Stan Lee's first Marvel hero is overdue for a modern renaissance. The original character who went by the moniker “Destroyer” is mostly a footnote in Marvel history these days. That’s the thing about Marvel lore, though; nothing is forgotten, and anything, or anyone, can be plucked from obscurity and elevated to A-list status by the right storyteller.
The OG Destroyer, Kevin “Keen” Marlow was created by Stan Lee and artist Jack Binder in 1941, making him a contemporary of Jack Kirby’s Captain America.
Yet while Steve Rogers became one of Marvel’s greatest heroes, Marlow all but lapsed into obscurity. Save for one revival attempt, he’s been on the shelf for the better part of a century.
Stan Lee’s First Superhero Character, Destroyer, Was A Dark Mirror To Captain America
The WWII-Era Hero’s Rise And Fall, Explained
Like Captain America, Destroyer was created in the run-up to America’s entry into World War II. Like Cap, Destroyer’s origin story involved the Super Soldier Serum. Instead of being experimented on by the U.S. government, Keen Marlow was empowered by a renegade German scientist after being captured by the Nazis and imprisoned for espionage.
What many people forget about Captain America is that the character’s popularity fell off significantly in the late 1940s and early ’50s. It wasn’t until Marvel brought Steve Rogers back in the 1960s in The Avengers that his star status was forever solidified. Likewise, Destroyer was dropped by the publisher in the post-war era, but he didn’t get a ’60s revival.
The Destroyer character concept was brought back in the 1970s, but crucially, Kevin “Keen” Marlow wasn’t. Destroyer’s legacy is now more closely associated with the characters who took up the mantle later. That’s what makes Marlow so primed for a comeback now, especially in a contemporary series that revisits his World War II origins.
Stan Lee’s Keen Marlow Character Has Only Reappeared Once In Marvel Lore Over The Last 80 Years
2009’s Destroyer MAX Series Briefly Revived Marlow
Keen Marlow was resurrected once, by one of the greatest comic book authors of the 21st century: Walking Dead and Invincible creator Robert Kirkman. In 2009, Kirkman wrote a Marvel MAX Destroyer miniseries featuring an older version of Marlow briefly coming out of retirement. The series plucked the character from obscurity, but by the end, he was back there again.
It’s been over 15 years since then, and Marvel hasn’t done anything else with Stan Lee’s first superhero, Destroyer. The character remains a reservoir of untapped potential. Given how routinely Marvel likes to go back to World War II as a setting, it feels like a missed opportunity that Destroyer has never popped up on the front lines of the European theater.
Destroyer was a very “of his time” hero at the time of his creation. But so was Captain America. Still, Cap’s star-spangled iconography gave him a timeless quality Destroyer lacked. Though notably, Destroyer’s skull logo did prefigure ultimate Marvel anti-hero the Punisher’s infamous symbol by over 30 years.
Revitalizing The Original Destroyer Is A Way To Keep Stan Lee’s Marvel Legacy Thriving In The 21st Century
Destroyer Still Belongs To Stan; Marvel Should Pay Homage To That
Whether Robert Kirkman’s Destroyer MAX series is incorporated into canon or not, there are entire decades of Keen Marlow’s history that could be filled in by an intrepid Marvel writer. From his Nazi-fighting WWII days to the hero’s post-war history, the OG Destroyer is a major blank canvas for Marvel to fill in even 85 years after his debut.
10 Best Marvel Characters Created By Stan Lee, Ranked
Stan Lee co-created dozens of now-iconic comic book characters, and ten of them earn a spot among the most important in superhero history.
Bringing back Keen Marlow as Destroyer is also a way of carrying the torch of Stan Lee’s Marvel legacy. After so many intervening years and so many subsequent writers, Lee’s greatest superhero creations are no longer solely his anymore. They’re literally owned by Disney now, but more than that, they creatively belong to Marvel writers and editors collectively.
That’s not the case for Marlow. He’s still Stan’s in a way. Marvel Comics could go directly back to the roots of its own formative superhero stories with a new Destroyer series. It could try to recapture the magic of classic Marvel and pay homage to the style of Marvel storytelling that Stan Lee pioneered.
What do you have to say, Marvel fans? Are there still Destroyer stories left for Marvel to tell?
