Alastair Smith

Born in Callander, Scotland, Destro’s full name is James McCullen Destro XXIV, and is Laird of Castle Destro in the Scottish Highlands. The Destro clan has designed and sold weapons for centuries, and Destro is the head of their current incarnation: M.A.R.S. (Military Armament Research Syndicate). He wears a mask forged from Beryllium Steel, a tradition dating back to the English Civil War, when an ancestor of his was caught selling weapons to both sides. Forced to wear a steel mask for his crimes (neither side wanted to execute the ancestor because they still wanted the weapons he sold), the Destro clan has since turned it into a symbol of pride, passing it down from father to son for over 20 generations. Destro is distantly related to Lady Jaye.

Destro’s key characteristics are his sense of honor, a calm demeanor, and love for COBRA’s second-in-command, the Baroness. As a businessman, Destro is cutthroat and unyielding. He uses his own troops, the Iron Grenadiers, and hires mercenaries to stir up conflict in dangerous regions, then sells weapons to those armies. Continuing a tradition started by the first masked Destro, he will even sell to both sides of the same war.

Canonical/Pre-MUX/Theme History:
Destro fancies himself an honorable man, answering to a moral code he alone seems to understand. He has stood with the Commander as often as he has opposed him, and will join forces with the G.I. Joe team if it is good for business. With such wavering loyalties, he has come to respect and befriend many characters, from Joe members Flint and Lady Jaye, to Zartan, and even the Commander’s estranged son Billy. His strongest connection is, however, to the Baroness, who, it is revealed early on, has shared a romantic relationship with him since before the comic begins.

Destro first appeared as Cobra Commander's hired "specialist", sent to stop the G.I. Joe team from ruining their operation on the Alaskan Pipeline. Although Destro manages to stay two steps ahead of the Joes, his confrontation with Doc results in the Joes getting the antidote for a plague they'd been infected with, and turning the tables on Cobra. His next appearance establishes his true intentions: he plans to remove the Commander from the equation, and lead Cobra himself, with the Baroness at his side. The Commander comes to suspect this betrayal and recruits Major Bludd to kill Destro.

A night operation in Washington, D.C. gives Bludd his chance. But when the Baroness (who was driving Bludd's HISS tank) realizes what he is planning she swerves sharply, overturning the tank and setting it on fire. The tank explodes, seemingly killing her, and leaves Destro a shattered wreck of his former self. The Commander uses this turn of events to point Destro's rage toward Bludd, and operates for a while without the fear of Destro's treachery. But when the Commander is captured by G.I. Joe, Destro wastes no time taking control. At this point, the Baroness returns, and reveals the Commander's part in her near death.

After a battle in the Everglades, Destro and Firefly are stranded, with only their wiles to get them past the Joe team, and back to Cobra's home town of Springfield. When they arrive, however, Baroness reveals that she and Bludd have recruited a young boy to assassinate the Commander during a Cobra Rally. During the ceremony, Destro spots the trained killer, and realizes it is the Cobra Commander's own son, Billy. Saving the man he swore to kill, Destro reveals a new side of himself: that of an honorable man who cannot condone patricide, even against a hated foe.

Destro heads the tribunal that questions Billy, and later tries to stop Storm Shadow from helping the boy escape. After the creation of Cobra Island, Destro and the Baroness meet with the curious Dr. Mindbender as he demonstrates his BATs to them. Although the BATs are defeated by Lady Jaye and a team of G.I. Joe trainees, they bring Mindbender to Cobra, where his true plans are put into effect. With the Commander's consent, and Destro's help, Mindbender collects the bodies of history's ten greatest warriors, which are used to create Serpentor. Serpentor is quickly recruited to fight a holding action against G.I. Joe, while Destro coordinates a complete evacuation of Springfield. Once the citizens of the small town are safe, Destro again shows his honorable side, and rescues Serpentor and the defenders.

Assaulting the PIT under Ft. Wadsworth, Staten Island, the Commander becomes indignant at Serpentor and his successful campaign to take Cobra as his own. Cobra Commander leads a team of troops into the subterranean base, and Destro chooses to join him. The two are trapped underneath tons of rubble, when the defenders detonate the PIT's lowest levels, and cave in the entire installation. While the Commander becomes unhinged, Destro reasons his way through, and uncovers an earth-boring machine that saves their lives. Traveling across country in disguise, they are reunited with Billy, who is in a coma after his car was blown up by the Cobra agent Scrap-Iron (by orders of Firefly). Watching the Commander grieve for his misdeed, Destro decides his time with Cobra has ended, and returns to Scotland to reclaim his family's legacy: the Military Armament and Research Systems, better known as M.A.R.S. On arrival, he is greeted by a doppelganger and thrown in prison. But with the intervention of Lady Jaye and Flint, Destro overthrows the fake, who turns out to be Major Bludd.

