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Incredible Hulk Epic Collection
Incredible Hulk Epic Collection Vol. 15: Ground Zero
Collects Incredible Hulk (1968) #331-346 And Marvel Graphic The Incredible Hulk And The Thing - The Big Change.
A truly incredible era! Writer Peter David's character-defining eleven-year stint on INCREDIBLE HULK kicks off with a fan-favorite collaboration with Todd McFarlane! Rick Jones' days as a rampaging Hulk are numbered, but only if Bruce Banner manages to force his own transformation into a gray-skinned goliath! As the Hulk's new status quo causes marital strife for Bruce and Betty, the Hulk battles the original X-Men - now calling themselves X-Factor - and squares off in a classic rematch with Wolverine! Bruce plans to destroy the government's stockpile of gamma bombs, but the newly restored Leader has a plan of his own that will spell disaster for the Hulk! And on an alien world, the Hulk and the Thing share an offbeat team-up!
A truly incredible era! Writer Peter David's character-defining eleven-year stint on INCREDIBLE HULK kicks off with a fan-favorite collaboration with Todd McFarlane! Rick Jones' days as a rampaging Hulk are numbered, but only if Bruce Banner manages to force his own transformation into a gray-skinned goliath! As the Hulk's new status quo causes marital strife for Bruce and Betty, the Hulk battles the original X-Men - now calling themselves X-Factor - and squares off in a classic rematch with Wolverine! Bruce plans to destroy the government's stockpile of gamma bombs, but the newly restored Leader has a plan of his own that will spell disaster for the Hulk! And on an alien world, the Hulk and the Thing share an offbeat team-up!
464 pages, Paperback
Published August 20, 2024
6 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Peter David
3,569 books1,364 followersaka David Peters
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 23, 2025
My favorite collection of Hulk stories I’ve ever read. Great plots and characters. Some surprisingly mature stories amidst the more standard superhero elements. Great art by McFarlane and this collection includes some of the all-time iconic issues like #340 and #345. I found the Hulk-Bruce Banner dynamic very compelling with Banner forced to change into Hulk from sunset to sunrise. And since the two are odds with each other, Hulk is constantly trying to sabotage Banner from being able to do anything during the day (I.e. causing a cave-in to trap his human-self, getting himself insanely drunk, jumping up to a deadly cliff, etc.)
Also loved the inclusion of the Starlin/Wrightson graphic novel at the end. Co-starring The Thing, it was a funny read with great art.
Also loved the inclusion of the Starlin/Wrightson graphic novel at the end. Co-starring The Thing, it was a funny read with great art.
December 31, 2024
Peter David's writing in this series set a precedent for modern comic storytelling and I don't think he gets enough credit.
Obviously Alan Moore set the standard for modern comics around this same time, but we need to recognize the contribution David made for the modern age of comics. His writing felt so close to being something from the late 90s and early 00s, and if you read some of the other comics around that time like Englehart's Fantastic Four you'll understand what I mean when I say there's a huge difference in quality.
There's still some of the old comic book stylings mixed in here. Thought bubbles are used occasionally but they never take up too much room or feel invasive. I also appreciate not overusing inner monologues, which a lot of comics of the modern age could take some inspo from. I also don't love the "meanwhile, in the lowly streets of Manhattan" type of setting up the scene, but it didn't bother me too much since its used pretty sparingly.
Its because of this writing that I like the story. I'm not familiar with what was going on prior to David's run other than what was presented to me at the beginning of the story; a corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D that's using gamma bombs in favor of the U.S Government, Rick Jones being a Hulk, and these people calling themselves the Hulkbusters constantly on the search for the Hulk, without care as to who's currently the Hulk at the time, Jones or Banner.
Needless to say it looks like it was going off the rails a little. David brings these ideas together and makes it work really well in my opinion. I like the story of where the Hulkbusters are headed as a team, and I also was glad he made Rick back to normal. I love Rick Jones, but I never liked him being a powered up superhero. I preferred when he was trying to be Cap's new sidekick or just hangout with the Avengers.
