Review of Civil War II: Gods of War
The last time I read a Hercules book was years ago, back when Marvel “killed” Hercules off. (Like you could really kill a God.) I enjoyed the book then as something I might pick-up as a distraction from the more prominently advertised titles. It was not memorable, but it was fun.
When I discovered that Marvel intended publishing a Hercules book that “tied-in” to Civil War II, my interest was peaked, and I picked it up. And as I had done in the past, I enjoyed Gods of War, and thought that, compared other titles Marvel and DC has released recently, it was a strong offering by writer Dan Abnett and artist Emilio Laiso.
The reviews I read after reading were not so kind. Many of the reviews mentioned the “red skies” trope, apparently a reference to an event in Crisis on Infinite Earths where the only reference in monthly books to the tie-in to the cross-over event was the oddly colored sky. In the case of Civil War II, many reviewers had a complaint that for a book had not merited the prominently displayed title Civil War II when it contained only one fight related to the event that appeared to happen in the background and to which Hercules was not invited. Reviews also indicated that the story was nothing special.
I can understand the complaint that placing “Civil War II” may be a but misleading, although, certainly this is not the first time Marvel has done this. There is an expectation that with an event as large as Civil War II, Marvel is going to take some liberties with bringing all of its book under the event. But setting that aside, this issue was anything plain and average.
What this book explores which I have not seen in comics before is the theme of modernity as it applies to the superhero genre. What Abnett suggests is that as times have changed, the relevancy of older characters have decreased and perhaps no longer fit. He couldn’t have picked a better character than Hercules to express this, a Greek god, known for his virility and his good-natured indulgences, including alcohol. There was a time when Hercules was in numerous books in the Marvel universe, when he was a staple character.
Currently, Hercules has seen his popularity wane. Issue one begins with him at a bar, a small shot glass of alcohol in front of him. He friend Amadeus Cho finds him staring at it. When asked about it, Hercules assures his friend that he hasn’t taken a drink, that he only has it there in front of him as a test of willpower.
It is a funny and at the same time a serious moment, wonderfully powerful. It harkens back to prior feats of Hercules the seven tests which have made him a myth, comparing the temptation of drinking to prior impossible tasks. Yet, inside the humorous comparison is the sad truth that addiction and alcoholism can be impossible to overcome and often leads to our downfall.
Add on top of this Amadeus Cho’s transformation into the Hulk, a kind of symbol, a sign of the youth replacing the old. Cho inadvertently makes Hercules sense that his time is over, to feel his own irrelevance in the Marvel universe. This is amplified by the fact that Hercules stumbles into a fight with the rest of the heroes of the Marvel universe is having with an Celestial, a fight to which Hercules was not invited.
Abnett raises the stakes by giving Hercules a separate set of foes, ones not visible to anyone other than Hercules, called the Storm. In one particularly interesting panel, She-Hulk and Cho see Hercules swinging in the air at no one in particular, a kind of indication of senility. The Storm are a set of gods whose intentions is not to destroy Hercules but to invite them as a God of Chaos. They mark Hercules with a technological hand print, a sign that portends according to Teresias of Hercules succumbing to the call. The Storm’s appearance, invitation, and modern brand serves as yet another reminder of how Hercules’s time as a hero has passed and that his time in the Marvel universe is over. It is fate,
Hercules however does not go down without swinging, and, in that measure, he calls upon his godly friends to join him to defy the fate that lies before him, his fading into obscurity, his joining the immaterial gods.
Artistically, we see that the theme of immateriality appears all over the issue. Take for example the reflection of Hercules in the alcohol. There are panels where figures merely composed of shadows, dark spots with no discernable details, only an outline. It is an image that runs through right to the end of the book, where the shadows of the called upon friends hint at the next issue.
Interesting, too, is the shift in colors when Hercules is fighting the Storm while his compatriots are fighting the Celestial. When he arrives on the scene with Cho, the sky is red, the same color of the Celestial. But caught in a battle with the Storm, Laiso shifts to grey blue color, a stone-cold dead color suggestive of death.
He nearly succumbs but bursts free of their hold. The color then shifts back to a blood red.
I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the extreme muscle look. It is particularly obnoxious at the front of the book when it appears that Hercules has muscles on his muscles. But what Laiso does well is to emote though facial expression and body language. Even without the dialogue, the story is clear just from the art.
This is a strong book, worthy of better reviews than it received and deserves a look even if it is not solidly grounded in the Civil War II story-line.
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