Icarus

Background information

Shows

Hercules

Voice

French Stewart

Inspiration

Icarus from Greek mythology

Honors and awards

Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program (French Stewart)

Character information

Other names

The Wax-Wing King
Iccy Poo
Ikki

Occupation

Student
Inventor

Home

Athens, Ancient Greece

Likes

Cassandra, having fun, telling jokes, being hyper and childish, helping out Hercules

Dislikes

Being kidnapped, his jealousy of his father, Gym class, people calling his father's inventions useless

Powers and abilities

Able to adapt to any situation, can sculpt wax wings

Status

Active

Family information

Parents

Daedalus (father)
Momalus (mother)
Miss Thespis (stepmother)

Partner(s)

Cassandra (crush)

“Herc, as a newbie, you need a guy that's plugged in. Someone who can put at the epicenter of the Academy's chic Greek elite.”

―Icarus^[src]

Icarus is a major character from the Disney animated series Hercules. He was Hercules' best friend during their time in Prometheus Academy. He also has a romantic obsession with his friend, Cassandra.

Background[]

Icarus was born and raised in Athens and comes from a wealthy family with his father, Daedalus, as a famous inventor and his mother with a highly successful pottery making business. Despite his wealth, Icarus is a kind, caring, friendly, hyper, fun-loving, and eccentric individual.

Icarus refers to his father as "Dadalus" and his mother as "Momalus". At some point in his life, his parents amicably divorced, with his mother relocating to Ithaca while he remained in Athens with his father. Icarus maintains a very close relationship with both his parents and regularly spends his summers working with his mother. Despite their divorce, however, Icarus refuses to acknowledge or accept it, believing that despite their separation, his parents still love each other.

Similar to his father, Icarus takes interest in inventing as prior to the series, he and his father created wax wings, allowing him to fly. Unfortunately, Icarus carelessly flew too close to the sun, which nonfatally immolated him and caused him to crash, an act he has since become well known for. Icarus is also hopelessly head-over-heels in love with his classmate and friend, Cassandra, whom he considers his girlfriend, despite his feelings clearly being one-sided.

Personality[]

The incident involving flying too close to the Sun fried Icarus' brain, leaving him batty but lovable. Despite being an easygoing and good-natured man, Icarus is quick to anger and driven to great acts of spite at the slightest provocation, particularly when consumed by jealousy. While deeply respectful of his self-declared best friend Hercules, Icarus is not above using the demigod's superhuman strength to his own advantage and will at times stop at nothing to make himself appear more capable than he genuinely is.

Icarus' encounter with the Sun has resulted in a number of behavioral oddities, such as sudden bouts of screaming and hyperactive fits when trying to prove a point or terrified. He also has little to no sense of social etiquette, though believes himself to be a ladies' man.

Role in the series[]

In the clip-show episode "Hercules and the Yearbook", Phil tells that after graduation, Icarus went into the manufacturing business with his father, Daedelus, and became very wealthy in his own right, earning the name "The Wax-Wing King". In "Hercules and the Arabian Night", he gets kidnapped by Jafar and teams up with Abu to stop him and Hades. Icarus then wants a monkey after he waves goodbye to Abu.

Trivia[]

Icarus was created specifically for the Hercules animated TV show.
In the animated series, Icarus' accident is implied (and portrayed in the opening) as catching aflame as a result of flying too close to the sun, immolating him and causing brain damage, resulting in his hyperactive behavior and burnt/tanned appearance. In actual Greek mythology, after escaping his confines using the wax wings developed by his father Daedalus, Icarus ignored his father's warnings and flew too close to the sun, the heat of which caused his wax wings to melt and break apart, causing him to plummet into the sea and resulting in his death. This is contradicted in "Hercules and the Romans", where Icarus accidentally flies too close to the sun leading to his wax wings melting, during which he screams, "OH MAN, NOT AGAIN!" before plummeting, suggesting his initial accident was similar to mythology rather than being immolated.
Icarus appears in the Hades comics published in 2023, Disney Villains: Hades, where he is seen as an adult who shows a very different appearance from that of the animated series, since he now has a muscular body, is bald and his red pupil no longer protrudes. However, he retains much of his cheerful, but fearful personality from the series, only he appears more confident in himself.
- In the second chapter of the comic, when he discovers that he is entering a labyrinth, he gets scared and it is observed that his red pupil protrudes just like in the animated series, only in the right eye instead of the left.