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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.
Bruce Banner: That's... that's ridiculous.
Rick Jones: Why? I needed to, didn't I?

Writer of Stuff.

Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956) (often abbreviated PAD) is 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 writes "But I Digress", a regular column for Comics Buyer's Guide magazine.

Peter David's writing style tends to be breezy yet subtle; he has satirically mocked it as "a certain facility with the language, giving a nice surface gloss to his work." His strengths come from his character dynamics and humor, and his strongest works tend to be ensemble titles where the characters can play off of each other. His humor tends towards Double Entendre, Witty Banter, lots of puns, unpredictable characters and Leaning on the Fourth Wall. As One of Us, PAD is also fond of Genre Savvy and Medium Awareness characters, as they allow 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 is occasionally alleged to have ongoing feuds with other comic book creators, most notably John Byrne and Erik Larsen, though David denies any ill-will and tends to keep his criticisms professional and constructive. Then again, PAD is a longtime friend of Harlan Ellison, so maybe some of it is rubbing off...

Particularly infamous among scans_daily for, probably not indirectly, getting their original LiveJournal 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/

David suffered a stroke in late 2012, but is recovering.


His works include:

Comic Books:

Film:

  • Trancers 4: Jack of Sword
  • Trancers 5: Sudden Deth
  • Oblivion (not the one with Tom Cruise)
  • Backlash: Oblivion 2

Novels:

  • Several Babylon 5 novels: the novelizations of several movies, as well as the Legions of Fire trilogy about Centauri Prime.
  • Howling Mad
  • The Knight Life series (Knight Life, One Knight Only, and Fall of Knight)
  • The Psi-Man series (as David Peters)
  • Numerous Star Trek novels, including:
    • Star Trek: New Frontier series
    • Imzadi, where we see how Riker and Troi first met.
    • 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.
      • Q In Law, where Q hooks up with Lwaxana Troi for his own nefarious purposes, causing hilarity to literally and figuratively ensue.
  • 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 Super Hero tropes.
  • Six books based on the Photon TV show and arena game.
  • The novelization of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
  • Pulling Up Stakes, a 2-part eBook.
  • The novelization of Battleship, which among other things, expanded on the information about the aliens.
  • Artful, a sequel to Oliver Twist... WITH VAMPYRES!

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".

Video Games:

This creator and his works contain examples of:

  • Adaptational Villainy: He has a knack for making villains eviler than they are in their films when he is writing the novelizations of said films. Check his novelizations of Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Transformers: Dark of the Moon and you will see that the Green Goblin, David Banner, Doctor Doom, Obadiah Stane, Abomination and Sentinel Prime are far worse than in the source material, even losing whatever sympathetic qualities their films depicted them as having.
  • Mood Whiplash: Another staple. It's not unusual for a deadly serious, quiet drama scene to whiplash into vulgar humor or a comedic scene to smash into something horrible when David is behind the wheel.


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