spotlight hero

Hercules

2008-07-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

Modern era

Hercules is first seen when Immortus pulls him from the ancient past to battle Thor.^[1] However this was subsequently ignored in his later appearances, such as in Journey into Mystery Annual #1 (1965), where he battled Thor in Olympus.^[2] The mini-series Avengers Forever (1998-2000) explained this by having the Hercules from Avengers #10 be a Space Phantom in disguise.^[3]

Hercules made several appearances in The Mighty Thor^[4], even defeating Thor in battle on Earth.^[5] He then unwittingly signed an "Olympian contract," making himself Pluto's slave; Thor rescued Hercules from Pluto's underworld.^[6]

Hercules then appeared in the Avengers during issue #38 as a thrall of the Enchantress,^[7] but goes on to aid the team through issues #39-50 (officially joining in #45) against the likes of the Mad Thinker; the Sub-Mariner; Diablo and Dragon Man; the Red Guardian; Whirlwind and Typhon.^[8] Hercules later appears in the Olympian arc (#98-100), where he is captured by Ares' minions, and is rescued by the Avengers on Olympus.^[9]

After that, he battles Thor again in Olympus, and contended with Pluto and Ares.^[10] With Thor, he battles the Destroyer and then battles Firelord.^[11] Hercules and Thor then journey to Ego the Living Planet.^[12] Hercules is then menaced by the "Great Fear," who is actually the Dweller-in-Darkness.^[13] After parting company with Thor, Hercules helps form the Champions, who aid him in battle against Pluto, Hippolyta, and the Huntsman.^[14]

He returns to the Avengers for the final issues of the "Korvac saga" (#173-177).^[15] Hercules makes a guest appearance in issue #211,^[16] and aided in the battle against Surtur's legions in their invasion of New York City ^[17] before rejoining the team on an ongoing basis as of issue #250.^[18]

In the "Avengers Under Siege" storyline in Avengers #270-277,^[19] Baron Helmut Zemo assembled a super-sized version of the Masters of Evil and courtesy of a pawn drug Hercules at a bar. Returning to the Mansion during the siege, a drunken Hercules ignores the Wasp and holds off the attacking Masters of Evil until being surprised and viciously beaten by Goliath, Mister Hyde, and the Wrecking Crew. Hercules falls into a coma as a result of his beating, and is eventually retrieved by Hermes and taken back to Olympus, setting the stage for the "Assault on Olympus" storyline, which ran from #280-285. He was awakened from his coma by Prometheus, but was temporarily insane; he fought his fellow Avengers until he was restored to sanity by Doctor Druid.^[20] Blamed by Zeus for Hercules' condition, the Avengers battle the gods and finally Zeus himself.

Hercules was later defeated by the High Evolutionary, and mutated "beyond godhood."^[21] In time, he returned to his previous godly form.^[22] He then assumed the secret identity "Harry Cleese."^[23] He also had an encounter with one of his worshippers, Magma.^[24]

Taylor Madison, and exile from Olympus

Back on Earth, Hercules falls in love with a woman named Taylor Madison. As their relationship starts to get serious, Hera shows up and attempts to kill her, for Hera and Ares had made a bet on who could hurt Hercules the most.^[25] However, Ares betrays Hera and alerts Zeus in an attempt to get back in his favor. Zeus defeats Hera, but then reveals that Taylor Madison is not a real human being, but a construct created by Zeus himself to lure out Hera. Zeus then removes Taylor from existence, which causes Hercules to lash out to his father. Angered by what he calls "his son's lack of respect", Zeus strips Hercules of his immortality and a great deal of his power, then forbids him from ever returning to Olympus.^[26]

The traumatized Hercules draws support from the Avengers, especially Deathcry, whom he helps to return to her Shi'ar home-world. Upon returning from space, Hercules discovers that the Avengers have apparently sacrificed themselves to stop the being known as Onslaught. Distraught over the loss of his comrades, he takes to drinking, becoming an alcoholic.

Hercules travels in search of adventure, briefly serving with the Heroes For Hire. When the Avengers and other heroes return from their exile, Hercules joins the reformed team, opting to be an inactive member rather than serve as an active member. Hercules also seeks out Erik Josten, now known as Atlas of the Thunderbolts, in order to exact revenge for the coma he had put Hercules in while Josten was Goliath of the Masters of Evil. Hawkeye, then leader of the Thunderbolts, convinces Hercules to stand down at the cost of their long friendship.

