Fred Van Lente (Marvel) – No, “Fred Van Lente” is not the title of a comic series. He is an actual human being who writes a lot of comics, and I just wanted to group them together. He tends to write a lot of mini-series, so this will be a catch-all. Van Lente is another of my favorites, and he’s a guy who clearly enjoys playing with all the available toys in a superhero universe.
His main work for the last several years has been co-writing Incredible Hercules with Greg Pak. That’s been consistently excellent, bringing perpetual B-lister Hercules to the fore and making him appealing and interesting. It looks like the run is (sadly) wrapping up with the current Chaos War miniseries, and it’s epic. Hercules (and his buddy Amadeus Cho) lead a team of deities (The God Squad – Hee!) against the Chaos Lord. It’s a perfect mix of mind-blowing action and legitimately funny jokes. I particularly enjoy the sound effect gags – punching Thor, God of Thunder results in the onomatopoetic “GADDATHUNDA!” as the sound effect. Firing an energy weapon in an office conference room results in a “BORDROOOM!” I always read this book twice, once just to find the sound effect jokes.
