The Classics: The Destructor #1

Comic books stories about characters seeking revenge are pretty common, and that's the tale at the heart of today's "classic" comic - The Destructor.

But it's also the motivation behind Atlas Comics, the company that launched at the same time as this title - the cover date is February 1975.

Atlas was created by Marvel's founding father, Martin Goodman, shortly after he sold Marvel Comics. According to the story, part of the agreement for the sale was that Goodman's son Chip would be retained with the "new" Marvel - but the new owners fired him.

Seeking revenge, Martin Goodman set his son up with a brand-new comics company, using Marvel's former company name, Atlas. He also hired some of the industry's best talent to create those comics, including Howard Chaykin, Larry Hama, Micheal Fleisher, Ernie Colon, Al Milgrom and Mike Sekowsky.

This issue boasts the top creative team at the new company - writer Archie Goodwin, penciler Steve Ditko and inker Wally Wood.

The Destructor focuses on a young hood named Jay Hunter, whose inventor father is shot down along with his son during a gang hit. Jay's father survives long enough to give his son an experimental treatment that hones his strength and natural abilities to their peak.

Jay, natch, swears he'll get revenge on the gang that killed his father. It may sound like any other comics origin, but in the hands of these three giants of the industry, the quest for vengeance has rarely been better.

The Atlas line of comics didn't enjoy the same success as our hero does in this issue. After appearing on the scene in an explosion of more than 20 color comics - many of them quite good - within a few months the entire line had fallen apart.

The last month or so were particularly sad, as virtually every issue was completely changed in a desperate attempt to gain readers. For whatever reason, the Atlas line went away, never to be seen again, except in the discount boxes - but a few of those comics are well worth seeking out, including this one and the first two issues of Wulf the Barbarian and The Scorpion.

But for the Goodmans, revenge was apparently a dish that went cold quickly.

Grade: B+