The Destructors

The Destructors was the fourth comic series I created and became the seminal title going forward. As a kid, the Avengers and the Justice League of America were well established comic book teams. However, the idea of creating a super team never crossed my mind because it didn’t feel exciting to me.

That was until I started to think about my OWN characters meeting. I don’t think I had ever thoroughly considered the idea of a shared universe. To me, these other teams just existed, hence why it didn’t feel new or innovative when I saw it in comic books. However, while watching an episode of Darkwing Duck, several of his own villains teamed up to take him down. For whatever reason, THAT episode ignited the spark. It’s hard to explain why, I suppose. I guess it’s how generations today will grow up with cell phones and the internet already established. Some of us witnessed its birth, and can recall a time before them. Anyway, after writing The Team-Up of the Century, the idea of seeing my own characters together became exciting. How should they interact? Should there be a conflict and so on? The possibilities felt endless.

Eventually, when I began writing Lightning Bolt & the Ghost Kid, the plan was to use that series as a jumping off point for The Destructors. The title heroes of that series would meet each of the other three heroes in separate stories, and then come together by the end of the arc. I felt this approach established the relationships a bit quicker. However, at one point, I ran into a bit of a problem.

While I had established the characters of Stephen, Robo-Rabbit, Lightning Bolt, and the Ghost Kid, a four-person team felt light. For some reason, I wanted five. So, in an attempt to fix a problem and establish connections, I decided to fold in the character of Lance Smith from a film project I wrote called Blood Suckers.

To establish a connection, I wrote a sequel to Blood Suckers that would feature Stephen coming to Detroit, Michigan and helping with a second invasion of leeches. While I did not indicate any formation of a team within the sequel, the heroes had met. So, in my head, when Lance shows up in Lightning Bolt & the Ghost Kid, it doesn’t feel completely random. I’m sure I could have done more to establish these connections, but as I’ve stated many times on other pages, I was just a kid.

SEASON ONE

I feel like I’ve been struggling to write about this series, and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s because I feel overwhelmed by the size of it all. This was my longest running series after all, having written 38 different stories with one spin-off and one crossover. Maybe it’s because of how important the series became when I planned future stories. Or perhaps I’m afraid of what nonsense I will find as I sift through it all.

Whatever the case may be at this moment, perhaps I’ll find an answer by the time I reach the end of the page. But I will preface the remainder of this page with a recommendation to read over all other pages first, and then finish with this page. Since everything culminated here, it will help you follow along with knowing certain characters going in. I will make page references where I can. Anyway, let’s get started.

Ok so there is quite a bit to unpack here. As I’ve established on all of the other pages, I was a kid who didn’t know how to write properly. I would assume that since I established in the team’s formation as well as the identities of their enemy teams back in Lightning Bolt & the Ghost Kid #5, that I just decided to jump right into the action. In fact, if you read them back to back, it flows narratively. For everything my brain didn’t do right, it found a way to do something impressive along the way.

But even in saying that, the formation of the Slaughtering Seven raises many questions. Mainly because of who makes up the team. Mirror’s only appearance at this point in this world would have been The Battles at Fort Destruction #5, so how exactly did he return to our world? The same could be asked about Shadow and even Spike, but the appearance of the Reaper could be the answer there. But then how did they get involved with Mirror? Then there is Hypno, Heart, and Motor Man. Each one was a villain who fought one of our heroes, although Heart is just me naming a random leech. Yet, to my knowledge, each one was killed off, yet here they stand alive and well.

It just raises the very big question of how THIS motley crew of characters got together in the first place. Sure, they have a common goal to get revenge on the Destructors. But WHY did this particular group come together the way they did? And why is there a second group operating around Los Angeles with a similar roster?

Looking back on this now, I wonder why I chose to create two teams of villains. It was clear I had a number of characters to chose from. But yet, I created two teams with very similar rosters. It could have been more fun to allow the Cyclops Balls to operate independent of these teams as a third party, and maybe even do the same with the Vein Voodoo Team. I would omit the leeches entirely. Maybe find a proper entrance for all of Robo-Rabbit’s rogues. I don’t know. I wish I had given this much more thought back then. Separately, they lend themselves better to more stories.

By the third story, I was already adding new members which feels like a larger problem. But for a kid, seeing new members join a team felt fun. What could they add to the team’s dynamic that the other characters weren’t bringing? The problem here is that I have yet to establish a team dynamic. Sure, you can deduce that Stephen is the leader and that the Ghost Kid is the one who monitors day to day activity. But what does Lightning Bolt add outside of power? What does Robo-Rabbit provide? Or Lance for that matter? I never properly defined their roles. At least, not on paper.

Since I had established the character of Junior in my first film narrative, Tasdevils 2020, I thought it would be fun to let him meet his father in his prime. It’s an old time travel trope. Another trope I keep rehashing is the doppelganger trope. Here, we get the Robo-Destructors along with a shapeshifter, who feels like they should have been more significant considering the fact that they were unknowingly murdered. That detail is a reminder of how poorly I wrote my heroes early on. They should be protecting the public, not murdering their villains. Obviously, there’s room for nuance, but there is none present here.

Before we continue this narrative, I want to point out how disturbing all of this is. If you’re asking yourself “why,” let me summarize this story: a ghost revives his corpse to search for its murdered only to discover it was his father. And that doesn’t even mention the fact they just drop by his mother’s house. I feel like Mary’s story is another one that would be a deep and complex narrative to explore. Her son dies. Her husband is mentally unstable AND responsible for killing her son. I feel like her entire world would be shattered. But yet I never wrote her as a sad person. I suppose I had yet to experience real grief in my life.

The subject matter of this story is incredibly dark. Yet, I treat it with the casualness of any other story. There was clearly abuse in that house. But, to be fair, my only run-ins with parental abuse came in the form of after-school specials or a TV sitcom’s “very special episode.” I did not have a lived experience, so I didn’t thoroughly understand how deep such abuse can go.

I know for a fact that I could write this ten times better now, which more depth and nuance. And I find it odd that I was attempting to tackle these subjects at such a young age as well. It’s almost as though a part of my brain craved more than just big action pieces, but I still enjoyed juvenile humor. I don’t know how to explain it. I have been reconsidering this story in a new context, and I’m not sure I would make Bones… well, essentially a zombie. But who knows? Something else may make me reconsider that thought avenue.

If I was ever accused for writing filler, this episode would absolutely prove that. I don’t even know why I dubbed this one “a new beginning”. Nothing new is happening here. Well, except for Stephen’s wardrobe. It seems between episode 3 and episode 5, Stephen swapped his white, long-sleeve in for a jacket. I think I saw the jacket look as something more heroic. But it becomes a signature look for the character going forward. You may also notice an occasional split at the end of his incredibly long rat-tail. I guess we should talk about that.

I was trying to think of a way to age Stephen up with my older, less refined art. So, in my head, longer hair equaled time passage. But I didn’t want him to have super long hair, even though that was a look I was working to emulate. Instead I thought of a pony tail look, but that’s not what I drew. I eventually just stuck with it and never questioned it. Although now when I draw the character, it is a detail that I usually omit.

I may have mentioned some about this on another page, but very early on in my comic writing, I had this obsession with doppelgangers. I’m not quite sure why either. But the idea of an evil version of a good guy always seemed like the ultimate bad guy. However, seeing the trope done time and time again in superhero movies, I realized how lazy the concept can get. But, I still think it’s a great idea when utilized properly. Something that I was not doing here.

Around the time that I was writing this series, X-Men had premiered on the Fox Kids network. In the series premiere, there was a character named Morph that I had never heard of. When this character was killed off in the second episode, I was shocked that they wasted a character with such potential. So, I made my own version of the character for my universe. Granted this was LONG before I was aware of Kevin Sidney, aka Changeling, whom Morph was based on. I make no excuses. I blatantly ripped the character off.

While most series featuring a team of heroes would go on to encounter a number of original villains over the course of a season, I apparently could only think of one which was that shape-shifting doctor that died unceremoniously back in episode three. Everything else, minus the three-part Ghost Kid special, features a doppelganger. And then I upped the ante and made doppelgangers out of doppelgangers. Not very original on my part, but as I said, I was obsessed. I will say that I have considered different designs for both Robo-Rabbit 4 and Mirror’s Shadow, mainly because I feel like they would look more bastardized than how I drew them.

