betty and bruce reunite, only for hulk to cause problems in their relationship again, but not in the typical manner. this chapter of the hulk has things get back on track, almost to status quo, but not quite. In this volume however, there's finally a nice compromise of good art and writing, and just in time for banner and his hulk personas to do the same. but just when peter david got to really start his run fresh, and let his story shine through, the art took a nosedive with jeff purves. rick jones was hulk, and bruce was part of this group called the hulkbusters, it was a mess that peter david had deal with and clean up, but the stellar todd mcfarlane art more than made up. In the first volume, the story started out very mixed due to peter having to follow up on something the other writers started. There's so much going on in this second Leader storyline that it's impossible to comment on it all, except that it's David at his best.īoth this volume and the first are wholly mixed bags of peter david greatness, and other elements holding it back We get a great two-issue return to Vegas, and a great four-issue return of the Leader, allowing one of the Hulk's greatest foes to also bring this second volume to an end, as if he were ticking off each of the arcs in David's time. In the last half year (issues #395-400), the Hulk even returns to greatness. It's a good new direction for the Hulk, and as unique of a direction as when he was a legbreaker in Vegas. The whole idea of Banner being psychologically damaged was entirely new in the early '90s, and issue #377 was the strong culmination of that plotline, something that might not be as obvious from a generation later.Īs for the new status quo: it's great, not just because we get a smart Hulk, but also because we get the introduction of the Pantheon, a fun group of mythically themed characters operating in semi-secret doing semi-black-ops stuff. Peter David's second Omnibus starts off as a bit of a meander, but with issue #377, we get to the second big arc of David's time on the Hulk, as Bruce gets psychoanalyzed into reintegrating his personalities, resulting in the smart green Hulk.

Peter david hulk omnibus vol 1