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Rick Jones: "Don't look so shocked. I always carry a miniature parachute with me in case I have to jump from an exploding Skrull saucer." —The Incredible Hulk #375
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Writer of Stuff.
Peter Allen David (often abbreviated PAD, September 23, 1956 – May 24, 2025) was a contemporary American writer, known for his work in Comic Books and Star Trek novels, as well as in television, movies, and video games.
While serving as a Direct Sales Manager for Marvel Comics, his professional writing career began when he was hired to write The Spectacular Spider-Man. After a brief but stormy tenure that included the famous "Death of Jean DeWolff" storyline (his first story, in fact), he was assigned full time to write The Incredible Hulk, a flagging title that no one else wanted. David turned the title around and largely redefined the character in an impressive ten-year-run that ended only due to a Writer Revolt from excessive Executive Meddling.
PAD's success with The Incredible Hulk led him to take up writing full-time, first for a variety of Comic Book titles, and later expanding to other works and media. His original creations include the comic books Sachs And Violens, Fallen Angel, Soulsearchers And Company, and Spider-Man 2099, the Star Trek: New Frontier series, the Sir Apropos of Nothing novels, and the Space Cases television show. He also wrote "But I Digress", a regular column for Comics Buyer's Guide magazine.
Peter David's writing style tended to be breezy yet subtle; he had satirically mocked it as "a certain facility with the language, giving a nice surface gloss to his work." His strengths came from his character dynamics and humor, and his strongest works tended to be ensemble titles where the characters can play off of each other. His humor tended towards Double Entendre, Witty Banter, lots of puns, unpredictable characters and Leaning on the Fourth Wall. As One of Us, PAD was also fond of Genre Savvy and Medium Awareness characters, as they allowed him to further play with tropes and stereotypes; his most famous example was turning Marvel Comics' perpetual sidekick Rick Jones into a Crazy Prepared Genre Savvy Badass Normal.
He was occasionally alleged to have ongoing feuds with other Comic Book creators, most notably John Byrne and Erik Larsen, though David denied any ill-will and tended to keep his criticisms professional and constructive. Then again, PAD was a longtime friend of Harlan Ellison, so maybe some of it was rubbing off...
Particularly infamous among scans_daily for, probably not indirectly, getting their original Live Journal base shut down. Posting any of his work there is now forbidden by community consensus. Somewhat ironic, considering how popular his Young Justice book is with the members.
His website is http://www.peterdavid.net/
His works included:[]
Comic Books:[]
- Aquaman, including The Atlantis Chronicles
- Captain Marvel (the Marvel Comics character)
- Dreadstar And Company
- Epic Mickey
- Fallen Angel
- Halo: Helljumper
- The Incredible Hulk
- Sachs And Violens
- She Hulk
- Spider-Man
- Spider-Man 2099
- Soulsearchers And Company
- Spy Boy
- Supergirl
- Wolverine
- X-Factor
- Young Justice
Film:[]
- Trancers 4: Jack of Sword
- Trancers 5: Sudden Deth
- Oblivion
- Backlash: Oblivion 2
Novels:[]
- Several Babylon 5 novels: the novelizations of several movies, as well as the "Centauri Prime Trilogy"
- Howling Mad
- Knight Life / One Knight Only / Fall Of Knight
- The Psi-Man series (as David Peters)
- Numerous Star Trek novels, including the Star Trek: New Frontier series, as well as Imzadi, the one where we see how Riker and Troi first met.
- And the one (Before Dishonor) where The Borg. Eat. PLUTO.
- Also responsible for writing pretty much all of the Q-related novels (which are some of the best Star Trek novels period), including I, Q (co-written with Q's actor, John De Lancie), Q Squared (featuring TOS villain Trelane), and Q In Law (Crowning Novel Of Funny: Q hooks up with Lwaxana Troi for his own nefarious purposes. Need we say more?)
- The Sir Apropos of Nothing series
- Numerous Comic Book movie novelizations
- Co-wrote Year of the Black Rainbow with Claudio Sanchez
- Mascot To The Rescue!, a teen novel that plays with Superhero tropes.
- Six books based on the Photon TV show and arena game.
- The novelization of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
Nonfiction:[]
- Beam Me Up, Scotty (a biography of/with James Doohan)
Television:[]
- Babylon 5: Two episodes, "Soul Mates" and "There All the Honor Lies", as well as a Crusade episode, "Ruling From The Tomb".
- Space Cases: Co-creator
- Ben 10 Alien Force: The episode "In Charm's Way".
- He has stated he would be writer for some episodes of the Young Justice Animated Adaptation.
Video Games:[]
- Shadow Complex - yes, it's based on Orson Scott Card's work, but PAD wrote the actual game script.
- Spider-Man Edge of Time (story and dialog)
- Quackshot