8 Comic Villains Humiliated By Hulk

5. The Maestro

Planet Hulk Red King
Marvel Comics

The Maestro seemed like the one villain who the Hulk couldn't beat.

A future version of the Green Goliath, Maestro has an advantage on the standard Hulk on a wide variety of fronts. Able to simultaneously harness Bruce Banner's vast intelligence and the Hulk's raw aggression, the Maestro is the survivor of a future in which the majority of the human race was wiped out by nuclear war.

In the fallout of that war, Hulk's abilities were enhanced by the radiation that had caused so much death. Throw in a good ol' dose of "driven insane" by what he'd been through, and the Jade Giant and his ascension to becoming the Maestro made him a threat the likes of which the world of Marvel Comics had rarely before seen.

This alt-future version of Hulk was introduced in 1991's Future Imperfect arc, and so tyrannical was his reign that a band of rebels used a time machine of Doctor Doom's to bring the Professor Hulk of the present day to this skewed future.

Still, Prof. Hulk didn't fare too well at first, with the Maestro snapping his past self's neck. Once the regular Hulk recovered, Maestro tried to convince his young doppelganger to join at his side. After teasing such an alliance, Hulk managed to outsmart and outmanoeuvre his vastly superior 'self'.

To do that, Hulk sent the Maestro back in time to the precise moment that Bruce Banner was exposed to the gamma radiation that turned him into Jade Jaws. There, as the penny dropped as to where he was, the Maestro was eviscerated.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.