| The Maestro | |
|---|---|
 The Maestro as he appears inThe Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1. Art byGeorge Pérez. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1 (Dec. 1992) |
| Created by | Peter David George Pérez |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Robert Bruce Banner |
| Species | Human mutate |
| Place of origin | Earth |
| Abilities |
|
TheMaestro is asupervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. Created by writerPeter David and artistGeorge Pérez, the character first appeared inThe Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect#1 (Dec. 1992). Depicted as an evil version of theHulk from an alternate future (designated by Marvel Comics as Earth-9200), the Maestro possesses Bruce Banner's intelligence and the Hulk's strength and more malevolent personality traits.
The Maestro has appeared in video games, and made his animation debut inHulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., voiced byFred Tatasciore.
The Maestro first appeared as the main antagonist inThe Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1-2 (Dec. 1992–Jan. 1993). The character was created byPeter David andGeorge Pérez.
The termmaestro is anItalian/Spanish/Portuguese word meaning teacher, master or a musical conductor.
After a devastating nuclear war destroys most of the human race,A.I.M. andMODOK capture the Hulk and other radiation-empowered heroes to recreate their immunity to radiation. However, about one hundred years afterwards, the Hulk (now operating in a state where he retains Bruce Banner's intelligence) escapes and decides to rebuild the world himself.[1] Traveling to America, he becomes disheartened with the state of the country, including the destruction of theHoover Dam andMount Rushmore, until he finds people still alive under Washington. The initial entrance is guarded by theMachine Man, who leads the Hulk to the 'Maestro' who rules this group of survivors, the Hulk swiftly recognizing him asHercules.[2] After Hercules punches Hulk away just to affirm their old status as sparring partners, Hulk meets withRick Jones, who explains that Hercules is now only interested in ruling humans and having sparring matches or sex. Although the Hulk expresses little interest in helping ordinary people for the sake of helping them after they caused the apocalypse, when Rick reminds him that most of the people close to Hulk were just normal humans, he infiltrates the remains ofAlchemax to create the Dogs of War to oppose Hercules's forces.[3] Hercules enters the fray and fights off the Dogs of War. He then goads Hulk into a fight and easily bests him, and Hercules spares his life to make him a part of his entourage. Hulk however wanted to make amends, and vanishes for a number of years before returning withU-Foes member Vapor, who fatally poisons Hercules. Hulk then betrays Vapor, freezes her body, shatters her into pieces, and has the pieces buried over a vast area so she can never regenerate.[4] As Hulk tries to publicly cremate Hercules' corpse, he springs back to life, sent byHades to enact his revenge. Hercules proves too powerful a physical threat and even the Dogs of War are no challenge for him. When a former member of Rick's rebels unleashes a weapon designed byForge years previously to kill Hulk, the evil Hulk manages to evade the weapon before his ally the Minister uses it to execute Hercules once and for all. Hulk then confronts Rick about his friends' failed attempt to kill him, but finds him gone. Rick then communicates with Hulk remotely, comparing him to his fatherBrian Banner, before trying to kill him with a bomb. However, Hulk survives the explosion.[5]
Maestro develops a new movement he called Post-Apocalyptic Existence, or PAX, which will destroy the remaining division in humanity and replace it with a single overlord: himself. Maestro implements this movement by expanding his domain beyond Dystopia to surrounding areas like Connecticut and the underground community living beneath Washington, D.C., though the community escaped and destroyed their home to spite Maestro. Maestro also joins forces withDoctor Doom to destroy bothA.I.M. and Maestro's former team thePantheon as they threaten their plans to rule the world. When A.I.M. and the Pantheon are vanquished, Maestro and Doom turn on each other, leading to a fight between the two and Doom retreating.[6]
