With so many “gods” running around the Marvel Universe it’s
hard to make them all interesting. As a whole, Marvel tends to lean towards the
Norse side favoring Thor and the rest of Asgard over the typically more popular
Greek mythology. That being said, how do you keep Hercules interesting when you
have to constantly compare him to Thor? Hercules compared to Thor, with his
constant do-goodery and his kick ass hammer and natural leadership skills? Well
if you’re Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, you take away his godliness.
At the end of Chaos Wars Hercules was forced to
give up his powers of a god in order to defeat his enemy. Now he’s back on
Earth, powerless, but still looking to do the right thing. He begins his
journey on a subway that becomes over run by a gang calling themselves the Warhawks; which is a pretty damn cool
name for a gang. It feels like something out of The Warriors. At any rate
they wage “war” on Hercules not knowing who he is. Right off the bat Hercules
sets himself apart from other Marvel heroes as he takes the arm off one of the
gang members. This opening scene is basically a display of Herc’s weapons that
are at his disposal. It shows that he may not have the powers of a god anymore,
but he is far from helpless.
After defeating the gang he hears a calling from his
worshippers asking for his service and making him an offering of a single can
of beer. To quote Herc, “Best offering ever.” I don’t know if this was the
first time the concept of followers has been brought up in the comics, but it
was great to see them be so accurate with the character and how they
incorporated it into the book. After receiving a sign, Herc decides to stay in
town a little longer and rid the world of the Warhawks and other gangsters trying to pull a Dodgers stadium and
muscle people out of their homes and business for a new arena.
If you’ve never read a book by Van Lente and Pak then you
are missing out on two of the best writers at Marvel and in comics today. They
duo has been nurturing Hercules back from C-list and on to the A-list for some time now. That’s a feat in and of itself, to take a character that has fallen into
obscurity and make them popular again; but also to make them so popular that
other creators want to write them as well. For a time Bendis accomplished this
with Spider-woman, but since Secret Invasion she’s slipped into that background
character void again.
Hopefully the duo keeps their hands on Herc and show comic
fans why there’s a need for two godly men in the Marvel U. As good as the characterization
of Herc is there was one nagging scene in which after Herc beds a woman he’s
just met, he discovers a tattoo of the Warhawks
on her arm. Herc freaks out and uses her to locate the gang. I just found
it kind of hard to believe that he didn’t notice it until after “they were
done.” I can understand him waiting “until they were done”, but not the late
discovery on such a petit woman. Just seemed like an after thought is all.
The art is nothing to complain about on this book as
penciller Neil Edwards is a surprising talent. His mixture of detailed facial
expression with action and average dialog scenes is spot on. Even supporting
characters are spared no lack in detail which is refreshing to find. A typical
Marvel book is filled with generic characters that even when standing next to a
hero look undetailed and practically scribbled on the page.
In general this book was refreshing to read and you wouldn’t
even have guess that it came from Marvel. It really seemed more independent
until the third act of the book. The fact is if it didn’t make mention of other
Marvel characters and also have the appearance of one, this could easily have
been an Icon release. The first issue came out on 4/6 so you should still be
able to get it, especially since Marvel decided to launch at the same time as
their summer blockbuster Fear Itself. If you bought both, I hope you read this one second to wash the taste out of your mouth.
Overall Score –
9.0/10
*Okay For New Readers, but More For Fanboys*