Herc #3 – Review

By: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), Neil Edwards (penciller), Scott Hanna (inker), Jesus Aburtov (colorist)

The Story: None of you guys are holding, right?  She’ll get seriously mad if you’re holding.

The Review: Sometimes crossover events can really hijack a title, forcing the storyline into a direction it never had any intention of following, or at least one that doesn’t suit the title’s tone or interests (e.g., Brightest Day and Birds of Prey).  Other times, the crossover can be so superfluous, it makes you wonder why they even bother to drag the title into it in the first place.

Anyone who’s worried having the Fear Itself brand stamped onto this issue means distracting spillover for a fledgling title that’s barely got its own story going yet, have no fear.  The one direct connection to Marvel’s summer Big Thing involves a breakout on the Raft (of less scale than the one that launched The New Avengers).  Other than that, the issue’s left to its own devices—evidence of the often pointlessly invasive nature of these big events, I suppose.

Pak-Van Lente continue building on the complications from previous issues; though the plight of Hercules’ followers remains a foreboding mystery, Kingpin’s foretelling about Herc’s newfound public support plays out to a tee.  His popularity quickly builds to a fever pitch, which he handles with characteristic breeziness (“Snuffles will taste my steel.  Next!”) despite the predictably selfish concerns he faces (“First, you gotta get the socialists.”).