Who is the Prince of Power's greatest foe?
Is it his half-brother and godly rival, Ares?
Is it his jealous and hateful step-mother, Hera?
Is it the Olympian Gods' most dangerous threat; Typhon?
Or is it somebody else?
What is your opinion?
Character » Hercules appears in 1961 issues.
To me what tends to make an arch enemy is how they act as a foil for the hero, what threat level they present, how often they fight them, and how personal it is. An enemy would just want to kill the hero with something simple like a bullet to the head. An arch enemy wants to completely destroy their life often for some perceived slight.
Mythological it would be Hera. She was the one who tormented him his entire life. Ares fought him twice, but it was never really personal or a high threat level. Hera was the one that stood out. Causing him to murder his family both made it personal. In the comics I would not say she is really one. In the storylines to feature Hercules she hasn't played that much of a direct threat. IIRC, all she has really done is the Tyler Madison and New Labors storylines. The second was more to embarrass him than anything that approaches a threat. She is an enemy, but not an arch enemy.
Typhon has never been shown to be the end all threat to Hercules. In the forms he has taken in modern times he doesn't have the power. Most often he gets lucky and sneaked into Olympus to mess with the Promethean Flame. In direct battle with Hercules he has usually been shown lacking. He is more an enemy of Olympus that Hercules has to stop rather than an "arch enemy." Ty
About the same with Pluto. Hay may threaten Olympus from time to time and have the power to accomplish it, but he lacks the overall "personal" or "foil" touch. For him Hercules is more an impediment to his plans than someone he sits around plotting to destroy for personal reasons.
Ares I would say is the closet thing one could call an "arch enemy" for Hercules. He has opposed Herc the most number of times. He has a longer list of reasons to hate Hercules than Hera (whose problems with Herc rightfully is with Zeus and maybe Athena). He is the one who at least once has plotted to destroy Hercules directly and when he was carrying out his evil schemes set out to make Hercule suffer. Even as a hero the two have been at odds. Ares is a great foil for Hercules because Herc in a way I think he is who Ares wants to be. Herc engages in the same violence and other faults of Ares, but is loved by it and favored by Zeus. Ares in a way is who Hercules could become if he lost too much of his humanity. Even as a "hero" Ares tends to lose himself in his lust for violence and enjoy it a bit too much. They are so similar that Ares can not figure out why Hercules is well loved and he is not. Finally, Hercules drastically outpowers Ares, but Ares can usually make it up with magical and modern weapons and intelligence when he puts his mind to it. In fact, power is about the only thing Ares is lacking. He isn't intelligent enough to be a high threat nor is his physical strength great enough.
@seekquaze:
Nice post.
What you described/attributed to Ares emotionally and motivationally is exactly how he was depicted in the "Incredible Hercules: Against the World" story-arc.
I'm glad you mentioned Pluto (I can't believe I forgot to list him as a choice). Maybe Herc will stay popular long enough to give one of his enemies sufficient exposure to become, unquestionably, his arch-enemy.
I would definitely say Ares. He is angered at the fact that Zeus favours Hercules over him, and also that he killed Ares' pets. It's given Ares a life long hatred for his half brother, as well as constantly trying to regain his honour while lingering under the legend of Hercules.
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@PowerHerc: Enemy yes, but I wouldn't say arch-enemy. Mikaboshi started off more an enemy for Ares and later all of creation. For Mikaboshi his main enemy might as well have been Thor or Snowbird, or Amaterasu. There was no real personal angle to it like with Ares or even Hera and Pluto.
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Herc's biggest problem is the fact that he's never had a real clear cut rogues gallery most the people he fights are threats to everyone or someone else's enemies, Hera was more interested in getting back at Zeus than actually hurting Herc, he just happened to be in the middle of it. Ares was the closest to being his real arch nemesis but that always seemed more like an extreme case of sibling rivalry unlike Thor and Loki who genuinely hate eachother.
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Herc's biggest problem is the fact that he's never had a real clear cut rogues gallery most the people he fights are threats to everyone or someone else's enemies, Hera was more interested in getting back at Zeus than actually hurting Herc, he just happened to be in the middle of it. Ares was the closest to being his real arch nemesis but that always seemed more like an extreme case of sibling rivalry unlike Thor and Loki who genuinely hate eachother.
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If you read their earlier battles in the "Avengers" and the "Hercules: Heart of Chaos" mini, you'll see that Herc and Ares do hate each other. It goes far beyond sibling rivalry.
I think Marvel trying to push Ares as a modern anti-hero has obscured a lot of his villainous past in the minds of soe older readers while leaving newer readers largely unaware of it.
Women? But in all seriousness, I'd say Hera just because of the Mythological history concerning their relations.
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@PowerHerc: One problem I have always had with the new push of Ares being an anti-hero is most writers glossed over his past. Here is a guy who has tried to reduce the world to barbarism, start WWIII, and cut a bloody path through human history making him one of the biggest mass murderers ever. He wars for fun. Yet when Bendis put him on the Avengers no one batted an eyebrow and Ares was treated just like someone who had a few sparring matches with Herc a couple of times. Whatever issues I may have with Pak and Lente's treatment of the Olympian family they were the only ones who seemed to remember Ares's villainous history. It was brought up both in the Hercules and War Machine series. Other writers treated him more like a mean biker and a brutish caveman who may beat you up, but would be unwilling to cleave you in two. They act like he had always been a hero who just got carried away a few times.It would be like putting the Punisher or Sabertooth on a team and everybody accepting it with no problem. Wolverine is one thing since he usually tries to be selective on who he kills. Ares is rarely so selective.
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Yes, exactly.
Great points about Ares joining the Avengers, at Tony Stark's insistance, and no one minding. What a crock! Ares has the potential to be a much better villain than he's been in the past, but Marvel making him a hero is a mistake. It's wrong.
As you stated; at least Pak and Van Lente remembered the true Ares.
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@PowerHerc: I think your overall right as a straight hero. Anti-heroes are by nature more grey and can either be very dark heroes (like Wolverine) or beings who aren't quite villanious enough or just happen to fight villains. I can appricaite not having a character be set in stone so Ares grows some as a character. You can always move him back to villain status. I do think the idea that he is suddenly a hero does not work.
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I see your point(s). I'm glad to see we agree on Ares as a hero not working. It's too bad Marvel doesn't see this.
I forgot to mention that I suspect their (Marvel) motivation for suddenly presenting and promoting Ares as a hero/anti-hero is the success of the "Kratos" character in the "God of War" video games. Becasue of Kratos' popularity and success, Marvel wants to get in on the action and make some money off their own God of War
For me is either Hera or the chaos king, since the beginning you can feel the tension between both herc and CK before he was known as the god of chaos and we knew after the secret invasion tie-in from Incredible Hercules that this guy was going to be trouble in the future (but not THAT much of a problem which we find out later xD) Ares is slightly behind them (more like a his evil rival)
@powerherc: True enough. And so does all of the other Olympians except Hercules will never be accepted as heroes due to having more disanvantages than advantages.
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