After the “death” of The Avengers in the “Disassembled” story arc, Hercules becomes an (even bigger) alcoholic, and is forced by others to rehabilitate his image and make a reality show recreating updated versions of his classic twelve labors. (The story of how it comes about that he has to make the film is great—but the details aren’t needed for this overview.)
This mini basically tells the story of Hercules recreating twelve modernized labors for the cameras, which include defeating Hydra (instead of defeating an actual hydra beast, get it?), saving Atlantis from Attuma, taking on Red Skull, kidnapping Lockjaw, and…
He punches Abomination through four buildings.
He’s also told to capture a Sabretooth Tiger. But he doesn’t even know what one looks like.
When he goes in pursuit of a real one, Ka-Zar and Zabu get a guest spot in the comic.
There’s some classic “funny Herc” stuff here, and a solid narrative to hold it together. For sure, this is not a story that “matters” but in a year with the House of M being just ONE of the line-affecting events in play, it’s nice to just be able to read a light, standalone story.