A tribute to Peter David – an author who shaped a multiverse of pop culture’s greatest heroes and villains, who passed away on May 24, 2025.
When it comes to comics, it’s hard to ignore the impressions that iconic pieces of art burn themselves into our brains. Comics, after all, are to many, a visual artform. Even if we’re too young to read the words, but old enough to turn the pages, comic art can speak volumes without ever reading a single character in those ever-present bubbles. But it’s the writer who provides the inspiration for those worlds captured within the stacks of panels printed on those pages layered in the inks and colors and letters that give it all focus.
Peter David was one of those writers who had a VOICE, even if it wasn’t so often enhanced through artistic means of the four color artform. For me, he was the voice who lent his humorous take to the often tragic and morose adventures of the mutants with a certain kind of X-Factor and the ever-beleaguered green (or gray) Incredible Hulk. While others set their focus on the trials and tribulations of our heroes, it was Peter that made us laugh at the absurdity of their circumstances without ever undermining the often all too serious worlds from which these characters were born out of.
The edict that the Marvel Universe was “the world outside our window”, while still populated with fantastical, super-powered heroes and villains, was never more true than when Peter grounded mutants, Hulks, and Avengers in simple humor as much as the world-shaking conflicts that rocked galaxies. He was no stranger to penning some of the epic conflicts that make comics great, but when the characters were in his hands, he couldn’t help but have fun with even some of the most harrowing tales of the characters he created or simply made better with a simple twist of characterization that had never been implemented before.
Peter gave depth to a hodgepodge of disparate heroes that the world hated and feared in X-Factor, in one of the weirdest eras of mutantdom. The Incredible Hulk became a gray-skinned Las Vegas mob enforcer called Joe Fixit in a surprising take on the Hulk, taking the book and the character in directions no one could have expected, but was no less entertaining. And if anyone could ever be the voice of Marvel’s avatar of heroic one-liners (before Deadpool), Spider-Man was always in amazing, even spectacular, hands whenever Peter David was behind the keyboard. That includes a Spider-Man that wasn’t Peter Parker, but Miguel O’Hara, the futuristic Spider-Man of 2099, who he co-created, introduced to the rest of the world in the animated film “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (comic fans met him more than 30 years prior in 1992).
Yes, Peter contributed to the Distinguished Competition, by penning his share of Aquaman tales, but to me, he was always the go-to man for an offbeat, always hilarious story of Marvel’s mightiest heroes, mutants, and monsters.
Generations of fans knew of his galaxy-spanning work in countless Star Trek novelizations and comics series, a world he knew as well as any diehard fan who grew up on the multiple iconic television series and films. Whether adventuring with Captain Kirk and his original series crew, Picard’s Enterprise D crew in a wide variety of solo missions, or explorations featuring characters from those same eras not associated with any of the TV series, a first in the realm of the ever-expanding Star Trek novelization catalog, Peter gave fans a look at the characters they loved with a fresh eyes, but familiar settings.
I could write volumes about his works in various mediums that impacted readers in ways they didn’t expect, even if their focus was the characters or the art, not so much the person behind the words. I could also go into why he was taken from us far too young, and needlessly so due to America’s ever-worsening healthcare system, but I’ll leave that for the countless articles that have already been written on that topic and are not hard to find online.
This tribute was written just to say how much he and his work was loved, even by the people who didn’t know him personally. I was lucky to meet him at a con a few times and get a book or two signed, chief among them being the X-Factor Visionaries trade paperback, which contains one of my all-time favorite X-Men centric arcs, even if they were the B or probably the C team in the mutant world. I mean, when it was understood the team needed a tough strong guy on the team for all the punching scenes (it can’t all be energy beams and magnetic powers), he simply created an over-muscled character called Strong Guy.
Rest in Peace, Peter David, 1956-2025.
