Mystic Comics #6 (1941)
by Stan Lee & Jack Binder
The origin of the Marvel superhero from the Golden Age who owes his powers to a super-serum.
No, the OTHER guy.
We begin with journalists trying to get in Germany to cover the war.
It’s important to note the timing: this has a cover date of October 1941 and was likely released in July 1941, so we are well before America joins the war.
So this is an interesting snapshot of what the general public was thinking about Nazis.
We have seen that, before the war, the main antagonists of Golden Age heroes were racketeers. But saboteurs have been in a very close second place, and will be more prominent during the war.
But before that we have THE HERO being the saboteur!
But to discover the origins of this heroic saboteurs we need a flashback to a journalist getting a new assignment.
So our protagonist Keen Marlow gets to Germany, specifically Hamburg.
I often criticize writers, especially Golden Age writers in general and Stan Lee in particular, for being just terrible at geography. But credit where it’s due, this not only sets the stage in a city that is NOT the country’s capital (a rarity), but also chooses one that make sense: considering Marlow gets to Germany by boat he would not have been able to arrive at Berlin.
Also, the timing of the publishing date puts in context Marlow’s thoughts, since Germany was at war with the UK in this period but not yet with the USA.
Unsurprisingly, the Nazis don’t let him see their prison.
Who would’ve thought that a reporter wouldn’t be able to sneak into a prison.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but… the Nazis do have a point, this does look like a spy thing.
Now I just have to resist the urge to throw up for agreeing with Nazis.
Marlow does put up a surprisingly tough fight…
…but he’s overwhelmed and put in a dungeon.
I would normally make fun of this but… it’s Nazis, of course they have a dungeon.
This is surprisingly brutal for a comic of this period.
This is the same prison where the Nazis are trying to convince a scientist to give them the secret to make super-soldiers.
Once he refuses they put him in the same cell as Marlow, but they did a lousy job searching him because he has the Super-Soldier serum with him!
In a nifty detail, the vial is rigged so that the serum is destroyed if you don’t enter a specific combination before opening. That’s very clever!
Although it does make me wonder why the scientist didn’t take the serum himself, it might have protected him from the dreaded Mentor Figure Disease.
And so Marlow decides to become The Destroyer to fight the Nazis.
Considered he was whipped in a Nazi prison, that suit is remarkably intact.
Speaking of which, maybe he should just keep the civilian clothes and skip the whole superhero costume part. Wouldn’t make his actions even more awesome if he looked like a regular guy?
But I get it, he wouldn’t be able to keep working as a journalist otherwise.
So the Destroyer goes around Germany punching Nazis, even leaving behind his calling card.
It’s neat to see Stan Lee had this idea in mind this early (although granted heroes leaving behind calling cards goes back to pulp heroes), but somehow I doubt they say “Your friendly neighborhood Destroyer”.
If you find it strange that his calling card has a knife, you’ll be surprise WHERE he keeps that thing!
The vast, VAST majority of Captain America stories in the Golden Age are set in America and most of the time they don’t even involve spies.
So if you think about it, what we associate with a typical Golden Age story featuring Captain America is actually more like a Destroyer story.
But we’re not done, because Destoyer next has to fight his way through the dungeon’s traps.
But we eventually end the story with him keeping the fight. It should be noted that he’s still in Germany.
But you wouldn’t need to wait for long to see him again, considering he ALSO stars in the second story. The writer is uncredited, with pencils still by Jack Binder.
Which, by the way, is still set in Germany.
In the story he fights a Nazi scientist who kidnaps The Destroyer…
…and threatens to BURN HIM ALIVE WITH A GIANT MAGNIFYING GLASS.
The story then has The Destroyer helping the British air force to bomb Germany.
It should also be noted that this story gives The Destroyer a love interest, a German woman he rescued from Nazis.
Out of all the pre-war comics I’ve reviewed, this one is BY FAR the most vocal in its anti-Nazi sentiment.
Historical significance: 4/10
The Destroyer has a minor legacy.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Definitely not.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
If you know nothing about the actual story, the joke writes itself: Destroyer is just Stan Lee’s ripoff of Captain America. But not only he’s different enough, but having read a few Captain America Golden Age stories… this is actually better than Cap!
It’s shockingly closer to a Silver Age story in how the characters act and how the story flows.
Plus having a superhero operating behind enemy lines is quite different, ESPECIALLY for 1941.
The artwork, while also a bit stiff here and there, is also superior to the standard of the times.
How close is this to the modern character? 3/10
Destroyer is arguably one of the most successful Marvel characters in the Golden Age, even though he lags behind the Big Three (Human Torch, Namor and Captain America) and even behind Angel.
He stars in Mystic Comics until the series ends with #10, then bouncing between USA Comics, All Winners Comics, Kid Komics and Complete Comics in about three dozen stories in total.
The fac that this is enough to make him one of the most successful is really telling on how few Marvel characters were popular.
His last Golden Age appearance is All Select Comics #10 in 1946.
But his post-Golden Age story is a weird one.
Because Roy Thomas.
In 1977’s Invaders #18, he teams up with Captain America.
