Six issues of Beowulf, Dragon Slayer were produced from 1975 to 1976. Only loosely based upon the poem, it succeeds much more as a comic than as an adaptation of the poem. One of the major features of the comic is the storyline of Beowulf fighting Satan and his minions. Among these minions are Grendel, Grendel’s mother who sports a Princess Leia hairdo, and, of all things, Dracula. Other enemies of Beowulf in the series include a minotaur, a tribe of pygmy headhunters, and aliens from outer space.
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"The Prince of Geats says die!"
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As a hero, the DC Beowulf is a very stereotypical character. He could be Conan or any number of other barbarian heroes. It is a stock character, muscle bound and full of one-liners such as "The Prince of Geats says die!" He wears a loincloth, and a horned skull helmet. He is super macho and has definitely more brawn than brains. He has a beautiful girl at his side at all times, the Amazon/Swede Nan-Zee, who quite often needs to be rescued and, of course, wears an animal print bikini in almost all situations. The elements of heroism which were represented in the poem are completely replaced by modern pulp fantasy hero stereotypes and comic book cliches.
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In other words, Beowulf, Dragon Slayer is only an adaptation of the poem in name. Some of the major characters are there, such as Beowulf and Grendel. The element of their central conflict is part of the story and they do fight, but Beowulf never kills Grendel (arguably this is because the series ended at issue 6 in the middle of a story arc). By the series demise, however, the story in no way resembled the poem.
A soap opera-esqe storyline was begining to unfold as a bitter rivalry between Grendel and Dracula culminated in Grendel killing Satan with a stalactite in order to get back at Dracula for taking his spot as Satan's favorite underling. Meanwhile, the budding relationship and sexual tension between Beowulf and Nan-Zee heated up as they traveled in search of snake poison and a mystic fruit to, among other places, Crete, the Middle East, and Atlantis where they, of course, caused its destruction by crashing an alien spaceship into a volcano. Honestly, this was the plot. You can't make this stuff up. Alas, how unfortunate, we shall never know what happened next.
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"From beyond the stars they came...bringing death!"
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One of the only aspects of continuity between the poem and Beowulf, Dragon Slayer is the tension between Christian values and the subject matter. This tension has been discussed at length in scholarship on the poem. Bernard F. Huppe notes that
...the Christianity of Beowulf has been shown to be an essential part of its form and structure, although its subject and the motivations of its characters are pagan. It would be naive to assume that the poet was not aware of the paganism of his hero and of his society. It would be equally naive to assume that he would have celebrated a society which lacked the knowledge of truths of Christianity. The values of such a society, lacking in the saving grace of the theological virtures, he would have deplored (Huppe, 84).
The heroic actions of Beowulf are at odds with the Christian values of the Anglo-Saxon poet. Likewise, Beowulf, Dragon Slayer emphasizes this. The entire run of comics is one continous battle against the forces of Satan which manifest themselves in a tremendous variety of ways. This, however, isn't evidence of any deeper meaning. The comic is nothing more than a glossing of the ideas gained by a cursory reading of the poem. It is almost like the writers read the Cliffs Notes for Beowulf and decided to make a comic book. Although, if they had read the Cliffs Notes the poem might have more bearing on Beowulf, Dragon Slayer than it does.
It seems safe to assume that the writers were not that interested in any of the deeper analyses of the poem and instead only mimicked its language and some story elements. The comic takes the description of Grendel as a demon and the imposed Christian ideals at face value and simply creates a world populated with Satan's minions and a struggle against them. The writers paid no attention to any of the meaning of the poem, thus created a work with relatively no meaning itself. |
One of the more ludicrous scenes in Beowulf, Dragon Slayer:
Beowulf meets Satan in Hell after killing the Devil's pet dragon.
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As an example of the fantasy comic book genre, Beowulf, Dragon Slayer may very well be quite good. As an example of an adapatation of the poem Beowulf, however, it is completely ludicrous and convoluted.
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