Hulk watched humans destroy the world due to their own stupidity and Maestro showed how he finally lost all faith in humanity and chose to take over.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Maestro #3, by Peter David, German Peralta, Jesus Aburtov, Dale Keown, Jason Keith, and VC’s Ariana Maher, on sale now.
Hulk’s journey from a reluctant hero to the evil ruler Maestro is playing out in the series Maestro, and the moment that finally pushed Hulk over the edge and broke him finally been revealed in Maestro #3.
The moment that Hulk broke had built since the first issue when he realized he was living in a fantasy world and broke free. He soon saw the world was devastated by humans who waged war and destroyed the planet. Hulk was shaken up when he saw the dead animals and wildlife and knew that humans were completely responsible.
Hulk eventually found a city where people lived as best they could under the rule of the Olympian Hercules, who called himself Maestro. However, when he approached him, Hercules attacked. While it was all in the name of fun for the God, Hulk was not amused and ended up sidetracked when he learned Rick Jones was still alive and wanted to see him. Hulk seemed happy to see Rick and the two began to talk about the state of the world. From the death of the animals to the destruction of everything due to humankind’s stupidity, Hulk seemed to have enough. What drove Hulk to break was that he had lost all sense of sympathy for ordinary people. Rick dismissed Hercules as someone who had changed and no longer cared about people. That is when Hulk asked why anyone should care about ordinary people. Hulk pointed out that all the world’s superheroes fought and died to protect ordinary people, but it was the ordinary people who destroyed the world and not a supervillain.
Hulk said ordinary people brought the entire world down and destroyed everything, so why should he care about them any more than Hercules did? Hulk said Hercules should destroy all the ordinary people and asked why he should care. Rick pointed out that he is an ordinary person and that Betty and Marlo were ordinary people too. Once upon a time, Hulk was an ordinary person, but Hulk dismissed them all as sheep. He said they should have someone rule with an iron fist, and when Rick asked if he should be the ruler, Hulk said there could be worse, saying Doctor Doom was onto something.