The Incredible Hercules: The New Prince of Power

This is technically vol. 8 of the ongoing “Incredible Hercules” saga, but the first since the series was “cancelled.”  That’s because while the series ended with the last volume, the story goes on in the two mini-series collected here.  First we get the two-issue mini “Hercules:  Fall of an Avenger,” where many notable heroes of the Marvel Universe show up to pay tribute to the title character after he “sacrificed” himself to save the universe in the last volume.  This being the Marvel Universe, fighting breaks out when the gods show up and Athena and Apollo wind up having to choose their champions to fight over which one of them will take over the pantheon.  Then in the four-issue “Heroic Age:  Prince of Power,” series mainstay Amadeus Cho, now having figured out what the audience already knew (that Hercules isn’t dead, he’s just… missing) goes on a quest to bring his friend back to our universe.

No, this isn’t a good jumping-on point; and yes, fans of the series will definitely be entertained.  Only in this series will you see the lord of the underworld being tormented by visions of candy-colored unicorns, ducks and teddy bears.  Or see the Egyptian cat-god of destruction Sekhmet turned into an manga-style, lol-cat goddess of love.  Great stuff, and the art is almost as good.  Ariel Olivetti handles the first two issues, and while his backgrounds may be empty, he knows how to pose his characters for maximum comedic effect.  Reilly Brown (with assistance from Zach Howard and Adam Archer) handles the “Heroic Age” mini and it looks fantastic.  The brightly-colored and expressive characters really add a lot of fun to the proceedings, and he doesn’t skimp for detail either.  Thoroughly entertaining, and I’ll be looking forward to the wrap-up in “Chaos War.”