Superman Fights For New Year Future

To be fair, it starts with Superman fighting Father Time, but, along the way, takes us on a trip through the "future"....

...the future of that issue of Superman, where the 1980s and 1990s were still the future, and not a happy one at that.

Still, looking back at the future has to start somewhere, so, let's start with Superman, beginning at almost the ending.....

Costume, Costume -- Who's Got The Costume?

Superman #295 (January, 1976) by Elliot S. Maggin, Curt Swan and Robert Oksner (and cover by Ernie Chan), starts as many Superman issues do, with Superman foiling what he thinks is a new super villain called Father Time, who attacks him with a green energy coming from his scythe, but really has a larger plan that involves stealing Superman's super suit (Superman's main costume, made of Kryptonian fibers).  Superman tracks his costume (using the JLA signaling device in its belt buckle) to find it still in Metropolis, but Metropolis 1000 years in the future!

Superman travels through time to get there, but this isn't his usual Legion of Super-Heroes future, but instead, a world post-apocalypse, with buildings rotted for centuries, and savages roaming the streets, including one Jaxon the Mighty, who is wearing Superman's suit.  Superman battles Jaxon (who has powers, like Superman, and wants to protect the suit, having taken it recently from intelligent gorillas, to keep it for when "the Mighty One" returns).  Their battle rages, as the 20th Century Metropolis returns around them....and, with an exclamation, Jaxon realizes Superman was "the Mighty One", and their battle returns the group to 20th Century Metropolis. 

Superman gets his costume back as Father Time returns, and reveals himself to be Xenofobe, a 30th Century Green Lantern (contemporary of the Legion), who, with that time's Green Lantern Corps, had been battling the Time Trapper, who used their energy to block off every other future except the grim one Jaxon and his followers lived in.  Xenofobe left Superman, who then, as Clark Kent, wondered if Jaxon could have been a descendant of his and Lois Lane's.


But, what led to the Great Disaster and that horrible future?


That was the result of a collection of many alternate future titles DC had published over the years.

OMAC

Starting before the world was in ruins, was OMAC #1 (September-October, 1974) by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer, and their "startling look into....THE WORLD THAT'S COMING!".


In that first issue, readers are introduced to perfectly average stock boy Buddy Blank, who was transformed by scientist Myron Forest into OMAC, the One Man Army Corps (a being whose density could be controlled, as well as energy manipulated around), by Brother Eye, an orbiting satellite housing an advanced computer.  Dr. Forest died, unable to replicate the experiment, so OMAC was the one soldier of the GPA (Global Peace Agency) to fight the evils that faced this new corporate dominated world.

Those evils included Mr. Big and his assassins of Electric City, Marshall Kirovan Kafka and his mercenaries, and the Crime Cabal (and their body rejuvenation scheme), all events which kept OMAC and his Brother Eye busy....quite an impressive lot of dedicated foes OMAC had earned.

OMAC's battles against those menaces didn't prepare hm for the brilliant Dr. Sandor Skuba, who, while stealing water from the world (condensing it to super heavy blocks), also separated OMAC from Brother Eye, turning him back to Buddy Blank, leaving Buddy helpless on a small deserted island as Brother Eye was encased in asteroids.

That's where OMAC was left as the Superman issue came out.

Atomic Knights

World War III had come and gone by the start of Strange Adventures #117 (June, 1960) by John Broome and Murphy Anderson, having lasted only 20 days (from October 9, 1985 to October 29, 1985).  It seemed to be a great disaster for the world, but was both worse and not as severe as it seemed.

This was the world Sgt. Gardner Grayle (the perfectly average soldier) woke up in, in 1990, finding himself allies in school teacher Douglas Herald, his sister Marene, twin soldiers Hollis and Wayne Hobard and scientist Bryndon Smith in the town of Durvale.  This group, facing the tyrant and hoarder Black Baron, found old suits of armor that were also resistant to radiation and energy weapons, took them and became the Atomic Knights, determined to survive in this ruined world, facing other tyrants, mutated creatures, devolved humans, time transported Atlanteans, and even Mole Men (whose desire to conquer Earth sent the signal on October 9, 1985 in Strange Adventures #144 of September, 1962, that supposedly started WWIII!).

