Hercules battled gods, men and monsters in a lifetime of violence and destruction. Today, Hercules is best known for his 'twelve labours', a series of near-impossible tasks assigned to him as punishment for the killing of his wife and children. During those tasks, he slew the multi-headed hydra, wrestled with Cerberus, hound of the underworld, and stole the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Yet even when his labours were done, his adventures continued. Hercules led armies, sacked cities, fought against the gods, and then joined forces with the gods in the great war known as 'The Gigantomachy'. This book tells the complete story of this legendary warrior, including information on the classical sources, his deification and cult, and his continuing popularity as a character in film, television and comic books.

Fred Van Lente is the New York Times bestselling author or co-author of Incredible Hercules, Odd Is on Our Side, three entries in the Marvel Zombies series, and Cowboys & Aliens, which formed the basis for the feature film. The critically-acclaimed Incredible Hercules series, which chronicled the adventures of the Greek hero in modern times, with numerous flashbacks to the mythic past, was featured on innumerable "best of" lists during its three year run. Van Lente also tackled Classical Greece in his irreverent-but-accurate American Library Association-award winning comics series Action Philosophers, illustrated by Ryan Dunlavey. His other comics and graphic novels include Amazing Spider-Man, Archer & Armstrong, The Comic Book History of Comics, Hulk: Season One, Taskmaster: Unthinkable and X Men Noir.