Legendary Comic-book writer Peter David, revered Incredible Hulk scribe, has passed away

Peter David
Sept. 23, 1956-May 34, 2025.

Eisner-award-winning comic-book writer Peter David has passed away this week, at 68, after a lengthy struggle with health problems. I knew him not personally, but as the byline of the guy who wrote The Incredible Hulk for about 11 years, from when I was a kid dreaming deeply in grade eight to my twentysomething days in Old Blighty. I read Peter David's entire run, a run that earned him legendary status and reverence, from his roughshod debut in issue # 331 to issue # 467, announcing his sudden departure issue.

David started on the book with the May 1, 1987 issue # 331, "Inconstant Moon". I was in grade eight, drawing the Hulk and other heroes such as Spider-Man, Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel with my best pal Dietrich, a Jehovah's Witness. We were preoccupied with bullies, a little (well, maybe a lot) afraid of girls, and quite a lot invested in superheroes. Peter David's final issue, # 467, titled "The Lone and Level Sands", bore an August 1, 1998 cover date. By then, I was in my mid-twenties, living, working, drinking, writing and growing in London, England.

He inspired me so much, as a writer, that I thanked him in my acknowledgemennts in my first horror novel, Town & Train. And my 17-year-old hero John Daniel is even reading The Incredible Hulk issue # 355 in one scene. My book, set in 1990, examines the theme of realizing your dreams, or nightmares. I wanted to shoehorn in the kind of thing a geeky, horny, restless 17-year-old would read in the heatwave summer of 1990 in a small city. 

In actuality, at that time of my writing, issue # 355 of the Jade Giant's comic was hitting the specialty-store stands. The issue  I referenced, that John reads, is titled "Now You See It ..." and cover-dated May 1989. A trippy interloper who calls himself Glorian promises Hulk his fondest dreams if Glorian can only, you know, cleanse the Hulk's soul. In my book, which I started in August 1990, the conductor of a mysterious steam engine train promises anyone their wildest dreams if they only just come aboard. An obvious line-through of inspiration, that.

So, I read Peter David's Jade Giant for quite a spell. Eleven years, in fact. From my flat in Central London's Hackney, I hand-wrote him a letter of thanks once I read in the letters page, Green-Skin's Grab-Bag, that he was leaving the book suddenly. I never heard back, which is often par for course in the comuc-book business.

Why did I like his portrayal of the Hulk so much? I had been a fan of Ol' Greenskin since I could buy comics. I was a kid with a temper problem. I was athletic in some ways, but not enamored with sports.  I struggled with bullies regularly. Superheroes and reading were an obvious imaginative, escapist outlet. So, I enjoyed me some globe-spanning power fantasies, as in the early 1980's Hulk monthly comic. Yet ... Peter David was all about character development and exploration. And he had the Hulk confront other characters in singularly interesting ways, including when the Blob, an immovable object, couldn't expulse Hulk's fist from his massive gut.

Eventually, David ended Jade Jaw's often meandering worldwide travels of writer Bill Mantlo's era that I was weaned on, introducing an entire new super-powered team, the Pantheon. This allowed him to develop Bruce Banner's traumatic childhood, further delving into how Banner's father was abusive and the effect of this abuse on Bruce as a young boy. Through the MacGuffin of therapy sessions with psychiatrist character Doc Samson, David posited that the Hulk was only one of many personas of Bruce's disassociative identity disorder, a result of his childhood experience in that he created personas to protect himself. Samson had been around for years, since issue # 141, with its cringeworthy sexist Herb Trimpe cover, with the Doc uttering, "Foolish Female!!! The victory shall belong to Doc Samson!" However, the handsome musclehead had never acted as Bruce's therapist or shrink to treat his obvious and distinct Hulk and Banner personalities.

Bill Mantlo', ending his considerable Incredible Hulk tenure, had laid the groundwork for childhood trauma and schizophrenia, but it was David who examined the effects of child abuse, namely Bruce Banner's personas. Peter David also, at the first opportunity, through a plot MacGuffin, and with editorial blessing, powered down the character, making him not only grey but cunning, and often mean, as well as articulate and intelligent. Now, Bruce Banner only turned into his alter-ego, the Grey Hulk, at night. The full moon affected him, making him stronger. In this way, David added a shameless yet wonderful supernatural touch to the Hulk mythos, enriching it. Yet at the same time, this powered-down, smaller version of the character was a throwback to the Hulk's very first appearance. 