I feel like this entry really rushed through so much in so little time. Not only did we get a cameo from Big Boss just to watch him die, but we also witnessed the moment that Stephen and Mirror became friendly. These feel like bigger moments in the grand scheme of things, yet they are treated as afterthoughts. And then THAT ending… I truly wish I could tap into my memories from this time period to uncover why I felt the need to create this unnecessary problem. The problem in question was why the Destructors could not operate without Stephen? Nowhere in ANY of the stories did I establish a caveat where the team could not function without him. It’s absurd. I think it would have been more interesting to explore the team without him, an idea that I did come back around to.

The only reason I can even fathom as to why I chose to disband the team is so the “season finale” as it were would have more dramatic tension. I just wish I would have worked out better reasons overall. Hell, if I had given each team member a reason to leave, then disbanding the team would make more sense. Perhaps Lightning Bolt and the Ghost Kid needed to return to New York for some specific reason. Same for Robo-Rabbit and Lance. Junior was already headed back to his own time, so his reason was sound. Just a little extra information, and it wouldn’t come off as strange as it does.

But even as I say that, I do think that I took a small break from writing The Destructors at this time. Looking back over the initial twelve issues, you could see a desire to tell team stories, but the stories lacked quite a bit in terms of substance. As I mentioned before, most of the villains were doppelgangers or throwaways. But moving into the second season, I not only thought about new villains, but an all-new team of heroes.

THE ELIMINATORS

Even though I refer to it as a “season finale” now, there was a bit of finality in that last Destructors story. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with all of these characters yet. At some point, I had this idea where the President of the United States would be held hostage in the White House by some crime boss. While this could have easily been an episode of The Destructors, I instead chose to use it as a one-shot story featuring the Destructors minus their leader.

While I have nothing specific to cite, I believe this concept was born from seeing comic book heroes being team members of multiple teams. One example I often use is how Beast from the X-Men is also a full member of the Avengers. That said, he was also a member of the Defenders, X-Factor, and the Illuminati. So, the idea of a superhero being a part of several teams intrigued me. Hence, that is why this story is called The Eliminators, not The Destructors: Presidential Rescue or some other dumb bullshit.

This is one of those stories I wrote for a reason, but I could not tell you what that reason was. If I was to make a guess, I would say I was attempting to bridge story gaps. D. Vice is a character that I utilized in some of my film ideas like Trixter and Trixter’s Revenge. When I was attempting to form a new team of heroes, Dan became one of the characters I decided to use. So, I would assume that since he interacted with members of the Destructors in this story, that closes a story gap in my head. In my mind at least…

SEASON TWO

I don’t believe it was very long after writing The Eliminators that I began working on season two of The Destructors. I knew I wanted some changes, but I wasn’t 100% sure what those changes needed to be. That said, I knew I needed some new villains, first and foremost. While I wouldn’t say that I was abandoning the idea of doppelgangers, I was attempting to create more original villains going forward. How “original” they were is up for debate.

Ironically, the very first story in season two deals a new group of heroes attempting to take on the mantle of the Destructors since the original team bailed. This was no doubt in response to various comic book teams that had multiple factions. The Avengers were based in New York, and then had a second team based in California I believe called The West Coast Avengers. The X-Men had two teams designated by the colors blue and gold. But that’s only a fragment of the numerous X-teams there have been over the decades. Same with the Justice League or Justice Society. I know they are different… but are they? Anyway, comics had multiple teams, so my universe needed that too.

Since I am incredibly bad about introducing characters, let me introduce you to the Destructors 2. To build this new team, I had to have bodies, and most of my heroes were already on the original team. So, I decided to think outside the box. For starters, I couldn’t tell you what the inspiration was for the leader, Jason Roberts. I remember attempting to draw a character that had eyes on their mask very similar to Spider-Man. I eventually added some extra flair and dubbed him the White Warrior. The “white” part was eventually dropped over time. I just called him that because I didn’t use color, and wanted that to be an identifier for his look. While I attempt to flesh out his backstory, I didn’t get too detailed with it.

D. Vice, whose real name is Dan Vicestrom, was created because I loved the film Puppet Master. More specifically, I loved the character of Blade. I just made that puppet a real person with mechanical arms. In older drawings, I always drew a knife and a hook, just like Blade. In later years, I began mixing it up since the conceit of the character was that he would have Swiss army hands. Zack Lakewood, who partnered up with Dan in other projects, shouldn’t even be here since the events of Demon in the Box are supposed to be set in the future.

The Death Monster started off as an odd inclusion. But I convinced myself that it made sense since the Hulk and Beast are monstrous characters on a team. I just had to make it work. So, I wrote Death Monster: The Limited Series to introduce Arthur McKay as the scientist that would become the monster. In that same series, I dropped a cameo for Alex Battle, aka Battler, who was meant to be the son of Jonathan Battle, the man responsible for killing the first two. It’s a terrible read that makes no sense.

I finally rounded the team off with two all-new creations, Whiplash and Polar. Greg Lincoln and Michael Conners, respectively, were never given any deep backstories. They just happened to be these two guys who were mutated into the beings they are now. When I look back on all of these characters, I see so much wasted potential. Why were the important details left on the floor? Oh right! I was a kid.

Back in the 80s and 90s, I recall a trend with TV shows where there would be an event episode that would take the beloved cast of characters and place them in an unfamiliar setting. It could be traveling to a big city or a popular theme park, but the entire episode or two would be set in this new area. TV characters going to Hawaii always seemed like the popular trope for whatever reason, so I thought, “Why not do a ‘Destructors Go Hawaiian‘ episode?”

While this may not have been his best introduction, Jake Storm, aka The Oversear, does become one of my more prominent villains going forward. I envisioned him as a high-level criminal that one would assume might be the head of a crime family or something. He has the brains to concoct more elaborate schemes, and a flamethrower to put people in line. Seemed pretty intimidating to me. I also added a bit of a wrinkle to the character that may or may not make sense in the grand scheme of things. But I don’t want to jump ahead just yet.

The conceit of this two-part story was, on one hand, to separate the teams and allow the Destructors 2 a chance to shine. The other was to introduce Holli. Up to this point, I typically avoided drawing women for the same reason I didn’t draw people of color: I was bad at it. I tried my absolute best to make Holli look moderately attractive, but ultimately had to use cartoonish bulging eyes to get my point across. I feel like it had been brought to my attention that there were no women in my comics. Granted, there WERE women here and there, but never much beyond a damsel in distress. While I won’t say Holli was never used in such a way, her presence opened the door for additional female heroes to appear in the future.

I feel like there was a period of time where I was writing Stephen as confident, but it sometimes comes off more as arrogance. The two can easily be misconstrued if you don’t say something a certain way. But I believe it was meant to be confidence. If Stephen is meant to be a version of myself, then why would I not write this character to be everything I am not? Heroic, fearless, strong, and confident. These are not words I would have used to describe me as a teenager. But in the comics, I could be all of those and more.

This is another one of these oddball entries that doesn’t move the story along in any meaningful way, and revives two doppelganger villains just to kill them again. Even the scene with the bracelets has zero purpose. It’s times like these where I wish I could tap into my thoughts at that time to figure out what led to me writing THAT specific story. Even as I ponder the answer, seeing a possessed Holli makes me think I crafted this whole story to mirror events from the film Army of Darkness. As I’ve said before, no original ideas.

I really wish I could remember the genesis of the wrist blaster. So far, it has been used in every story in this season except for the season opener. It feels like a very specific gadget that I was inspired to create. I say “inspired” because there is no way I came up with that randomly.

Also, the Guardsmen may look familiar as they were seen in the Skill Room sequence back in episode #13. Not sure why I chose to include an unforeseen enemy in that scene but here we are. And if it wasn’t clear, the Guardsmen are a direct rip-off of the Sentinels from the X-Men. They just hunt whatever.

So, this story could have ended with only one oddity, but instead there are two. One is the absolutely random appearance of the Cyborg. This was a character that I first introduced in a film sequel project called The Vigilantes. At this point, I’m not sure if I was attempting to connect all of these stories and characters, or if I decided to incorporate these characters into the comic book landscape and say to hell with their original origins. The latter definitely seems possible because I grew up in a time when film and TV projects rarely crossed over, let alone connected in any meaningful way.

The second oddity was this weird “softening of the rules,” which I feel like I should explain. For whatever reason, in my head, the teams were explicitly defined. If you said a character’s name to me, I could tell you which team they were a part of. However, as time went on, I wanted to move some characters around to play with the dynamics. Specifically, I was eager to bump Battler to the main team. I felt like his attitude created some personality clashes that worked. This is something I could have done, but at that time, I felt beholden to my rules. Eventually, that rule did go away.

