Featuring: The Destroyer
Release: July 31, 1941
Cover: October 1941
10 cents
Story by: Stan Lee
By: Jack Binder
15 pages
We just met the Thor villain, the Destroyer. It seems a good time to look back to Marvel’s original Destroyer, an early Stan Lee co-creation from 1941.
He is introduced in Mystic Comics #6. You may recall we’ve already read the story from Mystic Comics #4 which introduced the original Black Widow.
In our normal 1965 reading, we just saw Thor take his part in the Vietnam War. Marvel was willing to take a clear stand in a conflict. The Vietnam War is a much more controversial one amongst Americans, and Lee’s take in that story was entirely in line with US policy.
This story takes a clear stance against the Nazis, something historically less controversial, but that was not at the time well-aligned with US policy. And US opinion on the war in Europe was far from homogeneous when this was released in July 1941.
Stan describes a war between democracy and dictatorship, and the Destroyer is a hero who will specifically destroy the Nazi hordes.
Germany is then criticized for a lack of press freedom, claiming only German official propaganda is released, and that the truth is being hidden.
Continue reading “PRELUDE: Mystic Comics #6”