Maestro #1 - Marvel Comics

MAESTRO No. 1, October 2020

Billed by “Marvel Worldwide” as a story “you’ve waited decades for”, Peter David’s opening narrative explaining the origin of Maestro probably had a fair few of its readers rather worried when they were initially faced with Doctor Banner single-handedly whumping a party of Sentinels whilst the likes of Thor, Captain America and Wolverine impotently watched on. Indeed, the opening third of this thirty-page periodical arguably plays out like the worst sort of fan fiction, as a ‘house-trained’ Hulk sits at the dining table with his beloved wife and two playful children, talking about just how good life has become; “Thaddeus” Rick” Stop running and sit down! Dinner’s getting cold!”

Fortunately though, this comic’s plot takes a decidedly darker turn once Bruce deduces he’s actually in a computer life simulation, and angrily defeats the Avengers when they try to convince him that the super-villain Mysterio has somehow gotten into his mind. Fully-bearded, with long lank hair, a befuddled Hulk finds himself buried deep underground in an impoverished A.I.M. facility, and slowly starts to understand that he has been kept in suspended animation for several decades along with the likes of his old antagonists Vapor and the Abomination.

All these intriguing revelations are quite wonderfully drip-fed to the audience by the GLAAD Media Award winner as the titular character discovers them, and resultantly the plot pans out as if both the bibliophile and Banner were exploring their dilapidated surroundings together. Delightfully, this sense of a ‘shared experience’ is then subsequently increased when an elderly M.O.D.O.K. (Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) appears to explain that the subterranean shelter houses some of the sole survivors of a combined World War Three nuclear holocaust and genocidal terrorist campaign by the Black Scythe, who must wait another twenty seven years before the “radiation will decrease sufficiently…”

Adding enormously to this publication’s successful story-telling are artists Dale Keown and German Peralta, whose decidedly contrasting styles really help separate Banner’s simulated world of supposed marital bliss with that of the grim and disconcertingly destitute future. In fact, Peralta’s pencilling in particular proves incredibly effective in putting across both the grubbiness and decay of M.O.D.O.K.’s fast-failing facility, as well as the dawning horror of the Hulk’s real life predicament.

The regular cover art of "MAESTRO" No. 1 by Dale Keown & Jason Keith (After Kirby)