This was basically three separate stories that I couldn’t write additional material for, so I smashed them altogether. At least, that’s what I assume happened because that’s what it looks like. As per usual, I do not know how to properly introduce characters. The character of Rocket, whose civilian name is Brian Wagner, was inspired by the film The Rocketeer. I always thought the character was kind of neat, and I wanted to create something similar. However, I was adamant about the man being a paraplegic. The conceit was that his special ability would allow him to fly, but at the expense of his own legs working. I wish I had focused on Rocket for the entire story and fleshed out his story more. But, as I’ve said before, I was just a kid.

I have reimagined him and the other members of the Destructors 2. I actually prefer the redesign over my original that gives him mechanical legs instead of it being I guess what was meant to be a mutation. I also completely changed his outfit leaning into a design that makes him look like a bomber pilot. You can see it below.

When I decided to create future versions of my characters, I really wasn’t sure how to make them look like they were from the future. If you’ve seen any version of the future from the 80s and 90s, it was either a dark, depressing, apocalyptic hellscape or a bright, colorful, sleek utopia with some questionable fashion sense. I opted for the latter and attempted to create some weird fashion for the characters. Honestly, it was the better choice. I just made everything “extra”. I noticed a change in Stephen IV’s hair between episode #18 and #19. I thought I committed to the skunk strip early on, but perhaps it was an afterthought.

I would guess that the introduction of the future Destructors was meant to lead to this ending. I had previously written Robo-Rabbit 2093 which saw the titular character being revived in the future. I didn’t think about the Destructors existing in that timeline yet. But eventually, the idea came up and I started playing around with it. The team featured in this episode is not the team seen again in future projects. Like most projects playing with time travel, it’s hard to commit to any details for characters that could only be seen one time. So, we could assume some events changed the future as time went on. But, we’ll talk more about this later.

I remember wanting Lance and Holli to get married, mainly because they had nothing else of note going on. Lance has always felt like an ancillary character, so I was trying to find ways to make his story unique to the other characters. Being domesticated as a superhero felt like a fun avenue to explore. But in saying that, I have been working on Lance’s backstory to give him more purpose in this universe. I would even say I’ve come up with an idea that makes him crucial. But like before, that’s a conversation for later. Fun fact: I began drawing eyebrows in this episode!

I guess I need to address the skeleton in the room first. While I’ve mentioned a problem introducing characters, it seems I have another problem in re-introducing them. Especially when they have NO SKIN! While you could have surmised that the skeleton was Reflection based on previous events, that doesn’t make sense. The last appearance of Reflection had him come out of the ocean as a skeleton and restore his body. He then got into a vicious fight with Stephen that saw him crack his skull after falling from a 20-story building. So, why is he back to being a skeleton? Perhaps a “previously on” would have been helpful, not just for the audience but for myself as well. I actually do have an issue where I feel like if it’s common sense to me, then it should be common sense to you. Obviously, in the world of MY OWN MAKING, no one else is going to just KNOW who that is.

Then there is the introduction of a new villain: Bearing Claws. Since coming up with codenames that no one else has used is almost impossible, I tried coming up with something clever. With Jake Storm having essentially a blowtorch, I thought the name “oversear” was clever since the word “sear” meant, “burn or scorch the surface of (something) with a sudden, intense heat.” So, to OVER sear it would be bad. Hence, the name. Same with Bearing Claws. He wears a bear costume and he has claws. Bearing. Claws. Get it?

With Wolverine becoming a popular favorite amongst me and my friends, I was eager to create my own version of the character. However, I wanted to be sure that it wasn’t a blatant rip-off. So, I figured a bear would be more than intimidating. Then when it came to the claws, I opted for two that were built into each glove. Much like how most people assumed Wolverine’s claws weren’t part of his anatomy when he first appeared. As you can see with my initial drawing, I tweaked the design before his first appearance.

Clearly, I wasn’t just content making him just another character. So, not only did I opt to make him a villain, I made him rivals with Stephen. With a little bit of retroactive continuity, I gave them what felt like a tumultuous history but never quite explained the rivalry, much like everything else I’ve written. Over the years, I’ve thought deeper about the character, imagining him becoming more and more unhinged as time went on. But I don’t want to get ahead of anything. So for now we’ll move on.

Much like the Cyborg in episode #17, the creature presented here was introduced in a different story I wrote called The Inner-Hidden. However, unlike the Cyborg, the Inner-Hidden is re-established in this story, meaning the events in the film adaptation are not canon. Or at least I think so. The other figure, known as the Protector, was also introduced in The Vigilantes. He seems to be very aware of the Inner-Hidden, but how did he get into Stephen’s head and why?

I honestly believe I did this to create a connection to myself and the Inner-Hidden. The film story is somewhat inspired by ideas I had regarding suppressed rage. In that story, I had always envisioned the person being me, but I didn’t want to write it that way. So, in the case of this particular story, I was able to unleash the Inner-Hidden out of the rage that my namesake character was experiencing. It’s a roundabout way to get there…

This story introduces the fourth member of the Vigilantes known as Xenogenesis. Why is that his name? Because I needed something unique that wasn’t like Man-Bat or something else derivative. I don’t think the name works, but by definition, it’s not wrong. I’m not completely sure where the inspiration for this character came from, but I feel like he was supposed to be able to transform his arms into wings and vice versa. But it was one of those details that got tossed aside.

I feel like I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted the Protector to be exactly. He comes off like he would be on the side of heroes, but also always seems to be manipulating things behind the scenes. He seems very inspired by the character of Cloak from Marvel Comics, just because of the whole cloak thing. But on some level, I think I saw him more like Uatu, some all-powerful being that could lead to bigger adventures. I know that’s not what the Watcher is, but I mean more in the cosmic power aspect. I really should have worked on fleshing it out more.

This story is also guilty of one of my biggest problems, which is shoehorning in an event that is not that important. Here, it was the new costume scene. There was no reason for that scene, other than to establish those suits as canon. However, the Ghost Kid could have made them all uniforms for the sole purpose of added protection. But, for whatever reason, I chose to go this route.

While I don’t remember every little detail, I can recall planning this story as if it was meant to be a big event. And from the beginning, it seems like that was the purpose. I showed almost every single character I had introduced up to this point. And yet most were nothing more than cameos. Hell, I technically introduced a character in this episode. The aforementioned character, Transformer, was another one of these characters that I half developed. His ability was being able to possess and control inanimate objects. Could be fun to explore if I chose to.

If I had written comics that followed the other teams, that could have been a way to expand upon this idea. Do some side stories that tie-in with everything. But alas, my brain didn’t consider that. So, I attempted a big event like Crisis on Infinite Earths or Infinity Gauntlet, but I forgot to make it a BIG EVENT.

The there’s the whole McGuffin of it all: the diamond. This was a very specific choice since I called my universe “The Diamond Universe.” I believe I was attempting to have that mean something deeper. However, I never attempted to explain what the diamond is, where it came from, and why the Protector even had it in his possession, why he felt the need to hold this test, and why does this diamond grants wishes. These are very important details that SHOULD be considered when writing a story such as this. But once again, I didn’t. At least, I wasn’t considering everything. But I WAS focused on something very specific.

So, the scene that zooms in on the sword is indicating that the audience might be able to deduce who the Black Warrior was before the reveal. The only issue with that is that the character of John Hipps had only been seen one other time before in the Diamond Universe. And that first appearance was in The Battles of Fort Destruction #3. So, it’s a clever gag I’ve seen many times before, but it doesn’t really work the same here. Anyway, he was named after my real cousin, and we were the best of friends growing up. I used to spend weeks at his house during the summer. We did all sorts of crazy stuff together. I guess back then, he would have been “my ride or die,” as the phrase goes. Just unfortunate that bond is nowhere near what it used to be.

If there was ANYONE I could point to who actually read my comics and somewhat knew the narratives, it was him. Hell, he would occasionally come up with his own story ideas and pitch them to me. Since I had built this whole superhero persona for myself, I wanted to give him one as well. I’m not sure why I chose to have him be another doppelganger character, but I did rectify that over time and gave him a more defined alter ego.

I feel like this was a point of my life where I had ideas coming from all places, and I was just writing faster than my brain could keep up. Because for all the flaws these stories have, I can at least give some credit to one easily overlooked detail for this entire season. Every story in this season has built off of something established earlier in the season. I introduced the Oversear, who not only forms an all-new team of villains but is also the father of Lance’s wife Holli. The core members of the Vigilantes were introduced this season which leads into the Diamond’s Path story which then leads to the cliffhanger season finale.

So, in a way, this is a more cohesive season compared to last season. It’s definitely more ambitious, just based on the scope of the ideas I had. Granted, I did not execute them to great effect, but this is yet another lesson that I had to learn. Because my grand ambitions for this series didn’t end here. They just got started.

