By Peter David, illustrated by George Pérez (Boulevard/Putnam Books)
ISBN: 0-399-14104-9
After a few abortive attempts in the 1960s and a more strategic attempt at the end of the 1970’s Marvel once more tried to move onto the prose bookshelves in the 1990s with a select series of hardback novels. To my mind the most successful of these was this hefty tome from Peter David, who had the advantage of being a prolific genre novelist (most notably of Star Trek adventures) and the current scripter for the Incredible Hulk comicbook.
The plot actually spun out of and referenced contemporary Hulk continuity and featured a Green Goliath that possessed Bruce Banner’s intellect, married to his long-term sweetheart Betty, and on the run from the US military. Whilst in hiding an aged psychologist “cures†the monster-afflicted scientist and Betty falls pregnant with twins, but when they are delivered their benefactor is revealed as the Maestro, a sick and twisted version of Banner from an apocalyptic future (first seen in the 1992 miniseries Hulk: Future Imperfect) who kidnaps one of the infants and returns to his Ghastly world of Tomorrow.
Desperate and traumatised, Banner turns to his friend Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, who provides a way to follow, but due to unforeseen circumstances he arrives two decades late: his son is now a heartless brute in the manner of the Maestro, and worse yet the abortive rescue mission has given the sadistic monster a method of plundering the time stream and alternate dimensions. Not only is Banner too late but now he must face an army of Hulks from divergent timelines to stop his future self from ravaging all of time and space…
Sharp and well-crafted, this tale is constructed in such a way that continuity-addicts can easily slot it into their preferred universal construct, whilst casual readers can simply enjoy an above-average time-travel yarn featuring a character they may or may not know from TV. Moreover this page turner is liberally illustrated by George Pérez, who drew the aforementioned Hulk miniseries. This is a solid example of how comics books can transfer to prose and perhaps a reason why they should…
© 1995 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.