Some longtime fans bristled, while others, such as myself, paid attention, leaned in and watched what Peter David did. He admitted later on to flying by the seat of his pants until it became clear what he was doing with a floundering title that editorial didn't care much about. But he stuck with it, stayed in the book and kept going, likely determined to do something interesting with a character he was kind of indifferent about at the outset.

The writer also penned the most popular era of the Hulk as Joe Fixit, a legbreaker for casino owner Mike Berengetti in Las Vegas. The irascible Fixit, who didn't take guff from anyone, sported a fedora and pinstripe suit as a disguise. There, he got to know bodyguard, redhead Marlo Chandler, another David character who would go on to to marry former sidekick Rick Jones, and he lived a pretty great life as the Hulk. Other characters such as Iron Man or Spidey might appear, but Fixit lived his own life, no longer on the run from the army, or anyone. Instead, he sent them running. Joe once sent the Grey Gargoyle packing with a concrete severed arm, the villain unsure what would happen if he transformed back into flesh. What a terrific and interesting era for the Hulk, surrounded by a fresh cast of supporting characters, courtesy of Peter David. A deserving fan-favourite.

David also brought back minor players such as the aforementioned hunky psychiatrist Doc Samson, he of the flowing green hair, and tight red muscle shirt with a yellow lightening bolt, and sidekicks such as Rick Jones, and Jim Wilson. Jim died of HIV/AIDs. Bruce visited Jim on his death bed in a touching coda and a Red-Ribbon issue to raise awareness about HIV/AIDs. In this way, Peter brought in startling social relevance. 

Peter and I even  tussled very briefly over social media when I asked him if he wrote Jim as gay or bi or straight and he refused to say, instead saying that straight people got AIDs too which, of course, I knew, so I let it go.

Memorable moments of David's tenure include when Bruce/the Emerald Giant threatened another character for being homophobic. 

At Rick Jones' wedding, Hector, an openly gay character whom David created, flirted with gay hero Northstar of the Canuck super-team, Alpha Flight. For the wedding issue, the author wrote himself into the story as the officiant rabbi who soon got intoxicated at the reception. Famously, David also snuck in an unauthorized and unnamed cameo of the character Death from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, who gives the bride Marlo a wedding gift and leaves.

Another iconic character moment featured the Hulk and love-interest Betty Ross reconciling over the course of an issue that was one long conversation, ending with them cracking up.

And there were many, many more great character moments during Peter David's revered and psychologically focused run on The Incredible Hulk. 

A highlight for the teenaged me was the shamelessly pulpy issue # 335, featuring a horror-flick-loving character whose Stalker alter-ego emerges from under the bed each night to stalk victims with their  clawed hands, sporting a wide-brimmed hat. It's an eerie, overly lurid nod to Freddie Krueger of the 1984 Nightmare on Elm Street, which kickstarted the franchise. The imagery and prose affected my feverish 14-year-old imagination much as the pulp magazines such as Weird Tales that it was aping. 

Comic-book-famous artist Todd McFarlane got his start in the title when I was in eigth grade as well.

On a very local note, Ottawa artist Dale Keown drew the character for quite a spell in the early nineties.

Thanks for the stories, Peter. 

Peter, as I told you in '98, you wrote a mean dream, and many of us dream it with you. The Hulk character grew up, and did I, from an inspired young teen to a twentysomething trying to find his way.

And you, not gamma rays—you—transformed the Hulk forever.

The Red Ribbon issue. Cover and interior art: Ottawa's own Dale Keown.

Doc Samson merges all the Hulk personas in this one.
Another fine Dale Keown cover-and-interiors issue.

The Joe Fixit era, set in Las Vegas, allowed Peter David to have further, interesting fun with the Hulk character, such as a tussle with the Absorbing Man, an inprompt run-in with Spider-Man, and lots of dandyism and a sense of style from ... Mister Fixit?

The Joe Fixit era also saw Jeff Purve's rougher-hewn, sketchier pencils introduced, as evidence by this January 17, 1989 issue, entitled "Now You See It ...", giving the Vegas adventures a more noir film, a rather brilliant tonal shift for the title and a daring one. But it work7ed.