Driven insane by the devastation of everything he has lost, along with the excess radiation he absorbed after the nuclear fallout, Hulk adopts the title of the new "Maestro", while gaining even greater strength than before from absorbing the excess radiation after the nuclear holocaust. An elderly Rick Jones encounters the reality-hoppingmutantProteus, who has possessed the body of an alternate reality Hulk from the year2099. Proteus intends to discard his current body and possess the Maestro. Rick, unaware of his plan, provides Forge's weapon, which may be able to kill Maestro. However, the plan fails when the Maestro is warned by theExiles, who are pursuing Proteus. Proteus possesses a new host and flees to another world, breaking the Maestro's neck during his escape.[7]
Years later, the Maestro (fully recovered from his injury) encounters a time-travelingGenis-Vell andSpider-Man from 2099. Manipulated by the supervillain Thanatos, the three battle. Genis-Vell and Spider-Man 2099 return to their own time, with no consequence for the Maestro, when the elderly Rick uses his ability to wieldThor's hammerMjolnir to defeat Thanatos.[8]
Acquiring Doctor Doom's time machine, the rebels opposing the Maestro bring the Professor Hulk forward from the past, hoping that he can defeat the Maestro. Although Hulk's ability to improvise allows him to score some effective blows against the Maestro, the Maestro's superior strength and experience, combined with his knowledge of the Hulk's strategies, allow him to easily dominate the Hulk and break his neck. Knowing Hulk will soon heal, he shows Hulk around the city, attempting to convince his younger self to side with him, but realizes that the Hulk is pretending to be more injured than he is with the intention of launching an attack. The Maestro is defeated when the Hulk lures him back into the rebel's base—the Maestro throwing Rick Jones into Wolverine's skeleton in the process— subsequently using Doom's time machine to send the Maestro back to the time and place that the Hulk was created: ground zero during the testing of the atomic Gamma Bomb. Appearing next to the bomb itself, Maestro is killed in the same moment that creates the Hulk.[9]
Hulk learns that the "homing sense" that has always allowed him to locate ground zero, his "birth" place, is actually attracted to the Maestro's spirit. The Maestro has been absorbing gamma radiation from the Hulk each time he returns to the site, gradually restoring himself. He emerges, initially in a weakened and emaciated form, but is retrieved by a group of Asgardian rock trolls.[10] The exhausted Maestro attempts to use theDestroyer against the Hulk, the trolls having provided him with the armor as a weapon to compensate for his current weakness. He is driven out when the Hulk manages to transmit his soul into the Destroyer as well, exploiting the fact that the Maestro is still technically him, and forces the Maestro back into his still-weakened body, which is last seen buried in a small rockslide along with the trolls.[11]
After Banner is shot in the head, the subsequent attempt to treat the brain damage withExtremis creates the persona of Doc Green, a version of the Hulk with Banner's intelligence. Green sets out to hunt down and 'cure' other gamma mutates, but in the process he begins to experience dream-like visions of the Maestro, creating the possibility that Green would eventually become his dark future self, starting with him contemplating growing a beard.[12] However, Green recognizes the potential dangers of the 'Maestro' aspects of his personality when he realizes that part of him enjoyed eliminating his 'rivals', deciding to accept the eventual loss of his intellect as Extremis wore off rather than risk that persona emerging. He leaves the cure withShe-Hulk and instructs her to use it on him if he goes too far.[13]
At some point, the Maestro (or possibly an alternate universe version of him) is sent back in time alongside the "Days of Future Past" version ofWolverine as part of a secret assignment. The two end up battling their present-dayEarth-616 counterparts before being forced to flee. They are sent back to an alternate future whereRed Hulk is the President of the United States of America, where it is revealed that he sent the two to kill the Earth-616 version of Red Hulk to save the world.[14]
When Spider-Man 2099 attempts to return to his own time after the events ofSpider-Verse, he ends up in a world accidentally devastated byAlchemax and ruled by the Maestro who mistakes Miguel for the original Spider-Man. The Maestro beats Miguel into submission and places him in a cell with Strange 2099.[15] The Maestro then travels back to present day by having the demon possessing Strange manipulate Miguel into repairing Doctor Doom's Time Platform.[16] The Maestro timeline is described byMiguel O'Hara as having overwritten the 2099 timeline he originated from. Miguel seemingly manages to slay the Maestro with a weapon from the villain's trophy room, but it is later shown that the Maestro feigned defeat to follow Miguel back to the present.[16]
