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Incredible Hulk #372 (August 1990)

The first thing we see is Keown's stunning cover, paying partial homage to the iconic split-screen meme of the late 70s/early 80s Hulk TV show, but with the Grey Hulk's face side-by-side with Banner's, and the Green Hulk literally bursting through the center of the page.



After three years of seemingly ignoring readers' demands to bring back the dumb Green Hulk, PAD finally gives them what they've been asking for -- but, as always with PAD in his prime, it has a clever twist to it.

Over the past several issues, PAD has had subplots simmering on the back burners -- a mysterious figure in a high-tech car hunting down the Hulk, Doc Samson on his own Hulk-quest, and most importantly, a big ugly scar suddenly showing up on the Hulk's back while Banner and the Grey Hulk have been waging war with each other in the Hulk's mind.

Well, guess who wants in on the action: yep, the dumb Green Hulk.

And when Banner thinks that his last chance at rekindling his relationship with Betty is going to slip through his fingers, sheer desperation causes the dumb Green Hulk to literally burst through Banner's skin, in gorgeous full-color Keown imagery that is every bit as visceral as the cover, if not more.

Bad timing for the mystery stalker (whose code name, we learn, is Prometheus), because his weapons were designed to capture the smaller, less powerful Grey Hulk, so, needless to say, he fails in his mission and retreats.

And the Hulk reverts to Banner just as it looks like Betty's leaving on the train, only for it to turn out that Betty's intuition had convinced her to stay behind.

Cue a well-earned half-page panel of Bruce and Betty embracing.

A masterful issue all around.

Fanfie, I've been meaning to purchase some issues of this run and wanted to know if there were any weak spots in David's tenure. It's a long run that has a very solid reputation, but is there anything I should avoid?

Stalgie, first of all I'm glad your curiosity has been piqued and thanks for approaching me with your question about this run.

I'm not sure whether the 8 volumes of Hulk Visionaries: Peter David are still in print, but I doubt you'd have any trouble finding used copies at reasonable prices. These will take you from the beginning of the run through issue 396. As I said earlier in this thread, the Las Vegas era is lacking art-wise and the stories seem a little tame in hindsight, but it's still essential.

And this autumn, Marvel will finally be collecting some more of the run in the Ghosts of the Past trade which will cover issues 397-406. Those are also essential.

407-426 are essential as well. After that, depending on how you've liked it so far, you can choose to either press forward like I'm currently doing, or jump ahead to 454 for PAD's final year on the Hulk, where the book started finding its second wind before PAD was fired for not wanting to make the Hulk dumb and savage (don't you just love the comic book industry?) The last PAD issue is 467.

Hope that helps.

Thanks!

You're very welcome.

I just found a bunch of the PAD issues (20 total) at my local used bookstore for a steal of $25 bucks for all of them so I'll be able to hopefully chime in on some of the reviews now.

That's excellent news, Stalgie. I look forward to your comments. I've kept meaning to resume the reviews but was going back and forth in my head as to whether it was worth continuing such a humongous re-read, because there hadn't been any feedback since the Hulk/Wolverine issue. Now I have a reason to continue. Thanks, Stalgie.

I can't say I'll be able to comment on every issue, but I have a solid number of the issues from 372-394 so I'll share my thoughts when you get to an issue I have.

A lot of the best moments are in those issues. That $25 package was a real find and a real bargain!

I'll try to resume the reviews this weekend.

And just because there's no feedback ('cause I've never read 'em, or know much about the Hulk really.) doesn't mean I don't read every post fickles.

Awwww...thanks, Thoth.

Since I had some unexpected free time today, I'll have some reviews ready to post in just a little while.

Incredible Hulk 373 (September 1990)

The cover shows the reunited Betty and Hulk laughing it up, but that scene doesn't come until the very end of the issue. On the way there, the reader gets an abundance of good things: a Hulk/Doc Samson battle, a cameo by Rick Jones (much more of him to come in subsequent issues), and a wonderfully characterized Mother Superior of a nunnery who is never demeaned by PAD, even though a lot of the funniest moments involve her. And for those keeping track, Banner is back to transforming into the grey Hulk at night, having safely locked away the green Hulk...maybe. And Banner is getting a lot more assertive and proactive in human form. Hmmm...

