Hercules

[Ben]

Anyone else planning to get this book? I'm looking forward to it, I always like the price 'o power

Nice preview: http://www.marvel.com/publishing/sto...tory.htm?id=23

Ben

[syvalois]

No, I never liked Hercules and I always found Marvel greco-roman mythology kitch and first of all by mixing up the 2 mythology is always a bad sign. in grec zeus and Heraklès in roman Jupiter and Hercules.

[HappyCanuck]

No, I never liked Hercules and I always found Marvel greco-roman mythology kitch and first of all by mixing up the 2 mythology is always a bad sign. in grec zeus and Heraklès in roman Jupiter and Hercules.

Meh, I take all this with a pound of salt. I don't look at Marvel's mythology-driven characters as good resourse, since most of them are reworked to drive the story. Take a look at Thor (an all-time favourite for me): the Norse mythology has been skewed six ways from sunday to a point that there's hardly any of the original myth left. Only towards the end, when they did the Ragnarok tale, did they even come CLOSE to the actual myths and legends. I take Hercules with the same grains.

[kozzi24]

I bought and read the first issue. I liked it, entertaining read, with some funny spots without being a humor book.

People here especially don't like what he's done with some of the Alpha in Weapon X, and I myself started off against him because he seemed to get his gigs by who-you-know rather than what-you-can-do, but I've liked Tieri's body of work a lot.

[Big Boss]

Actually, they didn't get close with the Ragnarok storyline. I mean, Thor didn't even fight the Midgard Serpent, and Odin wasn't around to combat Fenrir. In the mythologies, Ragnarok was this huge, epic battle where everybody dies, then Surtur (after killing Frey) comes along and burns down the universe with his flaming sword.

One thing that annoys me is that Marvel missed the best stuff about the Norse gods when they made their own ones. This is stuff that can be noted about the mythologies:
1. Heroism: Norse gods do not run from battle, and die in it. After all, if you go down fighting and haven't stopped, even when dead (meaning Valhalla), how has your enemy won? Exactly. You are victorious, even in death. Not only this, but at Ragnarok, the gods KNOW they can't win, and yet keep fighting anyways. There's a heroism in that which you won't ever find in Greek mythology, and IMO this is why the Aesir are better than the Olympians (if you mean the mythologies).
2. Good/Evil: The Norse gods are actually good guys who (other than Odin, sometimes) protect mortals. The Norse gods weren't inbred, the Greek gods are.
3. War: The Aesir are warriors and war gods. All male gods, plus Freya are combatants. When the'yre finally destroyed, they go down fighting with a bang, not begging with a whimper (unlike what the Greek gods would probably do).
4. Self-sacrifice: Instead of trying to stop Ragnarok, the Aesir go to it where they know they'll die because they know that when their universe is destroyed, it will lead to the creation of one devoid of evil and darkness. In other words, the Aesir are so heroic-and have so much more depth-that they perform self-sacrifice, which is the most heroic act of all. Odin was willing to tear out his eye to get a drink of wisdom, and Tyr let Fenrir bite off his hand so the monster could be bound and made no longer a danger.
5. Manhood: The Norse gods were, for one thing, straight. Secondly, they didn't wear those stupid skirt thingies that Greek gods do. The Norse gods had scars, beards, were fearless (other than Loki) and were all warriors. The Aesir were gods made to be worshipped by MEN. The Greek gods were worshipped by a bunch of poofs.

The Greek gods were just mortals with immortality and powers. The Norse gods were far, far more than that. Now you see why Tolkien used Norse mythology for a big piece of his works.

[Powersurge]

Any treatment of the gods themselves by comicbooks is bound to be ... "lacking" at best, blashpemous at worst. Even myth straddles that line. The gods however are gods ........... unless of course they're goddesses ..... meaning that exist beyond the categories of human thoght and comprehension and shouldn't be trivialized.

The word for this in the various Germanic tongues is "weoh" in Old English, "wih" in German, and "ve" in Old Norse.

What comicbooks should have are religion-based characters, perhaps imbued with powers from on high, perhaps commicating with their deities via dreams and visions and diviners, but certainly not made into the deity him/herself.

