Future Imperfect is a 2015 Marvel Comics limited series written by Peter David and illustrated by Greg Land and Jay Leisten, with colors by Nolan Woodard.
The series is part of the Secret Wars (2015) event, set at a time when reality has been remade and the only remaining planet is Battleworld, a patchwork of different realms held together by the will of Doctor Doom.
One of those realms is Dystopia, an alternate version of the city from David’s original The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect series. Like the original version, it's ruled by the Maestro, an aged, evil variant of the Hulk. However, this Maestro is a Lord Baron who’s appointed by Doom himself, not an independent tyrant.
And this time the rebels rising up against him include heroes with powers of their own (including some familiar faces returning from David’s X-Factor run, as well as characters from the original Future Imperfect series).
Meanwhile, the Maestro has no intention of remaining Doom’s lackey forever and has started making plans of his own. Plans that may end badly for anyone who gets in his way.
The first issue was released on June 03, 2015.
Future Imperfect (2015) provides examples of:
- Back for the Dead: The nature of Battleworld means that he’s technically a variant, but Skooter, one of the rebels who played a minor role in the original Future Imperfect, gets a more significant role here. And then gets killed by one of Ulik’s trolls.
- Body Horror: Glenn Talbot accompanies Thaddeus Ross in the flashback to Ross's origin story, mirroring the Fantastic Four’s mission into space. But whereas Ross mutates into the Thing, Talbot seems to have become glass or crystal, and doesn't survive the crash landing. We get a shot of his corpse inside the space helmet, with one side of his head fractured and shattered.
- The Bus Came Back: They’re alternate versions due to the nature of the story, but Ruby Summers, Skooter and Janis are all back for the first time in five years or more.
- Composite Character: There are a couple of cases where characters have titles or superhero identities that are usually associated with others.
- The Thing is Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, a long-running Hulk antagonist, not Ben Grimm.
- The Ancient One is Rick Jones, not the centuries-old magician who served as Doctor Strange’s mentor
- Continuity Nod:
- Every issue opens with a description of the Maestro's museum of trophies, collected from various heroes, anti-heroes and villains from the Marvel Universe.
- Layla’s Dog of War is named Jamie, the same name as their partner in standard continuity.
- Eyepatch of Power: Odin wears one. In fact, it’s one of his distinguishing features. He’s an old, white, bearded guy in an eyepatch. Which means that wearing an eyepatch and shifting his speech patterns a little is enough to let an elderly Bruce Banner - the Maestro reverted to human form - briefly impersonate Odin.
- Friendly Address Privileges: The opening flashback to issue #2 has Glenn Talbot address Major Ross as "Thaddeus". Ross chides him for it, since they're not friends.
- Future Slang: Marvel mainstays "flark" and "shock" get a few uses.
- God Guise: Ruby finds a man who claims to be the Norse god Odin lost in the desert outside Dystopia, so rescues him. On Battleworld, this isn’t an entirely implausible claim, as many versions of Thor serve Doom. He’s not actually Odin though, he’s the Maestro in his elderly human 'Bruce Banner' form.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: The Maestro says this word for word, in all sincerity, on the very last page. He’s certain of his triumph and completely unaware that he’s still trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine in a remote cave.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Maestro’s fate in the final issue. The 'Destroyer' he finds is a wish-fulfillment trap, not the Asgardian fighting machine of the main Marvel universe. The Maestro trapped for the rest of his life in a delusion that he's killed Doom and taken his place as God-Emperor.
- Nigh-Invulnerable:
- The Maestro, as would be expected from an even stronger version of the Hulk. There's pretty much nothing that can hurt him. Even Ulik's Megaton Punch barely elicits more than an "ow". Ultimately, he's not defeated by the use of force.
- Ruby Summers' showing in X-Factor didn't give much of a chance to show off how tough her ruby quartz form was. Here, the Maestro hits hard enough to nearly shatter her, but the fact she survives a punch from him at all is impressive in itself.
- No, Mister Bond, I Expect You To Dine: When Ruby and Janis break in to rescue Thaddeus Ross, they find him at a banquet table with the Maestro. And are then instructed to take a seat and join them.
- Take That!: To Rick's "A-Bomb" period. On meeting him, Maestro asks about it, and elderly Rick dismisses it with a "wasn't for me."
- Transplant: Versions of Ruby Summers (the alternate-future child of Emma Frost and Scott Summers) and X-Factor’s Layla Miller play major roles, despite having no real connection to previous Hulk stories. Peter David has written both of them a lot elsewhere, though.
- World of Snark: Being written by Peter David, everyone's got a dry quip at the ready.
