The awesome power of the New God Darkseid has instilled fear in countless beings across the cosmos, including the heavy hitting heroes of Earth in DC Comics, though one entity that does not fear the multiversal being is Darkseid’s overlooked brother, Drax, who is actually more powerful. In his base form, Drax is no greater a threat to Darkseid than any of the other New Gods, but after the villain’s brother is imbued with an incredible power, he surpasses Darkseid and the rest of the New Gods.
Drax was introduced as the multiversal hero known as Infinity Man in Forever People #1 by Jack Kirby. In the issue, the Forever People, who are the general public of New Genesis, use their combined power to summon Infinity Man, which is more of a power source using a host to stand against any threat to New Genesis than a hero in its own right, and here Infinity Man is Darseid’s brother Drax though others have taken up that particular moniker. The comic shows Darkseid trying to uncover the Anti-Life Equation, with Superman there to stop him. When the Forever People arrive to stop Darksied, they summon Infinity Man to defeat Darkseid and he successfully does so.
In his first appearance, Drax defeats his brother Darkseid and in doing so proves his superiority, though the character takes his immense power one step further when he kills nearly every single New God in DC Comics. In the storyline Death of the New Gods by Jim Starlin and Art Thibert, fans learn throughout the series that Infinity Man was the one killing all of the New Gods as the series was set up as a murder-mystery. Infinity Man takes on this dark mission as he is following the direction of the Source, the mysterious end-all power source in DC Comics, to balance life and anti-life across the universe. Throughout his rampage, Infinity Man kills a number of New Gods including all of the Forever People, those who he originally fought for upon his first introduction.
Drax reaches his shockingly high level of power after becoming Infinity Man, a power he didn’t always have. The original Infinity Man was a man named Astorr who found Drax horribly burnt and fighting for his life. Astorr nursed Drax back to health, and after dying of old age, Astorr passed the power of Infinity Man onto Darkseid’s brother, upgrading his already high level of power as a New God to astronomical levels as Infinity Man.
Drax defeated Darkseid in his first appearance and went on to kill nearly every New God in the Fourth World all because his power was immensely increased once he took on the mantle of Infinity Man. In his base form, Drax most likely wouldn’t hold a candle to his brother, but after the Infinity Man upgrade he became one of the most powerful of the New Gods, with Darkseid’s tactical skills being one of his only saving graces upon his brother’s killing spree. Because of his proven power level that is nearly unparalleled by defeating Darkseid and killing a number of New Gods, Darkseid’s overlooked brother Drax is even more powerful than the multiversal supervillain himself.