Hades: Lord of the Dead (Olympians)

HADES: LORD OF THE DEAD, the fourth in an ongoing series of graphic novels about the Olympians, is just as appealing as all the others have been. While the writer/artist includes plenty of information about both Hades, the god and Hades, his domain—the Underworld, information never gets in the way of a rip-roaring tale of abduction, romance, blight, fury, death and love. Love especially, both the love of a mother and daughter, and a more grown up love, the love Hades has for Kore, whom he will rename Persephone.

Really, this rendition of the myth is as much the story of Persephone (Proserpina) as it is the story of Hades. Perhaps even more so, but as George O’Connor points out in the Afterworld, who wants to read a book called Kore? What O’Connor has done is take the myth of Persephone and turned it into a coming of age story. Her enforced separation from her mother is what finally allows the girl, Kore, to become a woman, Persephone. In this version of the legend, she is not tricked into eating pomegranate seeds, and thus condemned to spend six months of twelve in Hades with her kidnapper. Rather, she chooses to eat them, not just accepting her new relationship with the god of Death, but embracing it.

The graphic-novel/comic book format really suits these Olympians, these larger-than-life figures. What are the gods, if not superheroes? Their epic struggles, expansive emotions, their violence and passion, all seem to find a clear expression in the artist’s capable hands.