Originally published April 3, 1998, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1272
Well, this is going to be one of the harder columns to write…
When I first started on The Incredible Hulk, you have to understand… no one wanted to write it. The proof of that, more or less, was that I was writing it.
You see, back in those days, I was still regarded with fear and loathing by many editorial quarters at Marvel (which is not to say I’m not anymore, but it was new to me back then.) My hiring on Spider-Man caused a firestorm of debate and criticism among the editors because, back then, my “day job” was as manager of direct sales. The notion of someone in the sales department writing a comic book was considered foolish (“Why don’t we start letting the secretaries in subscriptions write books?” sniffed one editor) and dangerous (“It’s a conflict of interest; he’ll concentrate on selling his own books over those of others,” warned another). But I sold my first stories to Spider-Man, and shortly thereafter was assigned to the series, largely because then-editor Jim Owsley was something of a maverick who absolutely didn’t give a flying fig what anyone thought of him. In fact, I always kind of thought he put me on the title just to annoy people. And when, after a short stint on the book he fired me off it because of, according to him, pressure from above, I wasn’t entirely surprised. Spider-Man was a flagship title. You didn’t just get assigned the book out of nowhere; you had to work your way up to it by writing lower-end, lower-interest books.
So one day, Bob Harras came into my office–after 5 PM, which I always insisted upon, because I never discussed anything of an editorial nature while I was on the clock for sales–and asked if I was interested in writing The Incredible Hulk.
Immediately I knew that if Bob was coming to me, the bottom of the barrel was being scraped. Why deal with the mishugas and politically incorrect fallout of hiring the sales guy if there are any other options. And Bob more or less confirmed it. He indicated that he had one other option, another editor who would step into the writing chores if no one else would do it, but really, what kind of a ringing endorsement is that? If there was any other prospects on the horizon, I sure didn’t know about it. Hulk was regarded as a character of limited potential, and the sales–outside of the blip when John Byrne was handling the series–were pretty much flat.
I had no interest in writing the series at all. I had no idea what I’d do with it. The only thing that made it remotely intriguing to me was the notion that the Hulk had been turned gray and crafty by Al Milgrom, and that I could continue to use that incarnation of the character if I so desired.
I figured I would last on the book for maybe six months.
He also asked if I wouldn’t mind working with this artist they had on the book, Todd McFarlane. His art was seriously flawed, so much so that at least one other writer had refused to work with him, but Bob saw something there and felt he had potential. He was reluctant to take him off the book to make room for me. I don’t know for sure that Bob would have fired him off the book to accommodate me, but I didn’t want to take the chance of costing someone else his gig. I looked at McFarlane’s art pages for the last Al Milgrom-written issue, and it was kind of lousy, but I’d seen worse–hëll, I’d worked with worse–and I agreed with Bob… there did seem to be potential there. So I shrugged and said, “Sure, I can work with him.”
Absolutely no one at Marvel cared what I was doing on the book. Incredible Hulk didn’t even register on anyone’s editorial scope. It was sufficiently low end, I guess, to avoid hassle I did what I could creatively to get the series noticed by the fans, and also did everything I could to accommodate the artist. Todd wanted to draw big machines and robots, so I kept putting in scenes that called for that. Todd wanted to draw Wolverine and I moved heaven and earth–including a good deal of negotiation with the X-office, who really didn’t want to loan him out–to use him for an issue (#340). Todd gave me the cover for that issue, the one piece of McFarlane art I own. Hangs in my office to this very day.
A year into my run on the series, Steve Saffel from Marvel’s promotions department said to me, “This is the book that’s going to make your name. This is the series the fans are going to know you for.” I thought he was out of his mind. Sales were not going anywhere in particular, aside from the sales spike in #340.
But slowly, slowly, fans started to notice. I blissfully continued to do whatever I wanted. Like the Hulk, I just wanted to be left alone, and by and large, I was. At one convention, Brent Anderson told me he liked my work and promised that, sooner or later, he’d do a cover for me.
Bob Harras left the book after a year or so, and turned me over to his then-assistant, Bobbie Chase. And we worked together for a lot of years, and the fans who crabbed because I hadn’t made him savage and green again went away to be replaced by fans who didn’t want him that way. Who liked where I was going with the series. Year piled upon year, and I always managed to come up with twists and turns somehow.
