“Tempest Fugit”: Part One
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Lee Weeks
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The Plot: The Hulk makes his way across the seabed floor, dispensing with various aquatic challengers. During his trek he flashes back to Bruce Banner’s high school days with the Hulk acting as a metaphorical elephant in the room. The Hulk makes it to an island, resurfaces and turns back into Banner. Two inhabitants save Banner from a two-headed, Kirby-esque creature. Their escape is blocked by someone very familiar.
Comments: Members of the Incredible Hulk Diaspora, the time for your return is at hand. The babbling, incoherent mess that was Bruce Jones’s run is over. The greatest Hulk writer, the sainted PAD, has returned on a provisional basis for this five-part story. If fans’ reaction is positive and sales good enough, David might accept the gig full time, according to the writer. Given the quality of this issue, hopefully Marvel will make the only logical decision and give the Hulk portfolio back to David.
As good as David was and is, The Incredible Hulk needs the right artist to accurately capture the character’s power. Weeks does an excellent of that this issue. The Hulk first appears in a two-page splash panel holding the hind half of a great white shark. From that point and throughout the issue, Weeks provides the necessary visual punch to David’s story. The Hulk is almost busting off the page when readers learn he’s the one Bruce is whispering to in the high school flashback.
David provides excellent pacing for this issue. The opening establishes the ferocity of the character for the five readers who might not know about the Hulk. Interspersed with sea battles are flashbacks to high school. David’s greatest contribution to Banner/Hulk is establishing a psychological reason for Banner’s rage and the Hulk’s power. I don’t think David asserts that the Hulk himself existed inside Banner prior to the gamma explosion. It isn’t like when Onslaught was revealed as another entity inside Charles Xavier. Hindsight allows David to assert that Bruce’s other personality would eventually become the Hulk, so it's best to represent it as such.
The island and its inhabitants are sufficiently mysterious to pique the reader’s curiosity. I couldn’t even venture a guess as to what the final panel means for this story and the Hulk altogether. The good stories always leave you with questions and teases for the next installment. It’s too bad more writers don’t master this basic technique.
The Final Word: David’s half-decade away from the character has done nothing to dull his understanding of Banner and the Hulk. While the issue provided little chance for David’s patented snappy dialogue, the piercing insight into the Hulk more than makes up for it. With luck, this is the first issue of another Peter David decade-long run as writer of The Incredible Hulk.
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