Drax the Destroyer's History
Early Life
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.
Destroy Thanos
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 Kronos, who millennia before had become a discorporate wraith, Mentor had Kronos seize the astral form (living consciousness) of Arthur Douglas before it had completely fled from Douglas's body. Kronos 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' nemesis, thwarting certain of the Titanian's plans, but never crushing Thanos himself. One particular battle between them led Drax to befriend Iron Man of Earth. An ally that he would come into contact with various times over the next few years. Later, Drax battled Thanos in order to stop him from obtaining the Cosmic Cube. He lost to Thanos, and went to the Avengers for help.
Finally, in Thanos' 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. A couple of months later, while releasing his anger out on a nearby planet, Drax crossed paths with Captain Marvel. Enraged at Mar-Vell for destroying Thanos himself, Drax battled Captain Marvel until a mental construct of Rick Jones gave him the location of the newly resurrected Thanos.
Once again on a campaign to destroy Thanos, Drax attacked Gamora, an assistant of Thanos at the time, by destroying her spaceship. Gamora escaped, and it was unclear what happened to Drax immediately afterwards, for he was not present when the Avengers, Captain Marvel, Moondragon, Adam Warlock, Spider-Man, and the Thing defeated Thanos when he tried to snuff out the stars using the six Soul Gems.
Travelling through space, Drax came across a space station. He did not sense any life forms on board, but he entered the space station to investigate for clues on Thanos' location. Drax found Thanos, whose body was now turned into solid granite by Adam Warlock. Drax had felt like he had lost all purpose in life once again, for Thanos was once again slayed.
Enraged, he quickly assumed that it was Captain Marvel who had slain Thanos. Drax travelled to Earth, and attacked Captain Marvel. The battle carried on for awhile, neither party giving up, but it finally ended when the human personifcation of ISAAC, the network computer which controls/governs over Titan, came to them requesting aid to save Titan from Thanos' remaining forces. Captain Marvel and Drax accepted the request, and traveled to Saturn.
On the way to Titan, Drax reiterated his plans of destroying Captain Marvel after this problem on Titan was resolved.Mere moments after arriving in Titan, Drax and Captain Marvel came across Starfox and Mentor being attacked by giant spiders. They rescued the two, and went off to save the others, passing through a system of underground tunnels, by Mentor's request. Being cosmically aware and having noticed something suspicious, Captain Marvel then accused Eros of being an impostor. To Drax's surprise, both Eros and Mentor were impostors, leading them to the domain of Gaea, the earth god. They let the two impostors free, and made their way through the tunnels, arriving at Gaea's lair. Gaea's forces attacked Drax and Mar-Vell, but they managed to overcome them. Defeated, Gaea told Drax and Mar-Vell ISAAC's plan to continue Thanos' schemes.
Afterwhich, Drax made a pile of rubble fall on Gaea. Drax and Mar-Vell wandered through the caves, and eventually made it outside, where they met Dionysus, god of wine. Dionysus invited them to have a drink. Drax drank some, and then he was knocked out for the wine was drugged. He woke up a few hours later with Mar-Vell at his side, about to be eaten by huge snakes. They fought of the snakes, but Drax was knocked unconscious again. Drax woke up a few moments later, and Mar-Vell told them that Elysius, the one ISAAC had sent to kill them, had a change of heart, and decided to help them. They took a flying pirate ship to get to ISAAC quicker. They arrived in ISAAC's lair in a couple of hours, and after many obstacles and many of ISAAC's forces, the three managed to defeat ISAAC.
However, the battle was not won, for ISAAC had the power to shut off the air supply of Titan, and ISAAC had sent his right hand man, Stellarax, to Earth. Captain Marvel and Drax made the decision to return to Earth first, and then save Titan later. They decided to attack on multiple fronts, Drax would attack Stellarax's spaceship, and Captain Marvel would attack Stellarax himself down on the surface. While attacking Stellarax's spaceship, Drax came across Rick Jones and his girlfriend, and rescued them from captivity. They saved Earth in the end, and made their way back to Titan to save it from ISAAC.
They made it back to Titan, and even though they faced trouble on Saturn's rings, they managed to get through to face ISAAC and his forces yet again. During the battle, Captain Marvel nearly gave his life defending Drax, and so this prompted Drax to decide not to destroy Captain Marvel anymore. In the end, Captain Marvel saved the day, and the two were celebrated as heroes. Drax decided to travel the stars, and think about how he could be a "creator" instead of a destroyer.
