Peter David, the highly regarded novelist and writer of comics like The Incredible Hulk, Young Justice, and X-Factor, has died at 68. The news was confirmed by David’s friend and colleague Keith R.A. DeCandido via Facebook.
David enjoyed a long and prolific career at Marvel and DC over several decades. He may be best remembered for his 12-year run on Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk series, a sprawling saga that redefined the relationship between Bruce Banner and his alter ego and earned David and artist Dale Keown an Eisner Award in 1992. As much as Frank Miller is viewed as the definitive Daredevil writer/artist and Chris Claremont the definitive X-Men writer, David is widely regarded as the most important and influential Hulk writer of all time.
David is also well known for co-creating Spider-Man 2099 and for his two runs on X-Factor. David’s original X-Factor run saw the team, which was originally a reunion of the original five X-Men, remade into a government-sanctioned mutant strike force. His second X-Factor run again reinvented the team, this time as a detective agency led by Madrox the Multiple Man.
At DC, David enjoyed successful and influential stints on books like Aquaman, Supergirl, and Young Justice. David also regularly worked on the Star Trek franchise in both comic book and prose form, with his best-known Trek work being the 1994 novel Q-Squared.
Outside of books and comics, David worked on television shows like Babylon 5, Young Justice, and Ben 10: Alien Force and wrote video games like Shadow Complex and Spider-Man: Edge of Time.
David suffered from poor health in recent years, beginning with a stroke in 2012. His health issues prompted family friend Graham Murphy to organize a GoFundMe campaign in 2022 and again in 2025.
David is survived by his wife, Kathleen O’Shea David, and his four children.
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