New Labors

With the dissolution of the Avengers during the "Disassembled" storyline and the destruction of Asgard, Hercules falls to old habits, frequenting bars and putting forth the image of a drunkard. With Hercules in a vulnerable position, Hera decides to strike with a new set of Labors. To this end, she utilizes Eurystheus, now the head of a modern company, to film a reality television show of Hercules completing new Labors, updated for the modern age. During the course of his labors, Hercules finds forgiveness from Megara, and returns to defeat Eurystheus.^[27]

Hercules goes on to fight and seriously injure the Constrictor, a supervillain who then sues Hercules, sending him into financial ruin. After helping Zeus and Ares unite the gods to defend Olympus against invaders, Hercules once again returns to Earth and rejoins Damage Control, with whom he had previously performed community service as a result of his drunken stupors. This time, however, he is an employee, working in construction and demolition. Hercules recovers, however, when he participates in a poker game organized by the Thing and wins much of his fortune back from the Constrictor.

Civil War

In the 2006 Marvel Comics crossover event Civil War, Hercules is shown as an early opponent of the Superhuman Registration Act, and calls the pro-registration heroes as "traitors". He takes the alias "Victor Tegler", an IT consultant, as cover to hide from pro-registration forces. In the final battle ^[28], he defeats the cyborg clone of Thor, smashing the clone's head with his own Mjolnir hammer, screaming 'Thou art no Thor!'

World War Hulk

Issue 106 of The Incredible Hulk ends with Hercules and Archangel meeting with Amadeus Cho, one of the Hulk's allies. They agree to help the Hulk, but, upon encountering him, the Hulk savagely charges them, and Hercules is forced to defend himself, but is severely beaten after he stops fighting the Hulk to prove that he is not there to hurt him. Hercules' reason for aiding the Hulk is simple: both men, despite all of their strength, have lost their queen and family. In addition, Hercules wishes to make up for an altercation between the Hulk and the Champions years earlier. He and his team, the newly formed "Renegades", briefly appear in World War Hulk issue 2. The group is comprised of Hercules, Amadeus Cho, Angel, Namora, and the female Scorpion. During the action, Herc and Namora shared a kiss. When the conflict ended, Hercules was the only renegade to stay with Amadeus.

The Incredible Hercules

Marvel has confirmed that the Incredible Hulk series has changed its name to Incredible Hercules from #113 onwards, and will feature Hercules and Amadeus as main characters.^[29] In the aftermath of the war, Hercules, against Amadeus' wishes, agrees to turn himself in. However, after learning that he will be working under his brother Ares, he escapes, taking Amadeus with him. After finding brief shelter in a refugee camp outside of New York, Hercules speaks with Athena, who is living in Vermont, to try and seek shelter. However, after being shot by Ares' "Hydra blood bullets", he is driven into a psychotic rage, and begins seeing Amadeus Cho as Iolaus, his nephew and ally from Ancient Greek times. Cho decides to take advantage of the situation, by getting Hercules to attack a S.H.I.E.L.D. base. However both men were stopped by the Black Widow, who knocked out Cho, accidentally breaking the back of Cho's puppy, and cured Hercules of his rage. Out of respect for Hercules, Natasha lets Hercules go, with her claiming he knocked her out and let him reunite with Cho, who captured a S.H.I.E.L.D. mobile base and was willing to destroy all of S.H.I.E.L.D. governmental facilities. Ares followed them, but with some heavy lifting and some tales of his greatest myths, Hercules was able to defeat Ares and convince Cho to halt S.H.I.E.L.D. destruction. They teleported to where Athena was hiding out, and she warns the two of them of the Secret Invasion.

Secret Invasion

In the upcoming tie-in to the Secret Invasion, Hercules gathers a team of gods to battle the pantheon of Skrull gods.^[30] This "God Squad" consists of Snowbird, Ajak, Amatsu-Mikaboshi, and Demogorge, and are set to oppose the Skrull gods led by Kly'bn and Sl'gur't. After the group is forced to experience their worse fears by Nightmare, Snowbird and Hercules make love, after she confesses to him that she doesn't want to be alone anymore.

Bio taken from wikipedia

Journy into the mystery annual #1

The Huntress (Helena Bertinelli)

2008-06-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Origin
In the 1989 Huntress limited series, Helena Rosa Bertinelli, who was born into one of Gotham City's most prominent Mafia families, is a withdrawn girl. At the age of six, she was kidnapped and raped by an agent of another Gotham crime family. Her parents, Guido and Carmela, sent her to boarding school and assigned a bodyguard for her protection. Helena hides her fear and shame until the age of 19. After she witnesses the mob-ordered murder of her entire family at a wedding, she crusades to put an end to the crime families. She travels, accompanied and trained by her bodyguard Sal, before returning to Gotham to make her debut as the Huntress. This origin story is heavily revised in the 2000 limited series Huntress: Cry for Blood.