And now I look back on the body of work, and it’s been nearly twelve years. I’ve written more words about the Hulk than I have about any other character. Perhaps more words than anyone has written about him. The conventional wisdom is that there’s a turnover in comic book readership every four years. That would mean that I’ve been on the series for three generations of fans. Fans could have learned to read the comic in elementary school and now be in college, and I’m the only writer on the series they’d have ever known.
And now it’s over.
Every so often I’d run into Chris Claremont and Chris would say with good-natured worry how he was watching my run on the title extend year after year, and he was worried that I’d break his record on X-Men. I’d assure him that it could never happen because, if nothing else, his run was consecutive and I had two fill-in stories, so I couldn’t match his decade-and-a-half in any event. Still, there’s a degree of irony in it, I guess. Chris left X-Men under pressure-filled circumstances. Fans were complaining loudly on computer boards that he had nothing left to give the characters, and it was time for new blood. The Powers That Be wanted to take the characters in directions that Chris didn’t want to go, shepherded by that selfsame new blood. And so he left.
I suppose it would have been the height of ego for me to think that I would have been entitled to treatment any different than that.
Because time marches on, and it’s gotten to a point where, lo and behold, Incredible Hulk is no longer a book that no one wants to touch with a ten meter cattle prod. It’s no longer a title that I can write to the satisfaction of the powers that be. More is expected from it, I guess. Maybe it’s because fans change, or maybe it’s because I raised expectations. Maybe the Hulk’s becoming a major cornerstone in Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return sparked the desire to make the Hulk a bigger and bigger part of the Marvel Universe (even though these tie-ins prompted complaints from long-time readers who were accustomed to reading Incredible Hulk without the onus of reading other titles.)
I don’t know.
Ultimately, it was up to me. Up to me to produce the mandated Hulk-centric major storylines that could spread throughout the entire Marvel Universe, so that more crossovers could be done. Up to me to produce a Hulk that was even darker, nastier and more savage (even mute, it was suggested) than was currently being written. And I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t. Whatever. Makes no difference.
For comics is a transitory game, you see. Always has been. And the simple fact is that, despite all my work on the title, I’m the old game, not the new. And we must always have new, always. And ten years from now… hëll, five years, maybe even two… fans of the book won’t care that I was on the series. Many won’t even know.
But how can that be, you say. I’m “Mr. Hulk” to many. You want proof? Fine.
My leaving the title was barely announced and already it sparked a discussion as to who should take over the book. Adam was leaving, too, so we’d need a writer and artist. Every writer you could think of who’s hot right now was suggested, and a few pencillers as well.
No one suggested Roy Thomas.
No one bandied about Len Wein.
No one floated Herb Trimpe. Or Sal Buscema. Or Steve Ditko.
These guys defined the Hulk for generations, just as I did. And they’re history… but that’s all they are. And now, when it comes to the Hulk, I am, too. I’m not upset about it. It’s just the Way It Is. It’s the reality of the comic book field, and I’ve always known it and knew that it’d catch up sooner or later.
So fine. I’ll step aside and see who they will get to devote the next twelve years of his life to the Hulk. But hey… the good news is… Brent finally got around to producing that Hulk cover. No book to go with it now… but a darned nice cover.
(Peter David, writer of stuff, can be written to at Second Age, Inc., PO Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705. He can’t help but notice that the merest hint of Chris Claremont having a renewed association with the X-Men caused a burst of huzzahs among the fanbase… a fanbase which complained that the series hasn’t been the same since the departure of the man they complained about when he was still on the series. There’s something ironic about that. Or amusing. Or just a sad commentary. Take your pick.)
• 
And several years later, the fans still remembered and you wound up the regular writer of Hulk.
At least when you left the second time, it sounde like it was more on your terms.
I missed the first run but did catch Tempest Fugist which I think is the second run you are referring too. At the time I was disappointed because my entire history with the Hulk had been wiped out at the conclusion of that storyline which would have been fine but it wasn’t replaced with anything because Peter left. Looking back on it based on what I know about the Hulk history since 2005, Marvel can’t seem to make up their mind what they want to do with the character so clearly there was behind the scene stuff going on that we weren’t privy too and that had nothing to do with Peter because it kept going on for years after he left.
Your run is still my favorite of all.
