Natalie: More Than the Girl Wulf Wanted to Impress

Natalie: More Than the Girl Wulf Wanted to Impress There's a scene with Natalie that I think deserves more attention than the romance. Wiglaf is getting beaten up, and she steps in. She doesn't wait for Wulf to handle it. She tells the bullies that if they want somebody to mess with, she's right there. They back off. That's the Natalie we meet before the Grendel attack, and I don't want to lose her underneath everything that happens afterward. Spoilers for Grimm Fairy Tales #109–111. She's a student at Abraxas Academy in Oz. Wulf is interested in her, and the two become involved, but she isn't especially impressed by his ability to explain away his own mistakes. When he tells her what happened at Arcane Acre, she tells him it sounds like it was his fault. He asks whether she was even listening. Her answer turns that question straight back on him. I like that exchange because it gives her an opinion that isn't arranged around making him feel better. Wulf has had some genuinely difficult experiences. He's also capable of being a complete pain in the ass, and Natalie can recognize both things without treating him like he's beyond help. Later, he even admits to Wiglaf that she might be right. Then the party is attacked, and all of those ordinary school problems become very small. When Wulf reaches the scene, Natalie is facing Grendel with a broken piece of wood. There are bodies around her. She tells Wulf to go. She's badly outmatched, but the book has already shown us that she doesn't automatically step aside when somebody else is in danger. The same instinct that got her between Wiglaf and the bullies is still there. This time, the threat is far beyond anything she can manage. Grendel injures her severely. At one point she tells Wulf she can't feel her legs. He fights to keep the creature away from her, and she survives the immediate attack, but that doesn't mean she's suddenly fine. When Adraste reaches her in the next issue, she has lost a great deal of blood and is barely hanging on. The treatment is interrupted by All-Modor's attack. Wulf and Wiglaf take Natalie with them to Arcane Acre because they still need Adraste's help. Instead, they find themselves in another crisis. Wiglaf holds her and keeps telling her somebody is coming. By issue #111, he's trying to resuscitate her, and the panels become painfully quiet around her while the larger battle continues. That sequence bothers me because we have only just started getting to know her. We saw somebody who would defend a bullied student, challenge a guy she liked and try to stand her ground when things went wrong. Then the story throws her into a situation where courage cannot make her body withstand what happens to it. I wanted to give her a separate profile for that reason. If we're catching up on the people around the bigger Grimm characters, Natalie shouldn't just get reduced to a name in Wulf's history. She had a personality before she was hurt. That's the part worth remembering too.