SEASON THREE

The beginning of season three starts off a little messy, thanks to a lack of strategy on my part. So, the cliffhanger of season two finale leads into the second episode of a limited series I worked on called The Stories of Medieval Times (not spelled correctly, though). Now, if I had released these comics into the world with THIS plan, readers would be absolutely confused. Clearly, I wasn’t aware of the complicated logistics a crossover can have. The lead-in should have been episode #25, with the resolution occurring in the second episode of The Stories of Medieval Times.

But I was excited about doing a new crossover with two of my comics. And this one felt much larger than what I had done before, because it featured characters that couldn’t normally crossover. And if it wasn’t somewhat obvious, this was an idea directly lifted from the film Army of Darkness. So, since this is technically part of the narrative you’ve been following, I am placing this issue of The Stories of Medieval Times here, so we can continue on. I have yet to come across the rest of this series, but when I do, I will create a section for it as well.

I don’t want to speak too much about The Stories of Medieval Times, since I would like to carve out a section for it when I find everything for it. But I will discuss my lack of research. In the past, I have prided myself on doing some research into subjects to ensure that I have my facts correct. However, in areas where it mattered, I should have done a bit more. This series was one of several I had around this time where I was attempting to branch out into other genres. This comic was my attempt into sword and sorcery-type fantasy. Movies like Clash of the Titans, Legend, Willow, Krull, and The Beastmaster inspired the character archetypes.

So, most of my research remained rooted in fantasy. I have no idea what types of tournaments they had back then, so I came up with some that sounded like it could be accurate. I’ve seen my fair share of archery contests. No idea if wall-smashing and animal-wrestling were a thing.

One of the reasons I had considered this crossover in the first place was to have Stephen meet one of his ancestors, much like his descendants had done. Barbarian is meant to be a long distant blood relative to Stephen and John, meaning the connection is on his father’s side of the family. The only problem with that is I never wrote anything alluding to this connection. So, once again, great idea; poor execution. And what makes it even more frustrating when you look at it is that the Golden Knight seems to be more of a rival than Barbarian. But it would have made more sense narratively if it had been Barbarian to see them evenly matched in some ways.

This is probably my least favorite episode of The Destructors. Mainly because of the rape scene. I swear that if I was targeted to be cancelled in this current climate, I would be screwed. No one would believe me, because they could all point to this website and say, “Look how often he wrote about it in his stories so casually.” Sometimes I feel like society was doing more harm that good back then. This story didn’t add any value to the characters at all. If anything, it created trauma for the Smiths. But do I ever explore that? No. Why would I?

I have to believe the story ended in such a way because I wasn’t sure how to end it. I have no explanation as to why putting all of those swords together would have yielded that result. Now, as to WHY I wrote this story, that comes down to the very simple reason of realizing how many versions of ONE character I had created and wanted to see them all together. However, in saying that, I did technically omit two characters. One would be the Barbarian seen earlier in episode #25 during the crossover with The Stories of Medieval Times. The other would have been a cowboy character that I designed and considered for a series who would have been a great-grandfather to Stephen. I know I have concept art, but I do not believe I ever wrote an episode. I can’t even recall the title I considered.

The end of this story made me wonder if there wasn’t yet another reason I wrote this. If you head over to the page for The Eliminators, there was a period of time where that team had disbanded. In the story where they reunite, the other team members had to go to Stephen to retrieve Mirror and Shadow. When I was writing about that story, I had forgotten this particular detail which made me question how they even returned to their original realms. With that information now clarified, I realize how deeply intertwined many of my stories are. The details might not always be on the page, but they exist in my head.

One final note is regarding the changing art style. You’ll notice by page 4 that I began drawing in a new style. I was working to improve my art style around this time and began practicing with angles. I wanted to be able to show my characters properly from different angles, but I knew my characters were going to need some depth. This particular style was less refined but, much like my original art style, you will begin seeing a noticeable change as time progresses. I only wish I had waited to use the new style until the next episode. Changing the style mid-story seems to be a habit of mine.

You would think that I would have found Stephen a girlfriend much earlier than this. But I feel like this stems from my own insecurities. At that point in my life, I had no girlfriend, nor was there any girl showing a modicum of interest in me. So, it stood to reason that my fictious version had to live a similar life. At least, that’s where my head was stuck for a time. Eventually, I started to think about it. Who is Junior’s mom? The answer was Melanie Day. Who was she? I wasn’t sure, but I wanted her to be different from Holli. Since Holli didn’t have an alter ego, I thought maybe Melanie should. Up to this point, I had not created a single female hero. Now seemed like a great time. And since some of my favorite femme fatales were Catwoman and Black Cat, I leaned into the cat theme but went bigger. Hence, Tigress was born. I am also aware of the three versions that exist in DC Comics. I just didn’t know they existed back then.

I really wish I had expanded on this idea a bit more. There really was no fun back and forth between Stephen and Melanie. They just sort of fell in love instantly. I guess that was a desire I had in my life at the time. I never felt good enough for any woman. So when a woman showed interest, I would latch on and maybe try a bit too hard. Next thing you know I’m being ghosted. Hell, I’ve been viciously rejected directly, so it’s the type of hurt you just want to avoid. Anyway, I’m making myself sad. Let’s move along.

Another common trope of film and television during my formative years was the family visit. Now, this could be any family member you wanted it to be. But they had to be a pest or bother to either the main character or someone else in the main cast to create conflict. It seems I sort of understood that assignment up to a point. Stephen and even John seem somewhat perturbed about Stephen’s family being there. But they aren’t a nuisance. Stephen’s mother could be the closest thing to that, but she comes off more excited about everything. Not sure why that could be considered annoying. Again, I think I saw an element of the trope and forgot the more important elements to it. Even Stephen’s father leading him to Bearing Claws feels like a scene from a movie or TV show I’ve seen before. It’s that “I can’t believe you betrayed me” moment, but he didn’t betray anyone. This was leading to something, even though it didn’t seem like it in the moment.

The art in this one feels all over the place. I think I was still in the process of refining this style, while also attempting more dynamic shots. I do like the face Stephen is making in the panel where his mother is showering him with affection. I dislike every character design from the side. I’m not quite sure what it is, but I think I drew the mouth too big. Like it shouldn’t stretch that far back. Also, Stephen’s hair became very unwieldy, looking very tall and boxy. I wasn’t sure how to properly present that style of hair in a three-dimensional way. I also didn’t draw any of the women in a flattering light. But when have I ever before?

As I mentioned before, I was building to something in this season and this episode just happened to be an important part of that. However, not everything that occurs here is important. Like how Reflection and Image became vampires. This was something I remember sketching as a goof, but eventually decided to make it canon. This could have been a fun one-off where they come back yet again, but now they have to fight with vampire rules or something. But no, I shoehorned this event into another important story where it becomes just a thing that happened, not a big event.

Vamp-Bat is another one of those “movie” characters that was folded into the comics side. But that’s not much of a stretch considering his debut was in Blood Suckers 3. The first two are canon to the universe since Blood Suckers 2 is where Lance first met Stephen. So, bringing him over didn’t feel odd. I barely used him in my comics, because I didn’t have much use for vampires. But I guess my universe needed one for some reason.

I believe that I stepped away from writing The Destructors between episode #29 and episode #30. For what reason, I am unsure but I feel confident in saying that based on the drastic change in quality between the two. While I hadn’t perfected the style, it was definitely more refined. It still needed some tightening, especially looking at everyone’s chin. It’s like a Jay Leno convention. The eyes also needed some work. Melanie is the most improved design though.

While I teased a death of Stephen way back in episode #16, here I decided to commit to it. For what reason exactly? Well, I don’t want to get ahead of anything, but there was a plan. In fact, I may not have known how I was going to execute this plan exactly, which may have led to the brief hiatus. My storytelling did slow down as the years passed.

A few years before I wrote this story, the death of Superman was a massive comic book event that actually garnered legitimate news coverage. I remembered being fascinated by the whole thing, much like many others were at the time. Now, it’s looked back on as this cheap marketing gimmick. But you can’t argue with the results. I had emulated some elements in an episode of Lightning Bolt and the Ghost Kid where Lightning Bolt supposedly dies. When I had a similar idea for Stephen, I didn’t want to repeat what I had done initially which was fake his death. Stephen was dead and had to find his way back to life. Coincidentally, I recall having a copy of The Adventures of Superman #500, and in the story Jonathan Kent and Superman are in the afterlife together. I don’t recall any of the specifics from that story. I just remember liking the idea of a limbo. So, I turned it into a waiting area of sorts. Limbo is where you go after death to learn where your soul goes. Seemed good to me.