As for the "Norse" gods, and German and English and French and Gothic and ... being worshipped by "MEN", dude, I would tend to agree if I didn't know so much about Teutonic belief. Certainly manlly males worship these gods, as did and do children and women, of both the traditional and butch variety. There are plenty of gays practicing Teutonic belief or "Asatru" today. Don't know why that is, but it is. And it seems in keeping with certain customs of crossdressing priesthoods and effeminate manners of worship that some Teutonic tribes engaged in at sometimes and in some places.

More than anything else, Teutonic beleif is a belief of community ... of people, men, women, children, butchs, limppwrists, all working, loving, fighting, dying. Unlike other faiths, it doesn't philosophize and fixate. It observes and accounts for.

Also, while we all know the reputation of the ancient Greeks, they was some tought dudes. Especially the Spartans, who really did live in a brutal warrior society that had no place for the weak. They also knew all about male conquest of males, any would demonstrate why one should not allow themselves to be conquored!!!!

Anyway, I would never buy a Hercules comic, but I don't think that Marvel or anyone else handles these things any better than any other comic company. Well, at least DC didn't make Captain Marvel/Shazam the incarnation of the greek gods ... he's only imbued with their powers.

[Julesville]

I think "gods" in modern comics are god. I mean, the "gods" thing was a golden age concept, making stories about already created myths, now today it's either about originality, or copying what's really cool.

Point is, trying to be original with estabished myths would be tight. Putting a hot-bloodied Thor in polite society, having a quest motivated Hercules deal with other people's problems, and the "gods" dealing with a world where no one beleives in them, in fact, coming to terms with the fact that they aren't really devine.

[Powersurge]

I'd say that Hercules would have a far more difficult go of it in modern society than Thor. Herc was notorious for flying into blind rages, whilst Thor often threatened clouts like Loki, but regularly observed the social customs and fithing etiquette of his culture, which included not clubbing some goon to death on one's own doorstep.

Also, these gods were very used to being worshipped by relatively small ethno-cultural groups, so would probably be able to deal with unbelieivng masses far more easily than, say, a Christ or an Allah.

Other than Thor's look, and the mercy he has on such destructive louts as the Hulk -- who could never stand up to Thor if the Thunderer just unloaded on him right off the hop with everything he had -- I think that Marvel did a fine job at portraying his selfless heroism and indomitable will. Of course, there is the look and the steroetypical softy thoughtfulness, rather than Thor's customary rough and decisive consideration.

Of course, I would rather see a comic about a divinely inspired/empowered character, who has no pretension to godhood. One idea that I had was a modern day Professor of Germanic Studies or something, of royal blood and thus descended from Odin and/or Frey. He is killed, hung in a tree for speaking out against some white supremicists, but there are larger things going on in the cosmos.

Unbeknowst to mortal man, a number of Fenris' pups from Iron Wood managed to escape into Midgard, taking the form of shapeshifting, werewolves and masters of deceit. Their goal is to create chaos and destruction and discord, and ultimately to usher in Ragnarok itself.

So, Odin and Tyr chose this Professor as their champion and link him up with the attendent spirit or "kinfetch" of his line. Thus, the Professor is not truly killed during his hanging. The Odin Force enables him to return to life, not only fully conscious of his own life and talents, but also fully conscious of the many previous lives that the "kin-fetch" had attended.

Thus, the Prof returns as a master of Teutonic culture and languages, a master combatant with bareknuckles and weapons both ancient and modern (from more recent lives), and of course, a deep knoweldge of the runes and the magical songs known as galder. His is also aware of his goal, the reason why he has been "awakened" by the gods.

Not exactly Shazam, but hardly "Crack-BOOM!!! Check me out, I am god" either. Lotsa of cultural storytelling potential, no need to infringe on more well known myth cycles.

[BitBiteOuch]

I never liked Hercules, I mean sure the interesting myth and everything was there, but did we ever really need another "smashing-super-strength-tough-guy" character. Marvel does a good job with Norse myth and Thor, but Hercules wasn't necessary.