WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Maestro: War & Pax #3, by Peter David, Javier Pina, Jesus Aburtov & VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.
With Immortal Hulk topping the charts as one of Marvel's most popular ongoing series, the immortality of its central character becomes a question throughout the Marvel Universe. Hulk has always been one of the strongest heroes around, and with his evil alternate future self, the Maestro, receiving more attention than ever, the real limits of his abilities are being pushed to their extreme. But in Maestro: War & Pax #3, it seems that the deluded dictator may have finally met his maker, at least for the time being.
As Maestro endeavors to stamp out what little rebellion remains in the post-apocalyptic world of "Future Imperfect," a band of old acquaintances known as the Pantheon unite with Doctor Doom in order to stop him. The Pantheon are made up of demigods who each possess different abilities and areas of expertise, and they formerly called themselves Hulk's allies following the initial merging of all of his personalities into a consolidated Hulk with all the strength of his raging green form and all the intelligence of Bruce Banner.
The Maestro combines those same strengths toward sinister ends in the twisted future, but it is in exploiting the weaknesses of Banner that the Pantheon hopes to finally put a stop to him. After conceiving their plan in the previous issue, the Pantheon plans to incapacitate the Maestro just long enough to revert him to his human form and end his life there. It proves to be a long shot, but in the end it seems to prove successful.
After knocking Maestro unconscious previously, the Pantheon hook him up to a device where they can plunge him into a world of telepathic reverie. Though they keep referring to Maestro by his human identity of Bruce Banner he keeps resisting, and eventually becomes so angry that he breaks out of his telepathic hold and kills several of the Pantheon's members. He stops only when a vision of his mother Rebecca appears to him and pleads with him, forcing him to revert to his human form for the first time in years. Once vulnerable, he is then shot and falls to the ground, revealing that the whole affair was a ruse.
The Pantheon needed Maestro to believe that he was winning and resisting them in order to make him feel vulnerable, and the gambit appeared to work. Indeed in all previous instances of the Maestro appearing it is extremely rare for him to ever revert to his human form for any reason, and it clearly comes as the result of conscious choice rather than simple anger abating as is often the case with the Hulk. And though their plan to get the villain to drop his guard seems quite clever, there is still the possibility that it is not over yet.
Though they check Bruce Banner's body and confirm that his vital signs indicate he is dead, the last sentence in the issue is the Pantheon making the resolution to make the death permanent, which would indicate that even death is not the end for the irradiated despot. They may need to find a more thorough means of disposing of a body whose healing factor could possibly restore itself to life.
Such permanent solutions could necessitate dismemberment or cremation in order to assure there is no possibility of the remains regenerating. But Maestro has proven too clever to be beaten plenty of times in the past, and there is no doubt that he will inevitably return.