Hercules The Thracian Wars #1

This is the first issue of a 5 part mini series from indi comic label Radical Comics. I’m always excited about new stuff and willing to give it a chance but unfortunately this is an example of why this story is at an indi label. It just wasn’t good. The art was interesting and the book looked pretty good but it was not well written or laid out. The panels were hard to follow. The narrator, who talked way too much, was not clear in what or who he was talking about and I don’t like what they did with the characters. They make Hercules a mercenary traveling to a distant land with a few cohorts for a job. The men he traveled with were savage, brutal, and cruel and the sequence of events just didn’t make sense. I think the true fans of mythology won’t even be able to get into this because it’s just not the portrayal of the character that we are familiar with. It was more of a Conan story than the greek demi god we know. There was no flow to the story and the action that got going didn’t have the pacing to bring the action out of the panels. At only a dollar it’s not a huge investment but I’m hard pressed to believe it’s even worth that. This book has some great art work but is a pretty painful read.