Them Reviews - The Incredible Hercules #117

How many different ways can I love this title? But there is one gripe, so let me get this out of the way. The coloring. The coloring in this series was a high point. It was organic and fresh. But that guy, Stephane Peru, died. Now we got this other guy, who's a standard colorist. Damn. I really like Peru's coloring. But anyway, on to the story! This is part one of the Secret Invasion tie-in story, Sacred Invasion, which looks like it will run for about four issues. So Hercules, Amadeus Cho and Athena have gathered together with a pantheon of gods from several cultures. Japanese, Indian, Egyptian and Eternal. Their goal is to confront the Skrull gods who commanded the invasion. Needless to say, prelude. Very preludey. S'cool, cause this issue is still fun to read. Seeing the gods debate we see that they relate to each other through their own mythologies which I thought was very cool. Pak is writing this series with a mind towards the mythology of Hercules, so to expand on other mythologies is a treat. The deal is each pantheon treats the other pantheon's stories as a total crock, so Athena has to weave a web of bullshit so delicately that each pantheon has a reason to send along a champion. It's great. Athena, representing the Greeks, naturally volunteers Hercules' services. This pisses Herc off. He takes the job of leader of this motley gang, even though he admits he's never quite done something like this before. Then, when someone mentions that they should have called the Asgardians, Hercules immediate response is basically to say fuck the Asgardians. Really, Pak is having so much fun with this book. Everyone has these giant egos. Herc, cause he's a Greek god. Amadeus Cho, cause he knows he's this hyper intelligent bad ass. This story arc ought to be a freakin blast. Highly, highly recommended.