Tony Josepf of BrokenFrontier.com has interviewed Greg Pak about comics and mythology (and Hercules and the Amadeus Cho). Here’s an excerpt:
BROKEN FRONTIER: A lot of your comics have a mythological angle, like Incredible Hercules and Planet Hulk. Do you think comic books function as a kind of modern mythology?
GREG PAK: I think that there are some very interesting parallels between these ancient myths and comics. One of the biggest things is that they’re both concerned with the education and development of heroes, and with individuals coming to terms with tremendous power. You know, what are the responsibilities of those who have tremendous power? There are lots of stuff in myths that are really applicable to writing comics. Also, if you look at the Greek tragedies for example, a huge part of that is that the gods do what the gods do and humans suffer. There’s an interesting parallel with the whole notion in comics of super-powered people, people who have powers that rival those of the gods from ancient times. That creates opportunities for stories that deal with those kind of themes, like: what are the limits of powers that an individual person should have? How much power is too much? And what are the consequences of claiming and wielding this kind of tremendous power?