More Destroyer, More Thor

Picking up where we left off last week…the Destroyer was destroyed.  Melted by the Celestials.  Appears this invincible armor with the disintegrator visor wasn’t so invincible, was it?  Well, yes and no.  Nothing ever goes away forever, and that includes Odin-powered constructs.

The Destroyer had remained inert until Loki tricks Frost Giant Siggoth into stepping on the slag, reforming and reanimating the armor.  And, as always, the armor goes looking for Thor.

Thor himself had undergone some massive changes, being cursed to be unable to die, yet not as invincible as he once was, and was held together only by his magical armor at this point.

The Destroyer, realizing that Thor would be an ideal host, kills Siggoth and tries to absorb Thor’s spirit.

The Destroyer armor takes Thor’s belt, cape and hammer, Mjolnir (as you can see by the cover of Thor #381, drawn by Walt Simonson, who also wrote the story, and was the penciller for Thor #264-266, and writes and draws the conclusion to this story in Thor #382, and art on the interior of #381 is by Sal Buscema, brother of John Buscema, who drew Thor #224-225), and goes to Hel to confront Hela (the Asgardian Angel of Death).

The Destroyer does such damage to Hel, that Hela heals Thor’s body, and he leaves the armor to back to his own body (Thor, faking the idea of “you really got me”, had been in control of the armor the whole time to get Hela to heal his body!).

The Destroyer Returns

Hela kept the Destroyer, encased in crystal, until it was possessed by the spirit of Lorelei.

Hela then stopped the Destroyer with the help of Balder and Sif, casting the Destroyer (with Lorelei’s spirit) into the realm of the Great Beasts.

(This all occurs in a “Tales of Asgard” backup feature, from Thor #437-441, written by Tom DeFalco and penciled by Pat Olliffe in 1991.)

Later, Hela casts Lorelei out of the Destroyer armor and uses her guard dog, Garm, to animate the armor to attack Thor.

Thor and his friend Thunderstrike (mortal Eric Masterson, who has Thor like powers) defeat the Destroyer (this in the issues Thor #476-477 in 1994, written by Roy Thomas, and an issue each penciled by McWyman and Stewart Johnson).

The Destroyer took on two Thors to get pretty sore this time...

Switching Foes

The next spirit to inhabit the Destroyer is the Maestro (an evil,  future version of the Hulk from Hulk: Future Imperfect...) who uses the armor to try to kill his earlier self, but the armor knows the Hulk and Maestro have the same spirit, and the Hulk was able to use the armor to force the Maestro out of its armor.

This all happens in Incredible Hulk #461, written by Peter David penciled by Adam Kubert in February, 1998.

(Though the Destroyer didn't make the cover....usually the Hulk is a better host than that...and you'd think he'd show a little sympathy to someone grey...)

Back to Basics

The United States military ended up with the armor (around the time of the new Thor #1, with new writer, Dan Jurgens and new artist, John Romita Jr.), and Colonel Preston Case animated the armor, and used it to attack the Avengers.  Thor banished the armor to another dimension, but returned it to help free the Asgardians who were being held by Dark Gods (and this whole battle against the Dark Gods lasted through Thor #12, mostly without the Destroyer, but Hercules had signed on to help as well).

Time Out for the Destroyer 

When freed, Odin released Col. Case from the Destroyer.  Later still, Loki and Karnilla manipulated Thor Girl (Tarene) into using the armor to battle Thor, but their plan was stopped, and this happened from Thor #36-38, also written by Dan Jurgens, with art an issue at a time by Walter Taborda, Jim Starlin and Stuart Immonen.


Odin releases Tarene from the Destroyer armor.  And, the Destroyer animates again in a story from Thor #78-79, also written by Dan Jurgens, with art by Scot Eaton,  that ended up not happening due to Thor eliminating the cause of the events from the timeline.

New Thor and Destroyer

Then, Loki used the Destroyer again to gather the newly mortal Asgardians (thanks to events in the recent Ragnarok, the end of the gods), with Balder in the armor (and this happened in Thor #5, written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Olivier Coppel).

Thor drove Balder out of the armor and saved the Asgardians (and all this let to Thor #600, reinstating Thor's original numbering for a time).

Most recently, in the Iron Man/Thor four issue mini-series written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Scot Eaton, the High Evolutionary, with the help of Diablo (an alchemical foe of the Fantastic Four), used the Destroyer armor to try to gain the power of the various pantheons who helped create the armor.

They were stopped by Thor and his friend, Iron Man.

Interesting that the comics brought Thor and Iron Man together at this time, when Iron Man has his successful movie franchise, and Thor is starting his.  Makes you think…could they be planning on putting these celluloid heroes together on screen?  (Yes, true believers…the Thor movie was followed by Avengers movie, that also featured a not so little green man and a few others).

Now we just have to wait a few months, until a certain shield wielder can claim this is Captain America calling!

Paranoia, the Destroyer of Thor

With thanks to Ray Davies of the Kinks, who gave us the song, Destroyer in 1979, Thor had faced his own Destroyer before that.

