Record no. 729. How do I cite this entry?

Ends of the Earth

  • Genre/Type Descriptor(s)
    Comic Book or Serial Comic
    Graphic Novel
     
    Language(s)
    English
  • Author
    Simone, Gail
    Artist
    Lopresti, Aaron
    Artist
    Ryan, Matt
  • Contained in
    Wonder Woman: Ends of the Earth, by Gail Simone
    Location Details
    Pages 3-96
    City
    New York
    Publisher
    DC Comics
    Date
    2009
  • Relationships
    (Upstream) Reformats and recontextualizes -> Ends of the Earth, Simone, Gail (2008)
  • Identifying Numbers
    ISBN: 9781401221362
     
    Descriptive Notes

    Book is 144 pp.; color. The book Wonder Woman: Ends of the Earth presents the originally serial-comic Wonder Woman story "Ends of the Earth" (from Wonder Woman issues 20-23) in the manner of a graphic novel (retaining the titles of the 4 episodes as chapter titles) and groups it with the subsequent Wonder Woman story "A Star in the Heavens" (from Wonder Woman issues 24-25). Both stories are written by Simone but they have different artists.

    The "Ends of the Earth" story begins in medias res, with Wonder Woman trekking through a northern landscape to a tavern (not a lord's hall, although it is referred to as the "mead hall") where she expects to meet, and does meet, Beowulf, who has come there seeking Grendel. After brief antagonism they become allies and fight the denizens of the tavern, who are Grendel-worshippers. As it turns out, Wonder Woman and Beowulf are two of three heroes (the third is Claw) who have been summoned by a mysterious figure called the Stalker to kill the devil—Satan, known in this plane as D'Grth or Dgrth (it is spelled both ways), whose servant Grendel is—as prescribed by an oracle's prophecy. They succeed, but Grendel gets away; at the end of the story he is shown lurking outside Diana Prince's apartment in Washington, DC: "Sssuch a pretty cave ssshe hidessss in!" (96).

    The story gestures to the 1975-76 DC Comics series Beowulf: Dragon Slayer in having Beowulf still be in the process of seeking Grendel, and in portraying Grendel as a lackey of Satan, who is the master adversary (in the earlier series, Grendel's mother is trying to usurp the throne of hell on behalf of her son, and Beowulf is misdirected into several side-adventures so that he never reaches his intended confrontation with Grendel). One can read the battle with D'Grth as a conclusion to Beowulf's adventure begun in the earlier series. The artists' renderings of both Beowulf and Grendel differ significantly from those in the earlier series.

    A later DC Comics storyline featuring Beowulf—begun in the serial Sword of Sorcery (2012-13) and continued in one issue of DC Universe Presents (2013)—appears irreconcilable to the Wonder Woman "Ends of the Earth" storyline. However, given that all are from DC Comics, some way of connecting the stories within the DC universe may have been intended. See separate records.

     
    Authentication

    BAM.

  • Last Updated
    04/01/2022