Bigger than THE INFINITY GAUNTLET! More cosmic than ANNIHILATION! Since the end of SECRET INVASION, the CHAOS KING has amassed his army of alien slave gods — and the time to strike Earth is NOW! Only the greatest Marvel heroes can oppose him — all led by the newly-returned god of heroes … HERCULES! But are even his incredible new powers enough to stand against the greatest threat the Marvel Universe has ever seen – a mad god who seeks to destroy Reality itself? PLUS: While thought dead, Hercules was trapped in a dangerous world that threatened his very sanity. Find out the secret of his exile in a special extra story penciled by PRINCE OF POWER’s Reilly Brown!
What did we think of Pak and Van Lente’s first issue to their Herc saga’s finale? Find otu after the cut!
Matt’s Thoughts: PUNCHING! CHAOS! AWESOME SFX!
Yes, it’s true – Hercules is back, and he’s an entirely new man. Having spent so long by himself on a planet only inhabited my monsters only to return to our world by being turned into a super god, Hercules is not in the same sunny and beer filled place we’ve known him to inhabit. But it’s probably a good time to sober up, considering the Chaos King is returning to destroy all life.
It’s a very interesting premise for a story, and one that we should have seen coming a long time ago (or at least remembered better). When we last saw Mikaboshi at the end of Sacred Invasion, it was such an ominous moment. I never thought we’d get to see it turn into an event, though, and now that we’re here I can’t help but marvel (no pun intended) at the clever set up that Pak and Van Lente have given us these past couple years since World War Hulk. Hercules has time and time again been Marvel’s most clever and endearing book on the market, with incredibly strong character growth and story arcs that have brought us to Chaos War.
So how is Chaos War? Incredibly enjoyable. It is admittedly not what one would expect due to it’s more “serious” tone, but it works. Unlike every other situation Hercules has been in since becoming such a prominent figure in our readership, this is the most life or death scenario we’ve come across. As much as Herc is a god and nothing can hurt him, the Chaos King brings untold horror with him as he attempts to divide the universe by zero. With Herc returning super powered and having no one but Amadeus believe him about the oncoming threat, it stands to reason that he’d be more pissed off than jokey at a time like this – which leads to a lot of god punching, and that’s something we all can enjoy.
Pak and Van Lente are a great team with this issue. More so now than before, it feels like they are ready to blow everything up with an explosive finale. The Herc books have always been sharp, but there is a lot of excitement to finally reaching this moment in the story and it comes out in the writing. While the story has a somewhat different tone, you can really feel how much effort they put into crafting this tale. Khoi Pham also puts forth some of his better work here. I was a big fan of his work in Mighty Avengers, but the style being employed here in Chaos War looks much better. The lines are less smooth and you really get the sense of motion from the characters as Herc runs and flies around the planet. Teaming him up with Tom Palmer and Sunny Gho emphasizes Pham’s art in it’s natural talent.
I can’t say enough good things about the start, as much as it may have felt different to others. The issue is a good start to what will hopefully be a good event. I’m unsure about the tie-ins at the moment, but Pak and Van Lente have not let me down yet. There are also so many good jokes in the background (such as the hidden teletubby alien) that even in the most serious of times, you can still expect a good VJWOMVVB to pop out.
Continued belowI also kind of hope a) we might see more of Herc’s time on the parallel Earth and b) we might see the triumphant life saving return of Kirby, but I’m not holding my breath on either one.
David’s Thoughts: This was a pretty odd issue to kick off Chaos War. On one hand, I really enjoyed it because a lot of interesting and fun things happened, Mikaboshi is a genuinely intense villain, and I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed Khoi Pham’s art. Seems like a formula to a great issue, right?
But for some reason, it didn’t seem to stick together as a cohesive story. It seemed like a fast forward exposition fest in which heroes are thrown together and Herc returns and Nightmare is killed and Amadeus jokes and a whole lot more all in one small book. It seemed like that for a good reason: because that is exactly what happened. The fact that so much happened in this issue sort of brought down the overall product, as it never allowed for the book itself to have all of the emotional weight it could have had. For all intents and purposes, Herc and Amadeus being reunited should have been a momentous and touching moment. Instead, it was a small moment played very quickly with not a whole lot of weight behind it.
