Warning: contains a preview for Maestro: World War M #3!
As the Hulk's dark future self embarks on his own global conflict, Marvel is finally admitting that the ending to its epic World War Hulk event did not make sense. At the height of Hulk's all-out war against Earth's superheroes, when he was at the apex of his rage and strength, he was struck down by Iron Man's orbiting satellite weapons. However, Maestro: World War M is making a point to note this shouldn't have worked.
During the Planet Hulk storyline, Bruce Banner was tricked by his supposed friends, Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, and Black Bolt - the secret cabal known as Illuminati - and sent to the faraway planet of Sakaar, as a way to stop the threat posed by Hulk forever. The Green Goliath, however, conquered Sakaar, and when he mistakenly believed that a bomb set by the Illuminati had killed millions of people, including his pregnant wife, he came back to Earth to break the so-called heroes and everything standing in his path. This was the most powerful version of the Hulk ever seen, as his rage for the loss of his love and for the betrayal of his friends reached unprecedented heights. Nothing could stop him, as he mercilessly beat up Iron Man's latest Hulkbuster armor, a dark magic-empowered Doctor Strange, and even the mighty Sentry. In the end, Hulk was about to destroy the entire planet before Tony Stark called upon a combined strike from orbital satellites that fired a highly-focused barrage of lasers that finally took down the Hulk.
The fact that mere lasers were able to take down the most powerful Hulk always seemed very out of place. In a preview for Maestro: World War M #3, by Peter David, Germàn Peralta, and Jesus Aburtov, a similar solution is proposed by Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, to Doctor Doom, as a way to stop the Maestro, a future version of the Hulk that has become the ruthless dictator of a post-apocalyptic world. Doom's baffled response seems like a callback to fans' reaction to World War Hulk's ending. He points out that, even if he had an orbiting laser, it would simply bounce off the Maestro. Enjoy this preview for Maestro: World War M #3 shared by Marvel Comics.
World War Hulk was an epic story of revenge and betrayal that redefined the Hulk's role in the Marvel Universe. Finally, fans got to see what would happen if Hulk got so angry that, instead of wanting to be left alone (as was usually the case), he focused all his rage and directed it toward a target. The beating and humiliation of those who call themselves heroes also pointed out the hypocrisies and the lies they had built up over the years. The fights were epic as expected, and the final issue saw the confrontation between Hulk and the only other hero who stood a chance in terms of power, the Sentry. However, the actual conclusion with the use of the satellites felt very lackluster, as the Hulk effectively gave up and allowed Iron Man to unleash his deus ex machina superweapon.
A few years later, Marvel would retcon that sequence, explaining that the satellites were actually siphoning off gamma radiation from Hulk's body, which was later used to create the Red Hulk. However, this created its own problems, because if such an effective anti-Hulk weapon existed to be used in World War Hulk, there would have been no need to exile Bruce in the first place. Also, Tony clearly states during the event that he is hijacking satellites from various sources, the U.S., the Chinese, the Russians, and even a Shi'ar probe, to build his "death ray." Thankfully, Doctor Doom's sarcastic answer in World War M seems like Marvel's admission that the ending of World War Hulk did not make any sense.
Maestro: World War M #3 will be available May 4 from Marvel Comics.