Title of the work
Country of the First Edition
Country/countries of popularity
Original Language
First Edition Date
First Edition Details
Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, The Incredible Hercules: Love and War #121–125, vol. 3. New York: Marvel Pub., 2009, 128 pp.
ISBN
Genre
Alternative histories (Fiction)
Comics (Graphic works)
Fiction
Mythological fiction
Target Audience
Crossover (Age 9 and up)
Cover
We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.
Author of the Entry:
Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com
Peer-reviewer of the Entry:
Lisa Maurice, Bar-Ilan University, mauril68@gmail.com
Susan Deacy, University of Roehampton, s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk
Salva Espin (Illustrator)
Espin is a comic book artist.
Source:
Profile at the marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com (accessed: July 3, 2018).
Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com
Clayton Henry (Illustrator)
Henry is a comic book artist. He was born in Jamaica and moved to the USA at the age of three.
Source:
Profile at thecomicvine.gamespot.com (accessed: July 2, 2018).
Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com
Greg Pak
, b. 1968
(Author)
Pak is a Korean-American filmmaker and comic book writer who was born in Texas. He studied at Yale, Oxford and New York University. In 1991 he went to study history at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. His films have strong Asian-American themes. He worked for Marvel as well as DC comics. He is known for his work on Hercules, Hulk and other characters. His series on Incredible Hercules won appraisal from critics and also succeeded in sales. Pak’s feature film Robot Stories, won 35 awards.
Sources:
Official website (accessed: June 26, 2018).
Profile on Comic Vine (accessed: June 26, 2018).
Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com
Courtesy of the Author.
Fred Van Lente
, b. 1972
(Author)
Van Lente is #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning writer of comics who currently resides in Brooklyn. He has a BA (Hons) in Film and English literature from Syracuse University. He is the co-founder (with Ryan Dunlavey) of Evil Twin Comics which produces his non-fiction comic books. He also works for Marvel.
Sources:
Official website (accessed: May 30, 2018).
Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com
Questionnaire
1. What drew you to writing/working with Classical Antiquity and what challenges did you face in selecting, representing, or adapting particular myths or stories?
I had been asked by Marvel Comics to work on a series about their Hercules character. My primary contribution was the idea to work the Classical myths themselves as flashbacks into Herc’s adventures in our time. The readers really responded to this quite nicely and the series was a surprise success. Later, Osprey Publishing asked me to do a non-fiction book about Herc for their Legends series and I had quite a lot of fun doing that.
2. Why do you think classical / ancient myths, history, and literature continue to resonate with young audiences?
They are so many touchstones for what became the modern world and the way we think about humanity. They’ve become classics simply because they’ve been retold so many times. Whether there is some special quality to these myths specifically and that’s why they’re repeated constantly or their uniqueness comes from that repetition itself I can’t say.
3. Do you have a background in classical education (Latin or Greek at school or classes at the University?) What sources are you using? Scholarly work? Wikipedia? Are there any books that made an impact on you in this respect?
No. I think Robert Graves' book Greek Myths was our main source material although a big inspiration was Euripides’ tragedy Heracles.
Prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com
Summary
The series explores the adventures of Hercules and his companion, the teenage Amadeus Cho, the seventh smartest person in the world. The setting is semi sci-fi in which Atlantis is the main city. It is part of the Marvel universe. In the current issue Hercules and Amadeus are fighting a fierce gang of deadly amazons who declare war on Atlantis and kidnap Amadeus Cho.
Analysis
This series puts Hercules and his sidekick Amadeus Cho at the center and tells their many adventures. There is no direct connection with the original Hercules' myth, but it is alluded to. For example, Hercules tells his lady friend that he tricked Atlas and says that Atlas was stupid enough to be tricked by him, demonstrating Hercules’ awareness of his own shortcoming. Hercules is the good-natured, dim-witted, muscular hero while his sidekick provides the brains for their adventures.
There are also mixtures of other mythological elements in the narrative. For example, Athena is presented as Hercules’ half-sister. In a flashback Hercules is reminded of his ninth task to take Hippolyta’s girdle (dated 1270 BC.). He fondly remembers Hippolyta and blames Hera for causing a rift between them.
While Hercules was known in the myth for having many sexual relations with many women, since this series is aimed at young readership, these encounters are only referred to obliquely. For example, we do not see any specific nude scenes between Hercules and Hippolyta.
The authors studied literature and history and are therefore familiar with the Hercules myth. In his questionnaire, Fred van Lente noted that his “primary contribution was the idea to work the Classical myths themselves as flashbacks into Herc’s adventures in our time.” He does not have any specialised classical background, but is quite familiar with Hercules’ myth.
There are three excurses in the volume in which the classics are manipulated by the authors. The first is a poem by Sappho (poem 31) whose lyrics are supposedly changed by Amadeus Cho (as is mentioned in the comic) to refer to Hercules’ exploits. The second is a “Homeric Hymn” dedicated to Poseidon and used by Amadeus, who prays for the god’s protection against the warring Amazons who attack him and Hercules and take over Atlantis.
The third reception of a classical element is less obvious. In this case there is a picture of a full-spread picture of Washington, with Atlas in the background holding up the sky. There is no explanation regarding this image, which is perhaps meant to show a mixture of mythology and history.
