Incredible Hercules #117

Aug 13

Aug 13 Incredible Hercules #117

Secret Invasion, Part 1: The God Squad

Secret Invasion continues from Mighty Avengers #14….

New York City, One Month Ago

In Greenwich Village, a man goes to see a fortune teller to learn his future. While reading his palm, the fortune teller is shocked when the man suddenly turns into a Skrull. Horrified, she runs out into the street and realizes that everyone outside are also Skrulls as well. Trying to flee to safety, she is hit by a taxi cab, also driven by a Skrull. That’s when the fortune teller looks up in the sky and sees Demogorge, the God-Eater, emerging from the sun![1]

San Francisco, Now

Under the shadow of the Dreaming Celestial in Golden Gate Park, Athena has called a meeting with the Council of God-Heads, an order of ruling deities from every pantheon of gods that watch over the Earth.[2] Athena presents to them a severed head belonging to a Skrull, and warns them that the planet has been invaded by these aliens.[3] She discovered this infiltrator doing consultant work with the Atlas Foundation.

She has learned that to the Skrulls, this invasion is a religious one where they believe the Earth belongs to them by divine right. This was foretold in their religious text, the Book of Worlds. The Skrulls worship two deities, the Eternal Skrull known as Kly’bn and Sl’gur’t of the Infinite Names.[4] Athena suggests that they kill Kly’bn and Sl’gur’t as an army of religious invaders cannot conquer the planet without divine guidance. She wants to form a team and chooses Hercules and his sidekick Amadeus Cho to head up the team.[5] This infuriates Hercules who kicks down a tree before storming off into the nearby forest, with Cho in tow. Athena assures the other gods that this is just Hercules demonstrating that he is ready for the battle ahead.

The Council members then begin naming champions to join Hercules’ team. Hodiak, of the Inua, chooses Snowbird (Narya) to be his champion. She, like Hercules, is a demigod and is seeking purpose following the death of her teammates in Alpha Flight.[6] She was summoned after rejecting Guardian (Michael Pointer)’s offer to join Omega Flight.[7]

Meanwhile, Hercules is still furious that Athena chose him to lead this team. Amadeus doesn’t understand what the big deal is, pointing out that Herc was a member of the Argonauts and the Avengers. Hercules angrily explains that he was on those teams as a brawler and has never been made a leader. In his mind, leaders are inspirational like Captain America (Steve Rogers) of the Avengers, and Jason of the Argonauts. Hercules knows that as a leader he may well be leading this team to their deaths. He warns Amadeus to flee while he can in order to survive. However, Cho reminds Herc that he survived the Hulk’s recent war with Earth as well as their own conflict with SHIELD and isn’t going anywhere.[8]

Back at the council meeting, Tezcallipoca of the Incan Gods chooses Tecumotzin otherwise known as the Eternal Ajak. Until recently, he resided on the Andes Mountains studying the secrets of the Celestials. However, now that the space gods favor his cousin Makkari, Ajak had assumed a seemingly normal life as a gardener. When Tezcallipoca came to him, he revealed that the Skrulls were also experimented upon by the Celestials centuries ago. The idea that he could learn more knowledge about the Celestials and perhaps win back their favor convince the Eternal to join their chosen army.[9]

By this time, Hercules has calmed down enough to rejoin the council, just as Izagi-No-Mikoto is choosing his champion. He had traveled to Yomi, the underworld of the Japanese gods. He has chosen Amatsu-Mikaboshi in an effort to restore his lost honor. This enrages Hercules because Mikaboshi recently waged war against the Olympians and murdered his father, Zeus.[10] Hercules wants to slay the shackled Mikaboshi but Ajak and Snowbird step in the way, trying to remind him that they need to put aside their past animosities if Earth is to survive the coming war. The fight is then interrupted by the Demogorge, who ends the fight. Reverting back to his true form, that the Egyptian god known as Atum, he explains that he was summoned by his grandson, Horus to aid in their quest.[11] Seeing all of these gods together, Amadeus enthusiastically names them the God Squad.

With their team formed, they are given a means of facing the Skrull gods. This comes from Altjira, a god worshiped by the Australian Aboriginals. A ship which will allow them to traverse Dreamtime and access any realm where gods reside. Athena, however, is annoyed that the other god-heads have only chosen five champions for this war. This leads to recriminations from Kwaku Anasi, who speaks for the others. They don’t fully trust the Olympians due to the fact that they are without a kingdom or a ruler, and that sending too many of their forces could mean leaving themselves open to attack from the Greek gods. The fact that Athena did not summon the Asgardians to this meeting seems to justify their concern. Athena explains that she hasn’t called on Thor and his people because they recently returned from Ragnarok and are vulnerable to infiltration.[12]

The idea that Thor would be a better leader angers Hercules, who decides to take on the mantle of leadership after all, if only to prove the others wrong.[13] The God-Squad board the ship and pilot it into space. There, they witness the Skrull armada as it arrives over Earth. Athena, communicating with them telepathically, tells them that there is no time to fight them. Hercules refuses to abandon the Earth, but the ship soon slips into Dreamtime, cutting them off from the invading fleet. Before her contact with the team is cut off, Athena passes off one last bit of advice to Amadeus: Their mission will end in failure unless Cho can help Hercules when he is at his weakest by doing the hardest thing he has ever had to do. Amadeus doesn’t understand and asks for clarification but contact is broken off. As the ship sails into the void of dreamtime, Mikaboshi notes tells Hercules that his half-sister has beautiful green eyes and wonders if they have always been that colour.[14]

… Secret Invasion continues in New Avengers #41.

