First, starting with Herc.

Ares just can't seem to catch a break. Aside from all his traditional reasons for hating Hercules and the fact his "dumb" younger brother was one of the ones to constantly stop his plans even as an Avenger Ares still can't best him. First, he is only on the team cause Stark forced him on. Second, he results to extreme violence to solve everything nearly costing them the battle against Ultron and crashing a $250 million dollar jet into Doom's castle. He failed his first major crisis when the Hulk humiliated him in battle. Despite having the backing of the Avengers and SHIELD Hercules once again gets away and defeats Ares in battle. And now following SI all he has done so far is state that something obviously was a trap while Hercules delivered the cricital blow of leading the mission to kill Kly'bn.

We start off in a restaurant where Ares is having to hear how Hercules "saved the multiverse." (A bit of an exaggeration, but heroes are known to brag a bit) while Ares gets sneered at for being the god of war. His daughter Hippolyta shows up to recruit him on another "Let's kill Hercules" mission Hera is trying to form with Ares refusing.

Herc and Cho meanwhile are relaxing with Namora. We get some history about Hercules and Atlas and Herc making the joke that the group Namora works with, the Agents of Atlas, are named after the one person who was dumb enough to be tricked by Hercules. We also learn of a few other tricks Herc has pulled in his day.

Then the Amazons attack and kidnap Cho. His using his math to doge the bullets could be stretching it, but since he does not make fools out of all of them Pak and Lente seem to have toned this ability down which makes it acceptable. Hercules isn't to worried. Apparently, every hundred years or so the Amazons come to Earth looking for breeding stock than return the men usually unharmed. Cho is of course excited about this knowing Amazon history and Hercules thinks it is about time.

Perhaps the most important fact is we also get an official clarification on Hercules' sexual preferences. Ironic considering a post on comicbookresources asked this very same question. While it has been dealt with before in brief (New Labors of Hercules) now it is offical. Hercules is heterosexual and only into women. He takes companions along on adventures to make it more fun and have someone tell him how great he is. Though, apparently other gods on Olympus do indulge.

Unfortunetly, things among the Amazons have changed. When Hippolyta returns and finds the raid occurred without her permission it turns how she has been overthrown by her own daughter. A daughter who is determined to make the Amazons great again.

Also, just as soon as Hercules and Namora decide to pursue Namor of all people shows up. Knowing his temperament, what are the bets that he and Hercules will get into a fight next issue?

Overall, I felt this story was a solid issue. I presume Pak and Lente have some knowledge of what the set-up of the MU is going to be after SI to have Ares. If not things are going to get weird. This issue overall was fun and light-hearted with some great lines from Hercules. Character wise everything seemed to be spot on. It does not stand out as a stupendous issue, but after the seriousness of the last few it is a night break.

Art wise we once again have another artist. To me at least he got the charaters right and I didn't notice any glaring flaws. He was able to convey the emotions of the characters. The only thing that seemed off was his design of Cho. This was not so much a flaw as a difference in style between artists.

Overall: 8/10

Secret Invasion: Thor

I don't have much to say on this issue. If you are a fan of Beta Ray Bill you probable won't like it.

The Skrulls attack with a new breed of Super-Skrulls called "godkillers" supported by ships firing from the sky.

Despite the claim of being godkillers what little we saw of the fighting seemed to have the Asgardians killing them fairly easily. The only problem is the ships which have weapons powerful enough to hurt the Asgardians and whom the Aesir have no real defense against.

The focus of the book was on an elite super-skrull based on four of the most powerful Earth females including Battle Axe whom her weapons are based on. Her weapons being Stormbreaker split into to battle axes. The only explanation given for this are Skrull super-science and extensive genetic modifications beyond even most super-skrulls to allow her to wield it.

This I take to be the main Skrull weapon against the Aesir and it seems to work. Despite the best efforts of Bill and several other gods such as Balder she defeats them, but for some reason before killing the decides to attack the near by human town. The issue ends with Bill lying defeated, but Dr. Blake standing over him with Mjolnir near by reading to be picked up to battle the female godkiller.

There was also the side story of the birth of a baby and the firemen.

Overall, I felt this was a weaker issue than the first. I wish it had focused more on the battle between the Skrulls and the Aesir and less on the humans. Perhaps through a second reading I will appreciate the human element more, but for a grand battle such as this I felt it was lacking. I would rather have had more story devoted to the battle between the average super-skrulls and the average Aesir and how they were going to counter the ships for example.

The most contriversal aspect will be what happened to Stormbreaker and Bill. While I can understand the thinking that the only way to truly beat the Aesir is to use their own power against them since they seemed to have little trouble with with super-skrulls and having one mondopowerful warrior could take them all down they way they went about doing this I felt was wrong. I would have liked a better explanation on how they were able to split an object as powerful as Stormbreaker apart. In the Captain Britain series is showed the Skrulls, perhaps due to their vast experience and advanced technology, can to some degree deal with magic, but I felt this plot was poorly developed. I realize it is only a three issue series, but I would have liked for something more. Maybe two axes blessed by Kly'bn's own power. Something along those lines.

The other main factor was Bill to me was defeated a bit too easily. For all intents and purposeses he is Thor's equal in battle armed with an equally powerful hammer. It is not impossible to defeat him, and I know for story's sake it may have been necessary, but he still seemed to go down far too easily without the female godkiller even appearing to be hur.

Artwise I do not have anything to really complain about, but at the same time it didn't stand out.

Due to the story problems discussed above...

Overall: 5/10

I've read worse, but I've read much better.