Destro #3 // Review
His name is James McCullen, but most of the people he works with just know him by his last name. Chameleon just wants him to die. He’s making it weird, though. He’s...talking. Won’t shut-up, in fact. They’re fighting in a snow-covered corner of the Scottish highlands. It’s his ancestral homeland. He’s going to find out more about who is trying to kill him this time in Destro #3. Writer Dan Watters continues a very sophisticated look at a very sinister arms dealer ant-hero with artist Andrea Milana, Color comes to the page courtesy of Adriano Lucas.
Chameleon shot at him. His wrist-mounted rocket launcher was unresponsive. Chameleon would have thought he’d be dead, but he DOES wear a lot of kevlar. Destro is fascinated by those who would try to kill him on his home turf. Not exactly concerned about for his life even though they’re trying to kill him. He’s been her before. A lot. It’s not the attempted homicide that concerns him. It’s not knowing who wants him dead. THAT is a little disconcerting. See: weapons, death and war have been a part of his family for generations. And since he’s in a chatty mood, he’s going to talk about it.
Watters’ wit accompanies a lot of interesting bits of narration that get into the origin of a character who always seemed like he had a HELL of a lot more depth than the old animated series ever allowed him. There’s a stylish nonchalance about the sophistication, too. Like the story of Destro had always been there behind the mask and no one had ever bothered to stick the villain in the center of the screen or panel for long enough to let him tell his story. Grand: there HAS been SOME detail given to the character over the years, but it’s never been as close a close-up as Watters is providing in this series. It’s really, really sharply-written stuff.
There are quite a few different locations and eras and moods that Watters is throwing around. Milana does a kind of a genius job of holding moments and throughout the issue. Through it all, Destro seems surprisingly emotive for a guy whose expression is never allowed to change that much on account of that stern iron mask that he always wears. The blizzard in Scotland looks overwhelming. Melee action hammers its way across the page in the midst of all the snow. Rockets fire from drones with a distinctive glow placed there by Lucas. The horrors of a seventeenth century dungeon feel suitably ominous. It’s all so powerful.
“Yesterday I was shot with a bullet. I was shot fro the sky with rockets.” says Destro, “But I did not have time to die...” There’s real poetry to what Watters is delivering to the page, which is a bit odd for a guy who seems to have been originally just conceived as an action figure with a cool-looking chrome head.
Grade: A
