InsaneJournal

So Herc and Amadeus are in Hades, where Pluto, Lord of the Dead, is, per his remit under the original compact with Zeus and Poseidon, judging the dead.  Despite the fact that the Ares miniseries was published like 4+ years ago (at least a year in MU time), he's only now getting around to Zeus (maybe they're as backed up in Hell as the regular court systems are; they should at least try for a dismissal based on habeas corpus grounds).

Witnesses for the prosecution include Cronus, Typhon, and, somewhat inexplicably, Semele (as she herself points out, if Pluto were looking for one of Zeus' conquests to testify against him, she's a bizarrely bad choice).  Anyway, Zeus decides to represent himself (mistake; I'm sure Hades is full of good lawyers):






It's the mortal Herc, the part that ended up in Hades after Zeus stripped it away and brought the divine Herc to Olympus.  And he's pretty pissed.

I've thought for a while that Athena's master plan here must involve putting Hercules in charge of the Pantehon instead of Hera (the whole "Sacred Invasion" arc, for example, where she insisted on him leading the mission and kept what would have been the main alternative, Thor, out of the proceedings).  The conversation at the end of the third page would seem to suggest that is what she has in mind.  That also tallies with the famous Bob Layton minis in the 1980s, which ended with Herc heading off to found a new dynasty of gods.