Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Chaos War #1 (of 5)

It's nice to see Hercules back from... well, wherever they've been hiding him for the past five (or so) months.

He returns to Earth at an opportune moment, just as Marvel's reality is about to be attacked by the god-killing Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who is going by Chaos King (which is much easier for me to type, so I'm all for it).

The series actually starts with a shocking death, as a character who has been around since the mid-'60s is taken down. From there, it just gets bigger and badder as Hercules uses his newfound-and-even-more-godlike power to assemble a vast array of heroes to try to stop the Chaos King.

Writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente have this series off to a vicious start, and so far, it's outstanding.

The story is well suited to Khoi Pham, here working with the legendary Tom Palmer, and together they provide a unique art style that is both organic and dynamic, as power and intensity just sings through each page.

(By the way, be sure to pay close attention to the sound effects used - some are very funny!)

So the Chaos War gets off to a good start here. I won't complain about all the upcoming tie-ins, because I've made that point many times before - but I'll definitely be following the main title. It's shaping up to be good fun!

Grade: A-

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