IIRC The Destroyer wasn’t a robot. It was a mystical suit of armor forged in anticipation of Odin’s battle with the Celestials (a space-faring race which was responsible for creating a number of human offshoots and were going to return to “judge” the Earth at some point). For a while it was animated by Galactus to serve as his herald, then returned to Odin for the Final Battle with the Celestials (which in the comic mythos was Ragnarok). The Celestials shredded it in about 8 seconds.
This is all from about 20 years ago so lord only knows how many ret-cons have taken place in the meantime.
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I also remember an issue of Avengers where a steel worker from the foundry which repaired Thor’s hammer was turned into a monster when the Uru chip he’d saved as a lucky charm interacted with a vat of molten steel into which he was pushed.
There was also a period where Thor was cursed to have bones as brittle as an old woman. Sure, he was superhumanly strong and tough, but he has to go toe-to-toe with super-villians, and many of his bones ended up getting broken.
Eventually, he manages to somehow transfer his spirit into The Destroyer and takes it down to see Hela; he then threatens to destroy her realm (the aptly named “Hel”) using The Destroyer’s power if she does not undo the curse.
There’ve been at least three different characters that I can recall using “The Destroyer” as part or all of the name. In addition to the suit, there was one from The Invaders, set in WWII and “Drax the Destroyer” who was associated with IIRC The Defenders (he’s the resurrected corpse of Moondragon’s father) and the Avengers for a while, also with the Eternals of Titan (an offshoot of one of the races created by the aforementioned Celestials).
I’m just happy to see that the first appearance of my favorite Marvel Second Bannana ever, Beta Ray Bill ware the pop-ups!, officially kicks of what Fenris describes as ‘the single greatest Thor run ever.’ I agree wholeheartedly.
Hay, Fenris, as long as you’re here, you wouldn’t happen to know what B.R.B. is up to these days? I don’t keep up on Marvel hardly at all any more.
Not much. He shows up in Thor from time to time for a panel or two, but he never does much, sad to say. They had a chance to make him an important character and squandered it following Simonson’s run when they scrapped most of Simonson’s stuff.