David also brings back The Leader as soon as possible, setting him up in the first couple of issues. Throughout the rest of the book, The Leader is our main antagonist, and he's concocting a way to finally destroy the Hulk once and for all. I don't love the redesign here for the leader, and I can't tell if its just because its McFarlane or if I just think its a bad design in general.
Speaking of art here, I'll take a minute to complain about McFarlane. While the man did have some incredible ideas for certain characters like introducing spaghetti webbing to Spider-Man, the art here is hit or miss for me. I like aspects of it, and when Jim Saunders III is inking for him, the art is noticeably better in quality. Its actually when Todd gets to draw and ink his art that you see a dip in quality. There's like 2 issues or something in here that just look really crude and rough, because the line work gets to thin and scratchy, where Saunders III used thick line work and cleaned up some of the messiness of McFarlane's typical work. I know that's the aesthetic he's going for but its just not my taste. I hate Bruce's hair and his glasses being the thick circular Harry Potter type glasses. It just doesn't look great to me personally.
The other artist who contributes here is Erik Larsen and I'd be happy to see him return to the book. His art here was far more welcome for me than anything McFarlane did on this book, and I'm hoping that McFarlane left the book around this time so the next couple of Epic Collections don't have this bad a look to them.
There's new ideas inserted such as the Hulk being Bruce's coping with abuse and mental health issues that he keeps buried, which I think was kind of always around in the Hulk's mythos, but never this implied. David knows how to take that idea and not make it the entire point of the book but making it something that's covered on every once in a while to remind us that for as good as a guy that Bruce is he's got a dark past.
I love the gray Hulk idea, or the idea that he's Joe Fixit later on in the run. That's a cool premise to me. He's pretty fucked up and I think that's an interesting conflict to the og Hulk and Bruce himself. David knows how to create interesting characters in general that kept me engaged with the book.
Especially his use of random civilians throughout the series just having little subplots or sometimes being the main plot of an issue. Some highlights are the people of Gammatown before it's hit with the Leader's gamma bomb. You get to see these people's lives before they get hit and it brings weight to their deaths/mutations. Same with the woman that kills her abusive husband, and how David keeps it vague as to whether she really meant to do that or not. Lastly, the issue where a man finds Bruce and assumes he's a mutant and wants to give him up to X-Terminators (which was a fake organization the X-Men were using to save mutants at the time) for money is a really interesting dynamic. Not every character is perfect or even good, but you can tell deep down some of these people are actually good hearted, the man who found Bruce being the case. He rethinks his opinions of mutants after meeting Bruce, questioning if they're all that bad since Bruce is so nice and seems just like any ordinary human. Other than, y'know, turning into a big monster at night or whatnot.
Finally, I want to talk about the graphic novel archived here as well by Jim Starlin and Berni Wrightson was one of my favorite stories collected here. I think part of it was how refreshing it was to pour through Wrightson's incredible artwork after suffocating from McFarlane's artwork for so long. I love Ben Grimm and I thought Wrightson's artwork for him was awesome looking. He makes the rocks on his body feel real, and while I usually like a lighter orange for the Thing's rocks, the dark orange actually worked here a lot.
Shoutout to the reference to Utah, I got excited when I read that part. I appreciated that here and in David's issues on the book of the Hulk being a traveling monster who's going across the country, but especially in the Rocky Mountain areas pretty consistently.
Starlin writes a good Hulk and Thing here, and while it really has no connection to what David's story is turning into on the main book, its a really fun read. I haven't read a ton of Jim Starlin other than a few things like Death in the Family, but I enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than that book. He wrote a story that was really fun, and gives me the vibes of a modernized Stan Lee story. Its fun and short and the ending did have me actually chuckle a little bit because its just so stupid it works for me. It keeps the status quo in a way that's poking fun at itself and so I thought it worked.
Obviously Alan Moore set the standard for modern comics around this same time, but we need to recognize the contribution David made for the modern age of comics. His writing felt so close to being something from the late 90s and early 00s, and if you read some of the other comics around that time like Englehart's Fantastic Four you'll understand what I mean when I say there's a huge difference in quality.