Their original adventures ended in Strange Adventures #160 (January, 1964), helping a group of orphan boys in this ravaged world of 1992.

Hercules Unbound

This particular version of Hercules premiered in Hercules Unbound #1 (October-November, 1975) by Gerry Conway, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Wally Wood (with a cover by Garcia-Lopez), with Hercules breaking free of his chains on an island prison four weeks after the start of World War III, and being found by a sailing blind boy named Kevin and his dog Basil.  Kevin explained how World War III started with a nuclear blast in Greece, where his brother died, then the survivors huddled for two weeks to avoid radiation (oh, the innocent 1970s), then Kevin and Basil had to run to escape mutated humans (and set sail....thinking that his sightless self would die on sea, but luckily found by Hercules).  Ares, the god of war, had manipulated the humans to be ready for war, and one nuclear bomb was enough to start it.

The unlikely allies found others over months, including American model Jennifer Monroe (in France, who was quite resourceful, though claiming to be no Wonder Woman), and faced other gods of Olympus, mutated humans like Hunter Blood, animals mutated into humanoid forms by Cortexin, Lady Sims and her robotic constructs who used vehicles taken from other times (and may have sent the first nuclear bomb back to October, 1985 in Greece), all of which must have taken some time....

....as, Hercules and crew met the Atomic Knights in Hercules Unbound #10 (April-May, 1977) by Cary Bates, Walt Simonson and Bob Layton (thus going from 1985 to 1992 in their world's timeline...

....perhaps some odd help from blind Kevin suddenly being able to fly a plane (!!!) and taking the group from Europe to America, perhaps going through a small time warp thanks to Lady Sims).  Finding one of the Knights (Bryndon) replaced by an energy creature, the Knights had been trying to restore the dense water bricks of Dr. Skuba...and Hercules aided in this, as well as defeating the energy creature, getting a new armor forged in a Detroit auto plant in the next issue, and finding out that one of his own was possessed by the anti-Ares, one of a group of duplicate gods held by the chains Hercules broke back in that first issue....leaving Hercules and his unaffected companions to rebuild the world in 1992 when the series ended with Hercules Unbound #12 (August-September, 1977).

Kamandi

The world didn't recover so well from the Great Disaster, as many years later in a supposedly safe bunker in New York, Command D, the boy, Kamandi, was sent into this world as his grandfather was killed by a pack of humanoid wolves in Kamandi #1 (October-November, 1972) by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer, making Kamandi the last boy on Earth!

As he traversed this wild new world, Kamandi found friends such as metal mutate Ben Boxer, scientist dog Dr. Canus and mute girl Flower, finding out that it was a substance called Cortexin had helped mutate regular animals into human form (as well as dumbing down average humans, all in a 1974 issue of Kamandi....set in his timeline, of course).

Kamandi even found Superman's Kryptonian costume, guarded over by gorilla guards in Kamandi #29 (May, 1975) by Jack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry, waiting for "the Mighty One"....which (in real time) was soon followed up by the Superman story which started all this!

Sadly, Jack Kirby left DC (and Kamandi), and later issues of the series introduced more allies, including another mute girl, Spirit, and an alien lady named Pyra, and had tied Kamandi and his Great Disaster into the OMAC series, by making OMAC Kamandi's grandfather!  Kamandi even ran into Karate Kid from the Legion of Super-Heroes, time-tossed from his own timeline thanks to help from the Lord of Time and Major Disaster.

Kamandi's last published issue (Kamandi #59 of September-October, 1978) even had an OMAC back up (following up on his adventures after surviving the island destruction but before the Great Disaster). which sadly made the pairing of Kamandi's and OMAC's world a little harder.....

....but not as bad as when an issue of DC Comics Presents with Superman claimed the Atomic Knights were only a simulation in Gardner Grayle's mind....but, that revelation (and Superman's meetings with OMAC and Kamandi, and Batman's meetings with Kamandi before the Crisis On Infinite Earths, where all these futures changed at the Dawn Of Time with issue #10, which came out in October, 1986 - with no WWIII) are a story for a future time!

We Are The Marvel Champions Part 2

Picking up where we left off, more on Marvel's Champions!

Champions #11 (February, 1977) was a big issue for the team in more ways than one.

