s influence is certainly there, the end product is far removed from its source and much more resembles Conan <\/em>than it does Beowulf<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"conan<\/a>\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

In the poem, Beowulf fights Grendel hand-to-hand\u2014\u201cI will carry neither my sword nor my broad golden shield, but instead I will grapple with my enemy\u201d (412-4)\u2014Heorot is a hall, not a castle, and no such eye-candy exists.\u00a0 I would be hard pressed to find an image that better sums up stereotypical comic tropes than this front page, particularly those of medieval comic book imaginings.\u00a0 Indeed, the similarities to Conan and the deviations from the poem become further apparent when examining the character of Beowulf, the \u201cConan\u201d of this series.\u00a0 In the original poem, Beowulf is both a capable warrior and a capable leader, strong enough to defeat the world\u2019s greatest monsters and intelligent enough to lead his Geats to years of prosperity.\u00a0 While he is never presented as a great intellectual, he is always well within control of whatever situation he comes across, from pure feats of strength to navigating political waters.\u00a0 In the comics, Beowulf is nothing more than a hulking barbarian, even described by Hrothgar as resembling, \u201cone of those ape-beasts . . . brought back from the Darklands!\u201d \u00a0Additionally, Nan-Zee, the \u201ccapable\u201d warrior who always finds herself in need of saving, upon first meeting Beowulf calls him \u201cmy mindless barbarian.\u201d\u00a0 In the comics, Beowulf is a man who sees every problem as needing to be clubbed in the head until things work themselves out, one series of mindless action and violence after another, one monster after another to be faced and defeated.<\/p>\n

However, this begs the question:\u00a0 If all D.C. wanted was a barbarian to compete with the likes of Conan, why draw from Beowulf<\/em> and not just create a bog-standard hero-barbarian?<\/p>\n

The answer, it seems, comes from a letter from the author included on the final page of Issue #1<\/a>. This letter, addressed to the reader, encourages all people who come across this comic to read it because, the author claims, it seamlessly combines the old Beowulf<\/em> text with more modern conventions of action, adventure, and pop culture in an educational manner.\u00a0 The author even encourages students to read it in class and when questioned by their teachers to assure them that it is an educational piece above all else.\u00a0 He even goes so far as to say, \u201cFor the field of education is the place where comics can do the most good,\u201d and, \u201cWe\u2019ll try our best to produce a book that you\u2019ll be proud to bring your classroom and show your teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would seem from this letter that the author aspired for his comic hero to be more than a mere Conan impersonator and that he wanted it at least to appear as if it were something beyond mindless, visceral action.\u00a0 The writer actually claims that, \u201cif we kept to the original \u2018educational\u2019 poem, the comic book would be unbelievably gory,\u201d meaning that the violence in the comic book has, in fact, been toned down rather than sensationalized.\u00a0 The author tries to make Beowulf the \u201cthinking-man\u2019s Conan,\u201d granting both the comic book and D.C. some intellectual cache by drawing from a highly regarded literary text.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the comics, for all their attempts to be Conan, do draw some things from the original poem, at least in Issue #1.\u00a0 In particular, the comic retains some of the characters\u2019 motivations. \u00a0Grendel, for example, is the first character introduced, a stuttering behemoth and a hulking beast that is not quite human but not quite fully monster. \u00a0He is ascribed the same motivators as he has in the poem:\u00a0 he cannot stand to hear the merriment of\"Ben<\/a> men in \u201cCastle\u201d\u00a0Heorot<\/a>.\u00a0 As he grows enraged, a spark appears in Grendel\u2019s eyes in the final panel. \u00a0This indicates that he is not merely some automaton lacking emotion, but gives us a glimpse of his underlying psyche\u2014he is excited, filled with a blood-lust that can only be quenched by blood, leaving a silence in his wake.The way Grendel himself is represented, on the other hand, differs somewhat from the way I had originally pictured him while reading the poem. \u00a0He rises up menacingly from the waters of his swamp, the angle from which we view his hulking figure clearly meant to show his imposing strength as something beyond human.\u00a0 The scales he is drawn with in the second to last panel are also an interesting touch, making him appear more like a \u201cswamp-creature\u201d than I had originally thought.\u00a0 What really throws me a bit in his appearance, however, is his coloring.\u00a0 I had always imagined Grendel, a nightmare that attacks at night, as being a dark, menacing figure who would be able to blend in with the shadows; indeed, he is described in the poem as being \u201csheltered by the dark\u201d (89).\u00a0 In the comics, he is bright orange-red, most likely in order to emphasize the demon side of Grendel, demons generally being colored red to match the fires of Hell, especially given the coming subplot between Grendel and his master, Satan, the great demon himself.\u00a0 Before we even meet Satan in Issue #2, Grendel\u2019s coloring alongside his battle cries \u201cFor Satan\u201d emphasize this connection.<\/p>\n