I’ll talk more about the character of Seth later. Right now, I have to talk about the two cameos in this story. The first is Big Boss, now operating under the new moniker Guardian. I believe he was a character that I was eager to bring back in some way. The reason I believe this is I went out of my way to establish a new name for him, but didn’t want to undermine his death. Bringing characters back to life was never really something I was eager to do. I felt if a character died, they needed to stay dead. But that statement came with a caveat. If you were going to bring someone back from the dead, at least try to do something interesting with the character that changes them in some way. While I may not have followed that rule to the letter, that was the rule this and future stories operated under. So, with this story, I was able to show Stephen and Big Boss together one more time.

The other cameo may be more obscure, unless you’ve been keeping notes along the way. Bruce Dial is the civilian name of Soap, one half of the Vein Voodoo Team, first seen in The Battles at Fort Destruction #3 and eventually in season one of The Destructors as a member of the Dealers of Death. He quickly became a background character with Rags being the more vocal of the two. Basically by season two, all of the old villains were out of the picture which is what the series needed. I believe I chose to kill him off not just because he was not being utilized, but also to humanize him just a bit. I felt like showing him here, being somewhat remorseful, could give context clues that perhaps he was just as much a pawn as anyone else in Rags’ orbit. Oh and one very last thing that I just remember to point out. Episode 31 was the first official episode to feature ears!

The creature that Stephen fought in his strength trial was actually designed for a different project. At one point in time, I had considered writing a sequel series to Stephen’s Wacky Maze. However, as I planned the concept, I struggled to figure out what the plot was. I didn’t want to rehash the same series but in the future. I really worked to make it stand apart, complete with its own versions of the baddies from the first series. One of those baddies was a creature named Poison, which was meant to be some mish-mash of a snake and a spider. The preliminary design does not reflect that, but eventually did design THAT version of him. Poison was also featured in Stephen’s Wacky Maze II: Trouble in Wackyland as one of the primary baddies.

I had forgotten that I cut season three a bit short. I usually liked to keep the number at 12, since it felt like a proper run of a season to me. But here I ended the run at eight because I reached an important story beat that felt like a season ender. I could have easily built four more stories out of several ideas I squandered. But it’s too late for that now. Things were ramping up for big changes going forward.

SEASON FOUR

I wish I knew what the exact timeframe was between the time I finished writing episode #32 and starting #33. Looking at the art style, it doesn’t looks that much different. If I had a guess, this was around 1995, maybe 1996. I was working to expand my stories, and give them more substance. That desire for richer storytelling set the path going forward, but also slowed the series output to a bare minimum.

This story arc had one purpose: to give Stephen powers. While I had retconned a healing factor for him, I never considered him super strong or invincible in any way. Even though some stories I wrote may seem to give an indication of such things. But in my head canon, he had no powers to speak of. So, when I started thinking of ways to give him powers, having him die to be reborn felt like the appropriate approach. That being said, it doesn’t feel like his death necessarily had any impact on him getting powers. It seems more like they originate from his sword, but he never knew about it. But the Protector sure seemed to. As I said before, I feel like the Protector’s purpose was to be a cosmic-like figure that could be the gateway to more fantastic stories.

With Stephen now receiving powers from his sword, the whole process is very reminiscent of the character of He-Man from the franchise Masters of the Universe. I wasn’t too keen on the idea even as I borrowed it, but I also felt like it created a fun dynamic where Stephen isn’t always invincible. I can recall several episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe where Prince Adam had to figure a way out of a situation without using the power sword. I wanted that for Stephen. I never wanted him to feel completely invulnerable. A completely invincible character can make for a boring narrative. See Black Adam for an example.

Another aspect of the story that seemed like it was forgotten was Stephen having a blackout. I remember the conceit being that during his first transformation, he would go on a rampage and get revenge on Bearing Claws. THAT event was to then lead to a redesign of Bearing Claws where he is kept alive using cybernetics. That was all well and good, but what’s the purpose of the temporary amnesia if I’m never going to address what Stephen did as a result? Looking back on this stuff now, the explanations, or rather lack thereof, are really starting to bug me.

One last thing I wanted to bring up was the costume changes. You’ll notice almost everyone has a new look going forward. And Lance looks to be leading the Destructors 2, even though I don’t think that remains permanent.

While I didn’t mention it in the story summary, this was the first story where Stephen is referred to his new moniker, “S”. During this point, I was becoming uncomfortable with the fact that my superhero persona was just being called by his name. I don’t see myself as a person with a massive ego. As I began to refine my art and my stories, I was more eager to show them off. What I wasn’t eager for was a preconceived notion that I thought of myself as this larger than life superhero. As I mentioned before, this Stephen was not me, but a version of myself that I wished I could have been.

So, I began thinking of a way to give him a codename that would reflect who he was in some way. The problem was that there wasn’t a particular word that could sum him up. So, I began thinking of initials or even acronyms. Eventually, I drew a fanciful “S” and began working to convince myself that this was the proper approach. Since there was another popular hero known for a giant “S” adorned across his chest, I didn’t see any point in incorporating the design into his outfit. Plus with the name being nothing more than a letter, it allowed me to refer to his powered up version as Super “S”. Again, these were choices I made as a teenager that I’m not 100% sure I would make today.

And while we’re on the subject of Super “S”, I guess I want to discuss his design. I don’t think I’ve attempted to draw Super “S” in over a decade, maybe closer to two. The reason I feel confident in saying that is because I know that I’ve sketched almost everyone of my characters in some modern form, but not this one. The conceit was attempting to meld together two designs, which was the white long-sleeve look and the red jacket look. You probably weren’t aware the jackets were red. Funny enough though, I pretty confident in saying that Stephen’s jacket was initially orange in the beginning. Not sure why I changed that. Anyway, look at the design and you’ll see what I was attempting to do. The hair is the thing that bothers me most. I wasn’t quite sure how to give the hair an extra dimension. So, it often times looks like Stephen is wearing a coonskin cap. This is probably why I changed his normal everyday hair to just be long.

I’m not completely sure how I came up with the concept for the character of Seth Dusenberry, aka Sacrifice. The core idea stemmed from the idea of transferring damage to someone else. This could have surfaced from playing RPG games that have reflect spells. I honestly cannot say. I just know that the concept intrigued me. And I’m not sure when I decided to use the character for this storyline, because he was not created for this purpose. Initially, it was a simple sketch of the creature. When I decided to use him for this narrative, I decided to make him a human that escaped the afterlife which turned him into this for some reason. It sounded cool as a kid. I guess I also thought that hairstyle was something cool as well. I never had any plans for the character beyond this story and couldn’t even tell you the last time I sketched him. I can at least myself credit for attempting new villains.

Another story beat that feels worth exploring further is Stephen’s weakness. As I mentioned before, I never wanted Stephen to be completely indestructible. So, when I created his invincible state as Super “S”, I felt that the one object that grants him his powers could naturally be the only thing to actually hurt him. I’d like to take credit for that idea, but a part of me feels like I saw something similar in a movie. Regardless, it allowed me to play in that “god-mode” sandbox, but always have a way to create stakes in the situation. Like with many of my stories, I see what my aim was but I don’t quite hit the target. Here, I wish I had explored it just a bit more. Sure, Super “S” looks shocked, but it’s never addressed afterwards. Not by “S” or even the Wardens.

I wanted to take a moment and point out some big picture elements in this story. Firstly, I want you to notice that not one Destructor shows up until the fifth page. I’ll expand on that one later. But make a note of it. Secondly, Detective Alan Matthews was a character that I had been working to introduce into the Diamond Universe, but I never finished his story. Prior to this story, I wrote and drew eighteen pages of a story called Hero. The premise was about a teenager who watched his best friend be killed by a local gang and his quest for justice. The teenager’s father is Detective Matthews. Since Lightning Bolt and his crew were full-time Destructors now, I didn’t want to lose the New York City connection, so I chose to set those characters back in New York. Thought this made for a fun cameo.

Also, I have to point out that I wrote this with no preconceived notions about how college grants work. I don’t know if there’s a board or if they are even on campus. And speaking of campuses, what college campus has a gigantic prison fence around it? I guess that was another aspect of colleges I wasn’t aware of either, even though I’ve seen enough movies where college campuses were not surrounded by large prison fences.

I consider this Destructors story to be the best I have ever written to date. I say “to date” because this is one of the last ones I wrote. Perhaps if I had kept writing the series, I would have written a story that would have far surpassed even this one. Because for as good as I consider this entry, it still has cracks. Just not as many as others.

