Assault on New Olympus, Act 1: Playing Gods

Last Week

After the incident in Excello, Utah, Amadeus Cho has just learned from Athena that she has been training him to become the successor to Hercules.[1] When Cho points out that he isn’t strong like Hercules, Athena explains that they are at a transition point where the old age is replaced by the new. In this new era, the chosen champion of Athena will be one of intelligence rather than strength. More importantly, she needs to choose a successor because Hercules is fated to die in the coming battle.[2]

Now

Hercules and Zeus have reunited with Athena and Amadeus and sent out the call to help bring down the Olympus Group and their plans to launch Continuum.[3] Answering the call are the the Wasp (Hank Pym), Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), Jocasta, and US Agent (John Walker) of the Mighty Avengers, as well as Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Wolverine (Logan), and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) of the New Avengers. Hercules is confident that the battle against Hera and her group will be a snap since they have Zeus on their size. They have also used one of Pym’s mental imagers to get a blue print of the Olympus Group’s head office from Hebe, the bridge of Hercules.

However, this will be no easy task as, aside from traditional security measures, the building is guarded by the Huntsman and Continuum itself is held in an Adamantine vault on the top floor of the building. It is also protected by glass that can only be broken by Hera’s thunderbolts, and an army of female automatons created by Hephaestus. If that’s not enough, they will also have to contend with Typhon, the all seeing eyes of Argus, and an army of Amazons led by Delphyne Gorgon.

While Hebe laments over this seemingly impossible task, US Agent isn’t afraid of the Olympian gods, thinking they aren’t any different from most other superhuman threats. While Herc and Zeus take offense to this, Athena admits that there is wisdom in what Walker is saying. She points out that the gods are reflections of the collective hopes and fears of humanity. In fact, she points to superheroes have taken over the primary totemic roles traditionally taken by the gods. Spider-Woman is not unlike the Hindu goddess Kali, while Spider-Man is similar to the African deity known as Anansi,[4] while Wolverine could be considered a stand-in for the Celtic god Cernunnos.

As the planning continues, Amadeus pulls Hercules aside and apologizes for ghosting on him earlier.[5] He then tries to warn Hercules about his fated death, but discovers that he can’t. Instead, he tries offering him a bottle filled with water from the River Lithe. He wants Herc to use it to mind wipe any foe that proves stronger than he can handle. Herc tells Amadeus that he should hold onto it instead. When Hercules rejoins the others, Amadeus makes a silent vow to himself that he will not allow himself to let Hercules die.[6] He then tells the others that he has a plan to get past security at the Olympus Group.

Later, the Huntsman observes Hebe approaching the building alone and alerts Argus. When she enters the building she finds Delphyne Gorgon and her Amazon army waiting for her. Hebe is instructed to enter the building as her mother, Hera, is waiting to speak with her. Hebe does as instructed but she is still upset with Hera after she tossed her out of a window recently.[7] Hera, wanting her children by her side, says that Hebe’s siblings Ares and Eris are coming to watch as the launch Continuum. Hera boasts that they will be creating a new virgin world to rule over, and gloats over the fact that they will wipe out this one in order to do it. That’s when the multi-eyed Argus contacts Hera from the security room and warns her that Hebe has intruders hiding on her body. This is in the form of an Avengers Quinjet shrunk down with Pym Particles that was smuggled inside Hebe’s wrist watch.

Hera then blasts Hebe with a bolt of lightning, causing her to crash into the middle of the lobby. When an ambulance arrives to bring her to a hospital, they open the massive front doors so it can enter the building. Hera realizes too late that the Trojan horse being employed is the ambulance. It’s upon that realization that Hercules and his army of Avengers come pouring out of the back of the emergency vehicle. Hercules tells everyone to take advantage of their surprise, but pauses to check on Hebe and make sure she is ok. As the two reunited lovers exchange romantic words with one another, Amadeus is grossed out by how corny they are being. However, he soon has to get his head back in the game as an army of Amazons enter the fight. Hera is furious and summons Typhon, the Huntsman, Delphyne Gorgon, Arachne, Eris, amd Lamia to join the fight.

Meanwhile, at Avengers Tower, Ares is gearing up with weapons to join the fight. However, he is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Aphrodite who tells him to join her in bed. She reminds him of the passion they once had back during the Trojan War.[8] Ares knows that Athena has sent her to distract him from the battle, but her seduction works and the begin making love.

Back at the battle, Hercules and Typhon battle one another, with the Titan vowing to kill Hercules once and for all.[9] Watching from the sidelines are Amadeus and Hebe. Cho tries to convince her to get to safety, but she vows that she will stay by their side. She also assures Amadeus that now that she and Hercules are back together, she won’t push him out of their lives, promising to treat him as a surrogate son. That’s when Amadeus sees something very bad: The Olympian death god known as Thanatos has arrived on the scene and proclaims that one of the combatants is destined to die!

Recurring Characters

Hercules, Amadeus Cho, Zeus, Athena, Hebe, Mighty Avengers (Wasp, Quicksilver, Jocasta, US Agent), New Avengers (Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman), Olympus Group (Hera, Typhon, Hephaestus, Huntsman, Delpyne Gorgon, Arachne, Argus, Eris, Lamia, Thanatos), Ares

Continuity Notes

1. Amadeus was in Excello hoping to learn what became of his sister, as seen in Incredible Hercules #133, 135, 137.

2. This prophecy turns out to be true as we will see in Incredible Hercules #141.

3. Zeus is depicted as a child here following his death (Ares #5) and resurrection (Incredible Hercules #131). He will remain in as a child until Incredible Hercules #141.