A Maestro from an unidentified alternate reality arrived in theOld Man Logan reality where he rounded up the surviving members of theHulk Gang as he makes plans to help them build a paradise for all Hulks on Earth-616. With help from Cambria Banner, Logan and Hawkeye of Earth-616 were able to defeat Maestro and the surviving members of the Hulk Gang went their separate ways.[17]
Later on, it is revealed Maestro recovered from his wounds and went on to conquer a small town in Northern Canada called Fort Wells, ruling as "the King" and executing anyone who defies him. Logan eventually tracks him down, and after injecting himself with the dangerous regenerative drug Regenix, cuts Maestro's head off, ending his reign of terror.[18]
After Doctor Doom incorporates the "Future Imperfect" timeline into his newBattleworld in "Secret Wars", the Maestro resurfaces as the ruler of one of the planet's domains called Dystopia. He poses as a depoweredOdin to gain the trust of the resistance movement, and confronts the resistance's leaderThunderbolt Ross (this reality's version ofThing).[19] After a brutal fight, the Maestro offers to release Dystopia from his tyrannical rule if Ross can help him kill God Emperor Doom.[20] To this end, the Maestro sets out to find theDestroyer in another zone of Battleworld. Although he tracks it to a region of Asgardia where it is guarded byUlik, he is shocked to learn that its final line of defense is the 'Ancient One', an elderly Rick Jones.[21] After merging with the Destroyer, the Maestro kills God Emperor Doom and conquers Battleworld. However, it is revealed that the entire battle was an illusion that has ensnared Maestro. Believing himself to be victorious, Maestro reverts to his human form, with Rick stating that he'll now remain trapped in the illusion until he dies.[22]
Eight months later, in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" branding, the Maestro is seen working for theCollector as his "Summoner" in the newContest of Champions.[23] The Collector apparently saved the Maestro from his fate and feels the villain owes him his life as a result, though the Maestro is less than grateful. He is seen scheming to find a way to kill the Collector and escape his servitude.[24] After assuming control of the Power Primordial contained within the Iso-Sphere that the Grandmaster and Collector were competing for, Maestro recreates Battleworld.[25] However, he is defeated after Outlaw destroys the Iso-Sphere, and is later imprisoned in the Collector's display room.[26]
The Maestro largely shares the same powers as the Hulk, but a greater degree due to the century's worth of radiation he has absorbed resulting from the nuclear wars that decimated his Earth. This includes his ability to see and interact with astral forms as well as breathe underwater.[27][28] Although he possesses Banner's intellect, the Maestro has rarely demonstrated his technical expertise and implies to have built Dystopia himself. At one point, he manipulated Miguel O'Hara into repairing a time machine for him, rather than doing it himself.[16]
In 2022,Comic Book Resources (CBR) ranked the Maestro's introduction inFuture Imperfect fourth in their "10 Ways Marvel Made The Hulk Better Over The Years" list and ninth in their "10 Great George Pérez Comics Every Fan Should Read" list.[29][30]
| Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hulk: The End | Hulk: Future Imperfect #1–2 andIncredible Hulk: The End #1 | April 2008 | 978-0785130307 |
| Future Imperfect | Future Imperfect #1-5 and material fromSecret Wars: Battleworld #4 | January 2016 | 978-0785198697 |
| Maestro: Symphony In A Gamma Key | Maestro #1-5 | March 2021 | 978-1302927622 |
| Maestro: War and Pax | Maestro: War and Pax #1-5 | August 2021 | 978-1302928742 |
| Maestro: World War M | Maestro: World War M #1-5 | November 2022 | 978-1302931186 |
| Hulk: Maestro by Peter David Omnibus | Hulk: Future Imperfect #1–2,Abominations #1–3,Incredible Hulk #460–461,Captain Marvel (vol. 4) #27–30,Exiles (vol. 1) #79–80,Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 2) #9–10,Future Imperfect #1–5,Maestro #1–5,Maestro: War and Pax #1–5,Maestro: World War M #1–5; and material fromHulk: Broken Worlds #1,Secret Wars: Battleworld #4 | June 2023 | 978-1302951139 |
The Maestro received a figure in theMarvel Legends line.[43]
An alternate timeline incarnation of the Maestro appears inHulk: What Savage Beast, byPeter David.
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