Destro #5 Review: A Surprisingly Triumphant Conclusion

In this finale to the Destro miniseries (and the end of Skybound’s “prerelease” season of miniseries before the launch of the new G.I. Joe series), creators Dan Watters and Andrei Bressan pull off something impressive. After creating a compelling arc for the title character in which Destro is caught fighting an (unknown to him) unwinnable war, they bring his story to a close by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. In the process, they create a conclusion that, on top of featuring some exciting action storytelling, manages to satisfyingly close out the arc while still setting up the classic Cobra Commander/Destro dynamic.

As Destro #5 opens, the Crimson Twins are in the process of showing off the new Extensive Enterprises/MARS Industries merger to Cobra Commander when they open a door to find Destro waiting for them, poised atop his throne exactly where readers first met this incarnation of the character back in the Duke miniseries. From here, Watters and Bressan present Destro in pure protagonist mode: he is not a hero, but he is the hero of this story, and he gets all the beats the heroes of these stories usually get: overcoming overwhelming odds, seeming to be outmatched only to reveal he’s got an ace in the hole, looking like he’s about to lose only to pull through at the last minute. After several issues in which Destro has been on the run, reacting to the forces arrayed against him, he finally gets to be the proactive one, the one holding all the cards. 

All of this is rendered in glorious comic action by Bressan and colorist Adriano Lucas, who subtly reinforces the sides of the fight by creating a conflict of cool blues and warm reds on the page. It’s the kind of action figure mashup fight that, in its simplest form, lies at the hearts of the best G.I. Joe stories. 

And then, Destro zags. After his allies (Scrap Iron, Chameleon, the BATS and Overkill) trounce the Crimson Twins’ forces and Destro himself soundly thrashes Xamot and Tomax, he stops the fight and tells them he forgives them. Citing the arrival on Earth of alien technology in the form of Energon (and — to readers of Skybound’s Transformers series — giant transforming robots), he declares that an alliance is needed. He willing cedes total control of MARS to unite his company alongside the twins’ under the banner of Cobra, the better for them all to succeed at what they do best. 

It’s an exceptionally smart bit of writing on Watters part. It is at once consistent with the arc of the story so far, of a proud man fighting against the dying of the light, desperate to maintain a control he’s destined to lose. Yet despite it being, on paper, a loss for Destro — he is now even more subservient to Cobra Commander, allied with his greatest enemy, and no longer the master of his own destiny — by making it Destro’s choice to give up the fight and propose the alliance, Watters is able to make it a triumphant moment for Destro. He wins the battle in this issue and loses the war, but does so on his terms.

Furthermore, by tying Destro’s motivations to the unique circumstances of this iteration of the property, the shared-universe elements with Transformers, Watters is able to underscore what makes this version of the story standout from previous ones in way that still leaves the character in a place familiar to fans of those earlier incarnations: thirsty for power in his own right, but allied, nevertheless, with Cobra. That Watters does all this in a way that is consistent with Destro’s portrayal and the circumstances of the plot throughout the preceding four issues yet which still feels like a win for him in the end is all the more impressive. 

Destro #5 thus ends the first phase of Skybound’s re-imagining of G.I. Joe on a remarkably strong note. The way it fuses familiar character beats with new and innovative developments against a backdrop of explosive action not only makes for a satisfying conclusion. It’s also representative of the success of the whole endeavor thus far.