The origin is preserved…
…but the following issue retcons a new identity. Now he’s Brian Falsworth, the son of James Falsworth: the original Union Jack, the British superhero created for the Invaders series.
So Brian is the one to go to Germany and become the Destroyer, completely replacing Marlow.
In Invaders #19, Brian then becomes the second Union Jack. He will later join the Invaders and be a key figure in that series.
But there is ANOTHER Destroyer showing up in the same series, because in #26 Roger Aubrey… previously the pocket-sized hero Dyna-Mite… picks up the Destroyer identity.
It is worth noting that Brian Falsworth and Roger Aubrey are VERY OBVIOUSLY a couple throughout their entire history, but it’s not openly acknowledged until 2022 on the pages of Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty.
Brian Falsworth dies in 1980’s Captain America #253, and Roger Aubrey in 2022’s Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty #10.
Killed by a car crash and M.O.D.O.K. respectively.
After all that, Sharon Carter took the codename Destroyer and the skull motif.
So with Marlow having been retconned away, why didn’t I do the usual “what modern character” gag? Because it’s complicated.
In 2009, Robert Kirkman did a 5-issue miniseries dedicated to the Destroyer, under Marvel’s MAX imprint. It runs on the assumption that Marlow has been operating as a superhero for decades, so it’s definitely not in continuity.
The series operated outside of the regular Marvel Universe and was WAY more violent than you’d expect.
I don’t particularly care for THAT version. But at least Marlow ends that series by retiring and spending the rest of his life with his cyborg wife.
I don’t really like the Roy Thomas idea to completely remove the original Destroyer and replace him with TWO new guys that he introduced.
But in 2010 on the pages of Marvels Project, Ed Brubaker solidifies the complete story by keeping the fact that the original Destroyer was Brian Falsworth, adding that he used Marlow as an alias.
It also updates the origin by having both the professor and “Marlow” meet in a concentration camp.
It also helps that Marvels Project is really, REALLY good.
What else was in Mystic Comics #6 ?
We have another Black Marvel story…
…then bizarrely enough, a prose story by Stan Lee where he explains why the specific protagonists of this issue were chosen.
Speaking of which, the lineup consists of The Destroyer, The Terror, The Challenger …
…and Blazing Skull, which stars in the only story where we know the writer (Bob Davis) aside from the first one.
All of these characters, aside from The Challenger, debuted in the previous issue of Mystery Comics. So Stan Lee didn’t have to work very hard deciding who to pick!
” . . . this has a cover date of October 1941 and was likely released in April 1941, so we are well before America joins the war.”
Why would the comic be dated six months in advance? I understood that comics were dated only two or three months in advance so they would stay on the newstands longer. Isn’t it more likely that the issue was published in July or August?
I still can’t wrap my head around the concept of cover dates being different from release dates, but you’re right: July 1941 is considered to be the release date.
Don’t know where April came from, as my sources clearly reference July… fixed it, thanks for noticing.
The dates on the covers actually were “pull” dates, indicating to the retailer the month when unsold copies of that issue were to be pulled off of their stands. That’s the explanation as I’ve read about it. Comics were in retailers’ hands on consignment at newsstands — unlike the direct market we’re so used to today, where returns are not part of the deal. In other words, the cover dates were related to distribution practices, rather than documentation of the specific time an issue went on sale.
The reason why I find cover dates to be so baffling is that in Italy the date on the cover is the date when the comic is sold. That’s it. Past the publishing date you’re lucky if you still find the comic in the newsstand a week later.
It’s because of the direct market… I don’t have numbers but I’m pretty sure the direct market is just a blip in the total sales in Italy. Cover date and publishing date have always been the same in Italy.
The fact that US comics have a date on the cover that is several months apart from the actual publishing date, and that this has been going on since at least the 40s, is still mind-boggling to me even years after learning it.
By the way, is this just for comics? Do stuff like magazines have such a huge difference from publishing date and cover date?
Not certain about the dates but magazines and paperbacks go to bookstores on consignment. At a certain time the u.p.c cover is removed and shipped back to the distributor. For a refund.(Cheaper than shipping back the whole book)
Stan Lee’s Destroyer seems to have had an indirect legacy at Silver Age Marvel. His origin—as an American held prisoner in a foreign war zone by a cruel enemy, who breaks free with the aid of a dissident (and dying) scientist of the enemy country—is the same as that of Tony Stark/Iron Man. (Come to think of it, the classic helmet that Iron Man later settled on looks more than a bit like the Destroyer mask.) It’s an example of Lee re-using a reliable story concept later in his career.
Also, I seem to recall Roy Thomas explaining that while the design of the Silver Age Vision was adapted by John Buscema from Kirby’s Golden Age version of the character, the Vision’s head—with the “widow’s peak” cowl and empty eyes—was derived from the Destroyer. In Roy’s telling (as I recall), Stan Lee had suggested introducing a blue-skinned android into the Avengers line-up, which would have reflected the Destroyer’s look more directly. But Roy opted to make the new Vision’s face red, to avoid confusion with the blue Atlanteans and Kree, and because no other character had yet laid claim to a bright red complexion.