Second day in a row where I'm really into this! Let's go!
This is where we get REALLY awesome. I mean this guy and number 1 are both fucking classy. Not just that but both have sizeable runs on awesome books. This dude in particular wrote The Incredible Hulk when it was at its best. FOR TWELVE GODDAMN YEARS.
TWELVE. YEARS.
And I've yet to read anything bad from it. Of course there's only one person this could be. I am in fact talking about
#2: Peter David!
Who is he?: 52 year old consistently awesome American of German and Israeli descent.
What has he done that I might know?: The Incredible Hulk (FOR TWELVE YEARS), The AMAZING Spider-Man, Spider-Man: The Other, X-Factor, X-Factor Investigations (they're different but both just called X-Factor), Madrox, A plethora of Star Trek novels and stuff
What has he done that I don't know?: Lots of stuff that I don't know... Shut up.
Tell me
1. The Incredible Hulk
This is a hard one to write about, seeing as I'd have to summarise 12 years in a single paragraph. I guess the simplest thing to say is that this run contains his very soul. Not just because the content is consistently awesome, but also because he actually had the ability to put his feelings and personal stuff into it without it feeling like a lame outlet (save for perhaps the attack on Savage Dragon). Not just that but he developed Banner and Hulk beyond their bland stereotypes to the point that Hulk was part of a dissociative identity disorder, partially a result of Banner's tumultuous childhood with an abusive father. Other than that level of awesomeness we got Professor Hulk, Maestro, Joe Fixit and the death of Betty Ross (inspired by Peter David's wife having had recently left him). Nothing the man could do sucked, and for 12 years that's almost completely insane.
2. Amazing Spider-Man
Specifically "The Death of Jean Dewolff". In fact I'll save time: Tim has reviewed the storyline already and laid out how awesome it is. 'Nuff said.
3. X-Factor volume 1
Again, I could just refer you to another thing, Not Blog X in this case, to sum up just how good X-Factor was with Peter David's run was, but the real reason this sticks out is because it came out good even with editors raping it viciously with crossover stuff that actually stopped the stories outright. How he coped is beyond me. Still this has some great X-Stuff and more than anything else it had 'that' issue. The one where they all went through therapy. That shit was immense. So much so that he has since repeated and aped with his current X-Factor book (volume 3 has the issue FYI). Read his stuff on this, srsly.
4/5. Madrox/X Factor (current)
THIS is the main reason I love Peter David's work. I started reading this back around christmas time when I got Madrox: Multiple Choice and X-Factor: The Longest Night. This series is clever on so many levels. But the most important thing to think about here is that it nearly ALWAYS catches you off guard. ALWAYS. I can't think of any point something happened that I expected, other than for Larry Stromann's art to hurt me inside yet still be captivating. Oh and for the Secret Invasion material to be mediocre at best. But that's just the evidence that Peter David is consistently attacked by events or crossovers that only harm his work... Except Messiah Complex. That came out awesome. If you haven't read Madrox or X-Factor... You suck. Just... Suck.
So as you can see, Peter David has earnt his place at #2 and then some. Who could possibly be so epic as to beat out this man?
You'll see tomorrow (probably)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment