Incredible Hercules #118

Okay, you Skrull bastards, this time, it's personal!

Amadeus Cho is one of my favorite Marvel characters EVER, and his puppy, whose name was finally revealed in this very issue as Kirby (short for Kerberos), is one of the reasons I love him. I was devastated not long ago (and have never forgiven Black Widow) when the poor puppy's back was broken; I asked Chris Giarrusso to sketch me Amadeus Cho and pup (it's gorgeous by the way) at Emerald City Comic-con; I submitted a name in the "Name Amadeus Cho's puppy" contest (my idea was Sancho, Don Quixote's sidekick...see, cause he's a coyote, which sounds like Quixote, and his genius master is going around tilting at windmills...). Anyway, I love this puppy.

And this issue of Incredible Herc was chock full of foreshadowing, and there are probably those who saw it coming a mile away, but I didn't, because I love the puppy! You've got the scene when Amadeus explains the name he's given Kirby, and he is told that naming a coyote after a protector is curious, since coyotes are known to be tricksters; in that same scene it is pointed out how useful Amadeus himself would be as a Skrull agent, since he's been so closely allied to such powerful beings as the Hulk and now Hercules (and of course that's equally true of his constant companion); there's that line where Amadeus recalls Athena's warning to him that he would have to do the hardest thing in his entire life on this mission...and then finally there's that bit when Kirby is celebrated as a hero and promised a steak dinner upon the successful completion of the mission, immediately after which we the readers get a close-in shot of Kirby's glowing green eyes. Ah, hell.

Not Kirby, you bastards! The hardest thing Amadeus Cho ever has to do involves learning his beloved pet is a damned Skrull? Man, I hope there's some kind of out for this one. Even if the rest of the readership thinks it's a cheat, I'm down, you hear me Greg Pak, you brilliant heart-breaker? I swear, it's like a Whedon story, wherein the moment anyone's really happy, they die or turn evil.