Hercules (DC Comics)

Hercules (also known as Heracles and Herakles) is a fictional Olympian god in the DC Universe based on the Roman demigod and hero of the same name.

Hercules first appears in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941) as part of a Wonder Woman story, and was created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter, in the first of several incarnations. Later versions appeared in Superman #28 (May 1944), created by Jerry Siegel and Ira Yarbrough, Wonder Woman #105 (April 1959) and Hercules Unbound #1 (October 1975) created by Gerry Conway and José Luis García-López.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths

Hercules Unbound #1, by José Luis García-López.

In the universe of DC Comics, Hercules was used on occasion before Crisis on Infinite Earths as a foil to Superman. In these Silver Age books, Hercules usually appears as a giant, and frequently tests his strength with the Bible character Samson and another giant named Zha-Vam, who he granted strength to, as well as with Superman. In one story he is transported to the 20th century by Lex Luthor, and, in the guise of reporter Roger Tate, falls in love with Lois Lane. He gains power from other Gods and puts Superman into a 100 yr sleep with the pipe of Apollo, saying he will only revive Superman if Lois marries him. However Venus realises what has happened and wakes Superman up. After this Hercules is tricked into flying back in time with the sandals of Mercury, and loses his memory of the events. In the Golden Age he was mentioned in the origin of the Amazons as having enslaved them by tricking Hippolyta into giving him her golden girdle on the bequest of Ares who hated the Amazons, and was shown as an ugly muscle-bound man wearing a lion-skin. Oddly enough an earlier picture of him in the same comic shows him as a man with black hair and a beard.

In 1975, DC produced a comic book series titled Hercules Unbound, featuring the adventures of Hercules in a post-apocalyptic future.^[1] This Hercules looked different from the other DC interpretations - he had long black hair and no beard. The series lasted 12 issues.^[2] It made use of characters and concepts, such as The Atomic Knights and the intelligent animals from Jack Kirby's Kamandi series as an attempt to tie in some of the future series. It was later hinted that this version of Hercules was actually part of a dream suffered by Gardner Grayle, but was later shown to have existed somewhere in the Multiverse and was eliminated during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. José Luis García-López drew the first six issues^[3][4] and Walt Simonson drew the remainder of the series.^[5] Wally Wood inked several issues.

Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths

Wonder Woman

After the reboot of the DC universe in Crisis, Heracles — the Greek spelling — appeared in the pages of Wonder Woman. George Pérez, putting Greek mythology at the center of Wonder Woman's world, relates the tale of Heracles' and his men's conquest of the Amazons and his rape of Queen Hippolyta, and their revenge upon him.

Heracles subduing Hippolyta. Art by George Pérez.

During Diana's Challenge of the Gods storyline, she discovered that Heracles was transformed into a colossal stone pilar within Doom's Doorway, and was supporting Themyscira's weight for several millennia. In this stone state he was tormented and scarred by various mythological creatures, feeling the pain inflicted by them but not being able to do anything about it. This was the punishment given to him by his Olympian family for his past transgressions. Gaining his original form back, he begged the Amazons for forgiveness. Though some of the Amazons still harbored hatred for their past rapes and humiliation, most of them were moved by Heracles' newfound humility, and Queen Hippolyta asked her people to search their hearts for the strength to forgive, which they eventually did. Doing so herself, Hippolyta not only forgave Heracles, but shared a brief romance with him before he left the mortal realm to return to his father in Olympus.

Later, John Byrne did an inconclusive storyline in which Heracles appeared in the contemporary world and schemed to take revenge on the Amazons by seducing Wonder Woman. He did this by making an agreement with a mortal Golden Age superhero named Harold Champion. In exchange for his identity, Heracles gave Champion admission into Olympus. Once this was agreed upon, Heracles used the Mirror of Circe to alter his appearance into that of Champion. He proceeded to befriend Wonder Woman as a "new" friend, helping her deal with such problems as a confrontation with a duplicate of the monstrous Doomsday. Heracles' identity was eventually revealed and he resumed his life on Olympus.

