The Destructor by Steve Ditko

Mini Post

The Destructor by Steve Ditko & Archie Goodwin

Published by Atlas/Seaboard

4 issues, Feb-Aug 1975

Well, I’m sure you can guess why I own this series. Yes, of course, Steve Ditko. Although, being written by Archie Goodwin is always a positive in my book.

This was a really good strip for Ditko to draw. Ditko recaptures the quirkiness of the early Spider-Man issues, particularly with the almost double-jointed poses of the protagonist. Lots of pure Ditko touches, some of his idioms are lost in the issues inked by Wally Wood, which is a common complaint with Wood inking Ditko, although Wood’s influence on the strip isn’t as heavy as their previous work together for Tower Comics. That being said, I do like Wood’s inks on Ditko’s pencils, they both have very recognisable styles that work well together, but it ends up as a weird hybrid, that looks great but strange if you are used to seeing Ditko ink Ditko.

The first three issues are a straight costumed hero fighting underworld crime adventure and they work very well. They move the Destructor around the country to keep the settings fresh, so it’s not all grim inner-city defender type action. But the last issue, which ends the series on a cliff-hanger (or new direction at least) is pure odd-ball and doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the series. I certainly don’t know whether it was Goodwin’s intention to mix it up like this from the start, or whether it was a change made higher up in the food chain, but I thought it was a disappointing end to a previously great strip.

All round, it’s a great comic for those first three issues. The highlight for me was issue 3, Goodwin does a great job of building the tension and provides a couple of unexpected extras, but best of all with this issue is Frank Giacoia inking Ditko. I think that this is only Ditko/Giacoia I have and I’m not sure if they have worked together before or since, but it’s a terrific pairing, they really compliment each other’s style.

Like most of the Atlas/Seaboard comics, you can pick these up pretty cheap, I’m surprised that there isn’t a publisher out there that has re-packaged these old strips into collected editions, but, if you weren’t aware, Atlas has been relaunched recently (although The Destructor wasn’t one of the characters chosen for a new series) so who knows, maybe we’ll get an Atlas Archives series in the future.

Mad Thinker Reads………………

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