The Maestro: Contest of Champions

http://marvel.com/news/comics/24796/...#ixzz3eaz7fyQV

Nice one, so is maestro over-lording these contests, in the style of Julius Caesar? looks that way!

The whole stronger than hulk thing is confusing considering hulk is limitless ,so far anywhere

Interview with Al Ewing re COC:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/ewings-contest-of-champions-pits-hero-against-hero-in-battles-to-the-death

@earthsmightiest: Thanks, dude! :)

This series sounds like it will be awesome and very interesting. I just wish we knew more about Cosmic Maestro. I have a feeling his power levels, and his agenda, will be akin to that of the game. Which is very bad news for the Marvel Universe/Multiverse.

Nice they just changed the Maestro forum avatar for the for the contest of champions cover :)

@schwarz: It's about time.

Let the Age of Maestro begin!!!!!

CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS #2

AL EWING (W) • PACO MEDINA (A/C)

CONNECTING VARIANT COVER B BY RON LIM

CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS GAME VARIANT COVER BY TBA

CLASSIC VARIANT COVER BY TBA

• Ares lives!

• The god of War vs. Maestro…and Iron Man & Gamora!

• Who is the shadowy player scheming with the Grandmaster? You’ll never guess!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

I hope Al ewing doesnt shit on him like pad did

@greenscar1990: do you know all the people confirmed so far to appear in contest of champions? I was thinking we could try to get a list of everyone supposed to appear, and whether they're likely to fight maestro or not.

@thedailybagel: Only what's been revealed in the links above.

I know Ares, Sentry (from Age of Sentry), Joe Fixit, Devil Hydrasaur, Gamora, Iron Man, and a few others will be involved.

@greenscar1990: whats age of sentry?

@thedailybagel: This.

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/The_Age_of_the_Sentry_Vol_1_1

The art for contest of champions is looking absolutely beautiful.

@thedailybagel: Paco medinas art looks amazing have you seen the previews

@kennethmaestro: I know, it's freaking gorgeous. I've never heard of him before but Jesus he should be getting job offers from everyone.

@bezza: @kennethmaestro: @thedailybagel:

More information on the series and Maestro.

http://www.newsarama.com/25851-contest-of-champions-alters-the-marvel-universe-in-a-significant-way.html

@thedailybagel: @greenscar1990:

@kennethmaestro: eh, no one there should be able to hurt maestro. Let alone last two seconds with him.

@thedailybagel: That's for damn sure. Regular Maestro should handily wipe the floor with them. Cosmic Maestro is overkill. Given his high-end stats and weapons, he should level Heralds of Galactus and easily stalemate or even topple Thanos in a fight. I can only hope Marvel & Al Ewing don't screw this up.

If this is merely a prelude to Cosmic Maestro becoming a being who hunts Celestials, kills Galactus, annihilates the Phoenix Corps and Phoenix Five, conquers universes, and becomes the ultimate universal/multiversal villainous threat... then I'll be all right with it.

But, seriously, thus far the beings shown are beneath him. They're honestly of no true threat to him. If Maestro doesn't toy or simply one-shot Ares, I'm not only gonna be disappointed... I'm gonna be ticked.

@greenscar1990: your expectations are far too high.

@thedailybagel: Well, given that the comic book series is supposed to eventually tie-in and affect the game as much as the comic (as stated in a interview), I'd expect Al Ewing and Marvel to stick with what the game has given us, especially with Cosmic Maestro of the game who is at the top of the Marvel power hierarchy, with the upcoming comic series acting as a prequel to what we have now in the game.

@greenscar1990: they've already said that cosmic maestro is going to act as collectors right hand man at first (granted they made it seem like maestro is more powerful and has ulterior motives) and if anything the comics first year will be about maestros rise to power.

But seriously, your getting yourself way too hyped up wishing for a celestial killing, pheonix 5 overpowering badass.

@thedailybagel: Dude, chill. I'm not expecting it to happen all at once. If anything it's going to be a very slow build-up to the Cosmic Maestro that we know of in the game who is the Galactus killer, Phoenix destroyer, Celestial hunter, Universal/Multiversal conqueror. It's bound to happen, but not yet. They're taking their time and developing the story of the years, which is good because usually the most interesting and powerful villains start somewhere.

Thanos didn't achieve the Infinity Gems overnight. Dr. Doom did not gain the power of the Beyonders in a single issue right off the bat. The Chaos King did not become a Eternity-level being in a few issues. Basically what I'm saying is that it takes time and development. And lucky for us Hulk fans, who''re more patient than most and have endured years of mediocre/sub-par stories, time is definitely on our side.