Batman rarely accepts the Huntress, and usually claims that this disavowal is due to her unpredictable and violent behaviour. However, when James Gordon questions Batman about his attitude towards the Huntress, Batman replies; "You know exactly why I don't approve...You're not the only one she reminds of Barbara" - in reference to Gordon's crippled daughter who had previously fought crime as Batgirl. Others in the Batman family feel differently; for instance, Tim Drake has a good relationship with her. Early in his career, he worked with the female vigilante, and later clears her name in a murder case.
Huntress briefly became involved with the Justice League International when she happened upon a brainwashed Blue Beetle attempting to murder Maxwell Lord. Impressing the League, she was invited to join. However, besides League members helping her on one of her own cases and getting a tour of the group's New York embassy, she never officially joined the team. This would not be her only involvement with the League.
During the League's restructing following the 'Rock of Ages' crisis, Batman sponsors Huntress' membership in the Justice League,[1] hoping that the influence of other heroes will mellow the Huntress, and for some time, Huntress is a respected member of the League. Under the guidance of heroes such as Superman, Helena grows in confidence, even playing a key role in defeating Solaris during the DC One Million storyline, as well as helping the League defeat foes like Prometheus, as well as encouraging Green Lantern to fight the Queen Bee's hypno-pollen during her invasion of Earth. However, she is later forced to resign after Batman stops her from killing Prometheus.[2]

In the Huntress: Cry for Blood limited series Huntress' origin is revised; a young Helena Rosa Bertinelli believes Franco Bertinelli to be her father, but her father is actually Santo Cassamento, the don of a rival mafia family, who was carrying on an affair with Helena's mother, Maria.

In the four-issue Nightwing/Huntress limited series, Helena partners with Nightwing on a mission against the mafia. The young heroes engage in a brief affair, after which Helena confesses to Nightwing that she seduced him partly because she thought it might help get her into the "boys' club" of Batman's world.

No Man's Land - Helena becomes Batgirl
In the No Man's Land storyline, an earthquake levels Gotham City. The United States government declares Gotham City a "No Man's Land," and Batman disappears. To bring order to the city, Huntress assumes the mantle of Batgirl, and she discovers criminals fear her more as Batgirl than they do as Huntress.[3] Batgirl fails to protect Batman's territory from Two-Face and his gang of more than 200 criminals, leading to an argument between her and Batman. Huntress refuses to follow Batman's exact orders and gives up the Batgirl costume. see Legends of the Dark Knight #120.
Huntress then ends up with Petit and his men, who had broken off from the group led by former commissioner James Gordon. It was Batman's intent to drive Huntress to Petit's group when he rejected her, knowing that Huntress's presence there was necessary to keep Petit in line. Petit swiftly goes insane and Huntress barely survives an ensuing attack on Petit's compound by the Joker and his men. Petit and most of his group were killed. Huntress was found by Nightwing and taken care of in a field hospital operated by forces who wanted to rebuild Gotham City.

The Huntress becomes involved with Oracle and Black Canary in the comic series Birds of Prey, establishing a close friendship with Black Canary in the process.
The Huntress also appeared in the "Hush" storyline that took place in the Batman comics. In the storyline, Huntress saves an immobilized Batman's life from a criminal gang when he suffers a fractured skull from a fall after his batrope is cut over Crime Alley. Batman thinks to himself how she is, "so much like I was when I started out," and "she's better than she knows..." In the story, Huntress continues her semi-feud with Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow. She eventually returns with a new costume and equipment, the money for which was given by Thomas Elliot. She fights Catwoman thinking her to be her old self and wants to be more like the Dark Knight.
In 2006, the narratives of most DC Comics superhero series skipped one year. In the "One Year" Later" stories Huntress works with other members of Oracle's group: Black Canary, Lady Blackhawk, Lady Shiva, and Gypsy. With Black Canary's departure from the team (issue #99), in issue #100 Huntress and Lady Blackhawk are Oracle's top two agents, with full access to Oracle as needed (along with Black Canary, should she decide to return). Helena is made the team's field commander.
Recently, Helena was savagely beaten and kidnapped after teaming up with Lady Blackhawk on a mission to stop the aquatic supervillain known as Killer Shark. Killer Shark's accomplice Killer Queen Shark, (who was in reality was a brainwashed Lady Blackhawk), then stuffed a bound and gagged Helena into a torpedo hatch in the submarine they were on. Before she could be killed by a torpedo launch, Huntress cut herself free and attacked the villains defeating Killer Shark and eventually returning Lady Blackhawk to normal.

Bio Taken from wikipedia

First Apperance Huntress #1 (Vol.1 1989)

Must Reads :

Huntress Year one 2008- Current

Huntress ( Vol. 1 )

Huntress (Vol.2 )

Batman/ Huntress Cry For Blood

Batman No Man's Land

Batman Hush

Birds Of Prey 1999- Current (note Huntress Does Not apper till issue #57)