Victor LaValle’s Destroyer by Victor LaValle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In just six issues, LaValle tells a captivating, unexpectedly emotional, self-contained story that mixes literature, science fiction, and the kind of family tragedy that’s all too real. (Also, you get to see Frankenstein’s monster battle a huge, heavily armed robot, which is pretty cool!) Occasionally, I wished the story were longer, even if only by one issue, because there are so many great plot threads that I would have loved to see explored further, including the monster’s own experiences and an intriguing bit about cloning that definitely could have developed into something more. What dwells at the heart of the story, though, isn’t the monster’s murderous rage at all life, but a mother’s righteous anger at the untimely, unnecessary, and unpunished death of her son. The series may be called DESTROYER, but LaValle’s message is about how important every life is, how full of promise and potential, and what a catastrophe it is for all of us when a life is cut short and that potential is never realized.
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