Moondragon
After travelling the stars for a couple of weeks, Drax still hadn't found a purpose for his life. He felt grim, so when he came across a group of creatures that threatened to destroy him if he didn't leave them alone, Drax attacked them, in hopes that they may kill him. On the contrary, the group of creatures sacrificed one of their own to save the collective, by attaching themselves to Drax's head. Drax's daughter, Moondragon, sensed this from her own spaceship, so she went to his location to find Drax unconscious.
With no knowledge of the situation, she decided to go to her friends at the Avengers Mansion. However, only Thor was there at the moment. While they were deciding what to do with him, Drax woke up. Confused, he attacked Thor and Moondragon, but Thor striked Drax with lightning, which made the creature detach itself from Drax's head. Aftewards, Drax and Moondragon decided to travel through space together, and return the creature back to its collective.
Later, the two 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.
Resurrection
Several years later, when Thanos was resurrected by Mistress Death, Kronos 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. The team, led by Adam Warlock and consisting of Gamora, Pip the Troll and Moondragon, settled in Monster Island, the sovereign nation ruled by the Mole Man. Drax was the most innocent of the group, due to his childlike mentality, and he was very useful to the team as their muscle.
To Drax's rage, Thanos appeared in Monster Isle seeking the Watch's help. Apparently, Warlock's evil side, the Magus, had once again become a threat to the universe. The Watch agreed to help Thanos in order to defend the universe from the Magus and his doppelg�ngers, and Drax became an instrumental part in helping to stop him. In the end, Magus was banished into Soul World, but Warlock was put into a coma.
Drax spent his time doing playful things on monster island. Moondragon would come and talk to him once and while, and ask questions about his past, but Drax didn't know the answers. One day, one of Moondragon's triggered Drax's memory of his death, which caused him to go on a temper tantrum in Nevada. There, he fought with the Hulk briefly before going back home. Soon after that, Warlock woke up from his coma, and Drax joined him and the Watch in battling Mephisto, Count Abyss, and Maxam.
The Infinity Watch was called upon once again to save the universe from a threat known as the Goddess, Warlock's good side. However, Moondragon and Gamora were captured and mentally enslaved by the Goddess, and with Warlock nowhere to be found, Drax and Pip had to seek help from Mr. Fantastic and Earth's heroes. They joined their side, and were forced to fight heroes who were being controlled by the Goddess. Drax fought Thor, but the Goddess was successfully defeated by Warlock and Thanos before one of them could emerge victorious.
Following this, the Watch returned home to monster island where they remained in peace for a while. Not long after, it was discovered that Thor had become mentally unstable and had attacked Silver Surfer. Warlock asked the Watch to stay behind while he checked it out, but after quite some time, Pip got impatient and asked Drax to help him defeat Thor. The mere mention of Thor got Drax enraged, so Pip teleported the Watch to Thor's location, where Warlock was nowhere to be seen. Drax and Thor fought, and Thor emerged victorious and even took the Power Gem from Drax. The team eventually caught up with Adam Warlock, who had partnered himself with Silver Surfer and Doctor Strange. They all traveled to Asgard to seek aid from Odin, but they were intercepted by trolls and Asgardian warriors. They even had to enlist the help of Thanos to get to Odin, but after all the fighting, Odin cured Thor, and Asgard was indebted to the Watch.
Drax assisted Warlock in many battles. Towards the Watch's final months of operation, he'd engage in battle against the Avengers, Count Abyss' army, and many others, but during the quiet days of the Watch, he'd get very bored, and so he'd attract unwarranted attention by finding his own adventures. His physical power and pure spirit would even get him called upon by Silver Surfer and the Secret Defenders to help them fight their enemies. In Warlock's attempt to help the soul of Firelord, the Watch battled Domitian, and in that battle, Moondragon was almost killed. A blast by the enemy sent her into a coma. After the battle, Drax stayed by her side for days and was acting strangely. It was almost like his childlike brain was maturing.
A few days later, Gamora left the Watch and the Time Gem was granted upon Maxam. Maxam would attack Warlock later, but was saved by a still mentally functional Moondragon. The Infinity Gems later disappeared without any trace or any clue as to who took them. With Gamora, Maxam, and the Infinity Gems gone, the Watch disbanded. Warlock went off to search for the gems, which left only Drax, Pip and a comatose Moondragon on Earth.
