In 2003, Francis Lombard’s “Beowulf: a Different Shade of Gray” was published in the fourth issue of Humanoids Publishing’s anthology series Metal Hurlant. Featuring art by Kevin Altieri and George Freeman, the story features both Beowulf and Wiglaf in a tale that is set before Beowulf has become king, and Wiglaf is his page. This is a fairly short morality tale, with Wiglaf discovering the dark side of being a warrior and that things that appear to be monstrous may be less so than the people who fight them. One of the enduring questions on the original poem is on the subject of motivation – specifically, the underlying motivation for Grendel’s attacks against Hrothgar’s mead-hall. Lombard, who was an editor for Humanoids at the time and who has since worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Cartoon Network; Altieri, a director on Batman: the Animated Series; and Freeman, whose career in comics began in 1975 as the co-creator of Captain Canuck create a story that has Beowulf and his crew being called to fight a monster, but this monster turns out to be a threat only because it has been threatened first. This connects the culture of the people featured in the epic, people who would expect a hero to be one who fights monsters with no hesitation, with the sensibilities of a 21st century reading audience who would expect their heroes to be more reflective on their actions.