Incredible Hulk #83

After Peter David wrapped up his illustrious Hulk run in 1995, most people would prefer to ignore everything that followed up until when Greg Pak revitalized the Hulk character with the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk crossovers. That's over 10 years of Hulk material there that's overlooked, and mostly justifiably so. On one hand we have Bruce Jones' dreadful run, John Byrne's pitiful Skrull retcon to Hulk's origins, and an out-right lame stint by Marvel's resident loser Daniel Way. But it's not all crap, Joe Casey followed Peter David with an uneven but mostly readable run (which also including Ed McGuinness' first time drawing Hulk), Paul Jenkins actually has a pretty underrated run where he explores the origins of Hulk's different personalities, and after Jones' abysmal run people tend to forget or just be unaware of the fact that Hulk was once again helmed by Peter David. With Captain Marvel just been cancelled (although the character would immigrate to New Thunderbolts), Peter David landed the job of writing Hulk once again. David's run didn't last much longer than a year, he eventually left because his contract expired and he had no interest in having to cater his stories towards Pak's Planet Hulk. After leaving Hulk he went on to write the short-lived Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and finally X-Factor where he remained. The result being, his second run is mostly neglected by fans, due in part to feeling a bit amputated amidst a sea of bad runs. David's second run spent a lot of time "fixing" the awful stuff that had come after his last time in the writer seat, excusing John Byrne, Paul Jenkins and Bruce Jones' runs as mostly being dreams and illusions brought on by Nightmare (sad to see Jenkins grouped in with them, but Peter David didn't like Jenkins' Hulk personality stuff). Anyway, yeah, most people are blissfully unaware of Peter David's second go at Hulk, and probably the most notable story of his second run is this; Terra Incognita (aka "the Aboriginal Hulk" saga).

Sorry for the long preamble there, I felt it appropriate to really explain how Hulk got to this point and because generally it does seem that Hulk fans sometimes seem oblivious to the fact that there was (not so good) stuff between 1995 and 2006. Anyway, this story sees Bruce Banner having found peace and tranquillity among a tribe of Aboriginals called the True People Tribe (among them is the X-Men's Gateway and long-forgotten original Aboriginal hero Talisman) but he is forced to once again become the Hulk when the Tribe is attacked by Unus the Untouchable (who is working for Exodus). There's also a sub-plot with Carmilla Black (aka Scorpion) who also just happens to be there.

This is genuinely pretty interesting stuff. It gives us an incredibly rare look at a Bruce Banner who is at peace with himself and finally has a sense of belonging. While we've seen Hulk often finding peace among tribes, here it is juxtaposed and we see Banner throwing away his lab-coat and testtubes and finding an actual home among indigenous people. It's actually a pretty understated clever little thing David has done here. Of course, Banner's peace can't last and when "his people" are attacked by Unus the Untouchable, he is regrettably forced to become the beast he despises being. The Hulk emerges and amidst beating up crocodiles (hey, it's Australia), he also picks up Unus by his forcefield and throws him away. In the end, despite him becoming the Hulk, the Tribe still consider Banner one of them despite Banner still hating his other side and the fact he had to show it.

The final scene between Banner and Gateway is pretty great, there's some really good introspection from Bruce and exploration of the duality at the fundamental level of understanding of endemic and primitative people. We also explore the nature of evolution and the Hulk's place within it with regards to Exodus. Again some pretty good points are brought up and there's another keen juxtaposition with Banner/Hulk (who we'd consider to be some what of a step-up in the evolutionary ladder to homo-sapiens) living with natives who would likely be considered quite a step-down the evolutionary ladder by someone like Exodus.

Unfortunately, the downside would have to be the inclusion of Carmilla Black (and to a lesser extent Machine Teen). I honestly have no strong feelings, negative or otherwise, about her but I do feel it was quite gun-ho how they tried to incorporate her into Hulk mythos (particularly since in hindsight, she hasn't appeared in a Hulk book since like 2009?). And this is from that period where she was still fresh off the press and was being forced quite heavily into Hulk lore. She really feels irrelevant and unrelated to the main plot here, but I'm guessing later on Peter David will find some way to integrate her into the story more. No real strong feelings against Carmilla as a character, just her presence her seems some what forced and at this point unnecessary.

So, Peter David's story is enjoyable and raises some great ideas, but what about the art? Peter David's original run actually had some awful art (and people tend to ignore the fact that other than the Hulk, everything else McFarlane drew in the book was quite ugly)... his second run fares a bit better in the art department. He works with Adam Kubert, Jae Lee and Lee Weeks but here the art is handled by Jorge Lucas (who I'm assuming pronounces it Hor-hay, otherwise he must get hella annoyed by Star Wars fans). Jorge Lucas is one of those names that pops up doing art chores on a lot of less popular books (which at the time Hulk was) but mostly seems to do fill-in work or a single story. While I'm sure I've seen plenty of his work, the thing I mostly associate with him is the Enemy of the State crossover issue of the underrated Invaders series. And I actually didn't much like his art then because it was the sole issue in that series not drawn by C.P. Smith (an artist who gets a ludicrous amount of hate but I think is great). That's not to say Lucas art was bad, it was just an unwelcome change of pace and fairly average. So, when I saw Lucas name on the cover I was expecting nothing spectacular. But I'd like to formally apologize for making that assumption because Lucas' art here is actually really good. Mixed with the inking and coloring it's a great look for the book and the landscapes of Australian outback look great. The redesign of Hulk (I'm not sure if this was Lucas or cover artist Andy Brase), while simple, is also effective and "different" enough. I was going to make the claim that this is the first time we've had a full-on skinhead Hulk but then I remembered we had one for quite a bit of Bruce Jones' run. The new design looks neat and the rest of the art is nice to look at.

So, from Peter David's modest, forgotten and largely unremarkable second run on Hulk, the "Aboriginal Saga" kicks off strong and, while on the surface it might not seem like anything particularly interesting, there is a few little innovative and inventive stuff David has done with the Hulk here. Pretty much at the close of his second run, the "Aboriginal Hulk" is as much as forgotten about. Although, there was an "Untold Tale" in a one-shot a few years back where Betty and Glenn Talbot track Hulk down to Australia. Also, there's a nifty Marvel Legends action figure of Aboriginal Hulk. Other than that, this interesting story is mostly forgotten about and overlooked like most Hulk from this period. While most of it rightfully so, I'd say this being lumped in with the Homebase nonsense or the Skrulls creating Hulk is an incredible insult.