Joe Hercules (Quality Universe)

When Midwestern State Fair strongman, and aspiring collegian, Joe Hercules came home from a season with the carnival, somewhere in the northern Midwest, he found his mother dead of a heart attack, which he believed to have been caused by unscrupulous mortgage lender J. Willistone Jyppe. Joe rushed out to New York City to confront the purported killer, the boss of a crooked mortgage company. But Joe's enthusiastic beating-up of a roomful of security goons landed him in jail, where his cellmate (Pete Birch) showed him a Doll Man comic book, and encouraged him to put on a costume and become a superhero. So Joe dug through a foot-thick masonry jailhouse wall, and next was seen (in a costume that seemed to be based on Doll Man's outfit) at the office of Jyppe. Young Joe Hercules tossed him across the room, rooted through his desk, and ripped open his safe, finding a ton of incriminating evidence; J.W.J. meantime decamped via a secret panel. Young Mr. Hercules soon found the panel and pursued, to a basement, where another roomful of thugs ambushed him, and got themselves tossed about and beaten down, and hauled off to the police station. The cops were all set to bust Joe, which would have worked out badly for all concerned, but cellmate Pete just happened to be in the room, and talked Joe into not busting loose again, plus he got him a lawyer, and Joe settled down to work things out in a legal way.

Soon winning his freedom, Joe Hercules wandered the American countryside, working at odd jobs and helping out a wide variety of people with a wide variety of problems. Eventually he took up residence in New York City.^[1]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Superhuman Strength^[2] He could toss an elephant across a circus lot.^{[citation needed]}
Superhuman Speed He could overtake a getaway car at 90 mph.^[3]
Invulnerability:
- He could nonchalantly take multiple close-range pistol shots to the face, sustaining no damage at all.^[4]
- He once survived a dose of cyanide gas.
- He twice survived being encased in cement,^[4] the second time lasting for several weeks.^[5]

Weaknesses

He was a little bit gullible and impulsive.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Usually arrived on foot and left on foot.

Weapons

Disdained them.

Notes

This version of Joe Hercules, including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the original Multiverse in the 1985–86 Crisis on Infinite Earths event and later restored following the rebirth of the infinite Multiverse during the Dark Crisis of 2022–2023. Even though other versions of the character may have appeared, this information does not apply to those versions.
While it was not uncommon for circus strongmen to name themselves "Hercules", it appears that "Hercules" is Joe's real last name and not a stage name.

Trivia

While Joe Hercules is named after the Roman demigod Hercules, he is not (as far as is known) a reincarnation or avatar of the god.

Joe Hercules (Quality Universe)

Contents

History