| The Maestro | |
|---|---|
Inside art for The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1 by George Pérez. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #401 (January 1993) |
| Created by | Peter David (based upon the Hulk by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Dr. Robert Bruce Banner |
| Species | Human mutate |
| Place of origin | Earth |
| Abilities |
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The Maestro is a fictional comic book supervillain in Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk publications, combining Bruce Banner's intelligence with the Hulk's more malevolent aspects. The character was created by Peter David.
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The Maestro first appeared as a vision in The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #401. He was the main antagonist in The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1-2 (Dec 1992 - Jan 1993).
Maestro's next appearance is in The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #460-461 (Jan-Feb 1998).
The character also made appearances in Exiles and Captain Marvel vol 4 #27-30 (Mar-May 2002), which come before Future Imperfect chronologically.
The term maestro is an Italian/Spanish word meaning master, teacher, or professor.
Approximately a hundred years into the future, a nuclear war has killed almost all of Earth's superhumans and has taken the world to the brink of extinction. A future version of the Hulk, called Maestro, has seized control, driven insane by the nuclear radiation he has absorbed and the bitterness he feels towards the world at his continued treatment. The radiation also significantly enhances his strength. He also has the intelligence of Bruce Banner.
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.
Years later, the Maestro, fully recovered from his injury, encounters a time-traveling Genis-Vell and Spider-Man. Manipulated by the supervillain Thanatos, the three battle. Genis-Vell and Spider-Man 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.[1]
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. The Maestro's superior strength and experience to allow him to easily dominate the Hulk and break his neck. Knowing it will soon heal, he shows Hulk around the city. The Maestro is defeated when Hulk uses of 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.[2]
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.[3] The exhausted Maestro attempts to use the Destroyer against the Hulk, but is last buried in a small rockslide.[4]
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. This includes certain mental powers, such as the Hulk's ability to see and interact with astral forms, as shown in The Defenders series.