The Creators – Peter David – Writer, Sebastian Cabrol – Artist, Jesus Aburtov – Colours, Ariana Maher – Letters

The Players – Maestro (Hulk/Bruce Banner), Abomination, Namor, Doom, Human Torch, Rick Jones

The Story – The road to Future Imperfect ends/begins here.

The Take – The final issue of the final Maestro miniseries is here and it finds the once-Hulk teaming up with perhaps his greatest foe, the Abomination to rid himself of the rest of his enemies. If he can accomplish this, there will be nobody left to oppose him and he can rule what is left of humanity – at least in Dystopia, unchallenged. Peter David wraps it all up as one might expect as it does lead into the events of Future Imperfect, yet still makes it quite enjoyable with artist Sebastian Cabrol coming on board to help. The two behemoths make their way into Doom’s castle, caught in a trap of Doom’s devising but maybe due to age or simply the wiliness of the Maestro, they manage to get out. This leads to an encounter between the Hulk and Namor where the ghosts of the past get the better of the latter while Abomination heads to the computer room to enact the final part of the plan. The ending is quite explosive as it were and puts the final nail in the coffin of a few Marvel mainstays, though if this truly was the end of them, who is to say. As for the Maestro, he sits upon his throne triumphant with those who were foolish enough to oppose him no longer in play. All that is save Rick Jones. Though this book and those preceding it were all a good read and together make for a very fun story, each issue including this seemed exceptionally short. Whether due to the pace that was set or there being little actual content is hard to say but it would have been nice if the issues had been slightly longer, perhaps giving readers a little more to chew on while exploring this new world just a bit longer than it did. As for the Maestro, readers do have to wonder if this is the last they will see of the character or if there will be at least one more story down the road at some point. Time will tell of course.

Worth It? – Yes.