From the Wikipedia entry:
"In 1975, DC produced a comic book series titled Hercules Unbound, featuring the adventures of Hercules in a post-apocalyptic future. This Hercules looked different from the other DC interpretations - he had long black hair and no beard. The series lasted 12 issues. It made use of characters and concepts, such as The Atomic Knights and the intelligent animals from Jack Kirby's Kamandi series as an attempt to tie in some of the future series."
It was a really unusual mix of post-apocalyptic science fiction and Greek mythology. To be honest, it was mediocre at best and seemed to just be an attempt to make a Kamandi like book. I only have a couple of issues which I got out of the dime bin back when comic shops still had dime bins. I guess there are a few ideas in the 12 issues which could be used for a mutant Future Setting but again, it is a rather bland comic overall.
Well, at least one thing I can say about it was that it wasn't as bad as the Italian Hercules movies made during the 50's and 60's. The bi-monthly series was cancelled in 1977 which was just a year shy of the infamous DC Implosion and I seriously doubt that it would ever be reprinted or collected in a trade paperback.
Hercules Unbound was suppose to have appeared in a "After Disaster" DC Showcase Presents collection, but some rights issue has held it up.
ReplyDeleteThat seems strange...it shouldn't have been a creator's rights issue considering the nature of the industry when it was published. Hercules is obviously a public domain character. There doesn't seem to be any licensing issues involved. It would seem to me that DC would own all the related rights to this comic and could do with it what they wish. That is really odd.
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