Recurring Characters

God Squad (Hercules, Ajak, Amatsu-Mikaboshi, Atum/Demogorge, Snowbird), Amadeus Cho, Athena, Kly’Bn, Sl’gur’t, Council of Godheads (Alitjira, Ammon Ra, Anu, Budda, Hodiak, Hunab Ku, Inti, Izagi-No-Mikoto, Itzamna, Manitou, Ndrianananhary, Okonorote, Osirus, Shou-Hsing, Tame, Tezcalipoca, Tomazooma, Ukko, Ulgen, Virachocha, Vishnu), Guardian, “Kirby”, (in flashback) Jason

Continuity Notes

Demogorge is an ultimate form of the Egyptian god known as Atum (among other names). He was birthed by Gaea the Earth Goddess to destroy her first race of gods which had devolved into demons. After consuming most of these creatures, Demogorge went to go live in the sun, which is where he lives when he isn’t munching on rogue gods. See Thor Annual #10.
The Council was first formed centuries earlier in order to defend the Earth in the event the Celestials deemed the human race unworthy of continued existence. See Thor #300. Not all of the gods present are mentioned by name here. Those present are properly identified in the Council of God-Heads appendix update in the softcover edition of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2.
The Skrulls have indeed been plotting an invasion of Earth for years, the primary conflict will take place in the pages of Secret Invasion #1-8. If you want to know more about the planning phase of this invasion see New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1, New Avengers #40-47 and Mighty Avengers #12-19.
The Skrulls are a race that was experimented upon by the Celestials. As such, there are three distinct races: The nearly extinct Prime Skrulls, the dominant Deviant Skrulls, and the exceedingly rare Eternal Skrulls, of which Kly’bn is a member. These distinctions were first explained in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #5, and will be explained in more detail in this issue.
Cho’s unnamed pup is named. Unnamed here it is later given the name Kirby in Incredible Hercules #118. However, this is not Cho’s pup at all. In Incredible Hercules #119 we learn that it has been replaced by a Skrull invader circa Incredible Hercules #113. The pup was replaced ahead of a planned invasion of Earth that will primarily take place in Secret Invasion #1-8.
Per Alpha Flight #7, Narya is the daughter of the Inua goddess Nelvanna and a mortal man named Richard Easton.
The situation between Snowbird, Guardian, and Alpha Flight is complicated:
- At the time of this story, Alpha Flight was all wiped out during a fight with Pointer himself, who had become the Collective after being possessed by the energies of depowered mutants, as seen in New Avengers #16-20.
- To atone for the destruction he caused, Pointer joined Omega Flight, a team of Canadian and American heroes that were formed in order to hunt down superhumans that have fled to Canada to avoid the Super Human Registration Act that was passed in Civil War #3. See Civil War: Choosing Sides #1 and Omega Flight #1-5. This law will remain on the books until Siege #4.
- Here, Snowbird mentions that her husband is dead. She is referring to Douglas Thompson an RCMP officer that she had been married to for years as seen in Alpha Flight #2. He died a while ago in Alpha Flight #44.
- The death of Alpha Flight will prove to be short lived as its deceased members will be resurrected in Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1.
After being exiled in space between Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #91-105, the Hulk came back to get revenge on those who banished him. This was primarily told in World War Hulk #1-5. Amadeus and Hercules’ involvement in that conflict were chronicled in Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #106-112. Their recent conflict with SHIELD took place in Incredible Hercules #113-115.
Ajax’s time with the Incas was first divulged in Eternals #1. He had been a scholar of the Celestials until very recently when they chose Makkari to be their new champion, as seen in Eternals (vol. 3) #1-7.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi waged his war against Olympus in Ares #1-5, killing Zeus in the process. Zeus will be restored to life in Incredible Hercules #130-132.
Hercules mentions the last time he faced the Demogorge. That was in Hulk vs Hercules #1.
Until recently, the Asgardians were all wiped out in the last Ragnarok cycle that took place in Thor (vol. 2) #80-85. They had just recently returned to life in Thor (vol. 3) #1 and have been preoccupied restoring their kingdom on Earth.
Hercules makes an offhand comment about the Asgardians and their “golden ringlets”. He is likely referring to the Rhinegold, This gold was fashioned from Thor’s hammer during an earlier Ragnarok cycle and was fashioned into rings. TL;DR version, it ultimately was used to forge the Odinsword in the most recent cycle. See Thor #295-300.
Amadeus will prove instrumental to defeating the Skrull gods as we’ll see in Incredible Hercules #120. Mikaboshi is clearly suggesting that Athena was replaced by a Skrull. However, we’ll learn over the next few issues that this is not the case.