I feel confident in saying that the inspiration for Liquidator came from Hydro-Man, who was a super-villain of Spider-Man. I know that Spider-Man: The Animated Series was airing during this time, and I was a huge fan. The episode featuring Hydro-Man is one of my favorites, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all. The name, however, was ripped straight from Darkwing Duck. The bigger concern I had for the character was how he get these powers. Around this time, I had been trying to come up with a better origin story for Lightning Bolt. In the original comic, he was struck by a bolt of lightning. That’s it. So, I wanted to give it more complexity, but how exactly do I retcon this?

Seeing how Harold was initially a scientist when I first wrote the story, I decided to lean back into that aspect. What if the research he was working on could be the reason for him getting powers? So, what was he working on? I eventually landed on a formula that combined matter. It’s an extremely simple explanation for something that should be incredibly complex. I still didn’t care for the idea, and still don’t to this day. But it helped open the door for additional story ideas, while additionally creating more confusion. How exactly did Lightning Bolt’s brother, Thunder, get the formula? Who the hell is Shockwave, a character never once seen in these comics, yet created by this formula? Retcons are fun. I’m also not sure why electricity didn’t immediately kill Liquidator. I’m sure I had a rule in my head that I never wrote down.

This was the last Destructors story that I wrote to completion. Which is really sad that I ended it on a cliffhanger. Furthermore, this episode showcases the growth I was having as a writer since the Destructors did not show up once. I say this showcases growth, because I’m focused on getting to know our villain. If you go back to the previous episode, it was page five before Lightning Bolt and his gang show up to investigate. I feel like this story should not have been split into two parts since I was basically working up to the same amount of story pages, if not less. But for dramatic purposes (and probably a lack of ideas), I ended this episode here.

I had to do a bit of a Google search to figure out why I chose Pella, Greece as the home for this stone. I also was caught off-guard by the story of “Zenukki” tribe, which does not exist. I have no idea where this idea stemmed from, let alone why I chose to say that a group of indigenous Australians would have migrated to Greece. Those would be the cracks in this story. I feel confident in saying that Dennis was possessed by the “large creature” mentioned in the legend, which is why his personality flipped so quickly. But that revelation was going to be revealed in part two.

After Googling Pella, I had to look up “scry stone” assuming I ripped this off from somewhere else as well. While I doesn’t look like I ripped off anything specific, I believe that during my initial research, I stumbled upon the name and a description that read something about seeing images. That was all I needed and took it from there. I’ve noticed that about many things I’ve researched. I usually caught a few words and that was enough.

And that ends my run of the Destructors. I have seriously considered finishing this story. But for the same reason I didn’t finish back as a kid, I’m not really sure where to go with the story next. This was the blessing and curse of my abilities where I could come up with numerous concepts for story ideas, but not be completely sure where they would end up. This is what led to many unfinished projects that you can find all over this website. I clearly had an idea when I drew the one-sheet that the team would have to overcome the illusions of being mice or whatever silly idea I had at the time.

Every time I come back to this singular page, I ask myself, “what happened?” My comic output was beginning to slow down around this time. I feel confident in saying that there was a bit of a gap between episode #35 and #36, but I could be wrong. I felt like I wrote episode #36 in 1997, but the longer I think on it, it may have been 1996. All I know is that my personal life was becoming more active, and I was spending less time writing comics. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. I had this series mapped out at one point to reach over one hundred episodes. I can’t say that I knew what each episode was going to be exactly, but I had episode titles written down as placeholders for the possible story to be written later. Again, another way to see how my brain works.

While I feel like this marks the end of an era, my characters never stopped existing in my head. Before stopping, I was attempting to build relationships between characters, as seen in the last page with Bones hanging out with Dragon. I had also tossed out the separate team rule and was just using whatever Destructor I needed for the stories. This felt like a great idea, but I noticed I didn’t rotate the roster out consistently. Hell, Robo-Rabbit wasn’t even seen in season four. Regardless, I continued to plot their futures, even if I wasn’t writing the stories. While I do criticize many of my older stories, I can see the potential in them. I’ve currently been reexamining all of my stories as blueprints to see how I could shape it into something better. Perhaps in a few years, you may actually see a new Destructors story.

THE DESTRUCTORS: SPACE POLICE

During the time I was writing the original Destructors series, ideas for spin-offs came about. While creating a separate series focused on the second Destructors team could have been a smart idea to flesh out those characters, I opted instead to look to the future. Having already dabbled in the future in The Destructors #19, I started asking questions about those characters. While it could have been easy enough to just assume the Destructors had been ongoing for a hundred years, I decided to take a different approach.

Having already committed to the Ghost Kid and Bones still being active members of the team in the future, I had to believe they were the reason the team was even still active. So, I began asking questions regarding the final days of the original team. I didn’t have all of my answers at that time, but I started to think about them feeling isolated since everyone they knew were dead. Eventually, it led me to think about them moving on to bigger things since they were perfectly capable. The only thing bigger I could come up with was space.

The concept began to form with that idea, having Bones and the Ghost Kid choosing to take their fight to the stars after an intergalactic threat targeted Earth. And since they would be kind of policing the galaxy, the term “space police” just rang true. Even how I envisioned the series was completely different from the original series, since I saw it like a typical cop drama but in space.

Since all of the other Destructors were gone, I needed new recruits. My initial roster consisted of Bones, the Ghost Kid, the Solar Stalker who was introduced in Lightning Bolt, The Ghost Kid, and Bones #20, a Tasdevil, a Wacko, a Cyclops Ball, and a Dimension Twin. The last four were some odd attempt at making heroes out of characters that were typically villains. They work in the sense that they are alien in nature, but they’re just an odd fit.

Looking back on this now, I’m really surprised I didn’t add Robo-Rabbit to tag along with this group. I feel like I was becoming more embarrassed by the character around this time, so his presence was starting to fade. But even as I say that, I believe it was because I had him positioned to lead his own team, Wild Hares. Now, I would definitely have him as part of the team. Hell, he was part of the team in The Destructors #19. Eh. Ideas change.

I attempted to write this series, and think I even considered doing a standalone movie once the series ideas weren’t panning out. I’ll eventually post whatever I find of it.

2095

While The Destructors: Space Police would have logically been the next step chronologically, the idea of a future Destructors series came to me before that concept. As originally conceptualized in The Destructors #19, every member of the team was a descendant of an original team member. However, when I decided to actually write a series, I wanted to mix up the roster a bit. Obviously, Ghost Kid and Bones would be there along with team staples like Stephen IV and even the new Lightning Bolt. I think I stuck with a descendant of Morph since he was a flexible character. No pun intended. Finally, since the Warrior and Battler were getting more play in the original series, I think I was wanting to mix things up here as well. Why not, right? If it makes the narrative more interesting, then change it up!

This was a series that I was pretty confident that I wrote at least one episode of. And I was right! This story was written at a time when I was beginning to understand narrative structure. This story isn’t overly plagued with some bewildering narrative choices, and I actually introduce everyone in the story for once! I may have done it in a less conventional way, but I did it. Also, out of all the character codenames in this story, Laser Blades is by far my favorite. It’s the perfect play-on words that works as a great codename.

I will say that I was caught off-guard by the deaths of the Space Police group. But that being said, I think the reason the team was comprised of such odd choices was so they could be fodder. I just wish I had fleshed it out more. Like so many other projects of mine.

It felt very clear from the start of the story that I wasn’t very sure where I was going with this narrative. If I had a guess of what I was sort of planning is that this team would be defeated and transformed. And then in the third episode, both teams would finally come together and stop Transformer and the Evil Leaders, establishing them firmly in the future.

Since I had this series marked as “limited,” I think I just wanted to establish the Destructors of the future. And if I wanted to play with those toys, I knew which ones I had. I recently began thinking about the future heroes again, and how I would want to ensure that the characters weren’t just carbon copies of the originals. Who knows? I may come back around to this series at some point.

ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS & SPIN-OFFS

While I was working on spin-offs, the original series never left my brain. As I said earlier, I plotted over 100 episodes of this series. Plenty of very loose concepts, but there was a plan nonetheless. One such plan was set in motion in The Destructors #33 when Super “S” went on a rampage and severely injured David Woods.

The idea as it existed in my brain was that David would be taken somewhere and given cybernetic enhancements to stay alive. This would have led to a more armored design, which WAS actually seen in Spider-Man Meets Stephen W. See? Even back then I struggled to commit to just “S”. Also, the sequel to that could be seen as an extra Destructors story as well. Anyway, a cybernetic Bearing Claws is where the initial concept started. But then, in my head canon, I started pondering the idea of him getting a new body. That idea grew into a new concept of him going mad, after becoming whole again. Not quite sure what the crux of the insanity would have been. But I liked the idea. Even the title of the idea (seen below) is perfect for the concept.

