Destroyer

Perfectly Horrific

Perfectly horrific in the best possible way, of course! LaValle’s Destroyer is a graphic novel worth reading. Shady government organizations, nanotechnology, and power over Death itself, are all just the tip of the iceberg of what this story has to offer.

In this tale, Frankenstein’s Creature is back with a whole new cast of characters (and horrors). We’ll confront the consequences of technology but – more importantly – we’ll be faced with the injustices that plague America today.

You’ll even start to question who the true monster in this story is.

This story surely isn’t just for die-hard Frankenstein fans. In fact, as a discourse confronting the all too real struggle of racial injustice, Destroyer is a story that cannot – and should not – be ignored.

To best guide you through the world of Destroyer, I’ll start us off with a quick summary before giving you a more in-depth evaluation.

Synopsis

"Grief. That's what started this whole thing one hundred and thirty years ago. That's what is keeping this story alive now."

~Dr. Baker, Destroyer

It’s been over a hundred years and Frankenstein’s Creature has seen enough. Humanity is not worth it. His only goal: Destroy. He’ll kill anyone in his way. And I mean, anyone.

The thing is, the Creature is not the only being humanity needs protection from. Dr. Baker, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, is dead set on destroying the society that has continuously wronged her especially after her young Black son, Akai, was gunned down by police. Fueled by grief and rage, she combines her own brilliance with her ancestor’s idea to reanimate and weaponize Akai.

To protect her son from a society known to shoot first, Dr. Baker is prepared to go to war. She’ll fight the government who’s after her life’s work for its own selfish purposes and the Creature whose rampage is closer than she thinks. Yet, caught in-between all the fighting is Akai. Except, this time he has a new body and new powers. The question is, who will win and who will be destroyed?

Art & Design

Who ever really wants to read a graphic novel that has bland art? That’s right, nobody does! Our eyes expect to be taken on a stunning visual journey. To successfully give us this experience, LaValle worked with (drum roll, please!):

• Dietrich Smith, artist

• Joana Lafuente, colorist

• Jim Campbell, letterer

Considering that LaValle is primarily a novelist, he does a good job of collaborating with these illustrators to let the graphics and dialogue drive the story instead of bombarding us with long narration sequences.

Thus, their efforts, I find, were quite successful. We get dynamic displays of violence and emotion, coloring that sets the mood, clear transitions between scenes, and lettering that isn’t a struggle to read.

Violence, Blood, and Gore. Oh My!

Staying true to its title Destroyer, this graphic novel practically bursts with violence and gore. At the very beginning, the Creature rips a man’s heart right out of his chest! So, fair warning: this text is not for the faint of heart.

The violence serves a purpose. The constant influx of horrific death stays true to the themes LaValle is trying to portray. How can you even begin to understand the grief and pain of racial terror without seeing the blood that has been spilt and is still being spilt? Seeing is believing after all. As such, the artist Dietrich Smith and colorist Joana Lafuente give the story the rich blood and broken bodies to fully realize LaValle’s suffering world.

Of course, there’s also the entertainment value. Fight scenes between characters with supernatural or technological powers are always welcome. LaValle also brings in some lighthearted moments so we're not constantly buried under horror and tough topics.

Portraying Emotion

In a story that tackles heavy topics, emotion becomes an integral factor. For instance, to match the anger and grief that Dr. Baker feels, Smith makes sure to draw Dr. Baker with glaring eyes and a clenched jaw (Figure 2). But he also makes efforts to show her love for Akai by softening her expression as she directly interacts with him (Figure 3). We don’t just read about her experience, we see it and that makes it more accessible, more real.

Coloring & Transitions

The story does float between the past and present in order to provide context behind LaValle’s world. Visually, the artist was very clear about the transitions. The main storyline is drenched in varying blues, greens, and greys causing for a more muted, dark tone which I felt fit well with the horror and tragedy seen throughout. Brighter colors might appear in these scenes to highlight blood and gore or to show eerie lighting and explosions which energizes action sequences.

On the other hand, to immerse the reader into the past, the color scheme tended to either shift to bright, lively colors to indicate Dr. Baker’s life before her son’s death or to shades of sepia when explaining Frankenstein’s past (Figures 4-6). Of course, there’s also Campbell’s lettering which clearly tells us where and when we are in the text. Such clear delineation between scenes through either text or color made the storyline easy to follow while providing much needed context.

Trust me, this text is reader accessible!

Overall, we got stunning and well-thought-out design. I assure you; Destroyer takes your eyes on quite an action-packed, horror-filled journey!

Breaking News!

There’s a monster on the loose! And it’s not just Frankenstein’s Creature. Humanity is its own kind of monster. Our world, like Dr. Baker’s, is rife with inequality and injustice. It’s about time we tune in and confront these sociopolitical issues.

Destroyer addresses many issues, so I’ll be giving you a sneak peek into the most-developed ideas: gender inequality, racial injustice, and scientific progress.

Gender Inequality

Dr. Baker is a brilliant woman. In over a century, she is the only person capable of successfully recreating Dr. Frankenstein’s experiment. And the best part – she does it even better. This woman doesn’t just assemble a being out of old body parts. She preserves her son’s consciousness – everything that made him who he is – and gives him a physical body capable of extraordinary feats. And I’m not even mentioning all of what she’s invented!

The fact that Dr. Baker is willing to break scientific boundaries for her son proves that she is a loving mother. She is not the type of person to do nothing. Death certainly can’t stand in her way.

You guessed it! Dr. Baker is an empowering Black female character.

Yet, despite her accomplishments, she is constantly judged. Either her methods are too extreme, or she’s not dedicated enough. Look at Figure 7, you’ll see Dr. Baker lose her job after becoming pregnant. I mean, wow, she’s probably best inventor of her age and the moment she becomes pregnant, she means nothing. She isn’t ‘dedicated’ to her job. Or, in Figure 8, Dr. Baker comments on the violence men are often applauded for whereas women should be forgiving damsels. Seriously, after losing her job and son to violence she’s supposed to just forgive and move on like society expects her too? It’s utterly ridiculous. The worst (and scary) part? Gender inequality still exists, and many women have similar experiences to Dr. Baker’s. LaValle simply makes sure we can’t ignore it. So, throughout Destroyer, we'll see Dr. Baker continually struggle to assert herself in a world fueled by gender inequality.

Racial Injustice

Destroyer reimagines the Frankenstein story through the context of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The tragedy, grief, and rage evoked throughout Destroyer stem from Akai’s death by police brutality. His death echoes the deaths of young innocent Black people from Michael Brown to Tamir Rice.

Dr. Baker’s loss of her son is both a personal tragedy and a state-sanctioned atrocity. LaValle does an excellent job at portraying such devastating grief in a way that we understand the rage that fuels her actions (Figures 9 &11). Yes, Dr. Baker goes to extremes – in some cases, she is willing to become a destroyer herself – but it is not like society has given her any other choice.

Thus, the monstress actions of society lead to people like Dr. Baker to become monsters themselves in order to survive. LaValle brings this cycle of injustice and terror and violence to the forefront of Destroyer. The only reprieve and hope manifests through Akai’s character. Akai could become the monster. Society has wronged him in the worst way possible – it killed him. Yet, he still has the kind heart that is often suppressed in society full of violence and discrimination (Figure 9). Aren’t we the true monsters for allowing there to be a world that doesn’t allow children to live and reach their full potential?

LaValle also uses the Creature to highlight the racism Akai faces. The thing is, you’ll see some characters trying to pity the Creature. In many cases, it’ll be like the Creature’s violent actions do not matter. Yet, one character puts it perfectly:

“Look at the backflips people will do to find humanity in that monster. But when they saw a boy like mine, they had no love to spare.”

You’ll see how LaValle will continually emphasize how Akai is feared and hated before his death due to his race and how he will still be feared and hated and used due to his new body (Figure 10). We’ll be encouraged to ask ourselves: is humanity is still worth saving? For Dr. Baker, the time for compromise and peace has passed. But with Akai, there still might be hope. He just has to be given a chance.