Oh, this brings back the memories. The first American Spider-man comic I bought was Amazing Spider-man #289. I was so impressed by that story that it led me back to both Spider-man vrs Wolverine, and then on to your run on Hulk. Which got me curious about Wolverine as my sole experience of the character was in British reprints of Secret Wars, and he didn’t seem too appealing to me. But with the way you wrote him in #340, and Jim Owsley in the the Spider-man crossover, I finally started picking up X-men. (I’d read some reprints of the early issues featuring the original team, but nothing beyond that..)And from that I worked my way back to the classic Claremont/Byrne issues.
To this day, I still believe that you, Jim Owlsey/Christopher Priest, and Chris Claremont are the only writers that have been able to nail Logan’s voice, and make him a character that is something more than the cliched beserker guy that so many other writers portray him as.
And your Hulk run is the definitive run for me in the same way that Walter Simonson is for Thor. It’s without equal. And I don’t think it will ever be topped in length or quality.
So thanks for getting me interested in that side of Marvel. I don’t think I ever would have given the mutant comics a try, if your work there hadn’t piqued my curiosity. (The X-Factor crossover helped cement that as well.)
I dunno 14 years later and when I think Hulk I still think PAD.
Maybe part of it has to do with following your work, but even in going over the most recent hulk stuff, I forgot about World War Hulk.
I find it interesting now that the ‘Hot’ new name for reviving older characters seems to be Mark Waid.
I wasn’t a Hulk fan at all before you started on Hulk. And I haven’t really been much of one since you left either. A few book, here and there. But I still enjoy rereading PAD Hulks, especially the three-part team-up with your X-Factor team.
PAD, your Hulk run is always in my list of greatest runs on any title ever. It’s in the same league as O’Neil/Adams BATMAN: it’s an extended run by someone who didn’t create the character who still defined the character forever and took the character farther than the original creator ever could.
In my opinion, it’s pretty much required reading for anyone who ever wants to talk comics seriously, at least with me. Ultimately, I end up saying, “Well, STUPENDOUS FLOATING MAN #7 was okay, but it wasn’t as good as this one issue of HULK by Peter David, because…” Cue three-hour explanation.
(Of course, that might be why I have no friends.)
Peter been off the book for longer than he’s been on and fans still remember it. I myself missed his Hulk run, wasn’t really reading comics then, but his Hulk novel What Savage Beast is what got me into comics and still resonates as much with me now then it did all those years ago.
What’s also intresting is the shift that’s taken place. Back in 1998 there was a constant push for what’s new at the cost of what’s old that wasn’t broken. Today it’s the reverse with Marvel and DC summer events this year being a prequel and sequel to books that were popular in the 80s.
Peter, your run on Hulk is my Watchmen. Your stories made me fall in love with comic books and your writing showed me how versatile and compelling the medium could be. I certainly won’t ever forget what you did on that book and what you have done, and continue to do, for comics. Thank you.
I pick up Hulk every now and again, and I have enjoyed some stories (Jason Aaron’s recent run was entertaining), but nothing has even come close to matching the magic you cast with that character.
Markisan says it perfectly.
I am bringing my daughter and her friend to a book festival held here in Las Vegas. Today is comic book day. I am hoping my girl picks up some of my love of comics. So far anything I like = bad. Pre-teens define contrary.
Keep writing Peter, I will happily keep reading
Here it is years after you wrote this, and I can honestly say that there are still only two Hulks that matter to me. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s/Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Hulk, through both the short lived original run and the Tales to Astonish stories, and yours. That’s it. Al Milgrom may have set the grey and crafty stage for you, but you then owned that stage and made it all yours.
And your run changed the Hulk for me. I could still do the mostly mindless “Hulk Smash!” Hulk in the years after Stan, Jack an Steve even though their Hulk wasn’t that mindless wrecking machine, but I’ve never dug that version of the character as much since your run. You created a an amazing run and an entire corner of the Marvel Universe for the Hulk that made the eventual return to “Hulk Smash!” just seem meh by comparison.
To some degree I probably don’t even enjoy the Marvel Film’s Hulk solo film as much as many of my friends do because the character of the Hulk seems so predictable and one note. I so want to see the Mr. Fixit Hulk in Vegas on film with Mark Ruffalo in the role. I so want to see things like The Pantheon done right on screen, big or small, and as more than a blip. That I would dig.
That is so awesome to read how the politics and everything ended up turning you into “household name” when it comes to the Hulk. You are one of the first names that gets mentioned when someone says where do I start?.
