1. The Chaos War continues the best book of the last decade or so to be published in the Marvel Universe, The Incredible Hercules, as Herc and teen sidekick Amadeus Cho gather heroes to stop the Chaos King.
2. The Chaos King, the nothingness before creation, having killed Zues and the Skrull gods, marched across creation and is now coming to Earth. Finally, a huge threat being treated like a huge threat.
3. When Hercules returns to lead the heroes against the Chaos King, he isn’t immediately trusted. This is a great moment where various heroes rightly question him and he gives a great speech to motivate them as one.
4. The Chaos King for his part isn’t idle, killing Nightmare and claiming those powers for his own.
5. Cho’s part here is kept unfortunately small, as he spends much of the issue just calming Herc down so the other heroes get more face time. It’s a shame as he’s one of the best new characters created by Marvel since they heyday of Stan and Jack.
6. Delphyne’s utter contempt of Hercules is perfectly fitting. Just because she loves Amadeus doesn’t mean she forgot to hate the Greek gods for making her a gorgon.
7. Pham’s art here is great, mostly on the facial ex[ressions,. The action is carried by the sound effects. If you don’t usually read those, be sure to here.
8. Thor, after his new Cho inspired appreciation of Hercules in the Prince of Power mini, is the first hero to just trust Herc here- a nice touch.
9. The mortal heroes being removed from the playing field this early by the powers of Nightmare is an awesome touch. Next month, the God Squad!
10. Rating: 9/10 – The Saga of Hercules and Cho continues in stellar fashion with a smart and fun comic that should remind any long-term reader why they love not only superheroes but the huge ideas that find their home in this medium.
