The Maestro may have finally won a seat of power in his doomed world, but a classic Marvel villain just teamed up with Marvel gods to change that.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Maestro: War & Pax #1, by Peter David with art by Javier Pina and Jesus Aburtov, and letterer Travis Lanham.
Ever since he first clashed with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, the Hulk has gone up against some of the toughest heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe. That’s a big part of the appeal of any Hulk story, and it holds true, even into the dystopian timeline of the Future Imperfectworld, where the aged, evil Maestro just concluded his eponymous miniseries with an epic battle to win his title from Hercules.
And as his new miniseries kicks off in Maestro: War & Pax #1, Marvel revealed that another iconic Marvel figure was still secretly alive in the apocalyptic world, Doctor Doom, and he’s not alone.
Across Peter David and George Perez’s original Future Imperfect storyline and Maestro’s just-finished miniseries, Marvel showed that little survived the nuclear apocalypse that devastated much of the planet. Small pockets of civilization remain, and Maestro recently claiming rule over Dystopia while he sets his sights on the vestiges of Washington D.C. known as Haven. In the course of his campaign to rule what is left of the world, Maestro commands an army of robotic Dogs of War that lay waste to children who refuse to join his Post-Apocalyptic Existence known as PAX, and the cloaked figure of Doctor Doom surveys this horror from afar.
Doom observes Maestro’s activities over monitors, with his location and activities almost a complete mystery. Very little was ever revealed about the rest of the alternate reality world of Future Imperfect outside the United States, but the presumption has always been that it was charred and lifeless. With almost the entirety of the world’s superheroes slain and the remains of their weapons and gear festooning the Maestro’s trophy room, there was little reason to believe that much else survived the apocalypse. However, it was always possible that Doom’s domain of Latveria had its own defenses, which it jealously guarded against other nations across the globe.
At the very least, Doom is not alone. While the fate of the rest of his country is left as a question mark, Doom sets out to locate other survivors hidden away under the Columbia Icefield in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Tucked away in a bunker, Doom finds and demands an audience with the Pantheon. The super-powered children of demigod Agamemnon, who are best known for briefly welcoming the Hulk as a member of their team, live comfortably in their bunker, even though the super-sighted Delphi offers warnings to the others of Maestro’s conquest.
With Doom uniting forces with the Pantheon, this could well be the build-up to the greatest resistance Maestro has faced yet, especially since the irradiated dictator wants to unite the world under his iron fist. With more resources than ever in his position as Maestro, the Hulk is far deadlier than he was previously against Hercules, where he had little more than wits and cunning to help him defeat the stronger foe. Still, the Pantheon’s divine powers and Doctor Doom’s own legendary cunning are nothing to scoff at.
Given that both Doom and the Pantheon were not in any immediate danger of Maestro’s conquest, it seems likely that these two would unite in a proactive effort against the Maestro. Even if their futures have already been written, seeing such a classic Marvel villain like Doctor Doom team up with a group of demigods to take on the Maestro should be a fight for the ages.