First and foremost, it had the team meeting Black Goliath (a West Coast super-hero with growth powers and ties to Hank Pym/Ant-Man and the Avengers).  It also guest-starred ex-Avenger archer, Hawkeye, and his time-misplaced cowboy buddy, the Two-Gun Kid, and the team faced off against the shadowy threat of Warlord Kaa (as well as getting use to having Darkstar around).

The team also was to deal with the Stilt-Man, and a threat from Black Goliath's recently cancelled title, and artist John Byrne came aboard as Champions artist at this time (through issue #15), joining Bill Mantlo's wild scripts (which were a part of the rest of the Champions' run!).

Things did get wilder, as Hercules, Black Widow, Ghost Rider, Iceman, Angel and Darkstar faced the Stranger (a cosmic powered villain who had previously faced the X-Men and the Silver Surfer) in Champions #12 (March, 1977), and dealt with the item that Stilt-Man stole....and might end the Earth, all while half the team ended up in the other dimensional realm of Kamo Tharnn (the Possessor....an old foe of Hercules and Thor).  The team was able to stop all the problems and come back together in Champions #13 (May, 1977)...but there were problems developing on the team (having a headquarters and other equipment that didn't work, as well as the differing personalities of the team causing problems...and the team let Ghost Rider take a little time in his own title in Ghost Rider #23, and Black Widow helped Spider-Man fight the Silver Samurai in Marvel Team-Up #57).

Swarming Super-Heroes

The team came back together in Champions #14 and #15 (July and September, 1977), where they fought Swarm, lord of the killer bees!  (This wasn't John Belushi on a cross-continental bender, but instead a man (Fritz Von Meyer) who had been mutated into a form where he was held together by bees!).  The Champions managed to pull apart this threat as they were falling apart....

Vacation From Trouble

The team tried to get away from trouble (and each other), but only ended up facing Godzilla (at least Hercules, Black Widow, Angel and Iceman did) in Godzilla #3 (October, 1977 by Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe); the whole original team gathering to help Iron Man fight MODOK and A.I.M. in Iron Man Annual #4 (August, 1977, by Bill Mantlo and George Tuska); Hercules working with Black Widow and Iceman and Avengers Iron Man and the Beast to fight Typhon (an old foe of Hercules) in Avengers #163 (September, 1977, by Jim Shooter and George Tuska), and the team being the destination of Magneto and the Beast in a world taken over by Dr. Doom in Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (October, 1977 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall), which led directly into...

Back to Business

...Champions #16 (November, 1977 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall).  In this issue, the team was a pawn of Dr. Doom and his mind-controlling gas as well, except for the non-breathing, very demonic Ghost Rider, proving the Beast knew what he was doing when he led the team out west!

The rest of the team was controlled and did fight against Magneto, the Beast and even the Hulk, but eventually Dr. Doom was beaten (but not without more fracturing of the team dynamic....which already was falling apart).

The team showed how fractured it was here...


....and things didn't get better.

The Last Issue

Champions #17 (January, 1978, by Bill Mantlo, with art by George Tuska and John Byrne) had the Champions facing off against a group of evil mutants (Unus, Lorelei, Blob and the Vanisher) who had come to the team looking for help...from the Sentinels (evil robots who planned on eradicating mutants, and it seems demi-gods, ex-Russian spies and demonic motorcycle riders as well)!

This was the end of the Champions run, but not quite the final end of the team....that was promised for an upcoming Avengers issue, but instead ended up in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man....

...and for more on that, check back!

We Are The Marvel Champions Part 1

Take one son of an Olympian god, a millionaire mutant, an ex-Russian femme fatale, a walking ice box and a demon from hell...and what do you have? Certainly not a team....well, actually, there was one.

In a tribute to committee thinking, two ex-Avengers (Hercules and Black Widow) joined solo star (Ghost Rider) and two ex-X-Men (Angel and Iceman) to form...The Champions! (And it really was quite a committee...David Anthony Kraft came up with the name for the team, Len Wein and John Romita contributing to the design of Angel's new costume - taking away a blue colored costume in a blue dominated team, and Len insisting a team have five members).

