Cho is a legacy character, in a sense. It is presented in this book he is the inheriter of the role Hercules played in the Marvel U. Cho stands apart from most legacy characters because his skill and power set are so different from his heroic mentor. He has a great chance of seperating himself from his heroic mentor and becoming a unique hero. This isn't a legacy charcater who is just a change in personality from his mentor, such as Wally West and Dick Grayson. Cho is drasticly different from Hercules, but the mission statement for the character remains the same. A whole new space of storytelling is opening up to fill this role of fighter of mythological monsters.
The book moves at a break neck speed, which is good. Events moved from a fight with The Griffin, to Banner's work to locate Hercules, to Vali's plan to work towards god-hood. Each story has its own unique undertones and threads laid out that will, hopefully, intersect with each other before the series finishes up. The Griffin fight lays out a larger story of the impending appearance of the Chaos King. The work by Banner features a second story about the quest to find Hercules, and Vali's plan to attain godhood is a third arc that will, most likely, require Cho to visit, and anger, several pantheons over the course of the series. The art is gorgeous, and I wish I could enjoy it more without the purple information boxes. For some reason those things are irritating to me.
Finally, there is an everpresent undertone of the gods vs man . In the Chaos King story Athena leaves a message for Cho that Mankind should learn to depend on themselves rather than look tot he gods for help in their monumental battles. In the Quest for Hercules story, as Cho is talkign to Delphyne, the Gorgon, she is reading a book titled "How to Kill a God"while Cho voices suspicions of trusting Athena, and there is the rise of Godhodd story, which was started through Vali Halflings desire to raise mortals into godhood because of the gods' indifference to their mortal followers. There is, also, an intersting scene where people donate goods to help the Norse Gods after the events of Siege. It is a nice juxtaposition of how mortals look to the gods and help them after reading Athena's and Vali's speeches on the relations of mortals to the gods. Artistically, this is a juxtaposition to an earlier panel regarding the horrors the god's have bestowed upon the world. War, Destruction, and the "kindness" of the one day only free health clinic.
This is a great book, all around. Cho has the personality of a self-assured teenager, and reminds me of some of my most problematic A students, as a teacher. The heavy mythological lean of the book is right up my alley and I'll be returning again to continue reading this series next month.
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