Created by:

Joe Blair & Ed Wexler

 

Real Name:

Heracles, Son of Zeus

Joined Mighty Crusaders:

The Heracles is not a member of the Mighty Crusaders.

First Appearance:

Blue Ribbon Comics #4, June 1940

 

Origin:

Hercules, the strongest man in all history, earned a place on Mount Olympus by wiping out the evils of ancient Greece. Now Zeus has orders Hercules back to Earth to rid the modern world of wars, gangsters, and racketeers.

 

History:

Hercules is the son of Zeus, king of the gods of Olympus, and Alcmena, a mortal woman who lived about three thousand years ago. Recognizing the need for a son who would be powerful enough to defend both the Olympian gods and humanity from future dangers he foresaw, Zeus seduced Alcmena in the guise of her husband, King Amphitryon of Troezen. Thanks to Zeus’s enchantment, Hercules was born with the potential for extraordinary strength, which he first displayed before he was even one year old by strangling two serpents which attacked him. As an adult, Hercules is best known for his celebrated Twelve Labors, which were performed in part to prove his worthiness for immortality to Zeus.

 

In the course of these Labors, Hercules provoked the wrath of three immortals who remain his enemies to this day. By slaughtering the man-eating Stymphalian Birds, he enraged the war god Ares, to whom they were sacred. In temporarily capturing Cerberus, the three-headed hound that serves as guardian to the Olympian underworld, Hercules offended Pluto, the lord of that realm. By killing the Nemean Lion, the Hydra, and other creatures spawned by the inconceivably grotesque and powerful monster Typhoeus, Hercules gained the bitter enmity of Typhon, the immortal humanoid offspring of Typhoeus and a Titaness.

However, it was the centaur Nessus who caused Hercules’ mortal demise. Nessus kidnapped Hercules’ wife Deianeira, whereupon Hercules shot him with an arrow. Feigning a wish to make amends, the dying centaur told Deianeira how to make a love charm from his allegedly enchanted blood, aware that it was now tainted with the lethal poison of the Hydra, in which Hercules had dipped his arrows. Sometime after Nessus’ death, Deianeira, distraught over her husband’s latest infidelity, rubbed the supposed love charm into Hercules’ shirt. After putting aflame. Zeus then intervened, consuming the pyre with his thunderbolts and bringing Hercules to Olympus to be made a true immortal.

Powers & Weapons:

Hercules is highly expert in traditional means of hand-to-hand combat, as well as in wrestling. Hercules is also very highly skilled in ancient Greek athletic feats such as the discus and hammer throws. Hercules’ principal power is his superhuman strength. As true immortals, the Olympian gods do not age and are not susceptible to disease. Although they can be wounded in battle, they cannot die by any conventional means and have a rapid healing rate.

 

Checklist:

 

MLJ Comics:
Blue Ribbon Comics 4-8