Cover dated October 1975, the saga of Marvel's Champions began. Originally intended to be an Angel/Iceman series, the Marvel offices convinced writer Tony Isabella to add Hercules (a strongman), Black Widow (a woman) and a solo star (Ghost Rider...though, had he not gotten his own title, it could have been Black Goliath! Or even Son of Satan, Captain Marvel or Power Man) to make it a full-fledged team. Art on the first two issues was by Don Heck (himself no stranger to the Avengers or the X-Men), and Champions #1-3 (also originally suppose to be Giant-Sized Champions #1, another in a long line of pre-production tinkering for the team) told the tale of how these unlikely teammates would gather.

The hell it was to put this series together was reflected in the story...it was Pluto (Olympian god of the netherworld), who, in an agreement with other more demonic underlords to restrict the actions of Zeus, god-father of the Olympians (and Hercules in particular). Pluto's plan was to wed Hercules to Hippolyta (queen of the amazons), and Venus (the goddess of love) to Ares (the god of war), which would end their interference with his plans for Earth and Olympus. If the human friendly Olympians don't play along, the alliances he made with the netherworlder demons like Mephisto, Satan and the Demon of the Mask, would destroy Olympus. Hercules and Venus oppose this, along with the rest of the future Champions, but Pluto has Zeus' (father to the Olympian gods, and Hercules) aid in bringing them back to Olympus. The Earth heroes eventually figure out a way to Olympus and defeat Pluto's armies, but are not enough to stop the demonically backed Pluto himself. The Ghost Rider has to convince Zeus to stop Pluto (as Johnny Blaze knows a little about demons, and gets Zeus to realize that the only reason the underlords united was to topple Olympus). Venus stays behind to spread the message of love amongst the gods, and Hercules and the rest of the humans return to Earth.

Group Dynamics

The Champions next gather in Champions #4 (May 1976, by X-Men writer Chris Claremont and art by George Tuska, who also drew #3).

In this issue, the team faces Dr. Edward Lansing, who has a solution to the homeless problem – turning them into his mind controlled mutated slaves. Black Widow and Hercules are the first to stumble onto his plot, but the Mutates overpower the two. Dr. Lansing then uses his mind control box on the two ex-Avengers, and sends them to attack the two ex-X-Men (Iceman and Angel, seems the Avengers and X-Men always fight!) as well as Black Widow’s mentor, Ivan Petrovich, who were all at Angel’s beach house. In facing Ivan, Black Widow breaks her control, then turns to break Dr. Lansing’s control box…which frees Hercules and the Mutates, but the Mutates kill the Doctor. Angel decides at this point that the team should form on a regular basis, to be champions to protect the innocent. The Champions bid fair well to Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider #17 (April 1976, by Tony Isabella and Frank Robbins) but that’s just to allow Johnny Blaze time for his own series, and doesn’t stop their adventures.

On A Rampage

In Champions #5-6, (April and June of 1976, written by Tony Isabella and art by Don Heck in #5, and George Tuska in #6), the team faces an inventor, Stuart Clarke, who succumbed to the recession and uses his exo-skeleton to try to rob a bank. At the same time, Angel was securing his right to the Worthington fortune his mother left him, and the team battles Clarke (who gets the name, Rampage) and asks him to surrender, but Rampage instead tries to kill himself by exploding his suit’s jet back. Iceman manages to save everyone, even Clarke, who is injured by the blast. During all this, Black Widow is elected leader of the team.

Motorcycle Detour

The team briefly appears in Avengers #151 (September 1976), to comment on the hype around the announcement of the Avengers new roster (which will include ex-X-Man the Beast…he comes in more later). Ghost Rider is present as well, having returned from his team-ups with the Son of Satan, the Werewolf by Night, the Man-Thing, Morbius and Daredevil in Ghost Rider’s #17-20, Daredevil #138 and Marvel Premiere #28 (all from 1976, and explains why the motorcyclist from hell was not available for the two issues with Rampage).

Back To Full Strength

In Champions #7-10 (August-January 1976/1977), the team experiences a few explosive changes both inside and outside the book (as shown by this stunning cover by artists Gil Kane and Al Milgrom for issue #8! And, it wasn’t even a fully symbolic cover – as the damage done from this explosion gets Angel to switch from his costume to a red version of the blue costume he had worn in the X-Men, but more on that later,…so keep reading, true believer!).


