I'm not generally a fan of the zero issue. Usually, it's an excuse to get two number one issues on the shelf and try to give the series a better chance of picking up new readers right at the start, and the zero and first issue wind up duplicating a lot of story or serving as two incomplete tales that almost come together to make one good first issue. Grendel: God and the Devil #0 is one of the good ones, though; it's a prologue to the story to come, something that sets the mood and informs the world while telling a story all its own of a man who finds himself nearing the end of his life and realizing that all of his goals and dreams are beyond his reach.
I have the benefit of having read all of the Grendel stories that come after this story, but since I only remember sketchy elements of them, I feel qualified to judge this as a new reader coming in blindly would. Wagner's story is one that is fairly dark, and it involves a world that is very different from our own, but the central focus of the story is based on the universal feelings of despair, ambition and hope. While Wagner doesn't overtly introduce the realities of corporations and religions having essentially merged, it's easy to pick up on from the background details, and that is generally how all of the background is introduced to the reader. I appreciated this more subtle form of exposition, and it helps to give the book a lot of its atmosphere.
While this issue introduces the world that is to be the background of God and the Devil, it is largely the story of one man and his desire to be the Pope. Cardinal Emmett Fairbanks is a man who has been battered both psychologically and physically, his body filled with cybernetics and his mind with the poison of a man passed over for promotion by those younger than him. His frustration is made real to the reader through the use of first-person narration, and his focus bordering on self-delusion comes through quite clearly as well.
What intrigues me about the story is that it is pretty much a political contest, not unlike a Presidential race. Except that instead of trying to win the votes of the audience, the candidates are just trying to win their hearts and minds so that they will be the best choice to lead the large congregation. Alongside this story of political maneuvering is the political football that could spell victory or defeat, the development of a drug that is meant to allow its users to experience heaven on earth. The actual effects of the drug are considerably creepier, and Emmett's involvement in the cover-up makes him less sympathetic to some degree, but no less interesting.
All of these maneuverings, political, spiritual and otherwise, are depicted by Tim Sale, and his work here is as good as you'd expect. It seems from what I've read of Sale that he was always great, and that he just got better from there. The book is ultra-detailed, and his use of a constant background that barrages the "viewer" with information while the candidates subject them to sermons speaks clearly to the intertwining interests of religion and capitalism that drive this society. Grendel: God and the Devil #0 is just a warm-up, but it's set the stage very well for the main act.
