Incredible Hulk # 82 - Dear Patricia

Would have been a better suited title for this issue. My all time favourite comic ever.

PLOT *SPOILER
Bruce Banner finds himself in London, and due to his lack of knowledge of the English green cross code is almost hit by a car. He is pulled back by a woman who is quick to remind him "We drive on the left in London" The two get talking and hit it off instantly but the relationship is short lived when Patricia (Banners saviour of 2 minutes ago) is killed in a bomb explosion. This is when our friendly green giant first comes out of his shell to avenge the death.

Patricia then re-appears in ghost form to explain to the Hulk that her death was on order. She had 24 hours before ghost form would dissipate and that she would like Hulk to avenge her killing for her. He is most eager to do this and gets on the case straight away, he visits many sorcerers in the city in the hope to find out who was responsible for the killing of his new found love while Patricia becomes ever more faded and closer to the next spiritual level.

It seems that Hulk's efforts are in vein so Patricia asks him to pay a visit to her fiancé Edward Perkins and gives him an address. Banner turns up and asks to come in to talk about Tricia, in the scene Tricia's (now very faint) ghost points to Edward's son revealing her death had nothing to do with Sorcerers politics and it was on the order of her soon to be step son. Banner now undergoes the famous transformation, now as he is the dominant male within the room he gives out the orders. He says although he can't himself prove Perkins' son had Patricia killed but he could "tell every sorcerer I terrorised today that they suffered for your crime. Can tell them to be imaginative in showing there appreciation. That they'll gain the gratitude of the Hulk for it." Perkins' son promptly runs for his life to the haunting sound of the Hulk's twisted laugh.

The closing scene shows Banner approaching Patricia's grave with a letter (of which the contents are printed all through out the story fitting in as a commentary of the events unfolding.) on her grave with the last lines reading "if not in this life time. Maybe the next. Love your friend...Bruce."

Writing
this issue of Incredible Hulk was directly after the Tempest Fugit 5 part story in which dreams were reality and reality didn't exist. Wolverine killed Banner in reality and an array of weird events unfolded with every issue. So the mood was totally different to previous issues of Incredible Hulk.  Peter David managed to captivate what he does best in every Hulk story he writes, he managed to show, create and push further into the emotional side of the green monster that people don't expect to see there. He shows Banner to have control over his counterpart and gives Hulk the majority of the speech. The story itself is reminiscent of Brandon Lee's quest for retribution in The Crow and the letter Banner writes that acts as the narrative gives the story a Sin City feel to it (Chung's colour artwork however is more responsible for this.) Despite how this story reminds me of two other stories David makes sure it is original. An imaginative satisfying ending that shies away from the easy way out of Hulk finding the perpetrator

And smashing him to oblivion. Peter David is a truly amazing talented writer but I consider this single issue of Incredible Hulk to be his finest hour (or twenty minutes if you don't read slowly.) The final page makes you really think about how a comic can come to life easily and take hold of your imagination. David really captivates the conventions of a love story and still puts in the action it needs to be gripping; the issue itself could be produced as a film the scripting is that good. As always there's a gem of a one liner in there as well which is guaranteed to make you smile, in this case its when two men look up at Hulk (trying to be still) and say "Boy does that Hulk look fake."

Art
Lee surpasses himself in this issue without a shadow of a doubt. He portrays Banner well and Hulk even better. He gives him a different facial expression in different situation and helps anchors the theme of retribution perfectly through the Hulk's want of retribution more than want for destruction. There is a scene where Hulk is hiding behind an Amazing Spiderman advert and wow that Spidey looks evil (Lee has worked on Ultimate Spiderman in the past)

June Chung's colour on the issue helps create the Sin City feel and is solely responsible for the eerie feel to the opening page giving it a Sleepy Hollow like mood Setting the scene for the story which is to follow.

Overview

This must be one of my favourite Hulk issues ever because of the storyline (kudos P.A.D) It is rich with high running emotions and it allows the Hut the role of bad a** cop in doing his detective role reminding us all that even though he has fallen for someone in the story he's still our Hulk. This story is now of course 3 years old nearly but it’s definitely worth a rummage through your old collection for or a visit to the net to find it, a really beautiful tale captivated in a comic.

Yes, it's that good. It's also a decent story for those who don't know a whole lot about the mythology. Basically, it's a self-contained story that doesn't require a whole lot of prior knowledge. I like how the narration is done in the form of a letter that Bruce has written to his dearly departed friend. My main problems with it is that I always felt that the Hulk should be less intelligent than portrayed here....but that's not that big of a deal. Also, I always saw the Hulk as representative of the scientific side of the Marvel Universe. If non-fans were to read this, those would probably be the only sources of confusion, though, as it is a well written tale. Pick it up for a different take on the Hulk.