Some time later, Destro resurfaces as his own man and leader of his own organization called the Iron Grenadiers. After inciting a war in Sierra Gordo, he takes part in the Cobra Island Civil War, pushing back the forces of Serpentor and the second Cobra Commander (really Fred VII, a Crimson Guard) without firing a shot. After Zartan assassinates Serpentor, Mindbender bargains with Destro to cease fire and leave the Island, which Destro agrees to on one condition: that the Baroness be turned over to him. With his only objective in the war achieved, the Iron Grenadiers withdraw and the war is ended. Displaying his honor yet again, Destro helps blackmail a pair of politicians who try to blame G.I. Joe aiding Serpentor in the Civil War, cementing the Joes' respect for him.

Content to stay out of the war between G.I. Joe and Cobra, Destro is nonetheless made a target by Cobra Commander II, and Castle Destro is assaulted by Cobra. Turning the tables, Destro overpowers the fake Commander, and effectively takes over Cobra. While he unveils an intricate plan of checks and balances to keep the Cobra High Command and his Iron Grenadiers on even footing, the Baroness discovers that Snake-Eyes was the soldier she believed shot her brother in Southeast Asia. Taking on an unadvised vendetta, she allows for Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow to lay waste to the Cobra Consulate Building in New York City. As the roof collapses, and the three are about the plummet to their death, Destro arrives in a helicopter. He reveals that not only was he in Southeast Asia that day with his father, but that Snake-Eyes was innocent of killing her brother Eugene. Taking his love away, he removes his mask for her, and the two retire for a time while the Baroness puts her life back together.

As soon as Destro abandons Cobra, the original Commander returns, and locks most of his old lackeys in a freighter, and buries it under the volcano on Cobra Island. Among the victims are Zartan and Billy, although they have the distinction of being two of the three (Firefly being the last) who manage to dig themselves out. Because of his honorable character, they look to Destro for refuge. At the same time, however, the Commander (still seeking revenge on his old associates) assaults and destroys Castle Destro. Because of his spy in Cobra, Metal-Head, Destro manages to escape from the Castle, aided by G.I. Joe agent Chuckles, and the Commander puts a bounty on his head.

Now a marked man, Destro teams up with Billy and Zartan to rescue the Baroness, who is captured by Cobra in the raid. Teaming up with the fledgling G.I. Joe Ninja Force, the former Cobras break into the Night Creepers' Citadel and begin wiping out Cobra bank accounts. To save his fortunes, the Commander agrees to call off the bounty on Destro, return the Baroness to him, and provide him with a new castle.

That turns out to be the Silent Castle in Trans-Carpathia, where Slice and Dice have assembled the remaining Red Ninjas. With G.I. Joe guarding the Castle and Cobra arriving to activate the subliminal suggestions the Commander implanted in the Baroness while she was his prisoner, a four-way war breaks out, in the middle of which, Destro reveals the secret duality of the Castle. Keeping his promise to the Baroness that he would love her so long as Castle Destro stands, he transforms the castle into a duplicate of his Scottish home, and the Baroness' love for him breaks the Commander's hold. Routing Cobra and the ninjas, the couple are left alone once more.

After a time, the Commander decides that he wants to move on from Cobra Island and reclaim the Castle from Destro. On the run from a Cobra invasion, Destro and Baroness contact G.I. Joe for an extraction. Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow come to their rescue, but not before Destro sets the transformation controls to create a nightmare of architecture, and confronts Scarlett (posing as a traitor). On the rooftop, Snake-Eyes is forced to run her through with his sword (narrowly missing her heart) to keep her cover, and make good their escape. Destro tries to give his thanks for the rescue, but is silently rebuffed by Snake-Eyes, who resents having been put in such a position.

Afterwards, General Hawk takes Destro and Baroness to Cobra Island, where they are reunited with Zartan, who warns them all of the inevitable return of Dr. Mindbender. With the Commander fighting G.I. Joe in Millville, Destro, Baroness, and Zartan retake the Trans-Carpathian castle. They are soon joined by Billy, and the small group is reunited for a while. Soon after Dr. Mindbender is revived, he reveals that he placed a brain implant into Destro's mind during the removal of a wisdom tooth. Zartan also has one, and Cobra Commander's unmasked face is the trigger that activates them. Cobra ventures, once more, to the Castle, and the Commander removes his hood, turning Destro and Zartan to his side.

With Destro's superior tactical mind, Cobra begins a campaign that leaves them in control of Trans-Carpathia, Darklonia, and Borigia-Krazny/Marango. It is when they assault Wolkekukuckland that they come up against the G.I. Joe team, and the progress is halted. During the stalemate, Snake-Eyes attacks the Silent Castle to rescue Storm Shadow, only to find that he, along with the Baroness and Billy, have been brainwashed to serve Cobra as well. On the run, the Joes escape Cobra, and return to the United States, only to be deactivated by the government.