Fighting A Fight You’ve Already Lost: Reviewing ‘Destro’ #1

There’s a fascinating energy permeating Destro #1. All of the previous G.I. Joe series in Skybound’s burgeoning Energon Universe are essentially origin stories. They introduce their title characters, then set them on a path that illustrates their transformation from what they are at the start to their more familiar G.I. Joe forms.

This series is certainly poised to do the same thing, but with an intriguing twist: where the other books are, essentially, building up their characters to bigger and better things, Destro #1 is more about taking its title character from his personal zenith to, if not his nadir, a significantly lesser position. That tension runs throughout the issue and makes reading it electric. 

As the issue opens, Destro is at the top of his game. The head of a major arms supplier, he runs his company with an iron fist. He has the means to successfully oversee the coup of a European nation and instill his own puppet leader. His next generation weapon — the Battle Android Trooper — proves instrumental in this effort. Things couldn’t be better for Laird Destro. Nevertheless, the rest of the issue begins to lay the groundwork not for his further ascendancy, but for his downfall. 

Despite all his power, a brief scene establishes that the traditional Cobra Commander/Destro dynamic is already in place. Cobra Commander is mad that Destro has risked exposing their operation by putting the BATs in the field; Destro insists that he does not work for Cobra Commander, that they are business partners. Yet even without prior knowledge of the traditional dynamic between the two, it’s clear that Destro is posturing because the BATs only work thanks to the Energon provided by Cobra Commander.

Thus, Destro’s power — his ability to topple nations and provide cutting edge weaponry to the highest bidder — comes at the mercy of Cobra Commander and his access to the Transformers’ power source. For all his bluster and insistence to the statues of his ancestors that he’ll never bend the knee, Destro is essentially in hock to Cobra Commander.

It’s a brilliant twist to their relationship, one which re-contextualizes Destro’s motivations. Cobra Commander isn’t just a good customer or a fellow megalomaniac with a penchant for full face helmets; he’s now key to Destro’s continued dominance. The very thing Destro wants — power — can only be achieved by putting himself in a subordinate position, ceding power to someone else.

In addition to presenting a clear picture of Destro’s characterization and his relationship with Cobra Commander, the issue also works to expand the map of the new G.I. Joe universe. It introduces Darklonia and Sierra Gordo, two fictional nations with ties to established Joe lore. The latter also serves to introduce Xamot and Tomax (and their sharply-design Crimson Guard soldiers), the heads of Extensive Enterprises, here presented as a rival arms company/mercenary group.

Again, writer Dan Watters is using reader expectations to illuminate Destro’s situation. The assumption based on past Joe stories is that Extensive Enterprises — like Destro’s MARS — will shortly be brought into the Cobra fold, forcing Destro to work alongside his current rivals. Destro doesn’t know it, but readers do. Despite a lack of a direct confrontation with Xamot and Tomax, Destro has already lost again. 

Yet for all that, Destro ends the issue on a high note, a smile spread across his face as he realizes he’s at war. We may know he’s already lost — Destro may even suspect as much — but he’s going to go down fighting. That’s what makes him such a fascinating character, something the comic clearly illustrates. The tension inherent in someone giving up power to gain it, who thinks he’s Doctor Doom but may well just be a Doombot, and the question of just how far he’ll go to prove otherwise, is palpable throughout the issue. That tension is what makes Destro #1 a fascinating and entertaining read.