There's still some of the old comic book stylings mixed in here. Thought bubbles are used occasionally but they never take up too much room or feel invasive. I also appreciate not overusing inner monologues, which a lot of comics of the modern age could take some inspo from. I also don't love the "meanwhile, in the lowly streets of Manhattan" type of setting up the scene, but it didn't bother me too much since its used pretty sparingly.
Its because of this writing that I like the story. I'm not familiar with what was going on prior to David's run other than what was presented to me at the beginning of the story; a corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D that's using gamma bombs in favor of the U.S Government, Rick Jones being a Hulk, and these people calling themselves the Hulkbusters constantly on the search for the Hulk, without care as to who's currently the Hulk at the time, Jones or Banner.
Needless to say it looks like it was going off the rails a little. David brings these ideas together and makes it work really well in my opinion. I like the story of where the Hulkbusters are headed as a team, and I also was glad he made Rick back to normal. I love Rick Jones, but I never liked him being a powered up superhero. I preferred when he was trying to be Cap's new sidekick or just hangout with the Avengers.
David also brings back The Leader as soon as possible, setting him up in the first couple of issues. Throughout the rest of the book, The Leader is our main antagonist, and he's concocting a way to finally destroy the Hulk once and for all. I don't love the redesign here for the leader, and I can't tell if its just because its McFarlane or if I just think its a bad design in general.
Speaking of art here, I'll take a minute to complain about McFarlane. While the man did have some incredible ideas for certain characters like introducing spaghetti webbing to Spider-Man, the art here is hit or miss for me. I like aspects of it, and when Jim Saunders III is inking for him, the art is noticeably better in quality. Its actually when Todd gets to draw and ink his art that you see a dip in quality. There's like 2 issues or something in here that just look really crude and rough, because the line work gets to thin and scratchy, where Saunders III used thick line work and cleaned up some of the messiness of McFarlane's typical work. I know that's the aesthetic he's going for but its just not my taste. I hate Bruce's hair and his glasses being the thick circular Harry Potter type glasses. It just doesn't look great to me personally.
The other artist who contributes here is Erik Larsen and I'd be happy to see him return to the book. His art here was far more welcome for me than anything McFarlane did on this book, and I'm hoping that McFarlane left the book around this time so the next couple of Epic Collections don't have this bad a look to them.
There's new ideas inserted such as the Hulk being Bruce's coping with abuse and mental health issues that he keeps buried, which I think was kind of always around in the Hulk's mythos, but never this implied. David knows how to take that idea and not make it the entire point of the book but making it something that's covered on every once in a while to remind us that for as good as a guy that Bruce is he's got a dark past.
I love the gray Hulk idea, or the idea that he's Joe Fixit later on in the run. That's a cool premise to me. He's pretty fucked up and I think that's an interesting conflict to the og Hulk and Bruce himself. David knows how to create interesting characters in general that kept me engaged with the book.
Especially his use of random civilians throughout the series just having little subplots or sometimes being the main plot of an issue. Some highlights are the people of Gammatown before it's hit with the Leader's gamma bomb. You get to see these people's lives before they get hit and it brings weight to their deaths/mutations. Same with the woman that kills her abusive husband, and how David keeps it vague as to whether she really meant to do that or not. Lastly, the issue where a man finds Bruce and assumes he's a mutant and wants to give him up to X-Terminators (which was a fake organization the X-Men were using to save mutants at the time) for money is a really interesting dynamic. Not every character is perfect or even good, but you can tell deep down some of these people are actually good hearted, the man who found Bruce being the case. He rethinks his opinions of mutants after meeting Bruce, questioning if they're all that bad since Bruce is so nice and seems just like any ordinary human. Other than, y'know, turning into a big monster at night or whatnot.
