Hercules Versus Thor: Classics Edition!
Dec. 1st, 2009 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyThis is my first post on any incarnation of Scans Daily. I’ve searched through the archives and don’t seem to be duplicating anything (or if I am, it was lost in the Livejournalpocalypse), and I’ve read the FAQ three times, and added up the thirds of pages to make sure they make seven total, so here goes…
By now everybody knows how awesome Incredible Hercules is, especially Herc and Thor’s nad-kicking, chain-mail-wedgieing, purple-nurpling throwdown. But that’s not the first time they’ve faced off in a gag fight, and sometimes you need a dose of the classics.
To wit: back in 1985, Walt Simonson was in the middle of a forty-plus-issue run as writer-artist that’s still one of the best ever on the title (or any title, for my money), but even legends need vacations. So what do you do when your book is in the middle of an epic storyline and you don’t have the regular author or the regular penciler for a month?
HERCULES, that’s what. We join the Lion of Olympus taking a walk through Central Park, planning the menu for the evening's feast with Jarvis, the Avengers' faithful butler, who you can tell is having the time of his life. And while the story is almost a quarter-century old at this point, anybody who’s reading Incredible Herc today should find the main character very familiar…
Meanwhile, across the park, something else that probably sounds familiar — bullies picking on a kid who likes superheroes.
Thus challenged, Matt decides to go to the authority on the subject and ask Hercules himself, "Who's stronger? You or Thor?"
That may not have been a very good idea.
You can pretty much guess where it goes from there, but special credit goes to Thor being accosted by an old lady with a handbag, and then...well...
Luckily, Jarvis and his functioning brain cells come to Herc’s aid, and he pulls the Prince of Power aside to point out that maybe the kid wasn’t looking for a tale of Thor getting his ass kicked six ways from Sunday after all. And as it turns out, Hercules can take a hint! Go figure. Which sets us up for the TWIST ENDING!
And finally, the ultimate indignity.
So the bullies accept Herc’s story, because you don’t argue with freakin’ Hercules no matter how bald-faced his lies are, and Matthew gets invited to dinner at the Avengers Mansion. A happy ending for all, and there you have it: The Greatest Herc/Thor Showdown That May Not Have Ever Actually Happened, But It’s Awesome Anyway. I think it's one of the all-time great fill-in issues - completely out of continuity, doesn't step on the regular writer's toes at all, and damned fun. Thor's facial expressions never fail to crack me up.
By now everybody knows how awesome Incredible Hercules is, especially Herc and Thor’s nad-kicking, chain-mail-wedgieing, purple-nurpling throwdown. But that’s not the first time they’ve faced off in a gag fight, and sometimes you need a dose of the classics.
To wit: back in 1985, Walt Simonson was in the middle of a forty-plus-issue run as writer-artist that’s still one of the best ever on the title (or any title, for my money), but even legends need vacations. So what do you do when your book is in the middle of an epic storyline and you don’t have the regular author or the regular penciler for a month?
HERCULES, that’s what. We join the Lion of Olympus taking a walk through Central Park, planning the menu for the evening's feast with Jarvis, the Avengers' faithful butler, who you can tell is having the time of his life. And while the story is almost a quarter-century old at this point, anybody who’s reading Incredible Herc today should find the main character very familiar…
Meanwhile, across the park, something else that probably sounds familiar — bullies picking on a kid who likes superheroes.
Thus challenged, Matt decides to go to the authority on the subject and ask Hercules himself, "Who's stronger? You or Thor?"
That may not have been a very good idea.
You can pretty much guess where it goes from there, but special credit goes to Thor being accosted by an old lady with a handbag, and then...well...
Luckily, Jarvis and his functioning brain cells come to Herc’s aid, and he pulls the Prince of Power aside to point out that maybe the kid wasn’t looking for a tale of Thor getting his ass kicked six ways from Sunday after all. And as it turns out, Hercules can take a hint! Go figure. Which sets us up for the TWIST ENDING!
And finally, the ultimate indignity.
So the bullies accept Herc’s story, because you don’t argue with freakin’ Hercules no matter how bald-faced his lies are, and Matthew gets invited to dinner at the Avengers Mansion. A happy ending for all, and there you have it: The Greatest Herc/Thor Showdown That May Not Have Ever Actually Happened, But It’s Awesome Anyway. I think it's one of the all-time great fill-in issues - completely out of continuity, doesn't step on the regular writer's toes at all, and damned fun. Thor's facial expressions never fail to crack me up.