While Beowulf\u2019s character may have been made to resemble Conan, his motivations, much like\"lof<\/a> Grendel\u2019s, also make the transition relatively intact.\u00a0 The final line of the original poem is that Beowulf was lof-geornost<\/em> (\u201cmost eager for fame\u201d).\u00a0 The comic places a great emphasis on this as well.\u00a0 In one of the first instance of dialogue not occurring during battle, Wiglaf, a Geatish companion to Beowulf who appears in the latter part of the poem, asks Beowulf why they are sailing to Daneland.\u00a0 Beowulf responds that he seeks lof<\/em>, fame, which drives him so much that he wants to aid the Danes, the sworn enemy of the Geats, so that he can earn it.\u00a0 The speech bubble in which Beowulf first utters the word lof <\/em>is placed almost directly in the middle of the page, which, along with the conversation occurring near the comic\u2019s beginning, illustrates importance as a central component of Beowulf\u2019s being.\u00a0 He goes on to say, \u201cThat fame will keep the spirit of Beowulf alive centuries after I am dust!\u201d, further emphasizing the importance he places on this earthly glory as it is the only thing that can keep him alive in this \u201cimpermanent world.\u201d \u00a0Impermanence, which can also be referred to as the transitory nature of life, is critically important to the poem, as, among other things, evokes the tension between the clashing cultures of pagans, who dream of earthly glory, and Christianity, which says that earthly glory matters little in the grand scheme of things.<\/p>\n

Even while the comic manages to accurately invoke certain aspects of the poem and Anglo-Saxon culture more broadly, it fails to function as a faithful adaption.\u00a0 The original poem maintained a balance between the monstrous and the human, and that is what lends it much of its intrigue.\u00a0 Beowulf is both monster slayer and politician, displaying great physical strength in one instance and in the next showing the wherewithal to lead his people.\u00a0 In one scene pagan and Norse mythologies are referenced, and in the next the poet is describing the role of God as Beowulf battles Grendel\u2019s mother.\u00a0 There is always some form of tension that can\u2019t be resolved merely by swinging a sword, but rather that must be considered and worked through by the reader.<\/p>\n

As an adaption, this is what I think the comics truly lack\u2014they are a straightforward hack-and-slash adventure series.\u00a0 Beowulf goes to aid Hrothgar not because he wants to help him, but \"nanzee<\/a>forfame and fame alone.\u00a0 He is only ever shown with his small group of companions, and there is no indication that he would make a good political leader.\u00a0 Indeed, the first alliance he has a chance to form, with Nan-Zee, he approaches by blatantly insulting her\u2014\u201cYou?!?\u00a0 A warrior?\u00a0 A woman warrior?\u00a0 Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!\u00a0 And a Swede no less!\u201d\u00a0 There is also none of the religious tension that existed in the poem.\u00a0 Satan is made into a literal character in Issue #2, taking an unspoken tension and making it physical so that Beowulf has yet something else to swing away at, a mindless hero and not the noble warrior portrayed in the poem.<\/p>\n

The thing is, there is nothing wrong with fun adventure romps.\u00a0 These comics are just as mindless as Conan the Barbarian<\/em>, but that doesn\u2019t make Conan bad, nor does it necessarily make the Beowulf:\u00a0 Dragon Slayer <\/em>comics bad.\u00a0 There is a place for mindless fun, and comics serve that medium quite well.\u00a0 The problem is that the subject of these comics is Beowulf.\u00a0 Conan could act as a barbarian because that\u2019s what his character was, but Beowulf is decidedly not a barbarian in the original poem.\u00a0 In order for him to become a Conan-type figure, the comics needed to manipulate his character so much that he is almost unrecognizable.\u00a0 If the comics were simply a hack-and-slash version of Beowulf\u2019s adventures, perhaps that would have been, if not accurate, then at least acceptable.\u00a0 But the comics in the following issues leave their source so far behind that it isn\u2019t even on the horizon, as Beowulf does things such as getting abducted by Egyptian aliens as Grendel plans to and succeeds in killing Satan.\u00a0 The further one goes, the more apparent it is that this \u201cadaptation\u201d draws much more from Conan <\/em>that it does from Beowulf<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I think whether or not one should take a look at Beowulf:\u00a0 Dragon Slayer<\/em> really comes down to what your opinions are on bad media.\u00a0 These comics are like the kind of movie that you\u2019d describe as being so bad that\u2019s it\u2019s good, it\u2019s miscues so amazing that they become unintentionally hilarious.\u00a0 To be able to view them in this manner, though, I had to look at them not expecting them to do Beowulf <\/em>any real justice and just let their crazy flow of events take me away.\u00a0 If you can do that, then they\u2019re definitely worth checking out.\u00a0 But, if not, do yourself a favor and stick to the poem.<\/p>\n

—Ben Warner \u201915<\/strong> is a Physics-turned-English major who has taken more than his fair share of Philosophy and Classics courses. His love of unintentional comedy makes it no wonder than an old 1970s comic book would capture his attention.<\/p>\n

\"Issue<\/a>
Issue 1: The Curse of Castle Hrothgar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Issue<\/a>
Issue 2: The Slave Maid of Satan!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Issue<\/a>
Issue 3: Man-Apes and Magic!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Issue<\/a>
Issue 4: Valley in the Shadow of Death!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Issue<\/a>
Issue 5: Chariots of the Stars!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Issue<\/a>
Issue 6: Labyrinth of the Grotto Minotaur!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1970, Marvel Comics, having bought the rights to the character of Conan, released the first issue of Conan the Barbarian to great approval from its fan base, the series quickly becoming so popular that it would produce a feature film within a decade.\u00a0 D.C. Comics, Marvel\u2019s rival, saw Conan as a threat to their… Read more Beowulf: Dragon Slayer, DC Comics (1975-76)<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":51,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-130","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarner.sites.grinnell.edu\/beowulf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}