Hulk Visionaries: Peter David—Volume 7

Comic Info

Incredible Hulk (2) #384

Reprints Incredible Hulk (2) #383-389 and Annual #17 (July 1991-January 1992).  Things should be great for the Hulk.  He has his intelligence, Betty is back in his life, and he has steady work with the Pantheon.  When Thanos attacks the universe, he finds himself on the frontline to save the world.  In addition to universal threats, Hulk faces a potential killer in the body of a child, is forced to help his old enemy Tyrannus, and learns that his old friend Jim Wilson is suffering from a malady that not even he can cure.

Written by Peter David (with Tom Field stepping in for the stand-alone issue Incredible Hulk (2) #389), Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 7 continues David’s monumental run on the series.  This volume finds the Hulk deeply involved with the Pantheon and crossovers with the Infinity Gauntlet limited series and the second part of a multi-annual series called “Subterranean Wars” in Incredible Hulk (2) Annual #17 (August 1991).

With an effort to reprint all of Peter David’s Hulk work, this volume (with some of the others in the series) shows part of the problem with that plan and a problem with comics that still stretches to today.

I already had problems with this volume because of the Pantheon which I never enjoyed.  Hulk’s essentially neutered to just being a “strong guy” at this point in David’s run.  It is an interesting twist to the character, but it also takes the fun out the unpredictable character.  The only thing close to the “old” Hulk is the Sabra issues in which he can’t speak and is mistaken for the rampaging Hulk.

Incredible Hulk (2) #389

The other problem with this volume is that it is rather disjointed.  The Infinity Gauntlet issues seem rather wasted (but at least they stand alone unlike today’s event crossovers) and you also get the makers of this volume trying to make sense out of one part of a five part series.  The “Subterranean War” storyline has brief summaries and post-issue events written up, but it feels like you are just getting a few pieces of a story.

Another issue with reprinting the entire line is that you have stuff like Incredible Hulk (2) #389 (January 1992) which actually wasn’t written by David but instead by Tom Field.  Readers might have felt ripped off to miss an issue in the run, but it also defeats the point of a Peter David Visionaries series if he isn’t writing it…and it doesn’t factor into the story later either (and this is coming from someone who likes Man-Thing).

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David Volume 7 isn’t the strongest volume in the batch.  I don’t love the Hulk in this collection and I don’t feel that as a whole these issues read well together.  Though I do enjoy that Peter David takes some changes with an old character that some might call a one-trick pony, I didn’t enjoy this part of his arc.

Related Links:

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 1

Hulk Visionaries:  Peter David—Volume 2

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 8