Incredible Hercules: Secret Invasion TPB

By switching to the trade on so many of my favorite comics, I'm always worried that I'm going to accidentally spoil thinks for myself. I've been really worried about that happening with Hercules, since I loved the first storyline so much. I did accidentally hear about Snowbird's involvement with the God Squad (Herc's team of anti-Skrull deities in this story) and I had also found out which member of the Squad was secretly a Skrull. But I actually had avoided finding out the full lineup of the squad, specifically that it included my favorite Eternal Ajak. The God Squad idea is a tremendous one, and Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente do a fantastic job developing the rival Skrull gods. I actually think the evil deities in this would have been a better reveal for Secret Invasion than the silly God statement that Queen Veranke dropped in the core series. The God Squad was neat too, I love Snowbird's look, so having her show up anywhere is fine with me. I'm not sure I entirely understand why the Demogorge made himself look like an Egyptian god though, I was never exactly clear on that. Amadeus Cho is growing on me too, he's seeming a lot more like a hero with flaws than a super-villain, in the first trade he was basically a bad guy. I like seeing him kind of deal with that in this trade. The use of the Eternals as guest stars was a neat idea and I'm really quite taken with Athena in this manipulator/ally role. She seems like a character that could get a lot more development and has quite a bit of potential.

This comic is trucking along nicely. I hope the sales hold up so we keep getting this fix of Herc for a good long while.

The JRJR covers were fantastic, and Rafa Sandoval does nice work throughout. He's not fantastic, and his use of the Ajak re-design is a little tame, but overall the book looks good.

Good