Ron Fortier Reviews
Hercules: The Thracian Wars Radical Comics Review by Ron Fortier |
HERCULES : The Thracian Wars
Book #1 of 5
Writer Steve Moore | Artist Admira Wijaya | Cover Jim Steranko
Radical Comics
Okay, let’s deal with economics first. When I first saw this comic advertised here at CR, I was not aware of the price tag. A twenty-two page, full color comic for just a $1! Excuse me while I go into cardiac shock. Having been a comic fan/reader for the past 38 years, it’s a wonder to me how Radical pulled this off. Maybe subsequent issues will cost more. I don’t know, but for right now, this first issue is nothing less than a bonafide bargain.
It’s a bargain because, at any price, it’s an excellent first issue. Writer Steve Moore is smart enough to realize Hercules has been virtually done to death as an iconic hero figure, both in print and in films. Even as I write this, Marvel’s version is enjoying new attention and popularity. So all this begs the question, how do you make such a familiar character fresh and new? Moore found a way, and no, it’s not getting comics legend, Jim Steranko, to do the cover. Steranko’s sword and sandal print of this particular figure has been around for a long, long time. Moore and company were just smart enough to employ the design for their particular vision.
What Moore does to make this an exciting and intriguing tale is to create a group of sub-characters that pull the focus away from the half-man/half-god hero, and allow we mortals to find an empathic entry into the adventure. The plot, thus far, is simple and straight forward. Hercules, and his seven mercenary warriors, are called to Thrace by King Cotys to supposedly aid him in some military campaign. Lured by the possibility of easy wealth, the group arrives only to learn Cotys is a lazy despot ruling over a court of perverted blue bloods. These same depraved, slovenly 
lords waste no time in heaping all manner of vicious insults upon Hercules and his followers. It is enough to fire the strongman’s wrath and all too quickly he and his freebooters set about slaughtering everyone in the Great Hall. It is a sequence of ribald slaughter, effectively laid by artist Admira Wijaya. He seems to enjoy drawing people getting their heads split open.
There is a strong feeling of The Magnificent Seven (…or the Seven Samurai, if you will) in this, as I alluded to earlier. As this opening chapter moves like a racing chariot, we are only given brief glimpses into the team’s unique characters. The two that do stick out are
Atalanta, the only female in the group, who seems to have a death-wish and Tydeus, who just happens to be a cannibal as well as a brutal fighter. Needless to say, Hercules is not for the squeamish. Book One also ends with a nice little surprise I did not see coming, so a sound bravo to all involved. I’m going to be very eager to see where this leads.
In fact the only real critique I have is the darkness of the art. From the Steranko cover itself, which seems way too lost under some kind of brown filter to the interiors. Again, I like Wijaya’s art a lot and maybe the harshness of the colors is meant to support the fatalistic mood of the drama. If so, it does its job. This is one somber comic book and certainly not for everybody, but we adults like it just fine.
-- Ron Fortier
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Page last updated on May 19, 2008