From The L Word and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to DC Comics' recent revelation that Batwoman is a lipstick lesbian, it seems that lesbians and bisexual women almost always conform to traditional notions of femininity. When the media does portray a more masculine-identified lesbian character, it is rarely in a positive light; instead, they tend to be stereotyped as bull dykes and man-haters. One exception to this rule is the character of Susan Veraghen from the Grendel comic book spinoff stories War Child, Homecoming and Past Prime. Susan is one of the few straightforwardly butch lesbians in comics today.

Created by Matt Wagner, Grendel was a dark but extremely popular comic book that had a number of incarnations, as most long-running comic books do. Initially, the grendel identity was always that of a lone person, one usually prone to a violent mentality in the spirit of the anti-hero.

As the series progressed, however, grendel came to imply a spirit of being, a near-possession of sorts. Becoming a grendel meant respect, honor and societal privilege as well as adherence to strict codes of military-like ethics. Grendels were elite warriors with no equal who were fiercely loyal to their leader, the Grendel-Kahn.

In Grendel: War Child, Susan Veraghen debuts in issue No. 1 of the 10-part series. She is a soft-spoken, muscular young grendel with a green Mohawk. Susan is assigned to guard Crystal Kennedy, a young woman who is being imprisoned by her mother for her own supposed protection. The two women pass the time with video games, television, and steam room massages, and soon become lovers.

Susan foregoes her assignment as a guard to help Crystal escape her mother's wrath, but the pair eventually separate, and Crystal fulfills her mother's wishes to marry for political gain. Susan sadly accepts that she alone was not enough for Crystal, and she reunites with her inner warrior. She takes the position of director of security for a newly crowned Grendel-Kahn, but ultimately resigns her post and disappears into the wilderness.

Although Susan's overall role in War Child was a small one, her character was so compelling that War Child artist Patrick McEown gave Susan her own three-issue arc in the subsequent Grendel Tales series titled Homecoming, which is the defining story for Susan's character.

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