The Destroyer was also in the Thor movie that came out on May 6th, 2011.  You can have no fear, as you’ll get a little of the comic history of the Destroyer, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby right here!

Thor first faced the armored Asgardian construct known as the Destroyer in Journey Into Mystery #118 (July 1965).  The Destroyer is a suit of armor made of uru metal with no will of its own, so it has to have a life force inhabiting it to act.

The suit was created by Odin (the All-Father of the Asgardians, and father to Thor), which does seem like a strange thing, doesn’t it?

The animated Asgardian armor was found in the Temple of Darkness by a hunter, Buck Franklin, who Loki (Thor’s evil magic using step-brother) had manipulated into finding the armor, and then set him against Thor.

Thor tricked the hunter into vacating the armor, and Odin buried the lifeless beneath a mountain of rubble that had been the Temple of Darkness.

This should have been the end of the Destroyer....

....well, it wasn't!

The Return of the Destroyer

The armor returns briefly, thanks to being possessed by the spirit of Loki in Thor Annual #2 (September, 1966).

Odin stops Loki’s evil plan to hurt Thor and his friends, the Warriors Three (Fandral the Dashing, Hogun the Grim and Volstagg…well, the round; these three, like the Destroyer, were additions to the comic mythology that were not a part of Norse mythology) and the All-Father banished the armor.

Karnilla, the Norn Queen, then retrieved the Destroyer, and Sif (a female Asgardian goddess of the hunt who has a thing for Thor) animated the suit and used it to help a weakened Thor battle his nemesis, the Wrecker (Dirk Garthwaite, a worker in a demolition crew who got strength and stamina from a crowbar enchanted by Karnilla and with this power thought he was Mr. Big Man).

Sif’s plan to help doesn’t go so well after she defeats the Wrecker while in the Destroyer armor, as Thor ends up attacking the Destroyer.

Still, this all gets resolved and Odin takes the armor away (and this all happens in Thor #150-152 in 1968, still under the sway of Lee and Kirby).

The Destroyer went away for a while, but came back in force!

More Destroyer With Hercules

Thor next encounters the Destroyer with his friend, and fellow Avenger, Hercules (the son of Zeus, and an Olympian demi-god) starting with Thor #224 (written by Gerry Conway, who also teamed Hercules with Thor in the television medium, when the show, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, was on the air, in the episodes “Norse by Norsevest” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bridge” and art by John Buscema).

The Destroyer armor was animated this time by Professor Clement Holmes, who found the armor in South America.  The Destroyer fights Hercules and Thor, and they get the Professor’s soul out of the armor.  Thor and Hercules then end up meeting Firelord (Pyreus Kril, a herald of Galactus), and, after an adventure with Galactus’ herald that convinces them that Firelord wants to be free of Galactus, offer up the Destroyer to be Galactus’ new herald to allow Firelord his freedom.  No one seems to be concerned with the Destroyer’s freedom, but then again, it’s basically just a suit!

Herald the Destroyer

The Destroyer, now animated by a part of Galactus’ life-force, finds High Evolutionary’s Counter-Earth (an Earth duplicate complete with on the opposite side of the Sol system).


Galactus (Galan, a primal force in the universe that desires maximum consumption) must feed, but the Fantastic Four distract him and convince him to look for a new world to feast upon (and, during this, the Thing faces the Destroyer, with Ben Grimm aka the Thing not his usual rocky self, but instead just a man in a Thing exoskeleton armor!

This all happens from Fantastic Four #172-174, written by Roy Thomas and art by George Perez for #172 and John Buscema for #173-174 and covers by Jack Kirby).

Loki Again

Loki uses this opportunity of distraction to take the Destroyer, trick Balder (Thor’s Asgardian friend) into animating the suit, then getting Balder OUT of the armor when the Destroyer tries to kill Loki instead!

Thor briefly inhabits the Destroyer armor at this time, but Odin forces him out and keeps the armor in Asgard (and it all happens in Thor #264-266, by Len Wein and Walt Simonson in 1977).

The Epic of the Destroyer

In an incredible epic by Roy Thomas, we learn the truth behind the Destroyer (after all, it seems the armor has only caused pain and suffering to Thor and his friends and allies…so, why DID Odin create it?).

A time later, when Thor was at odds with Odin (when isn’t he?), Sif inhabits the Destroyer to enforce Odin’s exile of Thor and sends Thor to Earth from Asgard.

In Thor #300 (with art by Keith Pollard, in October, 1980), we learn that Odin created the Destroyer to host the souls of all the Asgardians in Asgard to allow them to battle the Celestials (space gods created by Jack Kirby, who stood in judgment of humanity for eons, and the judgment was coming soon; well soon in god terms).

Odin had enlisted help from other Earth pantheons (like the Olympian Zeus) to power the Destroyer armor.

Sadly, the Destroyer did not fare well against the Celestials (even grown to giant size and wielding the Odinsword), being melted into slag.

(Thor and others stopped the Celestials from destroying Earth and restored the Asgardians, by the way).

And, the rest of the story on the Destroyer will follow next week (after all, just because you’ve been melted down doesn’t end your existence, right?).