"Met a girl called Lola.."

While picking up my weekly stash of new comics, I spotted a new book from Max, the Marvel "we-can-swear-here" imprint, entitled "Destroyer." Leafing through the book I saw an image of the blood-spattered title character shoving a rifle through the chest of an assailant while screaming, "Guns are for pussies!" I decided to buy it, just on a whim.
Written by Robert Kirkman with art by Cory Walker, the whole book has a very "Indie" feel to it, yet it also seems to have a basis in Marvelesque mythos although it is obviously an out-of-current-continuity story.
The title character is an aging crime fighter who apparently has an extensive backstory, which Kirkman may or may not be able to cover thoughout the five issue run of this limited series. Although while in costume, Destroyer seems to be indestructible and intimidatingly strong, out of costume, he is simply Keene Marlowe, 80-something year old heart patient.
I did some research on the character and was initially confused, but upon digging deeper, I've found the thread of his long and minimal history.
Destroyer aka Keen Marlowe appeared in Mystic Comics #'s 6, 7, 8 & 9, way back in 1941 and 1942.
That was it.
More recently, the character of Destroyer aka Roger Aubrey was retro-fitted to become the "official" Marvel version of the 1940's hero. That character eventually became a founding member of the V-Battalion which eventually became significant players in the early part of the Thunderbolts story, until it all eventually got horrible convoluted, stopped making any sense whatsoever and eventually had to be rebuilt from scratch.
>sigh< (whose office is at the bottom of the ocean for no discernible reason) that his days on this earth are very limited indeed, he decides, "Well enough of this pussyfooting around. Time to crank it up a notch and just slaughter as many high-powered supervillains as I can in the time I have left."
So he starts with his brother.
This, after the scenes at his granddaughter's birthday party clearly demonstrate the importance of his family.
It's not known yet if Kirkman will use Marlowe's tenuous link to early Marvel lore and make references to other heroes from the 1940, or simply create whole new characters with which to pepper his Destroyer's history. Either way, it has the potential to be a fun ride. I'll be picking up the rest of the series in the hopes that the interest can be maintained.
Odd little side note... The one time that Marlowe's first name is used, it is spelled "Keene." This is the spelling that I first used above. In his few appearances back in the 1940's, his name was spelled "Keen." I can accept a slight variance in the spelling occurring with a character update. Neither spelling is wrong as far as the traditional name is concerned. I've seen it both ways, although it is not a common name. What irks me about this is that in the promo page on the Marvel.com website it is spelled "Keen" contrary to what is actually in the book that page is advertising.
No wonder the story is outside continuity. They can't even get continuity in their spelling.
...but I'll keep reading anyway.