Warning! Spoilers for Maestro: War and Pax #1 below!
Hulk may be one of the strongest characters in the Marvel Universe, but that doesn’t mean he’s invincible or incapable of being defeated. When Maestro, a future version of Hulk living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, decides to unite the remainder of mankind under his rule, he sets his sights on the Haven, an underground base full of survivors and resources guarded by Aaron Stack aka the robot hero called Machine Man. When Maestro and his forces arrive in the remains of Washington, D.C, his battle with Machine Man proves that although Maestro has both Hulk’s strength and Banner’s intelligence, it doesn’t make him completely unbeatable.
Created by Jack Kirby for 2001, A Space Odyssey Vol 2 #8 (1977), Machine Man was originally X-51, an experimental robot programmed to behave like humans and raised by his creator as if he was one. The only survivor of his kind, the machine promised to make his father’s dream of robot and human peace a reality as he fled, considered a fugitive from the military. After working alongside other Marvel heroes, he was redesigned and rebuilt with the human identity of Aaron Stack, an insurance investigator. His time as a hero was complicated by his love for fellow sentient robot Jocasta, his brief Avengers membership and his powerful upgrade of being infected with Sentinel nano-technology. After spending time being observed by Celestials, he returned as a member of Nextwave as a beer-drinking, aggressive hero with resentment for humans yet one fighting threats to Earth and beyond. Although his personality softened over time, Aaron Stack continually struggled to protect a world that was often afraid and hateful to his kind.
In Maestro: War and Pax #1 by Peter David and Javier Pina, Maestro continues to fight, his new goal being to unite the remainder of mankind under his control, which is his idea of protecting them. Having remembered Machine Man’s underground society from his early days, Maestro orders his Minister to personally deliver them an ultimatum: submit to him or be destroyed. When Aaron and the Haven refuse to comply, Operation: Egress is put in place, and the people of the Haven and their protector prepare for another battle. Although the Hulk easily smashes through their defenses, his real challenge is Machine Man, who waits for Maestro while holding his Minister hostage. Despite Maestro’s obvious advantages, Machine Man manages to keep him distracted, using his robotic powers to hit, charbroil, or shock his opponent. When it appears that Maestro has won, Aaron’s disembodied head informs him that he isn’t even battling the real Machine Man, the entire battle has been a coordinated misdirection so the Haven’s people could escape.
Maestro believes that having the world under his control is better than letting the world operate under free will, blaming its current status on its failure and insisting that Earth deserves new, better management. Having already put down dissidents in Connecticut, he seeks to add the Haven to his growing empire, wanting their numbers and resources for Dystopia. Although Aaron’s cybernetic abilities allow him some advantage in battle, he knows he’d never truly be able to defeat the Hulk, but he can outsmart him. Like an elaborate magic trick, he distracts Hulk with holograms and robot duplicates while he personally flies a plane full of survivors to a secret base that Maestro would never find. After explaining this, Machine Man activates a fail safe that destroys the Haven, robbing Maestro of all the resources he sought in the first place.
Having lived a long time, the Machine Man knows he couldn’t defeat or kill Maestro with his bare hands but that outsmarting him would be the kind of loss the Maestro would never forget. Although Maestro survives the blast, the fact that he’s returning to Dystopia empty handed is the kind of thing that would make Aaron Stack smile at night, having bested one of the most powerful beings in existence.
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