Hulk Visionaries: Peter David—Volume 2

Comic Info

Incredible Hulk (2) #345

Reprints Incredible Hulk (2) #340-348 (February 1988-October 1988).  The Hulk (now gray and only active at night), Rick Jones, and Clay Quartermain hit the road on the run from the law after the destruction of Gamma Base and search for evidence that the United States government is experimenting with gamma bombs.  What the Hulk, Rick, and Clay don’t know is that the Leader is also in pursuit of the bombs and his actions have devastating effects.  A mysterious man named Joe Fixit also appears in the Las Vegas scene…what is his tie to the Hulk?

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 2 really has a lot of meat.  It ties up the stories that were started by the other Hulk writers and really ends the first arc of Peter David’s writing.  The comic was already picking up at this point and the young hot artist named Todd McFarlane helped make the series explode when he began illustrating Amazing Spider-Man around the same time.  Many of the issues were previously released in the trade paperback Incredible Hulk:  Ground Zero which collected much of McFarlane’s work on the series.

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 2 is pretty fun.  It has a lot of variety in the story.  The story kicks off with Hulk facing a rematch with Wolverine (and the X-Men are in a pretty interesting place at this point too…about to head to their deaths in Texas).  It also wraps up the Leader storyline and the final threads of Gamma Base with the fates of Saunders and Laroquette.  These events culminate in a town called Middletown which plays into events later in Peter David’s long run.

Incredible Hulk (2) #347

Despite throwdowns with Wolverine and the big boom in Middletown, the biggest significant change comes in the last two issues of the series.  David introduces Joe Fixit.  He does it in a way that doesn’t explain how and why the Hulk is suddenly working as a bouncer at a Las Vegas casino and why Bruce Banner is no longer around (that is explained in a confusing flashback in Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 3).  The Joe Fixit storyline is pretty interesting and also introduces an escort named Marlo who plays heavily into the Hulk’s storyline for years following this.  I like the Joe Fixit period and it is fun to read its origins here in this collection.

As mentioned, a big pull includes Todd McFarlane’s art.  McFarlane had been doing the art for a while before this collection, but it feels like he really got free reign starting around now and it much more resembles his Spider-Man work (which he started with Amazing Spider-Man (1) #298 in the March 1988 issues).  This really brought a lot of attention to the Hulk book, but McFarlane left the Hulk after issue #346 which he just provided layouts for.

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 2 is one of the best in the Peter David series.  There is a lot going on here and it is interesting to see how Peter David takes the threads provided to him by other authors from the book and weaves them into a story.  The series shows a lot of potential in this volume and it is a good basis for Peter David’s long run.

Related Links:

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 1

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 3

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 4

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 5

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 6

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 7

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 8