Writer :
Peter David
Artist:
Future Imperfect – George Perez
The End – Dale Keown
This Volume of Marvel Premiere Classics is made up of two Hulk Prestige Comics (do they even still make Prestige format comics? Cant remember the last time I saw one…). The book contains The comics Future Imperfect and Hulk : The End, both of which were written by Peter David.
I never really cared for Peter David’s work with the Hulk on the regular comic. In these two stories he does right by the big green guy.
FUTURE IMPERFECT :
Future Imperfect is a alternate time line of the Hulk’s. Many years after the humans have destroyed themselves via war, the Hulk survives. Not just surviving he has thrived. The fallout radiation from the war has given him new strength, the bad thing is that it has also driven him insane. 
The Hulk, now referred to as the Maestro, has rebuilt a society ruled over by himself. A rebel group led by the great grand-daughter of Rick Jones go back in time and bring the modern Hulk with them to fight the Hulk. A battle of course follows soon after his arrival in his future that ends with the Hulk wounded and the prisoner of the Maestro.
Even though I think Spoilers would not apply in a book this old I still will refrain from talking about the ending. I will just say that I thought that they did a really good job of bringing the whole story to a close in a nice round about manner.
The story seems a little rushed at times, but it is still a good story. It presents a good picture what could become of the Hulk. I think by far my favorite part of the whole book is the various images of Rick Jones’ Relic Room. It was a trip sitting there trying to pick out what all the various relics were.
Click picture to see a labeled version on Flickr.
THE END :
Again a story of a possible future for the Hulk. In this one the Hulk and Banner are alone in a world destroyed by Nuclear War. I kind of see this one as a story of what Banner who had seen the Maestro would have done to insure that that future would not come to pass.
While I do not like this story as much as the story in Future Imperfect, I do prefer the art a lot more. I think that Keown has a better grasp of who the Hulk is then Perez did.
This story is the story of the struggle of life and death. Banner, broken lonely and old wanting to die and The Hulk, strong as ever wanting to never die. While it is an interesting tale, it just doesn’t have much of the action and fighting that one normally associates with the Hulk. Instead it is mostly words which leaves me, and I think most other Hulk fans feeling somehow cheated. We didn’t want to see the Hulk sitting in the sunset at the end of time, we wanted to see him go out with a bang in a blaze of glory…
House of Duck 
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