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Herc #4

Jun 2011
?, Neil Edwards

Story Name:

All Versus All


Synopsis

Herc #4 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Hercules and the bad guys Griffin, Man-Bull, and Basilisk face Kyknos, son of Ares, and his Warhawks in what the baddie calls the war of All Against All. The two challenge one another with Herc proclaiming himself the city’s champion. But the crowd attacks Herc, thinking he’s the bad guy and Herc is forced to use the Shield of Peleus to turn the mob to stone (temporarily) to protect them from themselves. Basilisk and Man-Bull run for their lives as more people capture Hercules to bring him to Kyknos as prisoner. But Griffin, now transformed into mostly winged lion and a friendly one at that, swoops down and carries off Hercules, as the Warhawks, including Helene Panayiotou, shoot at him. Herc wonders how to help the city, drowning in chaos….

He comes upon some quarrelling neighbors in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, a landlord and a tenant fighting over bedbug control. Herc lands and tries to mediate but a little girl stabs him in the back with garden shears and her parents assault the hero. He pushes them off and proclaims that no one will get the object they are fighting over, slicing it in two with his sword before flying off on Griffin. The beast takes him to the rooftop of George Michael’s restaurant where he hopes to find treatment for his injuries but George Michael shoots him (knocking the shears out of his back), blaming him for the city going crazy, including his daughter. In a nearby park, children are being terrorized by vicious dogs (the result of Hecate’s return) and Griffin swoops down and carries the two hounds away. He returns to the rooftop where he tries to feed raw dog meat to Hercules who recoils though he admits he has eaten dog before, just not raw. Herc searches through the pockets of his new garment and discovers a roll of bandages and dresses his own wound. Herc mediates on the climax to the Chaos War and how he had the power and responsibility to remake the world and one of his actions was to resurrect Kyknos as the Great Villain a Great Hero needs but he did not count on losing his powers. Now he sinks into despair….

Rhea makes it back to her apartment after negotiating the treacherous streets of terrorized Brooklyn but she finds Helene Panayiotou and some Warhawks there. Helene jokes about Rhea’s interest in the political theory of rights, holding out Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan as the source of the Warhawks’ philosophy of All Versus All. And they take her hostage….

Kyknos prays to his father Ares, thanking him for revealing his purpose: to remake the world in Ares’ image to prepare it for Ares’ resurrection. Hecate joins him, seeking revenge for Zeus’ having forbidden interference with the world of men which resulted in her memory being wiped. She intends to start with Hercules, whose greatest fear is the return of Kyklos and Ares. And she conjures up a multitentacled monster….

At dawn, Hercules awakens, rested and refreshed and adopting a more optimistic attitude than the night before. And then he discovers the city is a hellscape, filled with dead trees….



 

Review / Commentaries


Herc #4 Review by (September 26, 2024)

Review: Herc, in the midst of fear-ridden Brooklyn, hits bottom, helpless in the face of supernatural evil when once he would have mastered it. And now he lies bleeding on a rooftop, forced to accept the help of a supervillain turned into a mythical animal. And then things grow worse because there are two issues still to come in this event tie-in. One scene makes no sense: Herc comes upon people fighting over bedbugs but ends the vignette by destroying what appears to be a large flat screen TV. Oh, and try to picture Hercules bandaging his own back wound; good thing it happens off-panel.

Comments: Issue bannered FEAR ITSELF, as a tie-in to that event. Issues #3-6 take place shortly after the events of FEAR ITSELF #4. Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente are co-writers of this series. The cover depicts a scene from issue #5.




> Herc comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

?
Neil Edwards
Scott Hanna
Jesus Aburtov
Michael Kaluta (Cover Penciler)
Michael Kaluta (Cover Inker)
Jim Charalampidis (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Simon Bowland.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hercules
Hercules

(Heracles)

Plus: Basilisk (Basil Elks), Griffin, Hecate, Kyknos (Son of Ares), Man-Bull, Warhawks.