Every comic book fan has witnessed an iconic superhero dying, only to come back to life a few issues later. While most stories will usually offer up their own explanation as to how a character cheated death (sometimes more than once), The Incredible Hercules #129 offers a more comprehensive look into how resurrection works in the Marvel universe.
The issue opens with Hercules and his team - consisting of his sister Athena and a mortal named Amadeus - beginning their search for Zeus, whose help they need to stop the villainous Hera. Since being dethroned from Olympus, Zeus has resided in the underworld, so that’s where they need to go to find him. After bathing in the toxins of the Jersey Shore to wash away their sins (yes, seriously) the three make their way to the nearest entrance of Hell, which looks a lot like a casino. Appearances can be deceiving, but as it turns out, this one isn’t - Hell in the Marvel universe is actually a casino. Well, part of it, at least. Hell in Greek Mythology is broken up into sections, with Erebus (the casino) being the upper region and Tartarus the lowest.
Erebus has undergone some serious changes since Hercules was last there 3,257 years ago. The comic continues to parody many aspects of Greek mythology. For example, Cerberus, the legendary three-headed guard dog of the underworld, has been turned into a tourist attraction, and Charon, the famous ferryman of Hades, now takes casino chips instead of regular gold. Aegis, Athena’s champion who recently perished, appears to guide Hercules and explains how everything works:
“Welcome to Erebus, the region of Hades that abuts the mortal world, where the dead first arrive, and many stay here…those who believe they have unfinished stories and ache for a chance to be reborn. They gamble all day, hoping against reason to be selected for resurrection. (Although, to be honest, more of them win than you might ever expect...)”
This is a very meta moment where the writers poke fun at how nobody every really stays dead in comics. We even see some deceased Marvel heroes trying to gamble their way back to life, like Banshee, Blink, and the Ancient One. Even Elvis Presley is down there, though people think he’s just an impersonator. When Hercules sees fellow Avenger Janet van Dyne, AKA the Wasp, playing a slot machine, he offers to bring her back with him, but she seems convinced her luck will pay off soon and she’ll get resurrected all on her own. “I mean, they let Bucky out. Bucky!” she jokes. “The odds for me have got to be good, right?”
While this may seem to conflict with the fact that Norse mythology’s Hel also exists in Marvel's universe, the comic provides a pretty simple explanation, likening the different afterlifes to different web browsers. Amadaeus reasons that “Hades, Yomi, and Valhalla are all accessing the same group of dead people, just using different code to do it.” If Hercules ever makes his way to the MCU, this would be a cool way to have some dead characters come back as cameos. Loki would probably have his picture on the casino wall for how many times he’s managed to win his way back.