Collects Incredible Hulk #349-354, Web Of Spider-Man #44 and Fantastic Four #320.

Web Of Spider-Man #44 is written by Peter David, with art by Alex Saviuk. Peter Parker is in Las Vegas as part of the promotional tour for his Spider-Man book, when four armed mercenaries decide to make the city their battleground. Fortunately, Mr. Fixit is on hand to help.

The Daily Bugle has published a book of Peter Parker's Spider-Man pictures and his getting him to publicise it. A bunch of gun nuts are also in town to take part in their annual survival games. The Hulk, in his Mr, Fixit persona, gets involved when his girlfriend Marlo is injured during the fighting. Of course, he isn't interested in helping, he just wants the person who hurt his girl. Fixit is about to smash the woman when Spidey intervenes and discovers that Mr. Fixit is actually the Hulk.

Peter David was also one of the Spider-Man books, but this is his last Spider-Man issue. He does take the opportunity to make his last issue writing Spider-Man a crossover with the other comic he is writing. I have never read any of David's Spider-Man comics, so maybe I should go back and read them. I have enjoyed most of his comics that I have read (we don't talk about Peter David's X-Factor), so what harm can come of me checking out his Spider-Man?

Incredible Hulk #349 is written by Peter David, with art by Jeff Purves. Mr. Fixit and Spider-Man are having what you might call a communication breakdown. Then again, communication was never Mr. Fixit's strong suit.

The Warzone weirdos haven't been dealt with yet, it's just that Mr. Fixit and Spider-Man are more concerned with fighting each other. It does turn out that the Warzone people ae actually cyborgs, but we don't find out any more about them. I'm not sure if they ever appear again. They didn't leave much of an impression on me so I won't be all that bothered if they did fade into obscurity.

Mr. Fixit gets home to find Doctor Doom waiting for him. This is a lead into the crossover with the Fantastic Four, so I will go into more detail as we go along. Nothing bad came ever come from a Doctor Doom appearance as far as I am concerned, so let's hope that my faith isn't misplaced.

Fantastic Four #320 is written by Steve Englehart, with art by Keith Pollard. Doctor Doom captures Mr. Fixit in order to get him to fight the Thing. The situation gets even more complicated when a second green-skinned Hulk appears.

The higher-ups at Marvel must have had faith in the Hulk's mob enforcer phase because here it is engaging in a crossover with the Fantastic Four right after having one with Spider-Man. It is basically an excuse to get another fight between the Hulk and the Thing. The grey-skinned intelligent Hulk is weaker than the dumb green-skinned Hulk, and the Thing has changed since they last met as well. The Thing has taken on a more spiky form and is more powerful than the weaker grey Hulk. I thought that the Hulk always won these fights, but I guess I was mistaken.

Incredible Hulk #350 is written by Peter David, with art by Jeff Purves. The Hulk's fight with the Thing is interrupted by the appearance of a second Hulk.

While the Thing is fighting the green Hulk, the grey Hulk stumbles over to Doctor Doom who reveals that the green Hulk is actually a robot. Back when Jack Kirby was writing the Eternals series, he was being forced to integrate the series into the Marvel Universe and halfheartedly had the Eternals fight a Hulk robot. I guess Doom found the Hulk robot and sent it to fight the Thing.

The Thing smashes the Hulk robot, but then the real Hulk is ready to rejoin the fight. The Thing assumes that the grey Hulk is another robot and isn't prepared for an opponent that fights dirty. The Hulk does win the fight, so I guess I was premature in congratulating the Thing.

Incredible Hulk #351 is written by Peter David, with art by Jeff Purves. The truth behind the Hulk's survival of the gamma explosion that destroyed Middletown is revealed.

The Beast arrived at the end of the last issue and recruited the Hulk into a makeshift team of Avengers to fight the High Evolutionary. That leads into the Evolutionary War crossover that ran through Marvel's annuals in 1988, but that isn't included here. Instead, the Hulk drags himself back to his apartment and dreams of how he survived the gamma blast from Hulk #345. The Hulk survived because he was transported to the world of K'ai, home of his dead girlfriend Jarella.

I was expecting something more from the explanation how the Hulk survived the gamma blast than him getting transported away to a magical world. At least the mystery hasn't been dragged out over several issues with bits and pieces of information teased all the time just so the story can be padded out.

Incredible Hulk #352 is written by Peter David, with art by Jeff Purves. The Hulk dreams of the time he spent on K'ai and his agreement to overthrow a tyrant.

The wizard Gorsham wanted the Hulk to overthrow a tyrant that is warping the religion about Jarella and the Hulk for his own needs. Gorsham casts a spell that suppresses the Hulk's Bruce Banner persona, even during the daytime. It is left ambiguous whether Gorsham will be just as much of a tyrant after the present one is toppled.

I don't particularly care about the world of K'ai, so I wasn't all that invested in these two issues. Apparently it is a sub-atomic world that the Hulk has visited a bunch of times before and now they worship him as a god or something. I haven't read any of the earlier issues where the Hulk visited K'ai so I don't know all the details.

Incredible Hulk #353 is written by Peter David, with art by Jeff Purves. For the last three months, the Hulk has lived a life without Bruce Banner. Now the spell that kept Banner dormant has worn off and he wants answers.

Poor old Bruce Banner has no idea what he is doing in Las Vegas. The Hulk has been trying to fight back his reversion to Banner, but that doesn't mean that Banner has been consciously aware of what is going on. When people burst into his room and start shooting he jumps to the conclusion that SHIELD is after him again. Meanwhile, with Mr. Fixit having seemingly disappeared, the Maggia feels safe about moving in on Michael Berengetti, reasoning that he will be a pushover without his enforcer.

The art by Jeff Purves still hasn't grown on me since last time. I can't describe what it is about the art that puts me off. Maybe it's because the art style looks rough and sketchy. Thankfully, the writing makes up for the iffy art. I know that another artist will be starting on the title soon, so I just have to be patient and keep with it.

Incredible Hulk #354 is written by Peter David, with art by Jeff Purves. The Hulk and Banner try to come to terms with Banner's return as Marlo tries to cover the mystery behind Mr. Fixit. Meanwhile, Mr. Berengetti decides to take care of his Maggia problem himself.

Mr. Fixit has been replaced by Banner again, so Berengetti has no choice but to face up to the Maggia himself. Fortunately, night falls and the Hulk is able to resurface and smash all the mobsters giving his employer trouble.

The Maggia has its own super-powered goons to fight the Hulk, but we don't actually get to see the fight. We see the other casino owners that the Maggia was pressuring betting on the fight instead.

Veteran Marvel artist Marie Severin is on inks for this issue. Her inking is an improvement over past issues. It tidies up the otherwise rough art from Jeff Purves. I hope she sticks around on inks, then it would make the art a bit more tolerable.

This trade was okay, I guess. i didn't exactly hate it, but reading was a bit of a slog thansk to th sketchy artwork. Like I said above, Peter David's witty writing saves the overall product. I'm glad that I decided to end my boycott of David's work. I still refuse to read his X-Factor though.

The Mr. Fixit era seems to be coming to an end because Berengetti is starting to have enough of Fixit being unreliable and causing all sorts of property damage. The good times never seem to last for the Hulk, so it will be interesting so see how this situation falls apart.

My rating: 3 stars.

Next time: Nightwing Vol. 3- False Starts