GRIMM: THE WARLOCK #4 was, by my estimation, the best comic I bought and read this week. While the art still leaves something to be desired (will they ever get on top of this over at Dynamite Comics?), and the pacing was a little off, everything else worked well. I was surprised how well this thing ended, given the fact that I thought this side story of the GRIMM comicverse was not as well done as the main GRIMM comic book has been. But it ended on a pleasantly surprising note, and moreover I thought it elevated the entire mini-series.
Throughout this series, Nick has been struggling against a series of highly ritualized crimes, including brutal murder. He discovers that this Warlock is upset by the way Nick has modified the ways of the Grimm, and is creating an inter-species Wessen community in Portland. This Warlock sees the long-standing conflicts between various species as the proper way of things, and has created a spell that will allow him to manipulate several Wessen species (most notably the Bee-species whose name escapes me at the moment), to kill Nick, and thus destroy the community he helped create. The Warlock rightly realizes that Nick is the glue holding this whole bizarre situation together.
Nick, with the help of Rosalee, creates a counter-potion and finds a way to turn the bees into a locus not of murder and chaos, but of dancing. Dance replaces mayhem and murder and there is this beautiful seen with pollen falling from the air, where everyone is dancing and finally turn on the Warlock, warning him not to return to Portland.
The metaphor of dance holds great power for me. Not only because I am a dancer, but also because one of my favorite sermons was one by Reverend Ben Skyles, where he talks about Jesus a 'The Lord of the Dance'. Dance is a perfect metaphor of the power of motion over stagnation, and creative order over chaos. The Warlock in this issue specifically allies himself with chaos, and wants to use it to disrupt the community of peace Nick helped create.
Beyond the metaphor of dance as a cosmic kind of rebellion against chaos, there is the long and philosophical commentary on peace. Peace threatens the evil created by the extreme of chaos, and every vision of order that requires the chaos of war for its existence. This vision of Nick as peacemaker has deeply Christian undertones, and is a refreshing break from the violence that sometimes defines the television show and the comic books of GRIMM. It is the one thing I sometimes dislike about otherwise excellent phenomenon. Nick in this book affirms the power of love over hate, and peace over chaos and discord. That these values are what Nick really stands for is what makes the show and the comics, in the end, something that not only entertains but enriches.
Overall Rating: 4 Stars
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