List of Hercules and Xena characters

This is a list of significant characters from the television programs Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, its prequel Young Hercules, and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Main characters

Xena

Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess franchise. Co-created by Tapert and John Schulian, she first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name. The Warrior Princess has also appeared in the spin-off animated movie The Battle for Mount Olympus, as well as numerous non-canon expanded universe material, such as books and video games. Xena was played by New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless, who commonly wore a tight leather skirted outfit overlaid with metal armor.

Xena is the protagonist of the story, and the series depicts her on a quest to redeem herself for her dark past by using her formidable fighting skills to help people. Xena was raised as the daughter of Cyrene and Orestes in Amphipolis, though the episode "The Furies" raised the possibility that Ares might be Xena's biological father, but it is never pursued further. She had two brothers, the younger of whom is dead; she visits his grave to speak with him in "Sins of the Past." In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, during her two first episodes, Xena was a villain, but in the third episode she appears in, she joins Hercules to defeat Darphus, who had taken her army. Aware that the character of Xena had been very successful with the public in the three Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episodes, the producers of the series decided to create a spin-off series based on her adventures. Later in Xena: Warrior Princess she is joined by Gabrielle, a small town bard. Together they go up against ruthless warlords and Gods in the ancient mythological world.

Eris (dwarf planet)

Eris (minor-planet designation 136199 Eris) is the most massive and second-largest dwarf planet known in the Solar System. It is also the ninth-most-massive known body directly orbiting the Sun, and the largest known body in the Solar System not visited by a spacecraft. It is measured to be 2,326 ± 12 kilometers (1,445.3 ± 7.5 mi) in diameter. Eris is 27% more massive than dwarf planet Pluto, though Pluto is slightly larger by volume. Eris's mass is about 0.27% of the Earth's mass.

Eris was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory–based team led by Mike Brown, and its identity was verified later that year. It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) and a member of a high-eccentricity population known as the scattered disk. It has one known moon, Dysnomia. As of 2014, its distance from the Sun is 96.4 astronomical units (1.442×10¹⁰ km; 8.96×10⁹ mi), roughly three times that of Pluto. With the exception of some comets, Eris and Dysnomia are currently the second-most-distant known natural objects in the Solar System (following the November 2015 discovery of V774104 at 103 AU).

Xena: Warrior Princess (comics)

Xena: Warrior Princess were a series of comic books based on the television series of the same name. Topps Comics and Dark Horse Comics created a series of comics tying in to the property. In 2007, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the rights to the series.

Publication history

Topps Comics published the first Xena series of comics, titled Xena: Warrior Princess. Xena's character was originally introduced in the 1996 Topps Comics series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, issues #3, #4, and #5. These were followed by the Xena: Warrior Princess comics released in a limited series format, with the vast majority being three-issue series, in 1997 and 1998.

Dark Horse acquired the license in 1999.

Dynamite Entertainment began new stories in 2007.

There have been a number of crossovers with other properties within the companies, include two mini-series with Army of Darkness: "Why Not?" and "What, Again?"

All publishers used cover rations involving photo covers, with stills from the television series, and drawn/inked/colored art covers.