Major Story Arcs
Devil’s Legacy
Captain Albert Wiggins worked in the New York City police department around the time that Christine Spar adopted the mantle of Grendel. When Argent the wolf felt the rise of this new Grendel, Wiggins assisted in the investigation of Christine Spar, granddaughter of the original Grendel Hunter Rose, as well as those close to her: her boyfriend Brian Li Sung and her best friend Regina Anastasi.
Wiggins and Argent largely investigated from a distance, since Spar was in San Francisco during the bulk of her Grendel activities. Wiggins stayed in the shadows during most of his early appearances, and argued for a more conservative strategy than Argent wanted. He acted subordinate to Argent. He clearly respected the Wolf’s power, but it is unclear whether he had equal respect for his approach. They bugged her phone calls, and eventually brought Regina in for an interrogation. However, Regina kept her cool and they did not get much useful information from her.
They next arrested Spar herself, once she returned to New York. Spar was verbally aggressive with Wiggins and Argent, and they had to let her go, too.
Finally they interrogated Brian. He was able to get under their collar the most, even acting cocky. Wiggins lost his cool for the first time, angry at Brian’s lies, which he could detect with his cybernetic eye. Despite his usually debonair demeanor, he could be violent when provoked. Once again, however, they ultimately had to let their prisoner go.
Spar, angry at the police for continually harassing her friends, attempted to murder Wiggins by planting a bomb under his car. That evening he was leaving the precinct with a pair of officers who got into the car first while he has cleaning out his pipe. They triggered the explosive, and Wiggins managed to escape with his life. Wiggins knew who was responsible and assembled a team to meet at Argent’s home overlooking the park.
When Wiggins and the police arrived at Argent’s home the battle between Argent and Spar had already taken place. Argent’s mangled body was sprawled out on the floor, and Christine Spar laid dying of severe wounds to the neck and torso. Brian Li Sung and Regina got there in time to watch Spar die. Wiggins allowed them in, and quickly moved them out after Christine Spar died. Wiggins stood there looking at Argent’s corpse, doubtless thinking about their differences, and about Argent’s legacy in the police.
The Devil Inside
After Christine Spar’s death Wiggins continued to pester both Brian Li Sung and Regina Anastasi over the Grendel incidents, looking for any more connections. He did not know that Brian held the only surviving accounts of not only Christine Spar, but the original Grendel Hunter Rose as well. Brian remained in the city to study these volumes, both these readings and the city itself began to get to him. Finally Brian decided that he too would become Grendel to strike back at the filth of the city. When Wiggins heard that there was a new Grendel in New York he knew that Brian must be involved. He continued to investigate Brian even further, making Brian even more furious at Wiggins.
Unknown to Wiggins, Brian decided that he would take the officer down. He followed Wiggins, learning his daily routine. Finally he decided he would stalk him, make him fear him, and finally kill him, just as Christine did to Detective Riley. However, Brian was much less successful than Christine. On the night Sung decided to attack, he began firing a small explosive at the cab Wiggins was in. This did little more than damage the rear bumper of the vehicle, but Wiggins could tell something was amiss. Later at a burlesque show (one that Wiggins often frequented), Brian grew careless and arrogant, allowing Wiggins to see him watching from the back. Wiggins took a ride to the park. While overlooking the river Brian attempted to fire an arrow at Wiggins’s head, and Wiggins casually ducked, missing it. Wiggins continued to pretend that he had no knowledge of Brian’s attention. Brian continued to follow Wiggins to the site of one of the most recent murder investigations. Brian pulled back his bow to fire again, but Wiggins turned and shot Brian out of the tree he was perched in. Brian fell to the ground and died in the snowy park. It is possible that Brian, who knew he was possessed by Grendel and was trying to thwart its intentions, forced himself to miss Wiggins and let himself get shot.
A1
After catching Brian Li Sung, Wiggins continues to work on the force. At one point he gets involved in the case of a child molester and killer. It reminds him of his own beloved sister, who was abducted and killed when she was ten. The killer is holed up in his apartment. Wiggins, who has has been carrying around Brian’s Grendel mask with him all this time, puts it on and breaks down the door. When he has the killer at his mercy, he is about to say, “I am Grendel,” but stops himself, as he feel she cannot kill in Grendel’s name. He pulls off the mask, remembering that he’s a C.O.P. The memory of his sister wins out over his identity as a C.O.P.: he shoots the killer after all, leaving a Grendel-mask-shaped blood stain on the wall.
Retirement
After Wiggins eventually retired from the force, he moved to a more tropical climate where he could lounge on the beach and drink martinis, which he had earlier mentioned was his life’s dream. He had a beautiful young trophy wife, Dyna, and robot butlers to take care of him. Life was good for Wiggins. According to Wiggins’ own accounts, those close to him prodded him to write a book about his experiences helping to bring down two of the three to bear the Grendel mask. Ironically, Wiggins decided that he would indeed write a Grendel book, but about Hunter Rose, the only Grendel that he had never met or dealt with. He wrote a book detailing some of Grendel’s earlier run-ins with the police, involving Lieutenant Polk. It was very successful, and he wrote another regarding Grendel’s involvement with Tommy Nuncio.
Wiggins became even more rich and famous. However, his fame started to bother him, because it was all due to Grendel, his one-time foe. He had in fact made Grendel enormously popular within the culture. Wiggins’ prosthetic eye seemed to malfunction. Those close to him, fans of his book, even strangers on the street began to appear distorted and gruesome. He began to become more paranoid of everyone he encountered, and believed that the police were now following him. He went to the doctor to get his eye fixed, but the doctor could find nothing wrong with the implant. He blamed his doctor, believing that he was in on whatever was being plotted against him.
He began to get worried about greed. It seemed to him that money and greed were equated with Grendel. He even began to worry that he was becoming Grendel himself.
When Wiggins came home that evening he got into a fight with his wife. He tried to get her to understand that he was worried about Grendel, but she only cared about money and thought he was a wimp. The two bickered, and Wiggins became even more suspicious of and disgusted with her. An abrupt end came to the fight when Wiggins stabbed her through the eye. As she lay bleeding the police knocked on his door. It would seem that even from beyond the grave Grendel managed to haunt his life, and finally got revenge for the way he managed to outlive Christine Spar and Brian Li Sung.
It was unclear whether Wiggins in fact became Grendel at the end, or whether he was only obsessed with it, like everyone else. Whether he actually was Grendel, or was just used by Grendel, in either case his books and the murder of his wife were part of Grendel’s master plan to infect all of society.
Powers and Abilities
Wiggins is a normal human who is in relatively good shape during his younger years. He possesses a prosthetic eye implant which serves as a sort of lie detector. The eye may have keyed him in to finer changes in the human body such as spikes in temperature and increased sweating, allowing him to detect lies or misdirection. Brian Li Sung noted that the results of the detector weren’t admissible in court, which suggests that it may not be completely accurate.