History

Original look

Real estate agent Arthur Douglas, his wife Yvette, and daughter Heather, were driving across the Mojave Desert from Las Vegas to Los Angeles when a spaceship carrying the mad Titan named Thanos passed overhead on a surveillance mission to Earth. Wishing to keep his existence a secret, Thanos destroyed the automobile in case its passengers had seen his ship, and then landed to make certain they were dead. Satisfied that they were, Thanos left. Unknown to the Titan, his father Mentor had been monitoring his activities on Earth to examine his son's latest handiwork. Mentor discovered that Heather Douglas was still alive, and took her back to Titan to be raised. She later returned to Earth as Moondragon.

Mentor determined that the threat of his son Thanos could no longer be ignored and wanted to create a being of sufficient power to defeat Thanos. Enlisting the aid of his father Chronos, who millennia before had become a discorporate wraith, Mentor had Chronos seize the astral form (living consciousness) of Arthur Douglas before it had completely fled from Douglas's body. Chronos and Mentor then fashioned a humanoid body from the Earth's soil, granted it superhuman powers, and cast Douglas' spirit inside it. Thus they created the being who would become known as Drax the Destroyer.

Mentor blocked all of Drax's memories of his old life, instilling in him monomaniacal hate for Thanos. For years, Drax served as Thanos's nemesis, thwarting certain of the Titanian's plans, but never crushing Thanos himself. Thanos hired legions of alien mercenaries just to keep Drax away from him. Finally, in Thanos's campaign to possess the Cosmic Cube, Drax, in the company of the Avengers, Captain Mar Vell, and Moondragon, saw Thanos destroyed. Suddenly lacking a reason for existence, Drax wandered space in grim contemplation. By the time he learned that Thanos had managed to rematerialize himself, Thanos had once again been killed, this time by being permanently turned to stone. Drax, purposeless again, used Captain Mar-vell as a scapegoat upon whom to vent his frustrations.

Drax and Moondragon

Sometime later, Drax was contacted by his daughter Moondragon and invited to join her in her journey through space in search of knowledge. Drax accepted. The two rode aboard Moondragon's personal starship Sensia, and came upon the planet Ba Banis, a world of humanoid aliens caught in a vast civil war. Moondragon decided to used her mental powers to quell the conflict and then decided to set herself up as the world's goddess. Drax recognized that her ambitions were ignoble and so sent their ship to Earth with a holographic distress message. The Avengers responded and discovered Moondragon's world of mentally enforced tranquility. Freed by the Avengers from his daughter's mental domination, Drax advanced toward her, seeking to end her menace. In order to stop him, Moondragon mentally forced Drax's life essence to vacate his artificial body. Later, after subduing Moondragon and returning to Earth, the Avengers placed Drax's body inside Sensia and sent it into space programmed to self destruct. Without Drax's spirit inside it, Drax's body was destroyed when the Sensia exploded.

Several years later, when Thanos was resurrected by Mistress Death, Chronos chose to re-animate the Destroyer as well to again combat his mad grandson, and granted him with even greater physical power. However, Titan's God did not take the means of Drax's death into account, and the Destroyer's mind retained the damage done by Moondragon. Despite this setback, following Thanos' defeat and the subsequent breakup of the Infinity Gauntlet, Drax was chosen by Adam Warlock to safeguard the Power Gem as part of the Infinity Watch. Eventually, due to internal strife, the Watch fragmented and went their separate ways. Afterwards, Drax returned to Titan with Moondragon, who would successfully petition Kronos to restore Drax's mind to its former acuity, at the cost of some physical power. Thus, Drax was restored to his original condition.

A short time later, Drax was accused of the murder of Elysius and several other individuals. Warlock, along with Gamora, Pip, and Genis, tracked Drax down and subdued him in time to find that the real culprit was the re-animated corpse of the original Captain Marvel. Using his soul-gem, Warlock traced the being controlling the corpse...a creature within the Negative Zone known as Syphon who was using the Nega-Bands as a conduit. Felled by a backlash of psychic energy, Warlock was unable to stop the transfer of the Nega-Bands to the unconscious Drax, who flew off into space. Warlock then gathered his allies and pursued Drax, finding that Syphon was using Drax and the bands to rip a portal into the Negative Zone, a portal which threatened the structure of our Universe. Summoning all of his strength, Warlock yanked Drax free and removed the Nega-Bands, causing the portal to shrink. But, before the portal could completely close, Syphon yanked Warlock into the negative zone, and in front of the audience of Blastarr and Annihilus, Syphon took Warlocks gem, and used it to re-open the portal. Warlock recovered, and fought back, but without his soul-gem he had little chance of subduing both Blastarr and Annihilus before Syphon was successful. Fortunately, Drax arrived with Pip, Gamora, and Genis (who was once more possessor of the Nega-Bands) in tow. As his friends fought on, Warlock went on to damage Syphon's conqueror wheel, thus closing the portal once more. Syphon attempted to use the soul-gem to kill Warlock, but found his attack turned upon his own soul. He fought back long enough to flee his own body. Warlock again claimed the gem, and along with Drax and his other companions, returned to our Universe.