 This issue, cover-dated March 15, 1988, bares an iconic cover and rathe good interiors from Todd McFarlane.

            

 "Quality of Life", an early-days Todd McFarlane favourite.  In this heavy-hitter of an issue, David tackles domestic abuse, hearkening back to the Hulk! magazine of the late 1970's/1980's, which bore a social conscience and also devled into a spousal-abuse storyline.
Cover art: Steve Geiger and Bob McLeod. 

 "Mending Fences", the terrific Betty Ross-Hulk conversation issue.
Cover art: Dale Keown.

Like I said, overly lurid, and in the spirit of the 1930's/1940's pulps, particularly Weird Tales. 
Cover art: Steve Geiger and Bob McLeod. 

My Favourite Comics of 2023 Part One: Phillip K. Johnson's The Incredible Hulk, Ram V's Swamp Thing & Eric Palicki's Black's Myth

Wow. Admittedly, 2023, was a great year for comics. There were many compelling new single-issue series, original graphic novels and trade paperback collections not only from the Big Two, but also from the indie-press renaissance. I am unsure how to approach my favourites because they are legion. Where to begin? 

(I will add images as I find time, but I realize in blogging that I am spending far too much time on process-trying to post a certain format, font size, etc., and just want to get the word out my latest passions. In 2023, I wrote most of a novelette (about 8,000 words) in a spiral notebook on luncch breaks because I got too frustrated with how slow and obfuscating Word is. The horror-comedy story's about, in a nutshell, what Jehovah's Witnesses might fear the most. And what if a queer ex-JW was called in for help? But more on that later... So in 2024, I guess I am going to try to worry less about process and more about producing work.)

Marvel and DC still manage to surprise, even while caught up in the mire of event storyline, printing a seemingly infinite number of X-books (Marvel) or Bat-books (DC). Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein’s The Incredible Hulk is rich with monsters, continuing in the vein of Al Ewing’s The Immortal Hulk. Steve Skroce's Clobberin' Time, a fun romp starring the Thing, was a hoot, pairing everyone’s favourite blue-eyed brawler with the Hulk, Doctor Strange and … Doctor Doom? From DC, I enjoyed Mark Waid and Dan Mora’s beautifully retro-yet-new Batman/Superman World's Finest and Shazam!, the most charming and entertaining reminting of that title in years, Ram V’s Swamp Thing and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Wonder Woman: Historia, sort of the Amazonians’ epic year one.

Some indie titles of 2023 prove true my claim that this is an indie-press renaissance, jumpstarted by the onset of the pandemic. Comics creators want to get their creator-owned, original works out there. We have Black’s Myth, a black-and-white, film-noir werewolf police procedure with all the can-do spirit of a 1980’s upstart indie (Editor’s note: Read that phrase again if you like!). Alex de Campi’s latest books prove once more that she can write across genres with ingenuity. In the creator-owned Parasocial, she teams again with artist Erica Henderson of Squirrel Girl (comic-book) fame, with whom she did, Dracula! Motherf**ker! and is a cautionary tale about the fan-celebrity relationship. Her original graphic novel Bad Karma, with art by Canadian Ryan Howe, feels like a 1980’s-action-film, but shrewder, featuring two damaged vets trying to save a man wrongfully convicted and on Death Row. Both remain top-notch storytelling with incisive social commentary. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip's Reckless, their pulpy, immediate original graphic-novel series from Image continues to astonish. Not to mention Humanoid’s fascinating bio-comic Bela Lugosi and Monstrous Books’ Kolchak The Night Stalker 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel tells stories from before and after the character’s network-television existence.

In keeping with my predilection for outcast characters, here are three of my hands-own most-loved titles about loner characters from 2023. Coincidentally, two are about green guys. One is about a werewolf. Guess they all change shape, though.

The Incredible Hulk (Marvel)

Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein, taking their cue from Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s Green Door mythology and Bruce Banner’s dissociative personality disorder developed in 50 issues of The Immortal Hulk, have steered The Incredible Hulk into a full-out, pedal-to-the-metal monster horror comic. Their tenure comes hot on the hells of Greg Pak’s, which elicited a lukewarm response from many faithful readers. The book is a free-for-all as all the monsters in the Marvel Universe take a run at Ol’ Greenskin, from encounters with the Man-Thing and a vintage Ghost Rider to any number of supernatural nasties. The Hulk is, in turn, suppressing the Bruce Banner personality. Gone are the gentle multiple-panel, almost magical green-to-flesh tone (and vice versa) transformations of yesteryear instead replaced by flesh-ripping and bone-cracking sequences which Ewing laid all the body-horror groundwork for. The Hulk is also a wander again, particularly in the South, giving the book the feel of the syndicated TV series of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and of the comic during much of the eighties, for that matter. Johnson is clearly delighting in playing with Ewing’s toys. 

