Victor LaValle's Destroyer (1)

A powerful modern twist on Frankenstein. I really liked the artwork—especially the depictions of the monster and Akai.
Akai was innocent and sweet, quite the opposite of the old monster and an interesting contrast to his mother. It was surprising that their attitudes after what happened to him were so different, even though they’d only had each other through the years.
In his comments at the end of the book, the author wrote, “As I write this, I wonder what seems more fantastical: that a woman could bring her dead son back to life, or that our country might ever hold itself accountable for the injustices it has perpetrated.”

The social commentary aspects were very well done, especially against the backdrop of the Frankenstein themes. At times it seemed a little rushed and to gloss over things--I expected more nuance for the original monster, but that never materialized. I loved Josephine and her brilliance.

This was a cool graphic novel inspired and featuring Frankenstein and the Creature, but through a Black lens of trauma and parenthood. It definitely reads more as a comic book than a graphic novel, and very sci-fi supehero-esque so if you enjoy those, check this one out.

Destroyer is a brutal and poetic story about the perceived innovations of science and the nature of grief. Based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor LaValle updates the story for a futuristic 21st Century. The story centers on Dr. Baker, a black descendant of the Frankenstein family who has lost her teenage son after an encounter with the police, her Frankenstein cyborg son, and two scientists who attempt to protect her. But can they survive her pain and wrath? At the same time, the original monster has survived in Antarctica and is haunting down the remaining Frankensteins.

I found Destroyer to be topical and smartly written (this is a wonderful homage to Frankenstein and a wonderful continuation to the story) but it also felt a bit show more rushed. Nevertheless, if done right, I think this could make a fascinating sci-fi horror film. show less

Hmmm...

While I enjoyed this one...especially the art...I will say I believe LaValle may have bitten off more than he'd realized with all the things going on in this story. There's racial tension. There's 3-D printing of living beings. There's nanobots. There's secret gov't agents. Oh, and there's Frankenstein's monster, who's suddenly a couple of hundred years old and superpowered as the Hulk.

I honestly believe LaValle could have left Mary Shelley's most famous creation right out of the mix and made it more about the NanoBoy and had a cleaner story.

I enjoy LaValle's writing, and I enjoy seeing things we see everyday...such as casual racism...dealt with in a strong way.

But overall, as a Frankenstein's monster story? No, I believe it show more was an abject failure. When you've got a piecemeal human—made solely from human parts—doing Hulk-style jumps and ripping apart huge metal robots with his bare hands? Nope. You've kinda left Mary Shelley's true creation on the cutting room floor. show less

It's hard to find the horror comics I typically want to read. The horror is often secondary to drama, scifi, or action. When I find books like this listed with the work of horror icons like Kazuo Umezu, Junji Ito, or Joe Hill, I'm pretty confused. This isn't at all scary, but it is influenced by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I thought the action resulted in muddying the messages of the book and impacted the theming negatively, but it was fine overall.

LaValle's dialogue is mostly fun to read, but it does meander in a couple issues where I found myself reading pages of a conversation and finally asking myself "So?" The setup actually sounds pretty interesting: "When the last descendant of the Frankenstein family loses her only son to a show more police shooting, she turns to science for her own justice… putting her on a crash course with her family's original monster and his quest to eliminate humanity." Unfortunately, apart from the foundation, the plot didn't really engage me. A Black woman loses her son to a police shooting and brings him back like Frankenstein's monster. That sounds like it could really go places, but he just ends up fighting the original monster and a robot and... I just didn't care about anything that happened when the history of the characters was revealed (I read the comic without knowing anything about it initially). There was a moment where I got a "not all cops" vibe from LaValle, and I didn't care for that, either... but then he gets the cop ripped in half a few pages later, so I'm not sure what to think. Nothing really revelatory from the story, despite it showing lots of potential.

I really liked Dan Mora's character designs for the mother and son. That Bride of Frankenstein look is inspired. Unfortunately, Dan Mora doesn't do the interior art itself.

Smith's art is largely good enough at its core, but his paneling had me confused several times at what was happening. Nothing really interesting to add about this. Lafuente's coloring is actually really cool for a number of the nanomachine effects and elevated action scenes that I otherwise found to be pretty static.

It was an okay comic—hardly a horror comic beyond its 19th century influences. show less

Destroyer blends sci-fi with more direct social commentary while also centering a woman of color as the protagonist and some sick action. I would've opted for a longer arc, it felt like the story got the legs cut out from under it, as there was a lot of intriguing backstory.