There were a number of adaptations in 2007and the most well-known, at least to comic audiences, is the IDW version (four issues, also available as a trade paperback) written by Chris Ryall and with art by Gabriel Rodriguez, which is an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary screenplay of the computer animated movie version of the story. This version also takes a great deal of creative license, with some variations being more extreme than others. First, the story is clearly set in a time when Christianity is establishing itself in Denmark, making use of the various Christian allegories and symbols that most scholars agree were added in the original surviving text. Another large variation between the original and this adaptation is in the treatment of the main characters and the monsters. Here, Grendel is Hrothgar’s son, and Hrothgar's sons who are described in the poem do not exist.
Rather than kill Grendel’s mother, Beowulf also has sex with her, following promises of power and glory which he receives following the suicide of Hrothgar and his assumption of Hrothgar’s kingdom and marriage to Wealtheow. The dragon that eventually kills Beowulf is the hero’s own son, the result of his sexual coupling with Grendel’s mother. This adaptation seems based more on the idea of the character types and various themes referred to in the original (weak king, pride leading to destruction, etc.), and while it contains most of the characters one might expect to see, it is clearly not totally faithful to the original. Taking the text out of the equation, the art is dynamic and positively reflects the quality of the animated movie from which it is adapted, and while Gabriel Rodriguez is the main artist on the adaptation, comic veteran Mark Nelson’s cover art for the three comics (variant covers exist by Rodriguez) are powerful and manage to summarize the main elements of the story, in many ways more faithfully than the reader finds in the interior.
Rather than kill Grendel’s mother, Beowulf also has sex with her, following promises of power and glory which he receives following the suicide of Hrothgar and his assumption of Hrothgar’s kingdom and marriage to Wealtheow. The dragon that eventually kills Beowulf is the hero’s own son, the result of his sexual coupling with Grendel’s mother. This adaptation seems based more on the idea of the character types and various themes referred to in the original (weak king, pride leading to destruction, etc.), and while it contains most of the characters one might expect to see, it is clearly not totally faithful to the original. Taking the text out of the equation, the art is dynamic and positively reflects the quality of the animated movie from which it is adapted, and while Gabriel Rodriguez is the main artist on the adaptation, comic veteran Mark Nelson’s cover art for the three comics (variant covers exist by Rodriguez) are powerful and manage to summarize the main elements of the story, in many ways more faithfully than the reader finds in the interior.