Drax

The Walking Thesaurus

Drax comes from an underdeveloped race whose people are completely literal and have difficulty grasping metaphors, though they make up for it with their eloquent speech. They are also fierce warriors with a tribal-like culture. His calm and serious demeanor hides the seething rage and murderous hatred below the surface.

Drax met his wife Hovat at a war rally, and it was her lack of joy and refusal to dance at the event that attracted him to her. Together, they had a daughter, Kamaria. When his wife and daughter were slain by Ronan the Accuser of the Kree Empire under the order of the Mad Titan Thanos, he travelled across the galaxy seeking revenge. Slaying dozens of Ronan’s minions and earning the moniker “Drax the Destroyer,” these criminal acts landed him in a Nova Corps high-security prison, Kyln.

While serving his sentence at Kyln, Drax meets Peter Quill (Star-Lord), Rocket, Groot, and adopted daughter of Thanos, Gamora.

Muscle-Bound Whack Job

Drax possesses super human strength, allowing him to lift bulk weight, break through stone and metal with ease, and rip machines in half with his bare hands. He can overpower multiple assailants and withstand any threat due to his strong healing factor, impact-resistant skin, and fast regeneration ability. With impeccably fast reflexes, Drax is agile, able to jump high and move at great speed.

A powerful hand-to-hand combatant, Drax is able to take on other warriors, like Korath the Pursuer, with little effort. His preferred weapons are dual knives, which he possesses a skilled mastery of and polishes often. However, he has been known to wield the Hadron Enforcer—a weapon invented by Rocket—to intimidate the Ravagers and also against Ronan the Accuser.

Enemies of the Galaxy

Although initially Drax is focused on revenge, his enemies expand to include those that oppose the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Ronan the Accuser, a radical zealot, breaks a peace treaty between the Kree and Xandarians desiring that all Xandarians be destroyed. In his destructive wake, Ronan kills Drax’s wife and daughter, which propels Drax on his revenge mission to defeat Ronan and his forces and allies.

A being of immense strength and cruelty, and the adoptive father of teammate Gamora, Thanos will stop at nothing to get ahold of each Infinity Stone to destroy half the universe in an effort to save it. Drax realizes upon Ronan’s death that he was merely a pawn—Thanos is his true enemy.

Drax joins the Guardians in their fight against the Sovereign High Priestess, who pursues the team for stealing their home planet’s power source known as Anulax batteries. He also battles against the Celestial being Ego, biological father to Guardians leader Peter Quill, not only to prevent his attempt to conquer the universe, but also save his friends.

Friends of the Galaxy

Although initially solitary, Drax teams up with Peter Quill (Star-Lord), Gamora, Rocket, and Groot in Nova Corp prison Kyln to escape. They band together further to fight Ronan for an Infinity Stone to save the universe. Despite their differences and many disagreements, they become the Guardians of the Galaxy. And so, the Guardians’ allies become those of Drax as well.

Yondu Udontu, along with his first mate Kraglin Obfonteri and the rest of the Ravagers, straddle the line between the ally and enemy roles depending on Yondu’s mood and the payoff. However, he is typically an ally. He helps the Guardians against Ronan's forces and particularly assists them against Ego.

The Nova Corps, led by Nova Prime, is an intergalactic armed force of the Nova Empire with headquarters on Xandar. At first detaining the outlaws, Corpsmen Dey and Denarian Saal later fight alongside them to protect Xandar from Ronan the Accuser.

Nebula, Thanos’ second adoptive daughter and a cybernetically-enhanced, trained assassin, is typically an enemy of the Guardians, stealing the Infinity Stone and trying to stop their assault on Ronan. However, she becomes an ally against Ego and Thanos.

To try to stop Thanos, Drax fights alongside a number of Super Heroes on Thanos’ home planet Titan. He is joined by his fellow Guardians Star-Lord and Mantis, Nebula, Avengers Iron Man and Spider-Man, and the Master of the Mystic Arts Doctor Strange.

An Outlaw's Record

Fueled by rage after Ronan the Accuser killed Drax’s wife Hovat and child Kamaria, Drax devotes his life to hunting him and his forces down. His murderous vengeance gives him the nickname “Drax the Destroyer.”

Ultimately, his criminal pursuits land him in the Nova Corps high-security prison, the Kyln, where he confronts Ronan’s ally Gamora. He attempts to slay her in order to hurt Ronan. Instead, Star-Lord convinces him that Gamora is not his enemy because she has betrayed the Accuser, and if left alive, she can lead him to Ronan. Drax relinquishes his threats and helps the outlaws escape the Kyln.

