When Bad Idea Jeans Fit Very Nice

After World Wide Hulk ended and I saw the list of books that were coming out afterwards, I had pretty much resigned myself to not buying anything in the Hulk Universe anymore.

Matter of fact, the only reason I bought Incredible Herc #111: the Art Adams cover. No, seriously.

Damn, am I glad I did!

On paper, this should have been awful. Hercules, a character who can't maintain his own title for longer than 20 issues. Amadeus Cho, another one of those Marvel characters who is smarter than everybody else*

And I'll be honest, the first issue was just okay but then Pak had the inspired idea to make the first true villain of the first arc, Ares.


It's as if everyone forgot that Ares used to be a villain and a dick for that matter.

The ongoing fight between the two - which his hilarious yet manages to grow the characters - is what Daniel Way is going for with his Wolverine vs. Deadpool fight in Wolverine: Origins with less than stellar returns. Tying their fight to Hercules' mythology has made Hercules and Ares more interesting characters.

Meanwhile, you have Amadeus Cho continuing his ongoing technological war with S.H.E.I.L.D. I appreciate that while Cho is incredibly intelligent, he is a kid and his emotional rationalization for his actions are questionable and immature (bringing down the nation's security for his injured puppy?)

It's kinda sad that the best Marvel books out right now - The Incredible Herc, Iron Fist, The Order - don't involve their flagship characters and are on the verge of (or already are headed for) cancellation

If Jeph Loeb's Hulk is the future of the character, I hope he never comes back to Incredible.

* Do they still make Marvel baseball cards with the stats on the back? If so, who is officially the smartest person in the Marvel Universe?