Out of his mind after being poisoned with Hydra blood,
Hercules is fighting his way through an army of SHIELD agents, believing he is
trouncing the troops of King Laomedon of Troy who had cheated Herc out of the
magic horses he was promised for rescuing the King’s daughter from a monster….
During the chaos, Amadeus Cho sneaks into Hulk’s stone ship
where he is knocked out by Black Widow; she contacts Wonder Man who tells her
to stall Herc while he finds Ares (who was knocked into the next county by Herc
last issue). He catches up to Ares on a highway just as he figures out that
Ares deliberately poisoned Herc with Hydra blood so that the Avengers would
need to use maximum force against him. Then Simon is distracted by a starstruck
fan, giving Ares the chance to knock him over the head and steal the girl’s
pink sports car to head back to the refugee camp…
…where Black Widow manages to convince Herc that he’s back
with the Champions and fighting Ares (THE CHAMPIONS (1975 series) #1-3) and
directs him to a storage area for flammable liquid—and then she blows it up
with a rocket. Meanwhile, Amadeus awakens and discovers that he fell on his
coyote pup, breaking his pet’s back which may just be the incident that nudges
him into becoming a villain. The fire has burned all the venom off Herc’s skin
and he tells Natasha that if heroism is outlawed then he’d rather be a renegade.
Nat allows Herc to knock her out and escape. He boards the Helicarrier Behemoth
just as Amadeus flies it away…and then Ares jumps the sports car through the
air, crashing into the ship’s loading bay….
Herc finds that Amadeus, bitter about the serious injuries
done to his pup, is creating a device to send an electromagnetic pulse
throughout the SHIELD system allowing him to take control of all SHIELD tech
and destroy vehicles, open prison cells, and erase servers, even controlling
Iron Man’s armor. Herc pleads with him to stop; Amadeus responds, “Too late….”