Finally, I want to talk about the graphic novel archived here as well by Jim Starlin and Berni Wrightson was one of my favorite stories collected here. I think part of it was how refreshing it was to pour through Wrightson's incredible artwork after suffocating from McFarlane's artwork for so long. I love Ben Grimm and I thought Wrightson's artwork for him was awesome looking. He makes the rocks on his body feel real, and while I usually like a lighter orange for the Thing's rocks, the dark orange actually worked here a lot.
Shoutout to the reference to Utah, I got excited when I read that part. I appreciated that here and in David's issues on the book of the Hulk being a traveling monster who's going across the country, but especially in the Rocky Mountain areas pretty consistently.
Starlin writes a good Hulk and Thing here, and while it really has no connection to what David's story is turning into on the main book, its a really fun read. I haven't read a ton of Jim Starlin other than a few things like Death in the Family, but I enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than that book. He wrote a story that was really fun, and gives me the vibes of a modernized Stan Lee story. Its fun and short and the ending did have me actually chuckle a little bit because its just so stupid it works for me. It keeps the status quo in a way that's poking fun at itself and so I thought it worked.
February 13, 2025
It turns out that all those great Todd McFarlane covers are attached to some not-so-great Peter David stories. PD is severely overhyped. Sure, Spider-Man 2099 is a great character. But his other contributions to the field, specifically his Incredible Hulk and X-Factor runs, are not that impressive. Oldheads love the X-Aminations issue of X-Factor. All the men on the team get to spill their angsty tragic backstories. But when Wolfsbane and Polaris get to speak, it's for Rahne to lust after how hawtt Havok is and for Lorna to be made the butt of an "all women are vain" joke. And that's Peter David to a T-- juvenile writing that leans heavily on pop culture shorthand. The issues in this volume run the gauntlet of bad, to stupid, to really stupid. Hulk gives David an excuse to be even more grouchy and mean-spirited then usual.
... I will say that the one redeeming feature of this volume is the inclusion of the Starlin/Wrightson Hulk/Thing graphic novel "The Big Change." Absolutely delightful. Starlin is actually really funny and Wrightson gets the opportunity to draw all kinds of crazy critters. And for that I'm gonna give it a 2/5.
... I will say that the one redeeming feature of this volume is the inclusion of the Starlin/Wrightson Hulk/Thing graphic novel "The Big Change." Absolutely delightful. Starlin is actually really funny and Wrightson gets the opportunity to draw all kinds of crazy critters. And for that I'm gonna give it a 2/5.
December 13, 2025
The beginning of Peter David's legendary ten year run on the Hulk in the 90's. A failing book at the time, David was given the character on a lark. What resulted was the most in-depth examination of the chatacter, his trauma, and eventually his healing. David was partnered with then rising star Todd McFarlane who rebelled against the traditional marvel art style for one all his own that would quickly replace the legacy style established by Kirby.
September 18, 2024
This was the beginning of Peter David's long stay with Hulk, but it wasn't so great -- I assume he had to continue the current storylines before really going on his own.
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October 14, 2024Grey Hulk Rules !
February 5, 2025
Started a bit rough, not bad, but this ended up being really good. I loved the article and the storytelling really won me over by the end. Ends with a pretty big cliffhanger though.
May 12, 2025
To revisit the beginning of Peter David's epic Hulk run is to bear witness to a now classic
November 14, 2025
Art:4/5
Text:4/5
Text:4/5
September 21, 2024
My favorite Hulk runs have a very dynamic feel, with frequent changes in location and shifts to the status quo; the character can get stale if the situation remains stable. Unfortunately while David got a lot of stuff right, his work hasn't aged well. He is always willing to sacrifice character for the sake of a flippant one-liner, and I find myself wanted sincerity and consistent depth of feeling.
March 27, 2025
The beginning of Peter David's epic 100+ issue run on the Incredible Hulk. You can tell at the beginning of this David is finding his footing. The humor is missing and the focus of the story keeps changing. Still the Leader is a strong villain when he's around and most of this is by Todd McFarlane doing his first regular book. The issues where he inks himself are banging. Seeing those compared to some of the ones with other inkers actively make me mad because of how much they tone down his pencils.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews