Amadeus Cho headlines "Heroic Age: Prince of Power" in May

Today Marvel announced that the "Incredible Hercules" saga would continue in May 2010 via the "Heroic Age: Prince of Power" miniseries, starring Amadeus Cho, Herc's best friend and the Marvel Universe's most incorrigible teen genius.

The mini will be co-written by "Incredible Hercules" regulars Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente with pencils by beloved "Thorcules" artist Reilly Brown. A number of websites have featured interviews with the creators -- here are a few excerpts:

Marvel:

"Keep your eyes open for Amadeus' big-brained colleague Bruce Banner and a certain long haired individual of the Norse persuasion whose name starts with a T and ends with a-oh, heck, he's on the cover," Pak gives up. "We're talking about Thor! The Odinson plays a massive role throughout this storyline. An extra bonus is that [artist] Reilly Brown, who knocked the 'Replacement Thor' storyline out of the park, is back on board for PRINCE OF POWER.' He draws an incredible Thor-and his upgrade of Amadeus's look is swoon-worthy."

Pak: Fred and I have made an extra special effort to make Prince of Power new-reader-friendly. Yes, we're paying off some major things we set up earlier in the series and launching an insane new era in the "Incredible Hercules" saga (just wait 'til you see how this baby ends!). But if you've been tempted to check the book out, this is a great place to start.

Van Lente: Remember, kids: If you read one title about a wiseass teen genius billionaire myth-slayer this year, let it be PRINCE OF POWER.

"At certain points during our ongoing storyline, we've had stories that are just larks. Like the 'Replacement Thor' storyline in 'Incredible Hercules' where Herc dressed up as Thor and Thor dressed up as Herc and mayhem ensued. Storylines like that are a little bit more wacky fun, even though they're still building our characters," Pak continued. "And at other times we've had storylines where the stakes seem higher and the feel is a bit more epic. Our 'Secret Invasion' tie in was a storyline like that, and I think we're entering that kind of a phase again. So the emotions and the stakes are sky high. At the same time, we are continuing the vibe and feel that we've had in our stories all throughout."

IGN Comics: Is there anything else you'd like to add about Prince of Power at this point?

Brown: There are going to be notable appearances by other major Marvel heroes, like Banner and especially Thor, who I'm excited to work with. There's also going to be a whole lot of villains and classical monsters who are going to need to be designed/redesigned, which is something I always love doing. This is going to be a fun book to work on, and I think readers will really enjoy it.

Van Lente: You can't have a great hero without being complemented by a great villain. In this case we have a couple: Amadeus starts out fighting a classic Marvel foe that actually battled Hercules when he was with the Champions of Los Angeles, so he gets to prove his mettle that way.

Then also in #1 Cho encounters his arch-nemesis, and befitting the book's pedigree he's an Incredible Hulk villain we haven't seen since Peter David and Dale Keown/Gary Frank's classic run back in the 1990s, when he was supposedly killed... But has been known to run around with pantheons, or should I say Pantheon...

Greg, stop me if you think I'm being too subtle.

Pak: They'll never figure this one out.

Greg Pak is AngryAsianMan.com's Angry Reader of the Week

AngryAsianMan.com has featured Greg Pak as its Angry Reader of the Week! Here's an excerpt:

I'm in the business of escapist entertainment. But I'd argue that the greatest escapist literature doesn't just let us avoid our problems; it gives us a safe space to explore new ways to deal with our real world challenges. One of the reasons I've been so drawn to the Hulk, for example, is that he's insanely fun because we can all vicariously enjoy his anger and smashing. But what makes him a truly great character is that his stories almost always explore the price of all that anger and smashing. There's a process of emotional discovery in those stories that's incredibly attractive to me as a reader and a writer.

Pak and Van Lente interviewed for the KANE AM 1240 Popmedia Primecast

"Incredible Hercules" co-writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente have been interviewed by Dom Ducote and Dusty Crochet for the KANE AM 1240 Popmedia Primecast. Lots of talk about the art of collaboration and breaking into comics -- and the Incredible Hulk.

Check it out!

More "Planet Hulk" movie premiere interviews

Paul Nomad has posted his interview of Greg Pak, Matt Striker, Joe Quesada, and Eric Rollman at last week's "Planet Hulk" movie premiere in New York City. Check it out:

Newsarama interviews Greg Pak at "Planet Hulk" DVD premiere

Lucas Siegel from Newsarama interviews comic book writer Greg Pak at the premiere of the "Planet Hulk" DVD in New York City. Check it out!

MetalMachine.net interviews Greg Pak at the "Planet Hulk" premiere

The first interview from last night's "Planet Hulk" premiere in New York has hit the web -- click here to hear MetalMachine.net talk with "Planet Hulk" comic book writer Greg Pak about alien phonetics and comics-to-film adaptations.