Writer: Peter David
Art: German Peralta and Dale Keown
Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 21st, 2020
Who killed the world? Well, you just may figure it out in this week’s issue of MAESTRO #3 by Peter David. You see, The Hulk confronts the Maestro and it’s not who you would predict it to be. And when a covert group of revolutionaries tries to recruit the Hulk to fight beside them, his answer sends ripples through Dystopia. This world will never be the same and neither will the Hulk. Let’s smash into MAESTRO #3 and catch up with some old friends!
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Readers, let me begin by saying that this issue doesn’t go where you think it’s going. David, Peralta, and Dale Keown take readers down the first true machinations of the MAESTRO. But if I could take a side step for a moment… I loved this take on Hercules! Peralta and Keown draw him like a true Olympian with his immense size and stature that can only be rivaled by the Hulk. Plus, David promotes an aura around him that’s fitting of any Greek God that makes this by far the best appearance of the character I’ve seen in years!
However, digressing back to the HULK, there is a reunion between old friends that are spoiled by the cover. Truthfully, you know it would have had to happen at some point regardless of the cover. Nonetheless, I was hoping for a more emotional reunion than what transpires, which would probably be my biggest beef of the issue. Maybe it’s due to time or issue count, but things speed up quickly with this issue. HULK takes a turn of the worst and shows the first signs of the MAESTRO we remember shining through the cracks. And let me tell you, HULK’s true gamma green colors boldly radiate throughout the pages of this issue as it wraps up. Knowing the prospect, readers see a taste of his future “imperfect” plans taking shape.
Ultimately, my disappointment with this issue was the pacing of the overall story within the issue. I feel like David, Peralta, and Keown jumped to this point rather quickly. As a HULK fan, I wanted to see the character more morally devastated and destroyed. I wanted to see him feel as though he had no choice but to go down the path in FUTURE IMPERFECT. But it seems like his “ice age” and “walkabout” were all he needed to put him over the edge, which to be fair very well could have just been the straw. The HULK has been captured, tested, hunted, tortured, repeatedly killed, tormented, and psychologically annihilated since birth. Truthfully, FUTURE IMPERFECT Hulk should have risen many times before in multiple timelines by now. However, I feel like I just wanted to physically see that real moment where he snaps, kind of like what happens to Anakin Skywalker in STAR WARS. You know it’s gradual but the true moment of no return is the instance you can put your finger on. And I can’t quite put my finger on that moment in MAESTRO… at least not yet or like I thought I would be able too.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is another stellar issue and frankly, a smashingly outstanding series that I wish was so much longer. Peter David has been quietly making these amazing titles in the background of recent Marvel Comics. If you don’t believe me, look no further than the SYMBIOTE SPIDER-MAN series that was also fantastic. There is just so much he could do with all of this and see what David has done in the past, as well as with title after title of SYMBIOTE SPIDER-MAN, my hope is that MAESTRO doesn’t end. Sure, this mini will but I hope that dozen more stories branch off from here. This premise and story are just so rich with promise and ideas that this FUTURE IMPERFECT world could be cultivated into titles and storylines equivalent to DCEASED or even INJUSTICE at DC COMICS. Give David a team like Jonathan Hickman has and let him go to town!! As for this issue, even though it may have progressed quickly, it was still an amazing issue well worth every penny. HULK fans and comic readers alike will love this series. If you’re a comic fan, you need to be reading this.
Big PAD & Hulk fan here, have the original Future Imperfect in multiple difft editions in the collection, so eagerly picked up this series when it was released.
That said, I can’t get past probably the biggest fundamental flaw in the future logic on display here. Especially coming from the author of the original future Imperfect & Hulk saga himself.
How is it that the Hulk himself doesn’t know or remember the actual Maestro in this series? How is it that the Hulk doesn’t know Janis or already have memories of Pizfiz & the rest of the Wasteland insurgents, when he literally met them all more than once in the original Future Imperfect storyline, & not only that but he literally lived with them for months while healing from his first battle with the Maestro.
Janis even became his sidekick years later in the core Incredible Hulk series AFTER he visited the Future Imperfect in the continuity of the core series… all of this can be chalked up, I assume, to yet another “What If…” style alternative universe story & I would have forgiven it, if David would have just thrown in a line from Banner in the script acknowledging that he’s been here before, seen it before, but still wants to see if his memory of the events that led here are the same as what he experiences now… nope, it’s written as if Hulk has no knowledge of a Maestro, Janis, Pizfiz & co.
That’s a glaring continuity fail for something that’s intended to be portrayed as if it’s occurring in the actual Marvel U 616.
Kinda ruined it for me.
Don’t get me wrong, i’ll still be here for the rest of the series, but really would have appreciated a nod to the things that came before rather than just acting as if this is a stand-alone elseworlds tale, especially coming from PAD directly. You’d think he’d be more willing to be referential of his own earlier works.
oh well.
First of all, thanks for the read and thanks for the comment!! Wow!! I appreciate the long reply. I can tell how much of a fan you really are. Again, thank you so much for the comment. You make really good and strong points, as well as arguments. All I can say is this… unless time travel has a flux capacitor with it… I’m at a loss. Meaning: I don’t understand how time travel works within Comics. Let alone each writers take for that matter. I can see why he should remember yet I could also see why he doesn’t. Maybe different timelines once you jump to or from future and past. Who knows? That said, I can’t hang my hat on that personally because it all honesty, it would really make my brain hurt trying to figure out the logistics. However, it would be a great conversation to discuss with a cup of coffee or tea!!! That much is true. Again, great points and thanks again for the read!!!