I'm a big Hercules fan. Who isn't, but ever since the great Charlton series by the late Joe Gill and Sam Glanzman, the Greco-Roman mythic strongman has been high in my imagination. He's been realized by just about every comic book company which ever existed and brought to the small and big screens many times. But something stood out about the Radical Comics version which hit the stands way back in early part of this decade. Sporting a handsome Jim Steranko cover, this one demands your attention.
It's a story told in five parts which follows a somewhat diminished Hercules and his cadre of followers, heroes in their own right, loyal to Hercules (more or less) and in search of a mission and in this case gold.
This is not the story of an altruistic demi-god seeking to do good deeds among the humans who often don't understand or sympathize with him. No this is a deconstructed Hercules, a tortured fellow who is escaping his past as much as seeking a future.
He and his fellows go to Thrace and there find mercenary work for a king of questionable moral integrity in a court which is filled with betrayal. These are ugly people in a very ugly world.
I did not know that the story had been adapted to film, but just by happen chance I had recorded a TV showing of the movie starring The Rock as the titular strong man.
The movie presents characters who are a good deal more sympathetic than the comic which seems to go out of its way to make you dislike its heroes. Even so they are a motley lot and the plot (more or less) follows the broad strokes of the comic story. I liked the comic okay and the movie a bit more, but neither is as good as it could have been.
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