30 days of scans meme Day 19: character I hated to now I like.

[sherkahn]

This was an easy one for me...

Someone I've despised since the mid 80's to a few years ago, when he went from awesome to just another lug. He's been a great example of 90's gone wrong. The costume upgrades and interactions with other individuals in their universe. Drama for the sense of drama without actual character growth in a positive or negative manner. And none of the grace, power or flamboyance associated with the character under previous writers.

And now... he's out pimpin' Tony Stark, out muscling Thor and brings more WTF?! crack than Deadpool. Ladies want him, men want to be him... and a few men have dared more.

Ladies and gentlemen. The most improved character in the last 10 years in Marvel's stable...... the Incredible Hercules.
*with nods to other's scans*




Here is how Herc was before....



And then Greg Pak and Fred La Vente turned a C-list... bordering on D-list character, and raised him to such levels of awesomeness that boggle the mind.




Classic... and then there is this...




And his problem solving skills are legendary.


And scans_daily is filled with so much love for Herc. Who knew 10 years ago that he would become such an asset?

suggested tags:

character: Hercules/Marvel
character: Amadeus Cho

creator: Greg Pak
creator: Fred La Vente

Comments

[falseaesop]

While GP and FLV deserve most of the credit, Herc's redemption from the scrapy heap seemed to start during Civil War.

I wouldn't say I ever hated Herc, I was aware of him... I could pick him out of a Marvel mosaic if you asked me to, but I didn't read the Avengers or Thor and thus had no real opinion of him.

Now he is my favorite Marvel character.

[nothingbutcake]

Ladies want him, men want to be him... and a few men have dared more.

Right.

I know everyone loves that thumbs-up panel, but I can never get over how his face is shrunken on the head there.

[sherkahn]

comparing chin to nose to eye ratios, it's about right....

... it's that towering forehead that makes it looks so engorged.

*that's what she said!

[crinos]

funnily, I just started reading The Incredible Hercules (I recently accepted Marvel Digital into my life) and I just finished the amazon story.

sadly, I don't think they have the Thor crossover up yet.

[selke]

Herc and cold medicine? An awesome Friday night.

[angelophile]

I'm quite lucky in that my first exposure to Herc was when the first Bob Layton miniseries was reprinted as a backup strip in the UK Transformers comic. And it was wonderful and gave me a great fondness for the character. He then pretty much managed to stay off my radar until fairly recently - I guess because of his appearance in a Marvel UK title he did seem to be a favourite of a couple of creators there and pop up occasionally in UK titles I was reading, but I've probably been lucky in that I was never really exposed to the 90s surfer Herc or other variations, so my fondness for him was never shaken.

[atj99]

Err.....not to be picky or anything cause you are right about Herc being written quite terribly but isn't the reason he's going all "HERC SMASH" in that 1st scan is because Hawkeye is stopping him getting vengeance on the former Masters of Evil for almost beating him to death?

[sherkahn]

I know... I couldn't find a decent scan of Herc without the facial hair nor with the 90's padding and the horrible characterization of him.

[atj99]

You know, after looking at that scan, I dug out my old copy of "Avengers: Under Siege" and jeeezus. Herc does not come out looking good at all. He spends half of the time giving The Wasp crap just cause she's their leader and a woman :)

[neuhallidae]

I was actually thinking of that while reading scene where he crosses paths with her in Erebus in his own title and she's already become a brainwashed gambling zombie. It's a long journey between "Fah! She's a woman!" and "Hey! Hey, you! C'mon, let's get outta this creepy dump and go be awesome!"

[jlbarnett]

which is actually a regression for him from what I've heard. When he was one of the Champions Black Widow was team leader. I've never heard of him giving her crap.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

There was a panel (http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2350386.html?thread=77749042#cmt77749042) in the recent Age of Heroes thread.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

I mean God of Heroes.

[sherkahn]

Yeah, I posted that one...

It's not a great sample of the crap they made Herc into back in the 90's.

[recognitions]

So apparently I've been in a cave but I had no idea that Herc was the Cool Story Bro guy. Mind blown.

[skalja]

I've always liked Herc, but that's because my major exposure to him pre-World War Hulk was the issue where he teams up with Spider-Man to fight mythologically-styled robots in Crete. Which was pretty awesome.

[shadowpsykie]

Ladies want him, men want to be him... and a few men have dared more.

heh, i would really love for them to come across a few more male lovers of hercules :)

just to offcially state it. (i mean it has been HEAVILY implied, even if you take out the Northstar Scene... youd have to be totally blind or dense not to have noticed that:)