Drax reborn

Since then, Drax's condition began to revert. His mass and strength climbed back to previous levels, and his mind became clouded once more. Finally, he sought out Moondragon, which led to an altercation with Genis-Vell, son of Mar-Vell and the new Captain Marvel. In the course of this struggle, Drax was transported to the microverse with Genis, where he finally found acceptance and happiness on the planet K'ai, where he remained for some time.

Earth Fall

Drax is later seen on a prison ship with Paibok, Lunatik, and the Blood Brothers. He is accused of murdering 200,000 Skrulls. They are to have been transported to an intergalactic prison, but the ship crashes on Earth under mysterious circumstances. Drax attacks the others to keep them from harming innocent lives. His intelligence comes back to him at random intervals during his fight with the other prisoners. While on Earth and at a low-point of intelligence, he wanders through Alaska and confuses a young girl named Cammi for his daughter. As he slowly wanders through the country side, he encounters Paibok yet again. Paibok ruthlessly murders him, yet Drax emerges with a new body with a higher intelligence and possibly other unknown abilities. This "new" Drax kills Lunatik and one of the Blood Brothers. The mini-series ends with Drax and Cammi back on a prison ship.

Annihilation

Drax plays a role in the 2006 Annihilation crossover event, written by Keith Giffen. Surviving Annihilus' attack on the intergalactic prison known as the Kyln, Drax and Cammi team up with the last member of the Xandarian Nova Corps, Richard Rider (Nova). Together they fight against the advancing Annihilation Wave. Drax teaches Nova the power of concentration so that he may contain the entire Nova force. Moreover, Nova asks Drax to teach him an important lesson: How to destroy.

Drax kills Thanos

During a doomed battle between the Annihilation Wave and the United Front on Daedalus 5, Drax stays behind to fight off the invaders while Nova and the rest of the group (including Cammi) finish the evacuation. Drax fights his way to one of the Annhilation Wave's ships in his quest for Thanos. He finds the Titan attempting to release Galactus from his prison on Annihilus' mother ship. Before Thanos can release Galactus using his unique energy signature, Drax breaks through Thanos' defensive shield and punches a hole through the Titan's chest. Drax then realizes that they could "trick" the security system into shutting off by using the Silver Surfer, which succeeds. Once Galactus is freed, he teleports Moondragon and Drax to a far-off planet to spare them from his wrath on the Annihilation Wave. Afterwards, Moondragon says Drax just disappeared, with it heavily implied she was covering for him.

Powers and Abilities

• Flight:
  

Drax could fly by harnessing cosmic energy as a propulsion source. The maximum rate of speed that Drax could attain is not known, but he could make interplanetary journeys in a matter of weeks.

• Invulnerability:
  

The Destroyer's body, while inhabited by Drax's spirit, is nearly invulnerable to all forms of physical injury. It is not known how great a force is necessary to injure him. His artificially created body could exist indefinitely in the vacuum of outer space, and he could survive for an unknown length without air, food, or water.

• Concussive Blasts:
  

Drax can harness his cosmic energy and project it through his arms as concussive blasts. The maximum amount of force Drax can project is not known; he can, however, project enough energy to shatter large, ferrous meteors.

• Abilities:
  

Drax is very skilles in hand to hand combat and weapon combat. In his normal life Arthur Douglas was skilled in playing the saxophone.

• Strength level:
  

Drax's original form possessed superhuman strength, allowing him to lift (press) 40 tons. Following his death and subsequent resurrection, his was strength increased to the Class 100 level, allowing him to lift (press) 100 tons. With the Infinity Gem his strength was rasied even further, able to lift well in excess of 100 tons. As a result of his recent rebirth (shortly before Annihilation) Drax's strength appears to have dimished somewhat, to what degree is unknown.

• Rebirth
  

As of the 2006 "Annihilation" mini-series, Drax has again died and undergone a rebirth, appearing to have lost some of his strength and resilience, as well as his ability to fly and shoot energy blasts. However, his intellect has returned to its original level.

In Issue #4 of Annihilation, Drax displayed an ability heretofore unseen in any of his previous incarnations; while in close proximity to Thanos's body, his own body emitted a strange, form-fitting aura; shortly thereafter, he punched straight through the Mad Titan's chest with a single blow. It can only be assumed that the energy field that Drax manifested was designed for that purpose.

The full extent of Drax's powers after his most recent rebirth are unknown at this time.

Weaknesses:

None known.

Equipment:

Drax currently carries a pair of knives made from unknown materials. As a member of the Infinity Watch, Drax once wielded the Power Gem.