Comic Info
Comic Name: Future Imperfect/Secret Wars: Battleworld
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Greg Land/Daniel Valadez
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2015
Warzones!: Future Imperfect #2
Reprints Future Imperfect #1-5 and Secret Wars: Battleworld #4 (August 2015-November 2015). The Maestro rules Dystopia with an iron fist! When a group of rebels try to overthrow the Maestro, they find themselves in league with him in an attempt to make the ultimate coup…the defeat of Doom!
Written by Peter David, Warzones!: Future Imperfect is part of a spin-off of the Secret Wars series. The collection features art by Greg Land but also has art by Daniel Valadez on Secret Wars: Battleworld (which was also included in Secret Wars Journal/Battleworld).
Peter David’s run on Incredible Hulk was a lot of fun. He took the character in directions that had never been breached (which is difficult in a world of monthly comics). The series returns to his run and places it in the world of Battleworld. The Hulk: Future Imperfect and the Maestro was an interesting storyline with great “What If?” qualities. Revisiting the Maestro and his insanity is definitely worth the trip.
Future Imperfect #4
Like many of the Warzone! titles, the series unfortunately is a bit too short. I wish that the series had more time to develop because the world created in Secret Wars is so rich. The Maestro is a great character and the story developed in this series is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, you have the rebellion and the quest for the Destroy crammed into one storyline which feels a bit under developed. Fortunately, the comic had five issues (some only had four) and it is able to flesh out the characters a bit better than other Warzone! titles.
I actually really like the “bonus” story in the collect a lot as well. While the Maestro is very, very strong, strength isn’t everything. The fact that the Silver Surfer just brushes off the Maestro’s attacks is a great moment in the story. The Silver Surfer has always been too powerful for most of the stories he is in, so to see that used to the storyteller’s advantage is a bit more positive than a lot of Silver Surfer storylines (though once again, this could have been a whole series).
Secret Wars is an unbalanced storyline, but it is a fun storyline because it allowed writers to really explore different veins in comics that were fun. Favorite stories were revisit and favorite authors were allowed to revisit their favorite story…Peter David is a great example of it. He was allowed to take Hulk back to a period that had long since passed. Fortunately for the Maestro, the past and the future collided so it even made more sense as a limited series.
Related Links:
Battleworld: Master of Kung Fu
Warzones!: Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars
Warzones!: M.O.D.O.K. Assassin