@bezza: @schwarz: @kennethmaestro: @thedailybagel:

So... who's looking forward to Contest of Champions #1 and Marvel Point One #1? If only because the Maestro is largely involved in these two titles that will be released.

@greenscar1990: i just read both of them a pretty good start so far

@bezza: @schwarz: @thedailybagel: @kennethmaestro:

This is interesting.

Here's what Hickman said in a recent interview involving Maestro.

While we're on the topic of other books, some readers of the other "Secret Wars" titles might be confused by seeing the Maestro and Apocalypse in the scene in this issue where Doom is talking with his various Barons, given what happened to those characters in the "Future Imperfect" and "Age of Apocalypse" miniseries. Are the events of those stories sort of happening around or after this scene?

Brevoort: All of the various "Secret Wars" stories are happening at different points. They're not all necessarily happening contiguously. You can see that as different characters move from one book to the next or when a character from the main "Secret Wars" book shows up in another book. Some of these stories are set earlier, certainly all the "Last Days" stories are set when there still was a Marvel Universe. Those are a little more overt, but yes things can be going on at different points.

Also there's nothing necessarily that says absolutely that the Maestro that's in this "Secret Wars" book has to be the Maestro that is in "Future Imperfect" or the Apocalypse that's here needs to be the one in "Age of Apocalypse." There's a lot of realms on Battleworld and a lot of different iterations of different characters as well. So there's also that to consider.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/hickman-brevoort-sort-through-the-rubble-of-secret-wars-6-explain-series-expansion

If that is the case, then the Maestro who fought Surfer and possibly the one who went after the Destroyer may not be the ultimate, powerful, intelligent Maestro who goes on to become the Celestial hunting, Galactus killing, Universal/Multiversal conqueror that Cosmic Maestro is.

Thoughts?

I think it is a bit dumb having multiple versions of barons... The reason is that Doom talks with a Maestro Baron in secret wars. So the one we see in future imperfect is also a baron? So there would be like 2 barons of the same domain ? It seems like a f***ed up mess instead of only having one baron. Though after the weak showing agaisn't silver surfer I wouldn't mind much that that version of maestro is just a scrub and not the real maestro.

But besides that the new contest of champions and point one were awesome. I really liked Maestro's wisdom choosing his players. How he was analysing those he didn't want. I enjoyed the story of guillotine. Now it will make or break for me when Maestro fights Ares. One more weak showing and i'm out or at least I won't be spending $ on it even if I do read it.

@greenscar1990: i think it's just marvel realising it doesn't make sense. They're basically saying that there could be two versions of the same baron which wouldn't make any sense. Moreover maestro isn't a character, he's one possible outcome of hulk and as far as I'm aware there's only one maestro in existence.

@thedailybagel: That's been a major problem for Marvel for the last 4-5 years. Case in point, look at Aaron, Waid and Duggan's Hulk runs. And they're just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything being a mess with Marvel Comics. We can add Thor, Captain America, the X-Men, and pretty much everything else to the list of things that Marvel has royally messed up in the past couple of years. ;)

@greenscar1990: also, Al ewing has said in interviews that the maestro in contest of champions is the same guy that got stuck in that illusion thing.

If we're lucky we might get to see him fight in the main secret wars story as well, seeing as doom asked his barons to deal with the army rising up against him.

@greenscar1990:

http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2015/10/image_11.jpg

at the bottom

http://news.yahoo.com/contest-champions-marvel-turns-digital-142719923.html

entire page

What did everybody think about this issue?

@kennethmaestro: I'll be picking it up this afternoon. I assume Maestro was badass, yes? He should be. Feel free to give out some spoilers, dude. :)

I really enjoyed it. As usual Maestro isn't satisfied and wants to rule or at least has a something behind his head plotting something. I really enjoy Maestro or where Marvel is going with him. The fight well once again it was not a surprise that Marvel hyped up a fake fight. Though Ares was getting trashed and Maestro easily got the others to stop attacking him. Interesting thing is that he seems to be able to teleport stuff from his treasure room such as a Cap shield. He also wears an Iron Hulk armor. An armor that comes from a uni. where IronMan had made the gamma bomb and became Hulk. I really like that particular part of the marvel universe where they can bring anything from anywhere in time and space and beyond because of the Iso-8 material. Anyways Maestro's role is really cool so far. I do hope this will be a long series. So far i'm a buyer. I have been really hard on marvel in the last few years for a reason but I must gve credit. I do enjoy secret wars and do enjoy contest of champions right now. Can't say much about the obnoxious preview of the "totally" awesome yet childish teen Hulk i've seen today but anyways I buy what I like. Money talks right.