The Immortal Hulk (by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett) dragged Bruce Banner and every single one of his personalities into a devastating spotlight, leading to the emergence of some of the Hulk's most terrifying transformations ever. While the Hulk has gone through plenty of incredible transformations before, two of Marvel's possible future timelines are menaced and protected by their own green behemoths: Hulk 2099 and the world-conquering Maestro.
Although both of these future variations of the Hulk are powerful, only one of the green behemoths can truly be considered the most powerful future version of the Strongest There Is.
Who is Hulk 2099?
The world of Marvel 2099 is a far cry from the modern Marvel Universe, and things on the West Coast have never been worse. Western California has been split off from the rest of the country and left to the devices of greedy and corrupt corporate overlords. The best hope for the people of the island region laid in a cult called the Knights of Banner, who worshiped the 20th-century hero and used illegal gamma testing to try and recreate him to set things right. When Hollywood lawyer John Eisenhart interfered with their operations in a bid to secure film rights for an unrelenting studio, he found himself in the middle of a shoot-out between the Knights and the police. However, a gamma bomb explosion made things even worse. Eventually, John emerged from the fray as the Hulk of the year 2099, a massive brute with claws and fangs to match his incredible stature.
Unlike his predecessor, John Eisenhart retained his personality and intellect while transformed into the Hulk, something he could do at will more often than not. This allowed John to get along much easier with his fellow futuristic heroes such as Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Man 2099. While his cunning was always portrayed as just as important as his strength, John Eisenhart's Hulk was quite possibly just as powerful as Bruce Banner before him. While the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe confirmed that John was capable of lifting up to 150 tons, his maximum capacity has never actually been reached, meaning that the true limits of his strength still remain largely untested.
How Strong is the Maestro?
John Eisenhart may be a powerful successor to Bruce Banner, but the original Hulk has persisted into the far future in many timelines. Occasionally, he does so in the form of the Maestro. First appearing in 1992's Hulk: Future Imperfect #1 (by Peter David and George Perez), Maestro's story begins about a century after the present day, when nuclear war had eradicated most of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes, leaving the world ripe for abuse at the hands of groups such as the Black Scythe.
Bruce Banner survived the chaos all around him thanks to his being kidnapped by Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), who planned to use him as part of a plot to repopulate the planet. After escaping their clutches, Bruce made his way across what little remained of the country until finally arriving in New York City, now called Dystopia and lorded over by a tyrant called the Maestro. When Maestro turned out to be his old friend Hercules, who had become an unfortunate and uncaring ruler, Banner plotted against him from the remains of Alchemax's former headquarters after failing to best the tyrant. Their next conflict led to a longer, years-long plot that culminated in Banner using Vapor of the U-Foes to murder Hercules, before subjecting her to the same fate.
This led to conflict with Banner's old friend Rick Jones, who would eventually try to kill the Hulk with yet another bomb. This too would fail, and the elder Hulk took Hercules' place as Dystopia's ruler, taking on his title as well. Empowered by the years of radiation that he had absorbed, the new Maestro's iron grip rarely wavered, even in the face of other gamma mutates such as Shulk and Abomination, both of whom suffered defeats at his hands.
After some time, Maestro's enemies got ahold of a time machine built by Doctor Doom and used it to transport the original Bruce Banner to their time in the hopes that he could save them from the tyrant. The Hulk was able to defeat his future self by transporting the Maestro to the moment that Banner was first stuck by gamma radiation in an explosion. This put an end to Maestro for a time, even though he was eventually able to return to life.
Maestro Vs Hulk 2099: Who Wins?
Even if the full extent of Hulk 2099's strength isn't really known, there really isn't any question over who is truly the stronger Hulk. John Eisenhart is impressive as the Hulk in the year 2099, but his inexperience and relative infancy as a hero compared to the long-lived Maestro give him an obvious disadvantage in any fight. While it's true that Hulk 2099 could have the same unlimited strength as his predecessor, Maestro most assuredly does, as he is merely another version of Bruce Banner. While both of these Hulks have all of their mental faculties available at all times, Maestro is likely the more intelligent of the two, and he's certainly the most ruthless and the most cunning. Truly, Maestro is the strongest there is, and likely always will be.