Destroyer

First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery #118
Origin Issue: Thor #300

Real Name: The Destroyer

NOTE: The Destroyer is not to be confused with Drax the Destroyer or any of the various others known as the Destroyer

Aliases: None

Height: 6' 6"

Weight: 850 lbs

Eyes: None

Hair: None

Distinguishing Features: The Destroyer resembled a suit of armor in humanoid form

Occupation: Destroyer, weapon of Odin, Herald of Galactus

Citizenship: Inapplicable

Place of Creation/Birth: Asgard

Known Relatives: Inapplicable

Known Allies: Variable, depending on guiding intelligence; in the past, the Destroyer has aided Loki, Odin, Karnilla, Galactus, and Thor at various times

Known Enemies: Variable, depending on guiding intelligence; in the past, the Destroyer has opposed Thor, the Wrecker, Hercules, the Thing, Loki, the Celestials, the Frost Giants, Garm, Hela, Balder, Sif, and Gar-Toom and various times

Intelligence: Variable; the Destroyer possesses the intelligence of the sentient being whose life-force animates it, plus its own "programmed" intelligence; however, only Odin, Thor, and Loki have ever forced the Destroyer to obey their will while animating it.

Fighting Skills: Supremely skilled in combat using its specialized powers

Special Skills/Abilities: None

Superhuman physical powers: Aside from the above listed attributes, the Destroyer has the ability to project immensely powerful bolts of energy, magnetism, heat, and concussive force; molecular transmutation of matter; disintegrate beam capable of destroying virtually anything

Superhuman Mental Powers: None

Special Limitations: A mystic spell directed toward the mind of the person animating the Destroyer can reverse the transferal of life-force, rendering the Destroyer inanimate. The power of the Celestials is sufficient to destroy the Destroyer

Source of Superhuman Powers: Enchantments of Odin, Zeus, and the patriarchs of all the Earth's godly pantheons

NOTE: The above statistics apply to the Destroyer in its normal mode. When animated by the combined life-forces of Odin and all the Asgardians, the Destroyer grew to a height of 2000' and became proportionately powerful.

Personal Weaponry: The Odinsword (a gigantic enchanted blade formed of the mystical Rhinegold)