Four issues in, the arc reminds me of Brian Michael Bendis picking up Frank Miller’s groundbreaking character beats from Daredevil and fleshing them over 55 issues between 2001 and 2006. But more to the point, Johnson is developing characters in new directions and expanding the mythos-and shoehorning in all sorts of delightfully dreadful monsters that are terrifically (or horrifically) interesting to watch the Hulk tussle with, especially with Klein up to the task in all its gruesome glory. The sole drawback is that pace was a little slow as Johnson established the story, but an atmosphere of dread was fine compensation. Still, the protagonist-antagonist combinations also put me a mind of Mark Waid doing the very same with Daredevil and with Superman and Batman. In short, this Jade Giant is a fun, gruesome read not for the faint of heart.

The Swamp Thing Volume 3: The Parliament of Gears (DC)

Writer Ram V and artist Mike Perkins stick the landing, as the Americans love to say in podcasts, on Swamp Thing. The final six issues of their 16-issue run, which I recently discovered was supposed to be ten issues, is a visual delight and an intellectual stimulant. The combination of Mike Perkins’ realistic penciling style and Ram V’s Green musings and keen understanding of Swamp Thing mythos and character are a one-two punch. Parliament of Gears was touted as the finest ST fare in years for a reason. It’s a satisfying, thunderous finish to V’s cerebral-horror arc. Like Phillip Kennedy Johnson on The Incredible Hulk, V takes the foundations of a seminal writer, in this case Alan Moore, from his legendary tenure on the title, and develops them in interesting yet logical and intelligent ways. Perkins’s jaw-dropping work ranges from the pedestrian and mechanical to the utterly fantastical, gory, and alien. Want to see wondrous vistas, unsightly horrors, and some fine character mannerisms? Perkins has you covered. New Swampie avatar Levis Kamei (who I maintain looks very suspiciously like a shorter-haired Ram V …) faces off with his brother Jacob, a preternatural contender who wants to bring a cold older to the world. The green guy must unite the Green with its different fellows for the final showdown. It's a dense, sprawling and epic conclusion.

Guest stars include Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern, the Authority’s Jack Hawksmoor, King of Cities (how cool a title is that?) and Tefé Holland, Swamp Thing’s daughter, whom Levis’ love interest Jennifer asks for help. A virtuoso, Perkins gives readers gore, but also phantasmagoric tableaus. Mike Spicer deserves a shout-out for his astonishing colour palette. Perkins also pulls off an astonishing trick. Aside from all these other merits, he depicts new character Trinity, created by nuclear tests in Trinity, New Mexico, and as a result unnervingly powerful (it’s comics, after all, as they say) as a sultry, glowing entity. Ram V also goes beyond the established Moore lore and adds a whole cosmic or psychedelic aspect to the green guy’s lore, expanding on the mythos of the Green, the Red, the Rot and the Parliament of Gears, literal man-made machinations trying to elbow into these ecosystems.

Black’s Myth (Ahoy Comics)

Here’s another fine example of a creator-owned comic offering a unique vision, thanks to Ahoy Comics, delivered with aplomb. Comics creator Eric Palicki has gone and made a series about a supernatural police procedural, a clever fusion of genres, starring lycanthrope Jamie “Strummer” Jones, the bi protagonist.  It’s black and white, so readers can see the art as it was meant to witness, on the drawing board. Wendell Cavalcanti’s linework is classical human form stuff, and stunning as a result. comics-in-arms include Saladin Ahmed’s 1970’s/early 1980’s Abbott series or even Mark Waid’s Black Magick (one with a bi intrepid reporter, the other with a bi intrepid witch detective), involved, sensual and compelling. This second arc is on the racks now but will come out in the second collected trade paperback. It’s this kind of bi rep and can-do-it attitude that you often don’t find at jaded bigger houses, and I’m all in.