Believe it or not, IPA was not always talked about as “tropical.” When Brewmaster Jim Cibak and the team created the first batch of Galaxy-Hero, the namesake Australian hop was relatively new and incredibly hard to secure.

“This was a beer that was originally just meant to be served at C2E2. Back then, Galaxy hops used to be incredibly difficult to find. Production eventually caught up with demand from brewers, but Galaxy-Hero was one of a select few at the beginning,” Cibak said.

Once Cibak and team secured enough Galaxy, they set about building an IPA to showcase the properties that would make it a craft darling for years to come.

“Galaxy brings low bitterness, with citrus and passionfruit shining through. We complemented that with a toasty malt base and much lower proportions of Centennial and Cascade in the dry hop,” he said. “They let the tropical fruit flavors of Galaxy shine while mellowing out the harsher grassy notes that can appear at higher concentrations.”

For the look of the beer, Revolution founders Josh Deth and Krista Sahakian turned to Ian Law, who created (and still creates) the unmistakable graphic look of Revolution’s beers.

“We had a few different directions in those early days. Designs had to be edgy and graphic enough to stand out. But it was also important to be fun and identifiable,” he said. “The only directive with Galaxy-Hero was to do a comic collaboration. It felt a little more retro at the time, with the character standing on a planet and the spaceship.”

Following the success of that first beer, Galaxy-Hero eventually found a whole League of Heroes, with the ninth iteration of the IPA variety pack on the horizon. As Law recollects, that shift happened naturally, rather than by design.

“I don’t know if there was ever a ‘this is where we’re going’ moment, but it just kind of went from Galaxy to an entire line of Hero beers when the style began doing so well. It just grew and grew from there,” Law said. “It just seemed natural, and it’s cool to see how things have grown up from that first design. There weren’t a lot of borders or restrictions on what we could do.”

When 2016 rolled around, we added “comic book producer” to our list of things we’d always wanted to do and subsequently did. It wasn’t necessarily easy to build an entire world out of a character who had only ever existed on a beer label, but we found the right collaborators to bring the Galaxy-Hero (and the rest of the League) to life. The Salsa Sharks – a team consisting of illustrators Melissa Sue Stanley and Max Bare – provided the art, while Dave Schneider provided the wit, the plot, and a walrus in a bowler hat. Galaxy-Hero’s origin came via a fan contest, and the Sharks and Dave filled in the rest.

“We didn't have as much to work with because there wasn’t an entire League of Heroes yet. And we had a lot of creative freedom, which was great,” Stanley said. “And that's why the first couple of issues are full of the Walrus Man, and Doctor Skunk, and a murderous shrimp, because we didn't have anybody else! I think my favorite part is that it doesn’t at all feel like a corporate-directed comic.”

Five issues in, the comic team has imbued a whole range of hop Heroes with their own unique powers and personalities.

“We look at the characters and we always have come to a consensus. Crystal-Hero is like a golden retriever who also happens to be Superman,” Bare said. “But you can’t populate an entire universe with skin-swapped versions of Superman or it gets boring fast.”

“When we were designing an idea for Mosaic-Hero, it occurred to us that we could use that idea of change to create a gender-fluid character. Mosaic is definitely feminine in issue #2, then more ambiguous as they change in reaction to the situation around them,” Stanley said. “Obviously Anti-Hero came with a lot more built in, and he makes a great mastermind for the League. His name is his character, like Punisher or Wolverine. And the fact that he doesn’t get along with Galaxy just seemed natural.”

The result, up through the thrilling ending of issue five, is a high-action universe packed with cosmic peril, mantis shrimp, mycelium fungus, ancient temples, and an all-consuming robot empire. It just so happens to also have some beer mascots you know and love hanging out too.