Other Accessories: None

History
The Destroyer was an enchanted suit of armor in humanoid form which, when animated by the life force of a sentient being, exercise immense powers which made it virtually invincible. It was composed of an unknown metal of Asgardian origin and was enchanted by Odin so that its metal was harder even than adamantium or uru and was therefore almost totally indestructible. Ordinarily the Destroyer stood at a height of 6 1/2 feet and weighed 850 pounds; however, when animated by the life force of all the gods of Asgard, the Destroyer grew to a height of 2000 feet. No one could physically wear the armor of the Destroyer; the Destroyer's armor could be disassembled by no known means. Rather, one projected one's life force into the Destroyer's form, leaving his or her own body in a state of entranced paralysis. Usually, the transfer of life force was achieved when a willing subject stood within arm's length of the Destroyer. Masters of mystical powers, such as Odin or Loki, could accomplish the transfer over great distances. The Destroyer was mystically "programmed" to battle and to destroyer. Usually, a human or Asgardian who projected his or her life force into the Destroyer was best able to control it if he or she was using to for destructive ends. A human or Asgardian who had no clear purpose in mind, or who attempted to use the Destroyer for peaceful ends, would inevitably lose control of it. That person's or god's life force would then remain entrapped within the Destroyer, helpless to control its actions as its destructive "programming" took over. Worse, if the human or Asgardian unwillingly had his or her life force projected into the Destroyer by a mystical spell, his or her personality would take eon the destructive urges of the Destroyer. Only by a tremendous act of will could the human or Asgardian manage to reassert his or her personality and thus take control of the Destroyer under such a circumstance. The only being who projected his life force into the Destroyer and was fully capable of controlling it from within under all circumstances was Odin, who is the leader of the gods of Asgard, and who had the Destroyer constructed. When animated, the Destroyer remains psychically linked to the body of the person whose life force it contained, thereby preventing that body from dying. The body of the person in mental possession of the Destroyer, therefore, was the Destroyer's sole weakness. A sufficiently powerful spell directed towards the mind of that person could reverse the transferal of life force, causing the Destroyer to become inanimate. The limits of the Destroyer's superhumanoid physical strength were never measured. Because the Destroyer was not itself a living being, it was not affected by Odin's spell that prevented anyone except Thor from lifting his hammer. The Destroyer projected bolts of an unknown form of energy which could shatter any known substance, including uru, the Asgardian metal from which Thor's hammer was made. The Destroyer could project magnetic energy and flames which reached solar levels of heat. It could transmute and rearrange atoms and molecules so as to change one form of matter into another. It could also alter the density of matter, and convert solid matter to liquid or vice versa. The Destroyer's most formidable weapon was its disintegrator beam, which could annihilate anything. To disintegrate something, the Destroyer would lower its visor; the destructive energy would build atop the visor and then fire outward from it. The Destroyer was created roughly a thousand years ago by the greatest Asgardian craftsmen on order of Odin, lord of Asgard, to battle the enormous alien Celestials. The Celestials had conducted genetic experimentation on what would become humanity. They intended to return in a millennium, when superhumanly powered beings would have begun emerging in large numbers on Earth, to begin their judgment of the human race. Odin and Earth's other gods were determined to prevent the Celestials from destroying Earth, but the Celestials had demonstrated that even the powers of one of their number far exceeded those of Earth's gods. Upon the Destroyer's completion, Odin, Zeus, and the other leading gods of Earth bestowed a fraction of their powers upon it, thereby giving it great strength and energy-manipulating abilities. Once the Third Host had left; Odin concealed the Destroyer within a temple he himself created in Indochina, and then concealed the temple within a plateau. Thus, he hoped, the Destroyer would remain out of the reach of anyone who would use it for evil. The Destroyer remained inert nearly until the return of the Celestials. However, Loki, searching for a means of vengeance upon Thor, magically destroyed the plateau concealing the temple within which the Destroyer stood, and led an unscrupulous hunter, Buck Franklin, to it. Loki caused Franklin's life force to enter the Destroyer, and it battled Thor within the temple. However, by pretending to endanger Franklin's inert body, Thor bluffed Franklin's consciousness into returning to Franklin's form. Thor then demolished the temple, burying the Destroyer within it, and rescuing Franklin. Sometime later, while in exile, Loki projected his own consciousness into the Destroyer and, using its power to traverse dimensions, sent it to Asgard to attack Odin. Odin, however, located Loki's body and directed a mystical bolt towards Loki's brain, causing Loki's consciousness to be pulled back into his own body and to retreat into unconsciousness. The Destroyer was subsequently animated by the goddess Sif in a plot by Loki and Karnilla the Norn Queen, and by Professor Clement Holmes who "entered" the Destroyer by accident. Thor, oblivious of his father's plan for the Destroyer, gave the construct to Galactus for use as his herald. Loki later stole it from Galactus for ruse in another scheme against Thor, with Balder as the animating persons. By this time the Fourth Host had arrived, and sometime thereafter, Odin decided that the time had come to do battle with them. He therefore drew the life forces of all Asgardians except the absent Thor into himself, and then projected this vast collective consciousness into the Destroyer. The Destroyer grew to enormous size, and, wielding the enormous Odinsword,, invaded the Fourth Host's South American base. Yet, inconceivably powerful as the Destroyer now was, it was unable to inflict any serious damage upon any of the gathered Celestials, despite its best efforts. Then the Celestials fired bolts of energy in unison at the Destroyer, which reduced it to a slag of molten metal, and set adrift the life forces of all the Asgardians. Arishem, the leader of the Celestials on Earth, then melted the Odinsword into nothingness. Gaea, the elder Earth goddess, persuaded the Celestials to deliver a favorable judgment on Earth by presenting them with twelve noble young humans who had evolved into "godhood," as examples of what humanity was becoming. By gathering mystic force from Earth's other pantheons of gods, Thor was able to resurrect Odin, who in turn revived the other Asgardians.