Hercules makes Hera, the queen of the gods, so jealous she “drove Hercules mad with rage. In his madness, Hercules killed his wife and children in a fire.” (p. 4) To gain forgiveness for this action Apollo’s oracle tells Hercules he must “Perform 10 tasks for your cousin Eurystheus, king of Mycenae.” (p. 5)  So begins this accounting of the 12 labors of Hercules. This retelling is an “adaptation of Hercules’ story is based on the book The Library, written by Greek historian Apollodorus.” The labors have Hercules killing the Nemean lion, which his cousin purposefully omitted to tell “was invulnerable to weapons.” This is not the only time Hercules’ cousin, King of Mycenae, keeps valuable information from him, either. Hercules kills Hydra, but since his nephew helped him, the king won’t count it as one of Hercules’ labors. Hercules captures the Cerynitian Hind , brings back the Erymanthian Boar, cleans the king’s stables by diverting a river, and chases away a flock of nesting birds. Some of the other labors include bringing the king the Cretan Bull and feeding King Diomedes to his own cruelly mistreated horses, so Eurystheuscan  can have four of the mares.

Author- Blake Hoena and illustrator – Estudio Haus do not pull any punches on telling Hercules’ story just because it is in graphic novel form.

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