Incredible Hercules #117 Review

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #117
Written by Fred Van Lente & Greg Pak
Art by Rafa Sandoval

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, GOD SQUAD! Okay, I'll stop now.

For starters, this issue features a bunch of gods and pantheons I have absolutely no experience with and I only know a handful of them by their Marvel Universe appearances (for instance, I know about a lot of Japanese gods and myths, such as Izanagi-no-Mikoto, but have never seen them in a Marvel comic.).

The only people I really know are Hercules, Athena, Cho, Snowbird, of Alpha Flight fame, and Amatsu-Mikaboshi, from the Ares mini-series a few years back, which was excellent, by the way. So, to say I'm a little underwhelmed by our "gods" is putting it gently.

As for the story, Athena, who called together the pantheons and unveiled the decapitated Skrull head last issue, has been living among the humans in a menial job ever since Amatsu-Mikaboshi destroyed their lands. She unconvered the Skrull at her workplace after her sister, a muse, had a vision of the Skrull invasion and the God-Eater coming to claim them all after humanity is wiped out and they are replaced by Skrull gods.

As such, the other gods are offering a champion of their own for this journey to slay the two Skrull gods that are preaching this holy quest to conquer Earth to the Skrulls. I've never seen or heard of the Skrull gods before, so I'm guessing they are new.

This results in a ragtag band of gods, as the other pantheons sense treachery in Athena's mission and are not going to commit their forces to this venture and leave their kingdoms open to invasion by the Greek pantheon, who are without a home at this time and might want to usurp the other kingdoms for their own use.

Of course, she told them Hercules would lead, which he had heard nothing of, or even of this foolhardy quest, to begin with. This results in some fighting when Amatsu-Mikaboshi shows up, as there is bad blood between he and Hercules, and it spills over into the entire Squad having a nice brawl before the God-Eater shows up to mock them and, then, join them in their quest. Again, I have no clue who this is, so I'm at a loss as to his powers, purpose or motivation for this.

We end with Athena sending the team on their journey in a mystical vessel just before the Skrull invasion begins. She tells Cho he will be responsible for saving Hercules when he is at his lowest by doing the hardest thing he ever had to do, leaving it vague, as gods are wont to do.

Finally, we have Amatsu-Mikaboshi asking Hercules if Athena's lovely eyes have always been so green, as we get an ominous fade out of Athena and her green eyes, which I don't recall them being that colour. Skrull? Seems to conflict with sending them to kill Gods and not really taking any big guns out of the picture to do it. Also, her advice to Cho and general concern seem to contradict this, but it's Marvel, so everyone's probably a Skrull and we'll replace them all with the Ultimate Universe in a years time or something.

Verdict - Check It. Not sold on the God Squad just yet, as I have no clue who they are and nothing impressive happened here. I liked the return of Amatsu-Mikaboshi, as he was great in the Ares mini, so there's at least one plus here. I hope no one turns out to be a Skrull and betrays them, as that would be all too predictable and cheesy at the same time.

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