Ugh. When a review starts out with the word ‘ugh’, it’s not going to be pretty. I grabbed this book because Barnes & Nobles was having their going out of business sale and I bought a handful of trades at 50% off and yet somehow I still feel ripped off.

I had little knowledge of what Chaos War was about going into this. All I knew is that it was a Marvel event/crossover similar to Civil War and Siege, but what made both of those events successful was sadly lacking in Chaos War.

Chaos War is the story of an empowered Hercules issuing a call out to Earth’s heroes to stop the King of Chaos, also known as Amatsu-Mikaboshi from absorbing everything in the entire multiverse so that the only thing that existed was him and him alone.

Ok, let’s get to a quick breakdown of this graphic novel. I say ‘quick’ because I won’t go into too much depth because if you knew enough to understand every part of the plot than you most surely already own the content that this trade paperback contains.

Spoiler

The book opens up with Amatsu-Mikaboshi eating the essence of Nightmare Lord of Horror and gaining his powers.

Ok, so Hercules is now a god. And I’m not talking demi-god, he’s somehow been empowered to to be omniscient & omnipotent. So imagine the power of Zeus or Odin in Hercules’ frame with Hercules wisdom. Anyway he summons Earth’s mightiest heroes to battle Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Amatsu-Mikaboshi uses Nightmare’s power to put all the Earth’s heroes to sleep for most of the rest of the story, so if you were hoping to see any Marvel heroes other than Thor do anything of interest in this book don’t bother picking it up.

So, it’s time to build a new “God Squad“. No really, that’s what they call it. This incarnation includes Thor (of course), Amedeus Cho (I guess it’s easy to be a god now), Sersi of the Eternals, Galactus (no really), Silver Surfer, Venus goddess of love and Daimon Hellstrom son of Satan.

Then there’s lots of fighting dead gods & alive ones. Hercules finds some other minor gods hiding and saying goodbye to eternity. They come up with an idea of transferring every human being to another dimension. Hercules gets speared to death only to be reborn more powerful? I thought he was already omnipotent…

Anyway, Hercules re-summons Earth’s mightiest heroes — even the dead ones — to battle the small stuff that is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. When they can’t get all life into the pocket dimension Hercules forces Amatsu-Mikaboshi into the pocket dimension and everyone is saved.

Hercules returns everything to the way it was before Amatsu-Mikaboshi began this Chaos War and in doing so loses all his powers. Oh, and by returning everything to the way it was, he resurrects some recently dead heroes like Alpha Flight and restores Mount Olympus. Meh.

One of my complaints about Chaos War might just be just a personal thing but I’m going to mention it anyways. I feel like the character of Amedeus Cho has been given more power & importance as displayed in this graphic novel than the character deserves. Amedeus has quickly transitioned from a really smart teen into someone gifted with omniscience and able to hold his own in battles against gods. It feels contrived and I question whether Cho’s importance is directly related to him being a creation of the author of this trade paperback itself, a form of literary nepotism if you will.

To be fair, I should say that I view graphic novels and trade paperbacks differently than I view a comic book series. I see them as a way to bring a self-contained story to a casual reader who doesn’t have the time or interest in maintaining a regular subscription or a pull list. The breadth of backstory one would need to know to best understand and enjoy Chaos War was immense and far beyond the expectations of a casual reader. And there is no recap or exposition that attempts to explain what has gone on prior to the trade paperback at the begining of the book. Marvel did include a “special” at the back of the graphic novel that covered the backstory behind the Chaos War. It is extremely text heavy and lengthy which is why they didn’t include it in the front of the book because no one would buy it, but as readers generally read from the front of a book to the back of a book it was presented too late.

I give the author credit for some good research into the deities of the world’s religions, but unfortunately good research does not gaurentee a good story. Unless you are a major fan of Hercules and Amadeus Cho I would verily suggest avoiding Chaos War.

Story
Artwork
Value
Can It Stand Alone
Cool Factor
Average