Herc 1

This is a good first issue, and it does pretty much everything you want a fresh start to do. We get an opening fight scene, making clear that Hercules is now mortal and vulnerable, but still strong and with an array of ancient magical weapons. We get what looks like a new supporting cast, which also gives him a job and a place to live. We get mysterious voices of worship, suggesting that his demigodhood is not entirely dispensed with (and being a superhero comic, we can have no doubt that it will be returned sooner or later). Finally, we get some more action, leading to confrontation with the (or a?) Hobgoblin, who is working for the Kingpin.

It’s not perfect – I’m a bit confused at the need to link everything together, from the random street gang terrorising people on a tube, to the restaurant/bar where he finds work and a home, to worshippers of Ares, to the Kingpin and Hobgoblin. Some of these connections seem implausible, and the whole stretches coincidence too far – possibly this will make more sense as the story continues, but it is pushing it as it stands.

Still, it’s all done very smoothly and skillfully, with some good dialogue and plenty to interest a reader, so I won’t quibble about what may be important rather than clumsiness. Nor am I all that bothered by too many lines from Hercules that are too heavy on very modern popular culture references and rhythms (“Best. Offering. Ever.”), as it is more fun to read than more of the kind of sub-Shakespearean Stan Lee bollocks we used to get – Hercules’s pomposity and pride got wearing quickly, so I guess it’s necessary to take a bit of a step away from that.

I’m less happy with the art. It’s mostly okay, standard issue contemporary superhero style, but there are several unconvincing, clumsy and stiff bodies and poses, and no life at all in the talky parts. I was confused by the moment where the Hobgoblin is introduced, as he is leaping to the attack in his first splash-page moment, but then he’s some distance away in the next panel, not having done anything obvious.

The story is full-length, but we also get eight pages of the ‘Hercules Saga’, telling us his history, focussing very much on recent stuff (the Civil War comes before the halfway mark). This is very poorly done: badly chosen and arranged panels from old stories, with text that seems to assume we already know the history – I could certainly make little sense of a lot of it. Writer John Rhett Thomas seems to not know the purpose or audience for this feature, though the multitude of gods acting like idiots and alternate universes would probably challenge anyone. I rather wish that this had been omitted, though a clearer update would have been fairly welcome. Fortunately the main writers give us what we really need to know.

I don’t know how this will progress, whether the new cast will be fleshed out interestingly (they’re thin so far), whether the linkage of the multiple strands will start to seem necessary and inevitable rather than overly forced, whether the focus will be on Earthbound crime like the Kingpin or these Ares worshippers and the disembodied voices. I do know that this is one of the best restarts I have read in a long time, and one of the better Marvel titles I’ve seen lately, which is plenty for now.