The associations between the stories of Olympian mythology and the patterns in the night
sky are hoary with age. It is to our credit that millenia later we still honor the tales immortalized in the starry sky
by our ancestors, and continue to add new ones of our own devising.
Hercules is banished from Mount Olympus and is bound to travel the vastness of space until
such time as he can learn humility. So decreed the red-haired Zeus of the Marvel Universe back in the 1980s.
And thus began a comedic epic that spanned the
decade coutesy of Bob Layton's cosmic creativity.
Driving the sun-chariot of Apollo the Prince of Power went forth into the starry
void. In the dawn of his odyssey the colonizers of Rigel supplied him with
a Recorder to chronicle his myriad adventures.
And what adventures they were! Naught was as it seemed and many a life-lesson
did the son of Zeus learn. Though he often found himself in trouble, his heroic spirit finally triumphed over all
internal and external obstacles.
Using a ploy as ancient as Hellas he even saved a planet from obliteration
by making the world-eater Galactus laugh over a shared drink.
The years pass quickly for our star-spanning
hero. Many a tale is sung throughout the cosmos regarding his many astral exploits and bedroom conquests. It is
now 2385 CE.
Hercules, still accompanied by the robotic Recorder, makes friends with a roguish Skrull,
gives his heart to a mortal woman and starts to age prematurely. With the help of Mentor, ruler of Titan and stauch ally of Zeus,
he discovers that all is not well on Olympus.
Zeus, in a fit of madness, has slain his kin and has laid waste to his shining
kingdom. Though initially reluctant to fight his father, Hercules eventually challenges the Lord of Dark Clouds and triumphs.
Before Zeus dies he expresses his love for his son and explains that the time has come for
the Olympians to finally leave the mortal sphere behind. Hercules is the last of the Olympians.
Hercules' legend
in outer space grows and in time he is challenged by the mightiest conqueror the universe has ever known: Arimathes,
Son of Hercules.
Can Hercules soften his son's heart before they are forced to destroy eachother?
Can he outwit the Fates before all comes Full Circle and history repeats itself with father killing son or son
killing father?
For those answers you must consult the chronicles, which have recently
been re-released in hardcover and graphic novel format by Marvel Comics.
In 2010 Herc's futuristic adventures in outer space resumed in Hercules: Twilight
of a God. After an unfortunate missile accident Hercules was left brain-damaged. The Recorder had taken to staring
at walls. And it was revealed that Skyppi the Skrull was not only terminally ill but beyond all hope of being cured.
And that's just how this four-part miniseries started! The last issue gave us the end of the wacky Hercules
gang we knew and their metamorphoses into the even greater beings they were destined to become.