The plot and character work was very solid by Pak and Van Lente, and we’ve come to expect no less from these two in the past. As I said, the good moments were just sort of lost in the deluge of things happening on the pages. This made it a less enjoyable read than it should have been.
Pham’s art being something I like was a surprised given my history with him, but I genuinely liked it for the most part. There were some rather funky visuals at times, but for the most part I thought he excelled throughout the issue. Nice work Khoi.
With all of that said, I think Pak and Van Lente had a TON to get to in this first issue to put them in a place where they can tell the rest at a comfortable pace that will give the readers the maximum utility from the project. I genuinely think that because these two are just too damn good to not be setting up the series like so. We’ll see if I’m right with the next issue, but the first issue was a surprising semi-miss for me.
Gil’s Thoughts: Well that wasn’t quite what I expected.
Herc is back, and he’s ready to kick some evil God ass all over the universe. Lord knows he can do it too. But there seemed to be something missing. I know Herc was trapped in some sort of mirror universe with the worst monsters Hera ever thought of, but this book, aside from Amadeus Cho and a line or two from your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, was mostly humorless. That was a bit irksome, but not enough to kill my enjoyment for the title.
The part of the book that was the most unexpected was Pham’s art. I haven’t been as harsh as David, but I always found his art flat and unimaginative. Here there are gorgeous layers that add personality and humanity to his once stale artwork.
Another nice touch was the story telling us what happened while Herc was trapped in the Continuum â„¢ Universe. It seems to work similarly to the Road Home from the Batman book, but in a much grander scale. I don’t think Batman ever fought any giants, did he?!
As someone who’s been rabidly following this book since World War Hulk, This is the Marvel event I’ve most looked forward to since Secret Invasion. Here’s hoping it continues the quality that was in these pages.
I just want more funny stuff from Herc, as well as the badassery.
Josh’s Thoughts: Over the past three years, one underdog book had found its way to the top of my “to read” list more consistently than nearly any other. This book balanced gripping, wide-screen epic storytelling with the absolute best in slapstick comedy and weaved a heart warming tale of two best friends and their crazy adventures…granted those friends happened to an ancient Greek God and the 7th smartest person on the planet Earth. Yet, throughout that time the book remained an underdog, kept alive due to the love and dedication of its fans but never quite receiving its due. Now, finally, The Incredible Hercules has been given his day thanks to Chaos War.
Continued belowAnd boy, is this first issue a doozy.
I will admit, it was almost disconcerting reading a Hercules story that actually MATTERED. For years reading Herc was a simple pleasure, with its goodness contained to its small slice of the Marvel Universe. Now though, writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente get to play with the nice toys…the REALLY nice toys as the entire Marvel Universe is dragged in to face the oncoming might of the series big bad Amatsu-Mikaboshi: The Chaos King. Everyone’s favorite underdog book became an event almost over night…kinda like when that indie band you’ve been following for years signs to a major label and all of a sudden dudes in polo shirts start calling them their favorite band. However, exposure is exposure, and seeing the character the creative team given so much respect is nothing short of awesome.
As for how the first issue itself holds up, it is very much a warm-up/introductory issue. If you hadn’t been following Herc’s antics, there was a lot to catch-up on. Pak and Van Lente should be commended on their ability to provide this backstory for new readers while still keeping my longtime-reading ass entertained…mostly due to Herc’s antics. I never quite realized just how personable they had made the character over the years until they threw him into a situation where he was legitimately overwhelmed to the point that his light hearted demeanor struggled to break through to the surface. While we did get a lot more serious Herc than usual, its clear that his personality is still their…just buried under the weight of his new powerset and the apocalyptically dire situation at hand. No other character really gets the spotlight this issue, but that’s okay in my book.
On the art side, Khoi Pham is firing on all cylinders. Clean and angular has never been his game, and thankfully so. I find his rough, almost water-colory Leiniel Yu-esque style perfectly suited to the ancient nature of the characters in this book…and his penchant for great action scenes has absolutely transferred over from his days on Slott’s Mighty Avengers.
I can’t say much else other than “gimme more and do it now.”
