Maestro (character)

The Maestro
Inside art for The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1 (1992) by George Pérez.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Incredible Hulk vol.2, #400
Created by	Peter David
In-story information
Alter ego	Dr. Robert Bruce Banner
Species	Human mutate
Place of origin	Earth
Team affiliations	Ruler of Dystopia militia, including "Dogs of War"
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability Regenerative healing factor, Ability to see astral forms, Radiation absorption, Transformation, Resistance to mind control, Genius level intellect in certain incarnations.

The Maestro is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain, appearing in publications from Marvel Comics. Created by Peter David, the Maestro first appeared as a vision in The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #400, and made a full appearance in Hulk: Future Imperfect #1 (Dec.1992).

Fictional character biography

The Maestro is a version of the Hulk from an alternate future timeline, approximately a hundred years into the future, combining Banner's intelligence with the Hulk's more malevolent aspects. After a nuclear war kills almost all of Earth's superhumans and brings the world to the brink of extinction, the Maestro seizes control.

Gray haired and balding, the Maestro is clearly older than the Hulk, but is also significantly stronger due to the radiation he has absorbed since the war. He rules the city of Dystopia, built to his own designs and protected by radiation shielding. Brutal soldiers with hi-tech equipment keep the "peace" and impose the Maestro's iron will. The Maestro himself dwells in a grand palace, where a Bacchanalian atmosphere reigns. Other gamma-irradiated beings, She-Hulk (now calling herself "Shulk") and the Abomination, survived the war and seem to have conquered other areas of the world. Not long after the war, 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 2099. Manipulated by the supervillain Thanatos, the three battle - but Captain Marvel and Spider-Man eventually return to their own time, with no consequence for the Maestro.

Acquiring Doctor Doom's time machine, the rebels opposing the Maestro (led by Rick Jones) eventually decide to bring the 'Professor' Hulk forward from the past, hoping that he can defeat the Maestro. The Hulk agrees to help them and confronts the Maestro, but loses due to the Maestro's greater experience, power, willingness to endanger bystanders, and his ability to predict the Hulk's moves in combat. The Maestro breaks Hulk's neck to immobilize him, then tries to persuade the incapacitated Hulk that he should side with his future self, telling him that nothing will change when he returns home and he will still be persecuted.

After the Hulk's recovery, the two clash once more; but despite the Hulk's best efforts, the Maestro is still far too powerful for him. At the last minute, the Maestro is defeated by the use of Doom's time machine, and sent back to the time and place that the Hulk was created: ground zero during the testing of the atomic Gamma Bomb, the only bomb that the Hulk knew the ground zero location of. Appearing next to the bomb itself, Maestro is seemingly killed in the same moment that creates the Hulk, but some part of his consciousness still remains, tied to the skeletal fragments at the Gamma Bomb site.

Eventually the Hulk learns that the "homing sense" which has always allowed him to locate ground zero, his "birth" place, is actually attracted to the Maestro's spirit and remains. The Maestro has also been absorbing gamma radiation from the Hulk each time he returns to the site, gradually restoring himself. When the Hulk returns, shortly after the Heroes Return crossover, he is radiating vast amounts of energy. Maestro finally absorbs enough radiation to restore himself to life, although in a weakened and emaciated form.

Shortly thereafter, the Maestro's body is shown to have gradually rebuilt itself, but he nonetheless faints from exhaustion, and is captured by Asgardian trolls, who place his soul into the Destroyer to empower it. As the Destroyer, he battles the Hulk - but as the Hulk and Maestro share the same DNA, Hulk's spirit is able to enter the Destroyer and defeat it by slamming its' visor shut just as it discharged a disintegration beam. The resulting shockwave sends both the Destroyer, and the rock it had been standing on, plummeting towards the Maestro, just shown as almost fully recovered, and the latter is covered by the rock slide.

The Hulk briefly titled himself with this alias during a time when shrapnel were lodged within his brain.

Powers and abilities

The Maestro largely possesses the same powers as the Hulk, but has greater experience as a fighter, has a calm strength roughly twice that of the 'merged'/'professor' incarnation, and is far more ruthless, gladly sacrificing the lives of innocent hostages to gain an advantage. He has the potential for limitless levels of physical strength depending directly on his emotional state, particularly his anger. He is also extremely resistant to physical damage, psychic assaults, temperature extremes, is completely immune to disease and poisons, and when injured, heals from almost any wound within seconds. His powerful legs allow him to leap into lower Earth orbit. His durability, healing, endurance, and possibly speed, likewise increase in relation to his temper. He also has certain mental powers, which allow him to see and interact with astral forms.

As Bruce Banner, he was considered one of the greatest minds on Earth. He has developed expertise in the fields of Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, and Physiology, and has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics. He has been described as "possessing a mind so brilliant it cannot be measured on any known intelligence test."

In other media

The Maestro appears as an opponent in the PlayStation game The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga, and as a playable character in The Incredible Hulk video game.

The Maestro is a part of the Marvel Legend's Apocalypse build a figure line. Maestro comes with the left arm of Apocalypse.