War of the Gods

In the post-Crisis DC Universe, the Roman Gods existed separately from the Greek ones after Darkseid tricked them into splitting up so they could be worshipped by two different cultures at the same time; only after the "War of the Gods" did the two versions merge again. So in effect, both Heracles and Hercules existed, and they merged into one being during John Byrne's run on the comic.

One year later

A revamped Hercules reappears during the events of One Year Later. Now shaven and bearing an updated version of the armor worn in the Hercules Unbound series, his place in the Wonder Woman comic has been renewed as a fellow agent of Olympus, who occasionally aids Diana and even replaces her in battle. He is referred to as "Wonder Man" by Cheetah and Nemesis. He temporarily sets up base in the Greek Embassy.

Wonder Woman v3 #4 reveals that Hercules lied about his reasons for returning to Earth. As one of the inhabitants of Olympus who rejected Athena's decision to remove themselves from the mortal realm, Hercules journeyed to Tartarus in hopes of recruiting Ares to aid him in returning to Earth. Instead, he found Circe who, upon hearing Hercules' story and not wanting to spend eternity in limbo with Athena, decided to partner with Hercules instead. However, this didn't last long, as Circe betrayed him. The two part as enemies once Circe magically binds him to a rock.

Some time before the events of Wonder Girl, but after the events of "Who Is Wonder Woman?", Hercules encounters and battles Gog (who is killing gods and those who claim to be gods). After suffering a blast from Gog's staff, Hercules is incapacitated and encounters Superman and his Earth-22 counterpart. He enters into combat with the two of them, but is ultimately defeated. Hercules' physical appearance here is closer to the one seen in "Who Is Wonder Woman?". In addition, he is described as a "god" (and not a demigod, as in Wonder Girl) and wears gold bracelets instead of the gray shackles Zeus will place on him as punishment.

Wonder Girl

A being claiming to be Hercules' father Zeus eventually frees Hercules from his prison and informs him that he must partner with his half sister Cassie Sandsmark. Together Hercules and Cassie try to discover who is attacking the remaining Olympian gods. Soon into their search they are attacked by the Female Furies. Hercules stops the fight by explaining that he's allied with the Furies in hopes of rescuing the gods, or, failing that, starting a new pantheon with them. The Furies have their own plans, though, and are only using Hercules to get to Cassandra. The Furies soon betray Hercules, with Bloody Mary using her bite to gain power over Hercules, forcing him to do what the Furies want. The Furies then kidnap Cassandra's mother to lure her into a trap. Aided by the Olympian, Cassandra goes into battle, being forced to fight her own brother. The Teen Titans and Wonder Woman herself show up to help out, which evens the odds. After Bloody Mary is murdered by the New God killer, Hercules is freed from her spell and immediately saves his sister from being kidnapped by the fleeing Furies.

After being questioned by Wonder Woman, Hercules tells her he was freed by Zeus and sought his closest relative—Cassandra—for help. He explains that Zeus freed him to help stop "the Great Disaster," which Hercules does not know much about. However, there were two conditions for his release: he must always wear his gauntlets to remind him of his punishment (similar to the punishment the gods placed on the Amazons) and he must give up his godhood, becoming a demigod again. Rather than being upset, Hercules is happy to be human again and having his mother's blood flowing through his veins. Although Wonder Woman is initially skeptical, Cassandra vouches for Hercules, telling Diana that he's saved her life twice. Hercules is allowed to remain free, to complete his "labors" and make up for the things he's done.

The series mentions several important facts about Hercules, including his cycle of crime, punishment, and redemption; gods and other beings (Hera and Circe being mentioned by name) using him to commit great evil (such as the death of his family); and his uneasy relationship with the Amazons and Wonder Woman in particular.

The Hercules that empowers the Marvels is apparently different from this Hercules, sharing only his name. He is one of the Lords of Magic and possesses superhuman strength.