Incredible Hulk 374-375 (October-November 1990)

Although it's great that PAD brings back Rick Jones and writes him wonderfully, this tongue-in-cheek Skrull riff on Invasion of the Body Snatchers feels rather pedestrian by Hulk standards. Not that some of the jokes don't click (my favorite is at the expense of the dreadful 1989 Marvel event Atlantis Attacks), or that the ending, where we find out that Rick's now living in Vegas and has a new girlfriend, is not a brilliant setup for the next issue.

Incredible Hulk 376 (December 1990)

Absolutely brilliant! When Betty and Bruce and Rick arrive at Rick's apartment in Vegas, all seems well until Rick's girlfriend arrives and she turns out to be...Marlo Chandler! Who recognizes Bruce! And Bruce recognizes her! And she wants to know what's become of Joe Fixit! The resultant four-way argument leads to Banner completely losing control, in a way that was never seen before in the pages of this comic: Banner, the grey Hulk, and the green Hulk's battle within Banner's psyche actually manifests itself in Banner's body, resulting in some of the trippiest transformations ever seen, all brilliantly visualized by Dale Keown and punctuated by PAD's consitently on-target verbal jokes. Finally, Bruce asserts himself like never before by telling the two monsters in his head that "Banner is the strongest one there is!" Where do we go from here? Well, let's let the newly arrived Doc Samson show us the way...TO BE CONTINUED

Incredible Hulk 377 (January 1991)

A powerful trip through the tormented psyche of Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, wherein he confronts his childhood traumas at the hands of his abusive father (whom he visualizes as the creature from the Alien movies) and literally pulls together the three core personalities that have been fighting for domination -- Banner, the green Hulk, and the grey Hulk -- into one integrated Hulk. Not nearly as trite as it sounds, thanks to PAD's wit and his talent for shades of grey (no pun intended). The key exchange is this one, between Doc Samson, who is supervising the process, and the reformed villain the Ringmaster, who is using his super-hypnotic abilities for good instead of evil:

RINGMASTER: "You're going unconscionably fast, you know. Most Multiple Personality Disorder cases take months, even years, of therapy.

DOC SAMSON: "Most MPDs aren't capable of destroying a small country! We've run out of time AND options!"

The above quotes are worth keeping in mind during the events which transpire over the next 50 or so issues.

I would be remiss in not mentioning the beginnings of a sisterly bond between sheltered Betty and street-wise Marlo (one of the first realistic female friendships in a superhero comic) or Keown's superb artwork throughout, with him excelling at both the quiet scenes and the horrific mind-trip. I would easily put this issue on a par with the best scenes spotlighting Crazy Jane during Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run.

Incredible Hulk 378 (February 1991)

The Dreaded Dealine Doom rears its head, resulting in the next PAD/Keown issue getting sandwiched between two fill-ins. This one, co-written by PAD with Kurt Busiek, is an alternately sentimental and silly Christmas issue spotlighting old-school Hulk rogue the Rhino. PAD usually stays on the right side of snobbery when dealing with dubious villains, but here he can't keep himself from looking down his nose on the Rhino. A misfire.

Incredible Hulk 379 (March 1991)

The "miracle cure" was no such thing, no matter how much the new Hulk deludes himself that it was. Doc Samson recognizes this right away, but before he can do more work on the Hulk, he is sidelined thanks to members of the Pantheon, a self-styled do-gooder organization that wants to recruit the Hulk, by force if necessary. When the Hulk resists, a fight breaks out, and the Hulk pretends to be knocked unconscious and taken by the Pantheon, in order to minimize the collateral damage. PAD and Keown are firing on all cylinders by this point. And whenever it all threatens to become a bit much, there are Betty, Rick, and Marlo to keep the book grounded.

Incredible Hulk 380 (April 1991)

As much as I love PAD, I'm not blind to his weak points, and one of his biggest weaknesses is the tendency to periodically write Very Special Issues about Big Real-Life Problems. Here, we get a spotlight on Doc Samson (something I'd normally love) as he deals with a convicted female vigilante-style killer named Crazy Eight, who is going to the electric chair as a result of Samson's testimony. Heavy-handed and on-the-nose.