Another spin-off idea that I never fully formed beyond concept art was The Destructor Kids. Since Lance was married, and Stephen and John not far off themselves, I started wondering about their kids. We already knew about Junior, so he was a baseline character the audience could be familiar with. To round out the crew a bit, I had to consider what other Destructors could potentially have love lives.

While I never wrote the episode to completion, in the final episode of Lightning Bolt and the Ghost Kid, Harold was meant to reconnect with Mary Peterson, the Ghost Kid’s mother. That encounter would have led to them ending up together, getting married, and eventually having a pair of fraternal twins. While I noted them as the Electric Duo in the sketch, AC/DC is right there. Think about it. Morph has remained a mystery character in this world to this day, so who would have had a kid with him also remains a mystery. Finally, I thought Rocket having a kid could be something interesting to explore with that character, since he also got sidelined pretty quick.

Another idea that eventually came to me was writing an idea that would be so huge, the series wouldn’t be big enough to handle it. That is what became the starting point for The Destructors: The Movie. In my head, this story was going to introduce an all-new villain more powerful than any we had seen up to this point. Furthermore, the narrative was going to take place in at least two decades from what I remember. I actually began working on this story but only got through a few pages.

Finally, when I began thinking of these characters and their potential futures, another concept sprouted from that. I love character growth, even though I did very little in my own stories. It was something that I had to learn. In any case, I always love to envision another phase for a character, doing something different than what we’ve seen in the past. With The Destructors, there was a period that I was going to remove “S” entirely from the title, depower him, and then add him to The Eliminators. This was all in service to a story arc where “S” learns to be a superhero again without powers. That change in dynamics made me think about the impact it would have on the Destructors and their ever growing roster.

After a number of ideas, I settled on one that would essentially create a global presence for the Destructors, ensuring they would be able to handle any threat at any time around the world. The Destructors: Delta Force would have restructured the entire roster, removing older members with fresh faces, into three separate teams that were based in different parts of the world. Each color designated team consisted of five members, and I feel there was no logistical reason I structured the teams the way I did.

These first three drawings were my initial team rosters. Lance would lead the Red Strike Team along with his wife Holli, who would finally become an active Destructor. I had her in the comics for three seasons, and she was nothing more than window dressing. Such a waste. Additionally, Pitchfork aka Jamin Sponaugle, would officially become a Destructor, leaving behind the Eliminators. That leaves an open question regarding the fate of the other team members. The Xenogenesis would have also joined, bridging the gap between the Vigilantes and the Destructors. Lastly is Lightning Volt, aka Cedric Ryan, who was an alternate Lightning Bolt creation I came up with. I’m not quite sure why I did since he has no relation to Harold Cane. I’m sure there is a reason somewhere in my head. But he’s like a Miles Morales-type character in a sense.

The Blue Strike Team would have been led by Polar with Battler, Whiplash, and Rocket remaining by his side. So, essentially this team is just the Destructors 2 with an additional member. That member being the unintroduced Nightbird, or whatever uncreative name I gave him. Not sure why I chose to add him other than having a variety of characters. But then that raises the question about the Wild Hares.

Finally, the Gold Strike Team would have been led by D. Vice. and rounded out with all-new members. There was Xerox, who had been seen in Lightning Bolt & the Ghost Kid. Next was a vigilante character I created that was meant to be introduced in an on-going series based on the previously mentioned project, Hero. But, as usual, I never wrote the story. Apparently, that character was bringing a female vigilante along with him. And rounding out the cast would have been Jack Stickman, a character I created in a series called The Many Adventures of Stick Figure Man. I had been considering a crossover idea with the Destructors and Jack and started to consider bringing Jack over to the human world, very much like Robo-Rabbit. Having sat on the idea for many years now, it’s an idea that I like as a crossover and nothing more.

Eventually, I began to restructure the teams a bit in different drawings. The one on the left swaps D. Vice and Pitchfork, which doesn’t makes sense to me. You’d think you’d want veteran members leading a team. The picture on the right is a rare sight since it is in color. Not sure I dig all of the colors I chose, but I never did think about them too much. It does seem like the teams are still stacked together in a way. However, in this interpretation, Lance has a new weapon while Holli has a whole new look AND a weapon. Xerox got a trench coat because that was trend for a bit. Jack got an official outfit. Lightning Volt has a new costume while Nightbird has been removed entirely in place of a character that looks like the original Lightning Bolt. However, I believe this was meant to be Harold’s son from the Electric Duo. Rocket’s new helmet also makes me think that is Rocket’s kid, Blaster. But if that’s the case, then where is Junior and the rest? That’s a pretty important question when you see “S” at the top. He was meant to serve as director of the Destructors. So, basically dealing with all the politics that I never touched on.

I do like this idea and think it could work to serve numerous avenues of storytelling. However, this is an idea you have to build to, and I’m not sure I can just retool this concept right now.

EVIL “S”

I have mentioned on numerous pages of this website that I have a problem with doppelgangers. The problem being that I like to create them. With many of Stephen’s doppelgangers having either been killed or evolved into new versions of themselves, I realized that “S” was without a double. The concept of cloning was new to me at that time in the 90s. It was used here and there in sci-fi, but I had never considered it for my own stories until a particular moment.

Since “S” had many doubles created through magic, I felt a scientific approach would be best here. Conceptually, I imagined a lab where a sample of Stephen’s blood was taken to be cloned by an organization paid by government officials to create a super soldier. A very basic plotline. The initial plot in my head was that this clone would not be inherently evil, but would make a heel turn after those who created him attempt to control him. However, the crazed look in that first picture said something much more sinister.

So, I began rethinking who this character should be. He needed to be the perfect match for “S”. If Stephen was meant to be the pinnacle of good, Evil “S” was the zenith of evil. I thought about him as a crazed killer going on rampages. Eventually, I began to consider his intelligence, and that I would prefer him to be incredibly smart. Maybe even something that was an enhancement from the cloning process that caused hyper-intelligence but also madness. With that idea in mind, I began looking at the character slightly different. I decided to give him a sleek redesign, put him in a full-white suit, and pull his hair back. For whatever reason, I really liked this look. I believe this would have been his primary look going forward. I also felt that I could easily transition him from looking like an escaped mental patient to this more composed look. It would all be part of the narrative, like it should be.

While the character never officially appeared in any of my finished comics, he did appear for a moment in my unfinished crossover event, Wolverine Meets Super “S”. Despite never writing him in a proper story, I was always thinking of new story ideas for him. As I said before, he had to be THE ULTIMATE EVIL. And that’s when this giant idea came to me. What if Evil “S” DID become the ultimate evil? What if Evil “S” found a way to merge himself with the Devil himself. It was a wild idea but one I couldn’t let go. This led to other ideas like Evil “S” hunting down and killing any other variant of “S”. But the biggest idea I had for this concept was tying it back to an older idea that I was never sure how to approach.

END & REBIRTH

Every story has an ending. One day I began thinking about the end of the Diamond Universe. What would lead to such an event like that? With the creation of Devil “S”, the concept felt like I finally developed a big enough threat that could end everything. I was so happy to reach that conclusion. However, as I said before, I had this idea BEFORE Devil “S”. So, what exactly did my brain come up with before that? You would think it would have been focused on a reason or an overall narrative to end mankind. But no, I was thinking ahead, as in thinking of the next story after this one.

Since I drew a picture of the Earth (but actually a diamond if you look closer) exploding, I started thinking about debris. Since Superman could be affected by Kryptonite, a mineral from his home world, how would Earth debris affect other planets in the overall universe? I’m not sure how Earth debris would affect any planet outside of bombarding it with meteorites. In any case, using some pseudo-science conjured up by others, I began imagining the debris of Earth floating to other planets in other galaxies. Meteor showers would then affect a number of different planets, and on those planets, certain aliens would be imbued with superpowers that were parallel to the heroes of Earth. Almost as if the meteorites were carrying the essence of the dead heroes.

I dubbed this idea The Diamond Universe II: The Alien Chronicles. I was never 100% sure what the overall story would be. At most I imagined these “meteor metas,” as I dubbed them, would become threats to their own societies, due to a number of different factors. Some would be feared because they abuse their newfound abilities. Others would be feared just for possessing them, despite their actions. It felt intriguing on some level to show a parallel to similar struggles here on Earth.

