A young boy’s origin story
Like many that find their way to this site, I’m guessing, I started collecting comics at a pretty young age, mainly for the spectacle of the art. I was a boy enamored by the images of Frank Miller, John Byrne, and George Perez. The darks, the lights, the costumes, I was a six-year-old who was diving into a world that I didn’t fully comprehend, as a lot of the vocabulary escaped me, but the one thing that I credit my love of words to is when I would read a comic with a word that I didn’t understand, I would grab a dictionary. By the time I became a teenager however, my interest in comics had waned, taking a backseat to things like video games, part-time jobs, and hormones.
A return to comics and an introduction to a legend
On a random road trip with my family at age sixteen, we stopped at a gas station where on a magazine rack sat the Incredible Hulk #388, written by one Peter David, with art by the amazing Dale Keown. Admittedly the flashy cover of the Hulk bloodied and in pain in the face of a brand-new villain was what caught my eye. Also, this was the super collectible era of the early 90’s so I thought to myself maybe I could catch lightning in a bottle if this new villain took off (spoiler alert: he didn’t).
What I found inside was a story that blew my mind. Not only did it set the tone for the fast pace of Keown’s dynamic art, but it also delivered a heartfelt, timely story about the HIV epidemic and people’s abject fear of the virus, as well as a plot from a shamed mobster to kill his homosexual son’s lover, hence the hiring of the introduced villain. Sounds like a lot for a single issue, right? Well, you’d be wrong, and that was the true gift of Peter David.
I have to admit after that issue, I never really followed the Incredible Hulk because of David’s writing, but more the art of Keown and then rising star Gary Frank, but I was unknowingly being drawn in by his world-building, his ability to build up the supporting cast and make you care as equally for them as the main characters, and the mental-health dynamic that he was adding to the Hulk. No longer was he this rage monster that “just wanted to be left alone,” but he was a man seeking to find himself, find friendship, and find love, all while dealing the emotional past of an abusive father that led to the death of his mother.
From random, to fandom
It wasn’t until I’d happened upon the Madrox series did I realize that I was becoming a fan of David’s work. Back in the earlier X-Factor days, the wise-cracking Jamie Madrox, a mutant who can create nearly infinite copies of himself, was one of my favorites. So, to see that he was getting his own mini was exciting to me. What I got was still the same wise-cracking Multiple Man I was such a fan of but thrust into a darkly noir/detective tale of a man investigating his own duplicate’s murder. This leads to David doing what he does, breaking down the character at a human level, introducing the added wrinkle to Jamie’s power set and story that he had sent his dupes out in the world to live different lives, as when he reabsorbs them, he gains their knowledge and memories. Throughout the series, this causes Jamie to begin to question his own existence and where he truly belongs in the world.
I noticed a lot of similarities in how David deconstructed his characters, tearing them down to make his characters flawed, and ultimately more relatable. It didn’t seem like I was alone in my enjoyment of the Madrox series, as the success of this miniseries would open the door to where my love of David’s writing would truly take hold: him taking the reins of X-Factor for his “X-Factor Investigations” run.
To the Factor of X
Having loved Madrox, I was really excited to see that he was bringing the same noir atmosphere to X-Factor but simply expanding the scope and the characters. It was here that I fell in love with David’s writing. It was clever, it was witty, it was bombastic, and it was vulnerable. He took a lot of lesser-known characters and thrust them into the spotlight by giving them dynamic personalities, and emotional and sometimes dysfunctional interpersonal relationships, but overall, the way David wrote Jamie’s inner monologues always brought things to a whole through the lens of his complex psyche.
David’s run was known for delving into some more mature themes, like trauma and grief, where each character carried their own emotional baggage into the series, such as alcoholism, loss, and their religious beliefs. Also, while discrimination is always a staple of all X-Men comics, the grounded nature of X-Factor allowed it to highlight the everyday struggles of prejudice faced by mutants, beyond large-scale battles.
A highlight of this run has to be the character development of the mutant Rictor. He was brought back out of nowhere in the first issue of the X-Factor reboot in 2006 as a depowered mutant, literally on the ledge, dealing with the loss of his powers. Madrox talks him down, and Rictor thus joins the fold. A year later marked the coming out of Rictor to Madrox (who already knew Rictor was gay), a full 20 years after the introduction of the character. Then in 2009, Rictor and then teammate Shatterstar had the first on-panel kiss between two mainstream males in comics. The portrayal of their relationship would earn David a GLAAD Media Award in 2011. It should also be noted that Shatterstar’s creator did not approve of David’s writing of his character saying, “As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay. Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this. Seems totally contrived.”
Throughout a rotating cast of characters, I found myself growing alongside this ragtag band of would-be detectives. I laughed with them, I cried with them. When they struggled, I empathized. When they celebrated, I cheered. This would be a hallmark of anything David wrote, and it’s why I sought out any future projects he would be working on (such as the reintroduction of Spider-Man 2099) and even looked back into series I didn’t even know previously existed (you should really check out Young Justice if you haven’t already).
A lasting impact
I’ve never been one to give into “super-fandom.” I’ll passionately follow and support artists, creators, and musicians and their projects, I don’t really try to do too much digging into their personal lives or history. But when I got a Google alert of the passing of Peter David, I’ll confess to a level of investigation. What I found only increased my respect for the man behind the panels.
Having suffered an ischemic stroke in 2012, David lost a portion of the use of his right arm and leg, as well as suffering from blurred vision. Exhibiting remarkable resilience, he continued his work by adapting his writing process using dictation software. Understanding that David was still crafting stories that I loved throughout all this personal trauma highlights the strength and a love of his craft that most people can only dream of. David’s health continued to decline until his unfortunate passing on May 24th, 2025.
It’s inarguable that Peter David left an indelible mark on the comics industry when titans such as DC Comics CCO offer this on his passing, “Peter always found that extra dimension in a character’s psyche, twisting expectations and deepening what was possible on the page. He was one of a kind.” But to a simple comic reader such as myself, all I can say is thanks, Peter. If not for your writing, I’m not sure that I would have gotten back into comics, which was such a driving force for the person I am today. So, in a way, without you, there may be no me.
