If anyone gets their hands on the newly reprinted ‘Prince of Power’ trade then you are in for a treat. Before the names of Fred Van Lente and Greg ‘Jet’ Pak, Bob Layton was the guy to make Hercules a fun character. Marvel was tired of putting the Greek God involved with their heroes. What was Bob Layton’s answer? Put him in space! What results is a fun, 2 four issue minis with great writing and art by Mr. Layton. Now the man has returned to tell one final tale of the Prince of Power in space.

Recently, when a legendary writer comes back to continue his/her work in the modern age is never really any good. (Anyone remember the awful stink that was Denny O’Neil two parter on Batman last year?) Here though it feels like Layton never left. You get all of you’re favorite characters; from Hercules, to Skyppi the Skrull, and the broken robot named Recorder. It has a sort of that ‘The End’ quality to the story, you know what Marvel did for some of their characters recently. Just a nice recap to get anyone up to speed, and to show an older cast of characters (sans) Hercules to reflect on previous adventures. There is a good amount of political and cosmic intrigue mixed in. Add in a sprinkle of Hercules acting like an out-right idiot, there is some fun to be had here. The jokes and the dialogue though can be very hokey and a bit of a pain to read. Especially the narration, which feels too much Silver Age to take seriously.

The art by Ron Lim (finished by Layton) is quite energetic and great to look at. They waste no time by showing their chops in a nice missile chase sequence. For the most part it is talking heads and sometimes it can be a bit confusing who exactly we’re looking at. But when the title changes settings, like say to Galactus getting in trouble, and the duo show why old school can still be beautiful. However, the characters are a bit simple and even the backgrounds are lacking detail. It is a nice looking book though and it’s thanks to the colorist (Mike Cavallaro) to make it bright and cheerful.

To be honest this was the title I was worried about the most. We see time and time again with creators that maybe you can never go back. Bob Layton (with help from Ron Lim) almost breaks this ideal and wrote a solid first issue. Their script and art might not be the best but they do a good job to show why the old ‘Prince of Power’ is worth remembering. I will personally stay on board with this fun mini but be warned! If you are not a fan of throwbacks to the Silver Age (especially on cosmic titles) then this might not be the comic for you.