Mental Recuperation
Afterwards, Drax returned to Titan with Moondragon, who successfully petitioned Kronos to restore Drax's mind to its former acuity, at the cost of some physical power. Thus, Drax was restored to his former self.
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 the 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 Blastaar 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 their Universe.
Microverse
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 was mistaken for the Hulk, who was at one point married to the previous princess. The new and current princess, Visalia made Drax her new prince, still thinking he was Hulk. When Genis tried to retrieve Drax from the city of Ka'i, the kingdom and Drax attacked him. Genis, with the help of a group of Microverse heroes known as the Microns, was able to eventually snap Drax out of his fake loyalty to Visalia when it was revealed that she was lying about her identity and her love for Drax the entire time. They defeated her in the end, but instead of leaving the Microverse, Drax decided to stay behind because he felt like he was needed there.
Drax joined the Microns for a short time, and in that short time, he was manipulated by the Psycho-Man in order to release Fredd, Genis-Vell's evil twin, clone, future self from an alternate dimension. He fought the Microns for a while, but Genis-Vell defeated Fredd and Psycho-Man, thus releasing Drax from his emotional manipulation. He remained in the Microverse for quite some time after that.
Earth Fall
Drax was later seen on a prison ship with Paibok, Lunatik, and the Blood Brothers after being accused of murdering 200,000 Skrulls. They were being transported to an intergalactic prison when the ship crashed on Earth under mysterious circumstances and some prisoners, including Drax, escape. The four reunite after the crash, and the Blood Brothers get into a fight. They fight for some time, and for unknown reasons, Drax's intelligence would increase the more he fought, but if he wasn't fighting, his intelligence would go down. He fought for some time, until his head started hurting. The Blood Brothers, who were losing the fight, decided to go and look for Paibok and Lunatik who wandered into town.
Drax wandered through Alaska and confused a young girl named Cammi for his daughter, Heather. Cammi noticed this, and decided to trick Drax. She said that the Blood Brothers hurt her, so Drax fought them once again. While fighting, he encountered Paibok yet again. Paibok ruthlessly murdered him, by stabbing him through the head. Cammi went up to Paibok, and asked if she could have the body, and he said no. However, she told one of the Blood Brothers that Paibok allowed her to have it, so the Blood Brother carried the body of Drax near a river. Drax's corpse would smoke for hours while Cammi watched.
Drax later emerged with a new, slightly smaller body and with a higher intelligence, but still with all the rage and skill of his previous self. Drax said that he and Cammi shared a connection that he could not explain. She said that Drax needed pants, so they brought him into town to get pants. The two would bicker but would remain at each other's side until Drax decided to kill the aliens who attacked him. He went to the area where the aliens made slaves of the townspeople in order to build a rocket ship out of there. He killed Lunatik first, and then one Blood Brother. He encountered Paibok who took Cammi hostage, but decided that fighting him would be a wasted of time. After Drax saved the town from his fellow prisoners, he and Cammi were taken onto another working prison ship.
Annihilation
Surviving Annihilus' attack on the intergalactic prison known as the Kyln, Drax and Cammi teamed up with the last member of the Xandarian Nova Corps, Richard Rider. Together they fought against the advancing Annihilation Wave. Drax taught Nova the power of concentration so that he might contain the entire Nova force. Moreover, Nova asked Drax to teach him an important lesson: How to destroy.
During a doomed battle between the Annihilation Wave and the United Front on Daedalus 5, Drax stayed behind to fight off the invaders while Nova and the rest of the group (including Cammi) finished the evacuation. Drax fought his way to one of the Annihilation Wave's ships in his quest for Thanos. He found the Titan attempting to release Galactus from his prison on Annihilus' mother ship. Before Thanos could release Galactus using his unique energy signature, Drax broke through Thanos' defensive shield and punched a hole through the Titan's chest. Drax then realized that they could "trick" the security system into shutting off by using the Silver Surfer, which succeeded. Once Galactus was freed, he teleported Moondragon and Drax to a far-off planet to spare them from his wrath on the Annihilation Wave. Afterwards, Moondragon said Drax just "disappeared", heavily implying she was covering for him.
