Fans of Dave Bautista’s Drax the Destroyer from MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies know the alien warrior as a fierce, funny, literal-minded warrior hell bent on killing Thanos. So they may be surprised to learn that in the comic books, Drax has a very different origin, appearance, and demeanor – one that allowed the Silver Surfer to beat him in the most unconventional way.
To start, the Drax of the comics is not an extraterrestrial but a dead Earthman who was resurrected by Chronos, the God of Titan. After giving the man the overwhelming desire to destroy Thanos, Chronos gave him an incredibly powerful green body and set him loose. Powerful as Drax was, however, he was killed and had to be resurrected again – this time with brain damage. This led to his encounter with the Silver Surfer, and one of the Destroyer’s weirdest clashes ever.
In Silver Surfer #37, newly resurrected Drax tracked down the Surfer, whom he sensed would be meeting Thanos soon. After pestering the Surfer constantly to take him to Thanos, the Silver Surfer finally lost patience and tried to fly away. However, Drax simply grabbed onto the Surfer’s board and held firm, forcing the Surfer to take him along for the ride.
Wanting to get rid of his unwanted companion, the Silver Surfer resorted to brute force, blasting Drax with powerful bolts of the Power Cosmic and even sent his board crashing through an asteroid. However, this version of Drax was so powerful that none of these tactics could detach him from the Surfer’s board. Frustrated, the Surfer flew into the heart of a sun, but Drax’s skin proved just as impenetrable as the Surfer’s.
Finally forced to concede he couldn’t defeat his opponent physically, the Silver Surfer switched to more cerebral tactics. Remembering that, despite his inhuman green appearance, Drax was still human, the Surfer reasoned that he might respond to Earth-based stimuli. Since the man Drax used to be was an American, the Surfer devised a truly devious strategy by telling Drax there were “information machines” on Earth that might be able to tell him where Thanos was.
Intrigued, Drax agreed to take a side trip back to Earth where the Surfer paid a visit to the Fantastic Four and asked to see their wonderful “information machine” – which turned out to be the television set in their living room. As luck would have it, there was a marathon of old TV sitcoms playing, and Drax immediately plopped on the couch and began watching episodes of I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, Mr. Ed, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, Leave it to Beaver… and The Adventures of Superman (yes, really).
The Silver Surfer also joined Drax during for the marathon – but after a couple hours, Drax had become so enraptured by the shows, the Surfer left without Drax even noticing. Free to now pursue Thanos on his own, the Silver Surfer flew off – leaving the Fantastic Four to deal with the big green guy once he realized he’d been had.
While Drax would eventually regain enough of his mental faculties to not be tricked in such a way again, the Surfer’s unorthodox strategy to get rid of the Destroyer remains one of his cleverer tactics. Given that Bautista’s version of Drax isn’t an Earthman, he would probably not be able to be distracted that way either. Then again, given MCU Drax’s tendency to jump into bad situations without thinking them through, the Silver Surfer probably wouldn’t have to resort to such subterfuge.