Eventually, this outbreak of “meteor metas” would be known across all of the planets, due to planetary coalitions or whatever. A war would break out. The “meteor metas” would stand their grounds on whatever side they choose. Ultimately, the final act of the story comes to a head when some aliens discover the origins of this outbreak. Unsurprised by the actions of Earthlings, the aliens devise a plan to reverse what Earth has done. This plan requires time travel, but not to stop Evil “S” from becoming Devil “S”. Their plan is to prevent any of this from every happening again.

The plan the aliens were devising would lead into the next story arc in my head. To prevent Earth’s destruction, aliens would travel far back in time and enslave humanity. Apparently, humans can’t be trusted to run anything. Looking at how the world is at the time I’m typing this, I stand by that. My initial concept art titled the idea Flashback. While it wasn’t a bad title per se, a more appropriate title was waiting in the wings.

Since the heroes of Earth were meant to rise again, the subtitle “Rebirth” felt more accurate. I even had this great idea for the promotional poster for this project that no one in the world will ever see. Just drag the little tab below to the left and right to see the concept at work.

When I was attempting to redesign these characters, I wanted their looks to be distortions of themselves that you could still identify. “S” just looks disheveled, so that was easy enough. I thought showing Lightning Bolt as a mad science experiment gone awry was fun. The Ghost Kid and Bones combo is a bit disturbing. Not sure how many people would be on board with a kid only having a quarter of his face. The Monster was more monstrous. Same for Whiplash. D. Vice would just be a head on a mechanical body. Basically, I was attempting to bastardize each one. I think I did okay back then. Of course, I would love to take a crack at this today. I may post up some new art if it hits me just right.

While I had a solid idea to kick off this next chapter dubbed The Diamond Universe III: Rebirth, I was never fully sure what my approach. While the idea of these heroes rising again in a similar fashion, as if this is destined to occur, is a fun idea. However, I began thinking deeper on this concept, and how the aliens could have caused a bigger problem for themselves. The story COULD start off as if he are going in the original idea’s direction, but then pivot once the aliens are defeated. What if the Destructors became the bad guys? Thanks to enslavement by aliens, they save humanity but soon become its rulers. They justify what they are doing based on what the aliens did, but all the while just replacing the enemy they overthrew.

As I imagined the Destructors as the bad guys, I began thinking of who the good guys would be. For whatever reason, I settled on Thunder being the leader of a team called the Peacekeepers. That team would consist of him and four all-new characters, two meta-humans and two aliens. I have no particular reason I can recall as to why I made these decisions. Perhaps I was just wanting to play with new toys.

NEO-CITY

Around the early 2000s, I began to rethink all of my comic characters. I knew that all of my old stories weren’t that great, so I began rethinking what they could be if I rewrote them today. This was no doubt encouraged by the onset of Marvel’s Ultimate Comics, which rewrote the origins of their characters. But I wanted my stuff to be taken seriously. I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer, because at this point in my life, I’m actively trying to get noticed in the business. I was also developing another comic at the time that I assumed might actually get made called Clandestine, but that never occurred. I used that comic to establish the basis of this new Diamond Universe. And since that comic title was the city in which it took place, I decided to dub the new series Neo-City after the fictional city the story would take place in. I figured that maybe I should create my own city to give it some added character. Anyway, below are a number of sketches attempting to rework a number of my characters.

Looking through all of those sketches and doodles, you can probably deduce who’s who. But I also see characters that are a far cry from who they were originally, so I’ll break down my reasonings. First things first, you’ll notice “S” has a similar, but more anime-inspired hair. He’s also sporting a bo staff, as opposed to his traditional (or non-traditional) sword. Furthermore, he is no longer “S” but now A.C. This is a nickname I chose that has two meanings for me. One is that it relates back to one of my favorite things as a kid, The California Raisins. The other is that the letters “A” and “C” were the initials of my son. I thought since I named the original character after myself, it felt appropriate to name the remake after my son. Granted, we never referred to him as such but the initials are there.

Lightning Bolt was another character that would have been drastically different. This version was based on the Lightning Volt idea I had back during the development of The Destructors: Delta Force. Why let it go to waste? He and A.C. would have been friends in high school that discovered they had superpowers, and decided to use them for good. However, as they begin their journey as heroes. Both would have extremely different approaches to it, causing a rift between them. It felt like it could be a fun exploration into the tropes of superheroes.

The overall story that grew in my head expanded upon that idea, by reworking older ideas into this new iteration. One example was that A.C. did have powers from the start. His abilities would have been inline with someone like Captain America. Cedric wouldn’t just be able to shoot electricity from his hands but, over time, learn to control and manipulate it in other ways. One such idea was that he would learn to fly using a form of electro-magnetic manipulation. You know, pseudo-science.

Another character that I reworked from scratch was Jake Storm aka the Oversear. Instead of having a flamethrower strapped to his back, I made his power combustion. With that idea sparked the premise of the first episode where this kid who was a reclusive classmate of A.C. and Cedric would suddenly exhibit powers by becoming engulfed in flames. When he gets it under control, his skin is completely burned. However, he soon learns that he can shed the burned skin and replace it with a fresh skin. These ideas would lead to questions regarding why they have powers and the mysteries surrounding it all.

Out of all of my original ideas, the use of Robo-Rabbit wasn’t initially in the cards. However, I began developing a storyline involving a government contractor that is hired to develop armored suits to help police, and eventually soldiers, fight back against the encroaching metahuman threat. Meanwhile, an independent developer attempts to push the idea of drone soldiers controlled by one singular AI, removing human error or emotion, and improving the efficacy of the soldiers. The main AI was a prototype dubbed Robo-Rabbit, which was a nickname in which others used to mock the project based on its crude design. The person behind Robo-Rabbit would be Lance Smith, giving him a larger purpose in the grand scheme of things. I was so happy I found a way to work the character in because I fucking love that design above.

The armored suit storyline was equally important to what I was building. I borrowed from another story idea that I wrote down many years ago called Armed Force. It was about a Navy service member taking control of an experimental battle suit. The story has probably been done to death by now, but it felt new when I wrote it back in 1999. This new iteration would see the suit built as a deterrent for metahumans. That would then lead to a battle with the good guys and a whole mess of who’s right and who’s wrong. It would have started with one character. From there, the roster would grow to add additional troops where they are needed. This would have given me the opportunity to create variants of other characters I had yet to introduce. Those variants would have been of the Destructors 2. Finally, there was a bigger idea that came to me that I knew could push the boundaries of this new world.

As the story described above would be filled with political strife while the public start to turn on metahumans, an unexpected threat crash lands onto Earth. This threat is a spacecraft filled with various alien species, all dangerous in their own way. However, one is most dangerous and the reason they all crash on Earth. Now, humanity has to turn to the metas to save them from a threat they can’t handle. Even after they turned on them!

This was basically my new take on The Alien Knights storyline from Lightning Bolt & the Ghost Kid. However, I was not content just trying to redesign the aliens I had created before. This time, I decided to sketch some of the wildest shit I could come up with. I can’t remember who said it, but an artist once stated that when it comes to aliens, the weirder, the better. I’ve held on to that philosophy ever since. I love many of these designs.

Invasion would have been a turning point in this new world. As all of this was occurring and everyone from the Armed Force Brigade to the metahumans struggling to contend with the aliens, the independent company developing robots would unleash their robot army to help. However, that help would soon spiral out of control leading to a war with the robots. This is actually based on a older idea I had for the original series called Cyber War. In this take, drones are overtaken by a rogue AI and become an even larger threat as they grow in numbers. I wasn’t sure where this story would ultimately lead like most of my ideas. However, for this interpretation, it would have been the penultimate story of the series, leading to a finale that I’ve seen play of differently in my head many times.

While I spent many years attempting to redevelop these characters in a new way, they have always felt like variants. This is certainly true. However, I feel as though the character should feel genuine to me since they are my creation after all. I have held on to this fully revamped narrative for some time, working and reworking different elements over the years.

However, as I have been working on putting together this very website, new story ideas have sprung forth that are giving me ideas to recreate this entire universe, and it feels just as genuine as it did from the start. One such idea is that Neo-City is the end result of Rebirth. Seems very credible considering time travel and alternate realities, and I’m not opposed to the idea either. I’ve been jotting these ideas down, ensuring I don’t forget them in hopes of actually writing something for these characters again. And that’s what I realized most. I miss writing my characters. But the funniest part is I’ve never stopped developing them. I just stopped writing them. Perhaps now with this website being mostly finished, I can find time to focus on writing something new. Until then, I hope all of you enjoy these stories and characters on this website.

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THANKS FOR READING!