OPENING COMMENTS: Thor vs Maestro
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
What does Thor know? He’s facing a Hulk, that’s clear right off the bat. He’s faced the Hulk before, as we all know. They’re roughly the same strength level, and more often than not, they’ll initially stalemate, with the battle ending up with a small victory for either one at the end. It’s important to note these battles since the Maestro is essentially a future Hulk, a lot more stable, but a little weaker.
Let’s review their battles for a moment:
- Thor comes off the best in his early fights with the Hulk, often showing a greater skill to his fighting (such as in
Journey into Mystery #112), but both are hindered by involvement from either Namor or the Avengers.
- Up until
Namor the Sub-Mariner #35, there is no clear winner, and even here there really isn’t. In this battle between the not-yet-Defenders and Avengers, Hulk comes close to winning thanks to Thor’s hammer having a sixty second limit. It’s a weakness he no longer has.
- The two keep stalemating until
Thor #385, where they are evenly matched for a long time. It is important to note that Thor, now without the sixty second weakness, does not fight with the hammer. Nonetheless the Hulk’s strength keeps increasing, giving him the edge. He doesn’t ever knock Thor out, though.
- In
Thor #489 both admit to holding back and it is here that Hulk struggles with a weakness; transforming back into a savage form of Bruce Banner. Nonetheless, Thor hands him his ass.
- The closest Thor comes to facing Maestro is in
Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #440, where he faces a Hulk similar to the Maestro. The descriptions of that battle that I’ve found state that Hulk won, but not conclusively, he punched him away far enough so that he could go into hiding, avoiding a nuclear bomb.
- In a fight in the Hulk’s 2001 annual, they both get their licks in, and Thor is able to knock the Hulk out with a lightning bolt. The Hulk ends up delivering a bit of a beat down on the Thor later, again benefiting from his ever-increasing strength.
The Maestro is far from dumb, but he doesn’t have the strength to overcome Thor physically anymore, which was always the Hulk’s greater advantage. But with what I’ll be outlining, especially the physical part will not be overcome by the Maestro.
Let’s take into account the following things:
- Thor is facing the Maestro and knows this. No matter the incarnation really, the Hulk is dangerous, and the Maestro name should tip him off especially.
- He knows the location is Stamford, and he knows that it is populated. Thor’s primary objective will be to take care of this battle as soon as he can. No questions about, he’s going to try and put down the Maestro first chance he gets.
- Maestro will want to engage Thor into physical combat. He’s a strategic genius, but he still craves for a good fight. Thor is the kind of person who can give him that. This is what the Maestro thrives on.
So Thor’s going to want to take Maestro down as soon as possible, and it will most likely be in a physical engagement. How does Thor beat Maestro in this scenario? Pretty simple: the gauntlets of strength that increase Thor’s strength twofold. They can only be used for a short time, but Thor’s not going to be wasting time here.
Thor has no major weaknesses here, and he’ll be going all out to end this as soon as possible. Oddly, the location is an advantage here, giving Thor extra motivation to take down the Maestro quickly. Especially when he learns that the Maestro is essentially an evil version of the Hulk, he’s not going to hesitate to go for the killing blow.
WINNER=THOR