Tony Isabella and George Tuska still write and draw issue #7, to set the stage, but Bill Mantlo becomes the new writer for the rest of the Champions series, with Bob Hall in some of his earliest work as an artist for issues #8-10.

The team changes at this time as well, starting with a temporary headquarters! And, the team just starts to settle in as they get to face a menace that's like a marriage...something old (armored Russian Iron Man foe, the Titanium Man), something new (the Russian mutant Darkstar, wielder of the darkforce), something borrowed (a new Russian named Yuri in the second Crimson Dynamo armor) and...well, something that fought something blue (that being the Griffin, who faced the blue-furred Beast and Angel back in Beast's solo stories in Amazing Adventures, as well as Spider-Man and the Beast; now returned to face the Angel and his friends in an attempt to get back to being human).

Griffin and Darkstar go to free Rampage from the hospital, while the returning Ghost Rider is headed there as well to meet the Champions' first costume foe of their own and use his "demon from hell" act to get some information from the bankrupt villain.

Meanwhile, the Titanium Man captures the Black Widow and her mentor, Alexi Bruskin. Rampage delivers the news of the Widow's capture to the rest of the Champions, but unbeknownst to him, his exoskeleton was booby-trapped by his supposed allies, exploding in an attempt to kill the Champions.

Thanks to Iceman, they survive, and Ghost Rider even saves Rampage. The explosion does cost Angel his costume, and he gets a red-colored variation of an old costume of his. The Russian villains then try to add Ivan Petrovich to the group they want to take home - and it is revealed why - Yuri is Ivan's estranged son. After a pitched battle in Los Angeles and in the Pacific Ocean, Bruskin dies, Darkstar switches sides, the Champions capture the Titanium Man and the Griffin and Yuri escapes. All the while, conflict grows amongst the Champions.

The conflict subsides for a while during the Christmas season, as the Champions celebrate together in Marvel Treasury Edition #13 (1975, by writer Roger Stern and artist George Tuska), where the team thinks Iceman delivered some snow...but instead it was a little Christmas magic in California!

And, the rest of the Marvel Champions' story will come soon, so stay tuned!

Avengers History 201

Welcome back to our continuing Avengers coverage!

Picking up where we left off, we start with Avengers #35 (December 1966, art by Don Heck) and, welcome aboard Roy Thomas, as the new writer of the team, taking over for Stan Lee. This is the beginning of a more advanced Avengers run, so we’ll be moving through a little more quickly, and taking advantage of the rich history of the team and how much more connected the Avengers universe becomes.

Carrying A Heavy Load

The team proceeded along as usual, finishing their battle against the Living Laser, and fighting the invading robots called the Ultroids (over the course of issues #36 and 37, until meeting up with a demi-god in Avengers #38 (March 1967) and this was a different demi-god than the mighty Thor, who had been a member!). Though, oddly enough, that’s where he got his start.

Yes, Hercules began his legendary journeys (for mighty Marvel) in Journey Into Mystery Annual #1 (1965, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), then the son of Zeus continued his battles with Thor in his own magazine for a time, as well as his own Olympian father, Zeus (himself no stranger to using lightning as a weapon, not unlike Thor), and the Olympian lord of the underworld, Pluto (as Hercules tried to take Hollywood and got into a bad contract that his friend Thor helped him out with…ironic, as Hercules wasn’t to be in the Thor movie, or the Avengers movie…), before becoming a guest of the Avengers after a battle with the Enchantress, who wasn’t above using strong men in attempts to defeat the team.

The Avengers kept this super-strong demi-god busy for a while (fighting the Hulk in Tales To Astonish #79, Fantastic Four foes like the Mad Thinker in #39, Sub-Mariner in #40, Diablo and the Dragon Man in #41 and 42, meeting Black Widow along the way, who was having commitment issues with Hawkeye and the Red Guardian – a Russian version of Captain America - and she didn’t join the Avengers at this time in #43 and 44.

The Avengers faced a team of Avengers villains including former Avenger, the Swordsman, and the Enchantress and her two other strong men, Power Man and the Executioner, in their first Annual) before finally letting him join the team in Avengers #45 (October 1967, drawn by Don Heck, while facing the Super-Adaptoid, who had previously only menaced Captain America in Tales of Suspense). The team deals with Magneto in Avengers #47 and 49, and a few other problems like the Black Knight in Avengers #48 as well.