Other versions

Quality Comics' Joe Hercules

• A Golden Age superhero, Joe Hercules, had adventures in Quality Comics's Hit Comics from issue #1 (July, 1940) through #21 (April, 1942). Joe Hercules was an ordinary man from the "North Woods" imbued with superhuman strength who became a circus strongman and crimefighter, not a god.^[6][7][8] This character was purchased, along with Quality's other characters, by DC Comics. He makes a cameo appearance in the 1993 "Elseworlds" miniseries The Golden Age. Joe Hercules is first referred to in a canonical DC Universe story in Starman, Vol. 2, #35 (October, 1997). He is mentioned in a conversation between Ted Knight (formerly the Golden Age Starman) and Sentinel (Alan Scott, a.k.a. Green Lantern) and is said to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease.^[9]

• During the Marvel/DC crossover JLA/Avengers, Wonder Woman believed the Marvel Comics' Hercules to be a villain, assuming he had raped his dimension's Hippolyta; however, Marvel Comics' Hercules had simply had a consensual relationship with Marvel Comics' Hippolyta. Ironically, the Marvel Universe version of Hercules is a hero while Hippolyta is a villainess. However, this presents some continuity problems as Diana and her mother had already accepted his forgiveness, and Wonder Woman had not yet reverted to any previous incarnations. It is possible she was using the incident to fuel her rage, but she was still threatening approaching Asgardian gods that she would harm a subdued Hercules at the end of the fight. It may also be possible that Wonder Woman (who, like most of the JLA, didn't believe good was championed sufficiently in the Marvel Universe) was too disgusted at the idea that this Hercules had never been punished for what he did to the Amazons to think straight.

In other media

• Hercules appeared alongside Captain Marvel's friend and ally Isis in the TV series The Freedom Force, which was part of Tarzan and the Super 7. This version of Hercules had earlier appeared in Space Sentinels.
• In 1982, several of the characters from the Warlord series received action figures in a line called "Lost World of the Warlord" from Remco. Despite his not being related to the Warlord series, Hercules (from the Hercules Unbound era) was one of the figures in the line.
• Joaquin Phoenix (credited as Leaf Phoenix) appears on the Superboy television series in the season one episode titled Little Hercules as Billy Hercules. His character is a boy genius that teams with Superboy after an attempt at impressing his crush (by implanting a love poem as a virus within the Navy's missile system) goes awry.

Collected editions

• Showcase Presents: The Great Disaster featuring the Atomic Knights includes Hercules Unbound #1-12 and DC Comics Presents #57, 576 pages, June 2014, ISBN 978-1401242909

References

1. ↑ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Hercules Unbound featured powerful writing from Gerry Conway plus stellar artwork by José Luis García-López. 
2. ↑ 'Hercules Unbound' at the Grand Comics Database
3. ↑ José Luis García-López checklist http://sites.google.com/site/joseluisgarcialopezchecklist/
4. ↑ Nolen-Weathington, Eric (2005). Modern Masters, Volume 5: José Luis García-López. TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-1893905443. 
5. ↑ Nolen-Weathington, Eric; Ash, Roger (2006). Modern Masters, Volume 8: Walter Simonson. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 25. ISBN 978-1893905641. 
6. ↑ http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/q/quherc.htm
7. ↑ http://ratmmjess.tripod.com/ga/goldh.html
8. ↑ http://goldenageheroes.blogspot.com/2008/08/third-golden-age-hercules.html
9. ↑ http://www.cosmicteams.com/quality/profiles/Hercules.html

• Beatty, Scott (2009). Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide To The Amazon Princess. Dorling Kindersley Publishing. pp. 72–73. ISBN 0-7894-9616-X. 

External links

• Cosmic Teams: Hercules I, II & Unbound
• Hercules Unbound index
• Supermanica: Hercules--details Herc's encounters with the Superman family of characters before the Crisis on Infinite Earths