Its funny about the crossover because Onslaught brought me to the Hulk and after you left the title, I slowly tracked down the back issues at my LCS and comic cons. Its dorky but its nice to have a sense of pride knowing that I your complete run and a good chunk of it from your first Hulk issue to the Rhino/Hulk Casey at Bat issue is five feet away waiting to be read, for the first time. I will track down the Essential collections and catch up on Wein, Ditko and Buscema’s work but afterwards I’ll just say ya but its NOT PAD.
Just wanted to say that your run on the Hulk, is the only one that i will buy a random back issue from it (doesn’t matter if it’s smack in the middle of an arc), and still enjoy the heck out of it. i can’t think of any other run i could do that with (i just realized i did that with your Aquaman run, so i guess you are the only writer i do that with?)
anyways, thanks for the great stories!
Sorry for going off-topic, PAD, but Superstorm Sandy was not kind to your old partner J. K. Woodward:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/11/help-j-k-woodward-recover-from-hurricane-sandy-by-buying-his-art/
Peter, what were the flaws in Todd’s artwork?
“Fans could have learned to read the comic in elementary school and now be in college, and I’m the only writer on the series they’d have ever known.”
This describes me exactly, in fact. I still re-read your run in its entirety every few years as time allows.
Peter, is there any chance of seeing that Brent Anderson cover, if not through Marvel, then here? Seems like a shame that it could have not been used as a variant when you came back the second time or something.
Hmmm. That was in the days when i was hardly reading any comics – and effectively NO Marvel books.
This is a good time to tell you: you were the one who wrote my all-time favorite sound effect in comics. This was for an arm-wrestling match between the Hulk and the Thing. Someone had tried to nuke them to break up the stalemate.
RAKOVLAMM!!
Great pun, thank you. 🙂
I have to admit that I have never read an issue of PAD’s first Hulk run. In the 90’s I read mostly DC comics so my first sample of his work was the Aquaman mini-series and the monthly, followed by a hadfull of early Supergirl issues. I stopped reading for a few years so I have never read Young Justice either. I did read your second Hulk run. “Hulk smash punny paper work!” Classic.
I have Madrox and X-factor. I do have your first X-factor run but I bought them as back issues long after you left that book.
I followed PAD in the Hulk from the beginning. I had just matured as a comic book fan and had reached that state when you’re a little jaded of same-old-same-old superheroics, but continues reading out of habit. PAD’s writing was different. It seemed to leap out from the page and make me care.
And I was already a fan of the Bill Mantlo version. But I didn’t see any contradiction between him and PAD: Mantlo also had a long storyline about the Hulk becoming intelligent, and then becoming completely mindless and mute. There was already precedent for playing around with the concept, making me think the “traditionalists” were full of šhìŧ, like they so often are.
It’s interesting, the office politics. Because it was totally different in Brazil. The Hulk was popular here, had been popular for years. I think it was the third most popular Marvel franchise, behind the X-Men and Spider-Man. So PAD began in the big leagues, from our perspective.
(Another interesting tidbit was that Batman was not very popular in the 1980s here. I kid you not. He had trouble to keep his own book, it was cancelled multiple times, even after the 1989 movie. At some point they gave up and only released minis and special issues with Batman. I think it took a few years more for Batman to have a monthly)
Just reading this you can tell the emotion that was poured into the book, and reading Sir Peter David’s final issue of the run you can see it all there. I love that issue long time. Still, I think “Future Imperfect” is probably my favourite example of just what PAD’s run was all aboot. And it’s a fairly quick read too, compared to 12 years or so, cause it packs in all of the Big Ideas with cool twists, fun lines, sprinklings of continuity that shade but don’t overpower the story, and it’s all based around a central character conflict. And Maestro is basically the internal conflict that is at the heart of the Hulk external. Either that or Hulk: The End. That’s a good one also. (wish I could track down that prose story it’s based on but seems to be outta print)
It’s 2012, and to me I can still feel the anger and disgust of reading that first Mike Carey issue. And the moronic Byrne issues. And the obviously mimicked Jenkins issues. And then. The horror that was the Bruce Jones run.
In fact, if it weren’t for the World War Hulk issues, we could go right back to where you left off and start there and no one would miss a beat.
Mantlo and David. As far as I am concerned, the only two who truly understand the character.
What I wouldn’t give for you to come back.