The God Squad

Most Recent Roster

• Hercules
• Amadeus Cho
• Thor
• Sersi
• Hellstorm
• Silver Surfer
• Galactus
• Venus

Origin

The Squad was formed when Athena petitioned each of the Earth's Council of Godheads, to send out it's best warrior, to combat the threat of the two Skrull eternals Sl'gur't and Kly'bn. Only five of the godheads agreed to Athena's term, since they were suspicious of the idea and believed Athena assembled this group to weaken the other pantheons.

1. The Kami chose Mikaboshi, the god of evil and the best shape-shifter.
2. The Aztecs chose Ajak, the eternal whom speaks to Celestials.
3. The god of the north chose Narya, Alpha Flight's Snowbird.
4. The Greeks chose Hercules, the prince of power.
5. And the Egyptians chose Demogorge, the devourer of gods.

Creation

The God Squad debuted in Incredible Hercules #117 by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, and Rafa Sandoval. It was a tie-in for the Secret Invasion event.

Major Story Arcs

Secret Invasion

With a ship gifted to them by god, Altjira, the God Squad enters the Dreamtime to find the two Skrull gods that are inspiring the Skrull super soldiers currently invading Earth. The Dreamtime was vast, so the godheads advised them to stop and ask for directions from Nightmare. In return for his help, Nightmare wanted to see what the gods feared. This was, however, a trap for Nightmare to increase his power. While most of the Squad struggled to escape his grasp, Mikaboshi used a shadow double as a distraction and snagged a map to the Dreamtime.

As they approached the Skrull pantheon temple, the Skrull posing as Kerberos, Amadeus Cho’s pet coyote, took the opportunity to throw the boat off course and dump the map overboard. The Squad was able to get the imposter, the boat, and the map under control, but their cover was blown. They were attacked by a number of enslaved deities from the empires decimated by Skrulls. To clear a path, Snowbird was required to take the appearance of the most dangerous of the Great Beasts.

Blaming Hercules for all of their failures thus far, Ajak took leadership of the team and charged them into battle without Herc. Unfortunately, they were unmatched for the two Skrull gods. The Skrulls were able to defeat the members including Atum, who was completely dismembered. While Herc did his best, Snowbird grabbed the spinal column of Atum and used it as a divine spear, slaying Kly’bn. Meanwhile, Mikaboshi struggled with the formless Sl’gur’t, forcing the surviving squad members to retreat.

However, the trickster god had taken the form of Sl’gur’t and killed a double so that he could take leadership of the lost pantheons without interference from his temporary team.

Chaos War

Mikaboshi continued to amass power, conquering alien pantheons and anointing himself The Chaos King. Eventually, he went after Nightmare, so that he could absorb Nightmare’s powers and render the minds of any mortals that stand in his way comatose. Black tendrils from the Dreamscape slither around Earth, infecting every human. Thus, Hercules, recently reborn with skyfather divinity that he struggles to control, and Amadeus Cho, shielded by Athena’s blessing, were forced to unite a new God Squad of immortal champions to stand against The Chaos King.

Some volunteered like Venus and Thor. Some were summoned like Sersi, Galactus, and Silver Surfer. But it was Hellstorm, son of Satan, who answered the call and informed them that all the underworlds have fallen and an army of the damned has been united under The Chaos King’s thrall, including fallen gods like Ares and Zeus. They attacked the newly assembled God Squad, pushing the team to their limit so that Hercules would use his new omniscience to find the throneroom of the godheads. This revealed their protected location to The Chaos King, who was possessing Zeus.

The more he destroyed, the stronger the Chaos King got. When he finally turned to the God Squad, he attacked and scattered them. Venus, Surfer, Hellstorm, and Sersi investigated the location of Mikaboshi’s former prison but got nowhere. In the meantime, Cho strategized that they use Athena’s bubble world as a lifeboat to save survivors on Earth, and as he and Hercules argued about it, they were attacked by Athena, who had sided with the Chaos King. She believed if his chaos was victorious then order could reset itself.

Other gods, like Balder and Pele, came to Herc’s defense, as Gaea taught Herc how to be a true god. At the same time, Cho travels to the Baxter Building with Galactus so that he could build a bridge to the bubble world. With control over his divinity, Herc grew to an abnormal size to confront the Chaos King, warping space-time, making distance trivial on Earth and reuniting the scattered God Squad, as well as the Dead Avengers.

At the last second, before moving humanity, Cho decided instead to move The Chaos King to the lifeless bubble world, where he believed he had successfully achieved his goal. Hercules than parted with his new divinity to restore the world, rendering him powerless.