Annihilation Conquest
After the events of the Annihilation war, the Kree empire was invaded and cut off from the rest of the universe by the Phalanx, led by Ultron. Drax was hunted down and captured by former allies Gamora and Richard Rider, who were assimilated into the Phalanx by the transmode virus. Drax was likewise infected with the same virus and was dispatched to hunt down Nova, along with Gamora, after Rider regained control of his mind thanks to the Nova force inside him. The pair tracked Nova all the way back to the Phalanx's home world of Kvch where they are all cured of the virus by the Technarch mutant Warlock and his ward Tyro.
Armed with the knowledge of how to beat the Phalanx and cure the virus, Nova, Gamora, Drax, Warlock, and Tyro breached the barrier surrounding the Kree empire and assisted a recently resurrected Adam Warlock and the new Quasar (Phyla-Vell) in destroying Ultron. Drax became a member of the newly formed Guardians of the Galaxy, led by Star-Lord and served alongside such characters as Phyla-Vell, Adam Warlock, Rocket Raccoon, and Gamora. He was one of the team's more grim and solitary figures, but was a force of destruction which bailed them out of many predicaments in the team's first few missions.
War of Kings
Drax with Quasar were looking for Cammi when they learned that Heather was alive. Then, they went to Mentor for help, but Mentor tried to kill them and sent them to Oblivion. There they met Maelstrom who brought them to the Dragon of the Moon. He betrayed them when he took control of Quantum Bands and fed Phyla-Vell to the Dragon. Shortly after, Quasar arrived giving Drax time to cut off Maelstrom's hands. After a victory against the Maelstrom and the Dragon they headed back to Titan with Moondragon.
After celebrating with the team, Drax was sent alongside Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Major Victory and Adam Warlock to the Shi'ar Empire to find Emperor Vulcan and negotiate about the upcoming war with the Kree. In return, the Guardians would help them to free Lilandra. They returned and counter-attacked the Imperial Guard out of nowhere.
Drax with the rest of the team was there when Peter Quill send a message through the time-space. After that Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Major Victory and Phyla-Vell were teleported to Attilan and engaged the Inhumans until a space squid emerged from the fault, attacking the city. Drax went to defend the city until Adam Warlock came to stop the fault and ended up becoming Magus and ruler of the Universal Church of Truth. The Guardians engaged in a long battle against this organization that ended with the resurrection of Thanos.
The Thanos Imperative
Drax wanted to kill Thanos even though the Guardians were collaborating with him in order to stop the Cancerverse's invasion. After a failed attempt to kill Thanos, Drax was murdered by the Mad Titan.
Return
After Star-Lord and Nova trapped themselves with Thanos in the Cancerverse and fought over the Cosmic Cube, Drax was revealed to be alive. After Star-Lord starting losing control over the Cube, Thanos offered Quill to give him the Cube, as he could control it, to get back to Earth-616. However, Star-Lord killed Thanos with it. As Thanos reappeared and killed Star-Lord from behind, who also returned, the heroes discovered death was impossible in the Cancerverse, as one would merely respawn in another location, explaining Drax's return.
After killing Thanos for a third time, the heroes' discussion on what to do was interrupted by the arrival of the Cancerverse's Revengers. Following an extremely long battle, the Revengers got hold of the Cosmic Cube. Thanos managed to retrieve the Cube and defeat the Revengers, but was soon opposed by Drax, Quill and Nova. As the Mad Titan was distracted by Drax, Nova picked up the Cosmic Cube, and decided to use it along with the Nova Force to open a gate to Earth-616, however, Rider couldn't come as he was acting as the door between the two universes. As his last wish, Nova asked Peter not to tell Gamora about this event, as it would devastate her.
Peter Quill, Drax and Thanos were then returned to Earth-616, and the two heroes reunited with the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
After helping the Avengers and the Elders of the Universe stop Thanos from conquering Earth, Iron Man decided to join the team, equipped with a new space suit.
After J'son of Spartax told Peter Quill that Earth was off limits to everyone in the galaxy, a law put in place by a council of galactic leaders, Quill immediately knew something fishy was going on. He and the Guardians went to go check it out only to find a Badoon ship attacking Earth. They managed to drive them off but not without crash landing on the planet below, which badly injured Drax. They were all arrested by the order of J'son of Spartax for going to Earth, all except Groot who, because of the battle, was only a small twig and was not found by the guards. They were briefly imprisoned by the Spartoi but managed to escape thanks to a regrown Groot, becoming fugitives of the Spartoi Empire.