The outlaws planned to sell the valuable Orb to the Collector. Uninterested in monetary gain, Drax suggested they use the weapon against Ronan instead, leading to discontent in the group. While at Knowhere, a city within a severed head of an ancient Celestial being, the outlaws discovered an Infinity Stone existed within the Orb. Following a quarrel with Rocket, Drax summoned Ronan to their whereabouts so he could finally meet his foe and avenge his family. Ronan walked away, as he was indifferent to Drax’s revenge plot and unable to recall his victims, forcing Drax to attack. Ronan easily overpowered Drax, throwing him into a pool of spinal fluid. Rescued by Groot, Drax understood his role failing to keep the Orb from Ronan and having his friends captured by Yondu and the Ravagers, because he realized he was using his anger to hide his pain.

Saving their friends and reuniting on the Milano, Star-Lord devised a plan to stop Ronan from destroying Xandar, which included retrieving the Orb and slaying him. Knowing it could mean death, the Guardians supported it, with Drax noting he would see his wife and daughter again. During the battle, in a heroic act, Groot sacrificed himself as he enveloped his friends in protective branches. Drax and Rocket destroyed Ronan’s Universal Weapon freeing the Infinity Stone. Unable to hold the stone on his own and nearly dying, the Guardians joined Star-Lord to absorb the power and direct the energy at Ronan.

Consoling Drax, Gamora reassured him that his wife and child would rest well knowing Drax avenged them. However, Drax did not feel at ease, as he had realized that Ronan was simply a pawn and that Thanos was his true enemy.

With their criminal records expunged, Drax and his friends continued their adventures across the galaxy as mercs for hire known as the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Guardians were later hired by the Sovereign and their High Priestess Ayesha to defeat the creature Abilisk, which was feeding off their planet’s power source, Anulax Batteries. In return for their services, they received the Sovereign’s prisoner—Nebula, Gamora’s adoptive sister. However, on their way out, Drax learned Rocket stole some of the Sovereign’s Anulax Batteries, worth thousands of units a piece.

Discovering the betrayal, the Sovereign pursued the Guardians. Crash landing on the planet Berhert, the Guardians discovered the survived the Sovereign attack due to the intervention of a Celestial named Ego and his assistant Mantis. Ego revealed that he is Quill’s biological father and invited them to his planet.

Drax befriended Mantis, teaching her practical jokes and learning about her empathic abilities. Their friendship continued on Ego’s home planet as Mantis’ innocence reminded him of his daughter. Feeling a bond with her new friends, Mantis revealed Ego’s diabolical plan to take over the universe. Recognizing the threat Ego posed to the galaxy and Quill, Gamora, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula discussed their options. Joined by Rocket, Groot and Ravagers Yondu and Kraglin, the two-time galaxy saving heroes saved Quill and defeated Ego.

Along their adventures, the Guardians received a distress call from a ship of refugee Asgardians who had been attacked by an unknown force. Arriving at the destruction too late, they discovered a semi-unconscious Thor, whom Drax admired for his warrior-like physique. Learning of Thanos’s possession of the Power Stone and Space Stone, and his pursuit for the remaining four Infinity Stones, the Guardians and Thor decided to separate into two groups, with Drax, Gamora, and Mantis departing for Knowhere to protect the Reality Stone from Thanos.

On Knowhere, the Guardians found Thanos interrogating the Collector about the Reality Stone. Seething with rage and attempting to avenge his family, Drax ignored Quill’s directive and impulsively charged to attack the Mad Titan. Subdued by Mantis he was forced to relent. Unfortunately, Star-Lord and the Guardians discovered too late that Thanos was already in possession of the Reality Stone, had annihilated Knowhere, and was after his daughter Gamora.

Following the capture of Gamora, Drax, Mantis, and Star-Lord met up with Nebula on Thanos’ home planet, Titan, where they encountered Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Spider-Man. They all united in their mission to stop Thanos and prevent him from acquiring Doctor Strange’s Time Stone. It was there the team learned the devastating news that the Mad Titan had sacrificed their teammate Gamora for the Soul Stone. Star-Lord, overcome with pain and rage, broke the hold on Thanos when he attacked the Mad Titan, allowing Thanos to escape to Earth, Time Stone in hand, for the remaining Mind Stone.

The Avengers and their allies were unable to withhold Vision’s Mind Stone from Thanos in Wakanda. With the snap of his fingers, Thanos executed his plan to destroy half the universe and cull overpopulation. On Titan, Drax perished, along with his fellow Guardians, Star-Lord and Mantis.