Incredible Hulk 381 (May 1991)

In which the Hulk and his kidnappers arrive at The Mount, the Pantheon's vast headquarters, and we get to know the whole gang, including their enigmatic leader-slash-father, the immortal (?) Agamemnon, allegedly born of a relationship between god and mortal. Meanwhile, Marlo forces Betty to face some hard truths about herself and her life so far.

Incredible Hulk 382 (June 1991)

The Hulk, despite being put off by the back-biting and squabbling among the Pantheon members, finally accepts their offer to join them. But Delphi, the Pantheon precognitive, has a disturbing vision of the Hulk laughing heartily during a violent rampage, superbly rendered by Keown. And so officially begins the Hulk's "Pantheon Era", which will last through issue 426 and be consistently superlative through issue 400 (minus 389, a fill-in not written by PAD), then rarely less than good through 426. But once again, it's Betty and Marlo who steal the show as they become roommates and cement their sisterly bond with a drunken all-night laugh-a-thon as Betty recounts her crazy life to Marlo.

That must be the one where Betty admits, "I was once the Harpy."

Yep.

Which leads to the joke about Betty needing "lots of backless dresses." LOL

Classic! Often, I think that PAD at the height of his Hulk run is pretty much the best PAD has ever been.

I agree. How ironic that he did his best work writing a character he had grown up hating, huh?

Very much so! It just goes to show that a writer can make lemonade out of lemons if they use enough imagination and have the talent to back it up. What he left behind is and probably always will be the best the Hulk feature has ever been. I think few would dispute that.

And my assessment of his work on the Hulk being his best stands even considering that I feel PAD is easily a top five Spider-Man writer.

I agree about PAD's Spider-Man work. We have former Spider-Man editor Christopher Priest to thank for taking a chance on PAD back when people from the Marvel Sales Department were rarely allowed to cross over into becoming Marvel creators.

I'm also a fan of PAD's Spider-Man work in a big way (though I hate to always have to bring up that I hated his Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series, which wasn't really his fault).

I also strongly agree that PAD's Hulk was *the* seminal run in the franchise's entire long history, and also probably the seminal run in PAD's long history, which includes several other magnificent stories and runs on titles. Something else else click and magic happened. It's almost impossible to plan such magic, but it's incredible to witness.

PAD actually got me to READ Hulk. Never did before that. Tried some of it after PAD. Just wasn't as good.

Agreed. Trying to continue Hulk after PAD left was, in my opinion akin to trying to continue Swamp Thing after Alan Moore left. Of course, I'm aware that the reality is that corporate IPs exist to get milked for all they're worth, and besides, the Hulk has a higher profile than Swamp Thing.

PAD did, of course, return to the Hulk for 11 issues which I thought were actually quite promising, but Marvel in the mid-2000s was micro-managing their most popular properties, so it's understandable why he left so soon. At least we got a nice long run of X-Factor out of it.

It was really PAD's use of the gray Hulk that grabbed me. I'd never seen the Hulk portrayed as anything other than the classic "Hulk SMASH!" version. Yes, he was inspired by the Hulk's earliest appearances--in fact, as early as those early Avengers issues, the classic behavior and speech patterns weren't yet established, and he was more like the gray Hulk without being gray. I was impressed and refreshed by the attitude and higher intelligence than what had grated on me as a kid. That hooked me, and PAD kept me when classic Hulk was re-introed and shared the spotlight with gray. And THEN there was integrated Hulk! He just never let things get stale until Heroes Reborn seemed to take the wind out of his sails.

It's a good thing I stuck with things back then. I came aboard Hulk strictly because John Byrne took over. I stuck around when he abruptly left and endured the rough issues in between to get to the greatness that awaited!

Very well said, Lardy.

Having grown up in a place where Marvel Comics were not readily available, my first issue of Hulk was actually 400! I won't quite yet get into the details of why I think it was a bittersweet turning point for the book, but I sure did enjoy the remaining two years of the Pantheon Era. I don't think it was Heroes Reborn so much as the general incompetence at Marvel from 1995 to 1997 that took the wind out of PAD's sails. To be fair, the book was recovering at the time that he was fired. PAD has also said that if he hadn't been fired, he was already planning to leave after 500.