Maestro (character)

The Maestro first appeared as the main antagonist in The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1-2 (December 1992 – January 1993). The character was created by Peter David and George Pérez.

The term maestro is an Italian/Spanish word meaning teacher.

After a devastating nuclear war destroyed most of the human race, the Hulk and a group of other radiation-empowered heroes were captured by A.I.M. and MODOK with the goal of eventually analysing their physiologies to recreate their immunity to radiation. However, about one hundred years afterwards, the Hulk (now operating in a state where he had Bruce Banner's intelligence) broke out of the VR machine they were using to keep him contained and decided to work on rebuilding the world himself.[1] Travelling America, he became disheartened with the state of the country, including the destruction of the Hoover Dam and Mount Rushmore, until he found people still alive under Washington. The initial entrance was guarded by the Machine Man, who led the Hulk to the 'Maestro' who ruled this group of survivors, the Hulk swiftly recognising him as Hercules.[2] After Hercules punched the Hulk away just to affirm their old status as sparring partners, Hulk meets with Rick 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 of Alchemax to create the Dogs of War to oppose Hercules's forces.[3] Hercules entered the fray and fought off the Dogs of War. He then goaded Hulk into a fight and easily bested him, and Hercules spared his life to make him a part of his entourage. Hulk however wanted to make amends, and vanished for a number of years before returning with U-Foes member Vapor, who Hulk had seduce Hercules to get close to him so she could then kill him by poisoning him. Hulk then turned on Vapor by freezing her, shattering her into pieces, and having those pieces buried over a vast area so she could never regenerate.[4] As Hulk tried to publicly cremate Hercules' corpse, he sprung back to life, sent by Hades to enact his revenge. Hercules proved too powerful a physical threat and even the Dogs of War were no challenge for him. When a former member of Rick Jones' rebels unleashed a weapon designed by Forge years previously to kill Hulk, the evil Hulk managed to evade the weapon before his ally the Minister used it to execute Hercules once at for all. Hulk then went to confront Rick about his friends' failed attempt to kill, him but found Rick and his artifacts gone. Rick then communicated with Hulk remotely, comparing him to his father, before trying to kill him with a bomb. However, Hulk survived the explosion.[5]

Driven insane by the devastation of everything he has lost, along with the excess radiation he absorbed after the nuclear fallout, the Hulk eventually adopted 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-hopping mutant Proteus, who has possessed the body of an alternate reality Hulk from the year 2099. Proteus intends to discard his current body and possess the Maestro. Jones, unaware of his plan, provides a weapon created by the X-Man Forge, which might be able to kill Maestro. However, the plan fails when the Maestro is warned by the Exiles, who are pursuing Proteus. Proteus possesses a new host and flees to another world, breaking the Maestro's neck during his escape.[6]

Years later, the Maestro (fully recovered from his injury) encounters a time traveling Genis-Vell and Spider-Man from 2099. Manipulated by the supervillain Thanatos, the three battle. Genis-Vell and Spider-Man 2099 eventually return to their own time, with no consequence for the Maestro, when the elderly Rick uses his ability to wield Thor's hammer Mjolnir to defeat Thanatos.[7]

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.[8]

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 and remains. 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.[9] The exhausted Maestro attempts to use the Destroyer against the Hulk, but 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 body, which is last seen buried in a small rockslide.[10]

When the Hulk was "upgraded"' to the persona of Doc Green (a version of the Hulk with access to Banner's intellect after being treated with Extremis following being shot in the head), he began to experience dream-like visions of the Maestro while hunting down and 'curing' all other gamma-based mutations, creating the possibility that Doc Green would eventually become his dark future self, starting with him contemplating growing a beard.[11] However, Doc Green eventually recognized the potential dangers of the 'Maestro' aspects of his personality when he realized 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 last injection of the cure with She-Hulk, who is the only gamma mutation whose life he felt had been legitimately enhanced by her condition. He instructs her to use it on him if he goes too far.[12]

The Maestro largely possesses the same powers as the Hulk, but to a greater degree than most incarnations due to the century's worth of radiation he has absorbed as a result of the nuclear wars that decimated his Earth (the present Hulk speculated that his insanity might also contribute to his greater strength). This includes certain mental powers, such as the Hulk's ability to see and interact with astral forms, as shown in The Defenders series. Although he possesses Banner's intellect, and has been implied to have built Dystopia himself, he has rarely demonstrated Banner's technical expertise, such as once manipulating Miguel O'Hara into repairing a time machine for him rather than doing it himself.[16]

• Alternative versions of the Hulk

• Maestro at Marvel Wiki
• Maestro at Comic Vine
• Maestro at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)