4. Actually, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman’s spider powers are very much liked to Anansi. Per Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #48, their abilities are all tied into the Great Web, which selects spider totems all across known existence.

5. Amadeus is referring to when he left Hercules to look for his sister after discovering she hadn’t died in the explosion that killed his parents. He discovered this when they traveled to Hades to rescue Zeus. This is also where Cho got water from the River Lithe. See Incredible Hercules #129-131.

6. Amadeus says he failed his parents who were killed in an explosion in Amazing Fantasy (vol. 2) #15. He also says he failed the Hulk, he is referring to when the Hulk was exiled into space between Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #91 to 105. When he returned to Earth he launched a war against those who exiled him. This primarily took place in World War Hulk #1-5. Cho led a group in trying to help the Hulk, as documented in Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #106-112. Despite his efforts, the Hulk was captured at the end of the conflict.

7. Hera punished Hebe for ruining a trap she set for Hercules by tipping off Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers to the battle. See Incredible Hercules #127-128.

8. Aphrodite mentions her animosity toward the Agents of Atlas here. She has a grudge against Venus, a Siren who had started using her Roman name and is often mistaken for Aphrodite. See Agents of Atlas #5 for more on that. They recently fought in X-Men vs Agents of Atlas #1-2.

9. It is mentioned here that Hercules was born a mortal and died a mortal death only to be resurrected as a god. This happened back in the days of Ancient Greek. Tricked into putting on a bloody tunic tainted with Hydra venom, it caused Hercules agonizing pain that was so bad, he immolated himself. Taking pity on his son, Zeus resurrected Hercules as a god. This is part of Greek mythology, but we saw this played out in the fiction in a flashback from Incredible Hercules #129.

Topical References

• When hearing how he is to succeed Hercules, Amadeus quips “What the Hello Kitty?”, rather than saying “what the hell”. Hello Kitty is a popular Japanese character created in 1975 by Yuko Shimizu for the Sanrio company. Originally put on fashion, the character has exploded in popularity and is a cultural icon. Typically, something like this would be considered a topical reference, but considering it as such would change the nature of the joke being made.

• When US Agent sarcastically calls Spider-Man the “god of wisecracks”, Spidey quips that that the title belongs to comedian Chris Rock. Chris Rock has been active as a comedian since 1984 and was at the height of his popularity at the time this comic was originally published in 2010. That said, this would be a topical reference as you could replace his name with a more contemporary comedian and the joke would still land.

• In the middle of the fight with the Amazons, Spider-Woman quotes a line from the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The line is “If someone asks you if you are a god…. say yes!” This line was uttered in the final act of the film when the Ghostbusters faced their primary antagonist, a supernatural entity named Gozer. Gozer asks the Ghostbusters if they are gods to which the character Ray Stantz (played by Dan Aykroyd) says they are not. This causes Gozer to attack them, prompting the line from his fellow Ghostbuster Peter Vankman (played by Bill Murray). This wouldn’t be considered a topical reference as the joke would be changed if you removed the line from this movie.

Godmarked, Part 2: Remember the Titans?

The Agents of Atlas — Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man (Ken Hale), M-11, Namora, and the Uranian (Bob Grayson) — have come to San Francisco looking for their missing member, the siren known as Venus. There they found her on the Golden Gate Bridge where she is being controlled by an ancient titan known as Phorcys. The Lovecraftian horror is using her siren’s son to convince people to jump off into the bridge as food for the leviathan.

As the Agent of Atlas struggle to stop the monster, they are about to become its next meal when Jimmy finally gets through to Venus by reminding her that she is a hero. Snapping free of Phorcys’ control causes Venus to stop singing and frees all the innocent people from her thrall. This convinces Phorcys that the times are changing after all and soon this world will have no place for the gods and retreats back into the ocean.

Suspecting this is part of something bigger, Jimmy orders Bob to pilot his flying saucer to Manhattan. He is tired of waiting around for more gods to come after Venus and wants to take the battle directly to them. As they make their way to New York, both Venus and Namorita recall how their previous encounters with Greek deities hinted that Hera was up to something big.[1] Venus starts getting down on herself about being a “cheap copy” of Aphrodite, but Ken cheers her up as they arrive outside the Olympus Group head office.

However, some kind of force is preventing the saucer from using its transport beam to teleport them into the building. However, a scan of the area shows that they can infiltrate the building by going in from underground. Teleporting below the street, the Agents of Atlas find themselves in an old cave tunnel that leads into the building. As they round the corner they discover guardians blocking the way in the form of a cyclops, a chimera, and an army of skeletal warriors!

Recurring Characters

Agents of Atlas (Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man, M-11, Namora, Uranian, Venus), Phorcys

Continuity Notes

1. The Agents of Atlas fought Aphrodite in X-Men vs Agents of Atlas #1-2 and Namorita mentions her recent run in with Atlas, which took place in Incredible Hercules #121-125.