Drax

Drax Guide – now available to the public!

April 29, 2023 by krisis

My countdown to the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 continues! Today I have another green-skinned warrior, though he’s not related to Gamora. In fact, one of his earliest objectives was to kill her! I never fully understood this character until I put together his guide, when I realized his key character trait wasn’t his strength or his single-mindedness, but his endless cycle of death and rebirth all triggered by the brutality of everyone’s favourite purple-skinned mad titan, Thanos. Learn about the man known as “The Destroyer,” who was revived to be Thanos’s arch-nemesis in my Drax Guide!

Drax Guide

What do I mean about an endless cycle of death and rebirth? Drax’s earliest incarnation was a revival of an Earth man as a powerful golem hell-bent on Thanos’s destruction, but on his mission he has died several times over, which each revival leading to a tweak to his powers (and, sometimes, his intellect). Read more about how the Marvel Cinematic Universe merged those multiple versions of Drax into one in my original launch essay from when I debuted this guide to Patrons of CK.

If you really want to understand Drax’s cosmic comic origins, you absolutely must read a back-up story from the obscure Logan’s Run (1977) #6 as well as Warlock & The Infinity Watch (1992) #12-13. You’ll appreciate Drax more with that core of understanding, no matter which of has many incarnations you read next. I wish I had already known that material when I first read the Annihilation event prologue in Drax The Destroyer (2005). At the time, the themes of that book went totally over my head – I just saw a violent green guy and was confused about why he came back to life so quickly!

Drax has the most fully-developed comics history out of all of the core Marvel Cinematic Universe members of the team, but it also often feels like he doesn’t get the full focus of the book the way Star-Lord and Rocket often do. For a strong modern arc that connects to Drax’s origins, check out Guardians of the Galaxy (2019) #7-12 by Donny Cates.

All of Drax’s many incarnations and every one of his Marvel Comics appearances are detailed in my Drax Guide. Whether you’re trying to put your single comics in a perfect reading order or reserve some Destroyer-filled reads from your local library, my guide has every issue and collected edition you’re looking for.

New for Patrons: Guide to Drax the Destroyer

March 23, 2023 by krisis

I’m back with the fourth in my impromptu mid-month run of guides to green heroes for all Patrons of CK. Did I have any inkling this grouping of four guides would all debut back-to-back, or that they would overlap with Saint Patrick’s day in the process? I wish I could say it was all intentional, but it certainly was not! This hero is the oldest of all the green heroes I’ve covered in the past week, he’s as deadly as Gamora, and he’s even had more transformations than those famous mutant turtles. It’s my new Guide to Drax the Destroyer!

Guide to Drax the Destroyer

Part of the fun of putting together my definitive guides and reading orders is that I get a new understanding of a character’s progression.

In the case of Drax, I’ve seen all of his appearances before, but I’ve never reviewed them all sequentially to understand the major plot cadences that have caused his character to change over the years – sometimes radically. Of all of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Drax is the team member who has had the most distinct eras in his comic history.

What’s so interesting about Drax and his eras is how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has mined each one for a minor detail of his character. While his film incarnation often feels the farthest from the comics out of all of the guardians, really he is equally close to each of his disparate eras from the 1970s through present day.

Drax the Destroyer – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Drax the Destroyer in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated September 2024 with titles scheduled for release through December 2024.

Drax the Destroyer was a character made for vengeance and built to be tinkered with by each successive generation of writers.

He was originally created alongside Thanos in Iron Man (1968) #55 in February 1973. Thanos was an unstoppable force of destruction, and Drax was his personal destroyer. His desire to destroy Thanos was driven by the forces of vengeance of Thanos’s entire race and, as it turns out, his own extremely personal vendetta against the mad titan.

The original version of Drax the Destroyer was completely unlike his familiar Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation. He was a gallant, green, caped psychic born from the soil of Thanos’s abandoned homeworld, who could fly through space and emit powerful energy blasts. He seemed to be a deliberate copy of DC’s Martian Manhunter visually and in his powerset.

Drax made a strong early foil for Thanos, but Jim Starlin used him only for a cameo once his own late-70s saga of Thanos and Warlock got underway. That saga lead to the apparent death of Thanos, which meant Drax had no meaning – both within the story and as a Marvel character. After harassing Captain Mar-Vell for taking away his chance to slay Thanos (not realizing or believing it had been Warlock), he was hastily written out of comics via a peculiar two-part Avengers story by Jim Shooter in 1982.

When Jim Starlin returned to Marvel to revive Thanos, Warlock, and Gamora, he also brought Drax back to life – reasoning that if there is a Thanos there must also be a Drax. However, playing off of the peculiar circumstances surrounding Drax’s origin, Starlin used the reincarnation to tweak his character to be a cartoonish oaf with a low intellect. The MCU version of the character shares many qualities with this comedic relief version of Drax that starred in Starlin’s Infinity trilogy and Infinity Watch. However, the screen incarnation is never portrayed as being unintelligent the way he was in the comics. Onscreen, he is simply literal.

After briefly regaining his intelligence and losing it again, Drax was reinvented again in 2005 by Kieth Giffen. This version visually matches up with the screen version – a terrifyingly swift hunk of muscle capable of canny strategy. After anchoring his own mini-series, he was pulled into the first of Marvel’s mid-00s cosmic events, Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest – along with a few other familiar faces: Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot – along with Nova, Warlock, Mantis, and Moondragon.

That group of character transformed into the original Guardians of the Galaxy, launched by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning in 2008. Drax appeared throughout their initial run. Despite being written off at the end (along with Star-Lord and Nova), he was back in the line-up in 2012 when Brian Bendis was brought aboard to navigate the comic franchise towards the impending MCU film.

The version of Drax in the comics since 2013 may be the Guardian who feels the farthest apart from his movie incarnation. He’s simply never been the comedic relief of the comics team quite as much as he has been in the films. He has also seldom been at the center of the team’s plots the way Star-Lord, Gamora, and Rocket often are – though he did have a major moment in 2018’s Infinity Wars by Gerry Duggan. [Read more…] about Drax the Destroyer – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Guardians of the Galaxy – Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Updated Feb 17, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated February 2025 with titles scheduled for release through September 2025.

In 2014 Marvel introduced the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise to the entire planet with their movie version of the team consisting of Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot.

However, the Guardians have only existed in that configuration since 2008! The only similar team was the 1990s cosmic group The Infinity Watch, which included Gamora and Drax. Historically, Guardians of the Galaxy referred to a very different, specific group of characters from Marvel’s far flung future with little overlap to the 2008 version of the team.

What both groups have in common is that they are a set of space-faring heroes who stand against the forces of destruction in the universe. They are, in effect, the Cosmic Avengers.

With that mandate in mind, this guide looks at more than just the titles named “Guardians of the Galaxy.” It also follows all of the core members of the various incarnations of that team, most of whom have never maintained an ongoing title. It also covers prominent cosmic hero Adam Warlock, who lead the Infinity Watch.

If you are interested in the cinematic incarnation of the team, this is your path:

Rocket Raccoon & Groot: The Complete Collection has all of the significant appearances of this whimsical pair of characters prior to Annihilation.
Avengers vs. Thanos covers the origins of Gamora an Drax. (Optionally, pick up Death of Captain Marvel to complete this story.)
Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy collects the earliest adventures of the title character, when he was a pulp sci-fi character with no ties to the Marvel Universe.
Jump to Annihilation: Conquest, below and proceed from there. Though Drax played a role in the prior Annihilation event, this is where the team really begins to form. Their first series spins out of this.