Destro

Origin

James McCullen XXIV comes from a long line of Scottish arm dealers. While he has allied himself -both personally and financially- with Cobra Destro maintain also a public face as head of the family business, the M.A.R.S. corporation (Military Armament Research Syndicate).

His signature mask is also part of his family heritage, centuries ago one of his ancestors was caught selling weapons to both sides in a war and condemned to wear an iron mask as a punishment. He transformed this mask into the mark of the family and for each generation the family head is expected to don it when assuming control of the clan and the family business.

Creation

As all the characters from the G.I.Joe franchise Destro was created as part of the toyline. His comic book self was created by Larry Hama and Bob Camp.

Character Evolution

Destro was originally introduced as the field commander of the Cobra troops. According to Cobra Commander, Destro was meant to be the counterpart to Hawk as he was to General Flagg. At the time little was revealed of Destro - up to the point that for several issues his face was never shown - except that he and the Baroness knew each other already. Pretty soon it was revealed a romantic attraction between them and that Destro had joined Cobra to pursue his love for the Baroness.

From there things evolved in a very complicated way, Destro and Cobra Commander schemed against each other other several times, up until Cobra Commander brainwashed both Destro and the Baroness to ensure their loyalty. They were able to escape and eventually shake off the mind control, this put Destro in the mood to start severing his links to Cobra and later build his own private army, the Iron Grenadiers.

Over the years Destro has proved both an opponent and an ally for the G.I.Joe, while he usually side with Cobra or operates on his own, he had allied with them more often than any other Cobra agent, both to simply profit or to repay a debt of honor. His sense of honor caused him to save the whole G.I.Joe team once from total shut down, by revealing the details of some weapon deals between M.A.R.S. and a certain shadow cabinet in the Pentagon.

Anyway his true loyalties lie with the Baroness, for her he'll betray anyone and anything, except maybe his honor.

Abilities and Equipment

Destro is one of the most accomplished agents Cobra ever had, on the top of a full military training, he's an accomplished weapon designer, an expert strategist and a shrewd businessman. He also posses a considerable personal charisma, although this seem to dwindle at times, especially when the Baroness isn't around to motivate him.

Destro's signature equipment includes his berillium steel mask, style after the crude iron contraption used by his ancestors, a fully armored uniform and his wrist rockets. These are a piece of engineering unique to his gauntlets a pair of anti-tank grenades mounted on a pressure rocket system. These little rockets had proved to have enough power to tear a F-15 apart with a single shot.