Will Akai remain compassionate? Will humanity be spared? Should it be? Is it too late for change? You’ll have to read Destroyer to find out!

Scientific Progress

In the original text, Mary Shelley warned us to be wary of technology and scientific progress. LaValle continues and complicates this idea. He introduces the benefits of technology such as computers and phones. Yet, he shows us its dangers like the weapons we create to harm one another. In the text, we have the Creature – a scientific marvel – harming humanity on one side. On the other, we have Akai, a young tender soul getting a second chance at life. The same scientific concept – reanimation – has two different outcomes.

Furthermore, LaValle shows us how technological progress and racial injustice overlap. Take a look at Figure 12. The last image we see is a young Black boy being shot by police. Thus, LaValle opens a discussion about how technology can expose injustices yet still cannot completely stop them. Humanity continues to evolve materially and physically but technology is either exploited by those in power (Figure 14) or we fear what we create (Figure 13). Throughout Destroyer, we’ll see Dr. Baker and Akai fighting against more than just Frankenstein’s creature. They’ll continue to confront human greed, fear, and hate. Scientific progress has so much potential - you'll see Dr. Baker's many innovative inventions - but this progress also brings destruction.

There's More!?

Unfortunately, there are a lot of problems which just goes to show how messed up our world is. And, although I commend LaValle for attempting to address as many as he can, Destroyer does become rushed in places. We barely get to sit with one idea before we move onto the next. We deal with climate change, technology, race, gender, power abuse, immigration and so on all within less than 200 pages. Of course, some themes are more fleshed out than others like racial injustice and gender inequality. These hyper-focused moments are what give the text the complexity and relevance that I enjoy and appreciate so much. It is what makes Destroyer worth reading.

All things considered, Destroyer still brings awareness and insight into our world. Ignorance is bliss is so overrated. We need to understand the problem to even try to begin fixing it and LaValle helps us do just that.

For those of you who know and adore Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tale, you’re probably wandering how well LaValle honors the original text. For one, LaValle does continue the critique on scientific ambition.

Additionally, there’s plenty of subpar adaptations that reduce the complexity of Frankenstein’s Creature to a mindless beast. Although the Creature in Destroyer is incredibly destructive and let’s face it horrible, we do get glimpses into his complex mind. For instance, in the first sequence, we meet the Creature who expresses shock and sadness at the death of a whale by hunters (Figure 15). As such, LaValle gives the Creature depth just as Mary Shelley did in the original text. This contributes to the question posed to readers: what does it mean to be human and what makes us a monster?

With this in mind, LaValle is simply building off of the original world to provide a more up-to-date commentary on issues impacting us now. He simultaneously pulls us into the past, present, and future. There’s almost no escape from the message he is sending to us. It’s everywhere all at once.

On a more fun note, there’s so many wonderful “Easter Eggs” (aka hidden details) throughout Destroyer. Personally, I love searching for special references to the original story. Here’s an obvious one: two characters are named Percy Shelley and George Byron, Mary Shelley’s husband and friend! Trust me, there’s a lot more just waiting for you to uncover. I dare you to find them all!

For those that have not encountered the original tale, worry not! LaValle does plenty of worldbuilding and even provides background surrounding Mary Shelley’s work. You will not be scrambling for answers!

Despite its short length, Destroyer is a captivating read that is well worth your time. LaValle focuses deeply on the issues that impact everyone around us – our friends, our classmates, our families. It is a story that will remain relevant for years to come and will continue to expose us to the ongoing injustices present throughout our society.

Now, if the sociopolitical commentary isn’t enough to grab your interest, Destroyer contains consistent, detailed artwork. If what the characters are saying don’t snare your attention, the imagery and action will keep you turning the page.

Thanks for listening and happy reading!

Psst...before you go, get to know Victor LaValle!

Better yet, want to join the adventure? You can purchase Destroyer at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or BOOM! Studios.