Hercules didn’t stick around long, leaving soon after a confrontation with the titan Typhon in Avengers #50 (March 1968, drawn by John Buscema, and Typhon first appeared in Avengers #49, also by John, though not on the cover) …and disappeared for a while after that as well. Over the years, Hercules would wander back to the team (usually to fight an Olympian menace like Ares, Herc’s half-brother and the god of war) and leave the Avengers for a time, meet up with Thor and help the son of Odin, co-founded the Champions (with Black Widow, Ghost Rider, Angel and Iceman) to combat Pluto, and just be the great Greek almost-god that he was living the life in Hollywood, and even recently became strong enough to carry his own title, the Incredible Hercules! True, Hercules has had difficulties over the years, but he’s always fought back!

African Royalty

But, with Hercules leaving, the team needed a new member, and were lucky enough to find one in the acrobatic Black Panther. T’Challa started out in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), and he was the chieftain of the land of Wakanda, a technologically advanced nation in Africa that controls the world’s supply of vibranium (a metal which absorbs vibrations). After testing himself against the FF, they aid him in his battle with Ulysses Klaw, the man who killed T’Chaka, the Panther’s father. T’Challa defeats Klaw, who returns as a being of sound thanks to his mechanical hand in Fantastic Four #56. (November 1966, by Lee and Kirby). After aiding the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans in a battle with the emotion-manipulating Psycho Man in Fantastic Four Annual #5, (November 1967, by Lee and Kirby) Black Panther goes to meet Captain America in Tales of Suspense #97-99 (1968) and Captain America #100 (April 1968, all by Lee and Kirby), as together, they battle the forces of Baron Zemo.

When the king and the super-soldier defeat the faux Zemo, Cap suggests that the Avengers take Black Panther as a member in Avengers #51 (April 1968, art by John Buscema) and T’Challa joins the team in Avengers #52 (May 1968, drawn by John Buscema) where the team needs the help against the Grim Reaper – a foe just introduced, but with ties to the Avengers’ past, he’s the brother of Simon Williams/Wonder Man (whom the Avengers haven’t dealt with since his “death” at the hands of the Masters of Evil), who holds the Avengers responsible for Wonder Man’s death. The Grim Reaper is the first of many villains that are introduced at this time that will come back to be a constant menace to the Avengers, no matter what their membership.

After a quick battle with the X-Men in X-Men #45 and Avengers #53, the new Avengers face a new Masters of Evil in Avengers #54-55, that includes some of the original members like the Melter and Radioactive Man, plus Black Panther foe Klaw and Whirlwind (formerly the Giant-Man & Wasp foe, the Human Top, who changed his name to Whirlwind when he returned in Avengers #46 to combat Goliath), a new Black Knight (Dane Whitman, the nephew of Nathan Garrett of the original Masters of Evil, who died after sustaining injuries fighting Iron Man…and as the Avengers found out in Avengers #48, was not villainous) and mystery villain, the Crimson Cowl, who is really the robotic Ultron (making his first appearance in Avengers #54, July, 1968 drawn by John Buscema). Ultron is like the Energizer Bunny, he just keeps going!

The coming of Ultron…leads into the induction of the next two Avengers, and their creation as well, which the team deals with after getting a little more information on Cap’s past and how he came to be frozen in Avengers #56, (September 1968, art by John Buscema) and dealing with the time-traveling Scarlet Centurion (yes, he’s an alternate Kang too and comes back as a menace to another alternate world) and alternate versions the early Avengers in Avengers Annual #2 (1968). This is an early example of the Avengers traveling to alternate dimensions and through time…something they will continue to do, even recruiting from those places…and time is something that will reveal more about the next Avenger as well....and we'll have more on them soon!

Though Black Panther didn't leave the Avengers for a while, it take a little time for him to get his own series, first in Jungle Action (from issues #5 to #24), then his first own series that lasted 15 issues from January, 1977 to May, 1979 (finally ending in Marvel Premiere #51 to #53), and back to working with the Fantastic Four, and having a few mini-series, and then a 62 issue series from November, 1998 to September, 2003 and another regular series lasting 41 issues from April, 2005 to November, 2008 that involves him with the X-Men and Fantastic Four as well as the Avengers and the Civil War! 

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?).