Pak and Van Lente’s Incredible Hercules was a refreshing change from most of Marvel’s overly serious and overly intricate “Bendis Era”. At the end of that series, they killed him.
This two-issue miniseries starts with Amadeus Cho showing up at Olympus to demand that the Gods pay tribute to their fallen brother. A bunch of Earth’s heroes show up to also remember their adventures with Hercules. Including all the women who slept with him.
And of course many of the reminisces are hilarious.
A back-up feature by Paul Tobin and Reilly Brown has Namora and Venus traveling across Earth to visit with all the mortals who were helped by Hercules.
In the second issue, Athena tries to claim the throne of Olympus by having a contest of champions with an Apollo team. After some of the most funny squabbles I’ve read in many years, Amadeus goes to Pluto, the God of Death, to try to bring Hercules back…But Pluto doesn’t have Herc.
And then, in the end, we learn that there really was a point to all this: Amadeus takes over the new Olympus (a corporation called Olympus Group) and swears he will find Hercules.
Yes, this was a set up for another Pak/Van Lente buddy comic about Cho and Hercules. Yay!