Drax (Earth-199999)

Drax is a humanoid warrior, former criminal, and member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He is known for his muscular build and fierce courage, while also possessing a warmth and compassion for those he considers close. He struggles with figurative and metaphorical language, a trait common to his race, and harbors a dark sense of humor. Drax's wife and daughter were killed in Ronan the Accuser's crusade against the Xandarian empire, and he has lived his life ever since in their memory. He eventually defeated Ronan while forming the Guardians of the Galaxy alongside Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot. Having achieved vengeance, he now sets his sights on the one who commanded Ronan in his quest for the Orb, Thanos.

Biography

Guardians of the Galaxy

In 2014, Drax was serving a sentence in the Nova Corps's Kyln space prison for unknown crimes when Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot were taken into custody for fighting on the streets of Xandar. Drax learned that Gamora was loyal to Ronan and attempted to kill her, but Star-Lord (Peter Quill) talked him down and convinced him to help them escape so he could get closer to Ronan himself. The five of them escaped from the Kyln with the Orb in hand, which Gamora had been sent by Ronan to take from Star-Lord on Xandar. In truth, she intended to sell it to the Collector instead, and the other four agreed to split the profits—Drax was uninterested in money, focused entirely on revenge on Ronan. The five traveled to Knowhere aboard Quill's Milano starship.

The five had time to kill before they could meet with the Collector, and Drax, Rocket, and Groot spent it in a drinking and gambling establishment. The drunken Drax and Rocket antagonized each other, but Quill convinced Rocket to keep it together until the four of them could collect their massive bounty from the Collector and go their separate ways. As the four went to see the Collector, Drax's rage overcame him, and he used a nearby radio dispatch to contact Ronan and demand he meet him face-to-face. Ronan arrived with his fleet, and his followers (led by Nebula, Gamora's adoptive sister) chased after the others and the Orb. Drax fought Ronan valiantly one-on-one, but Ronan effortlessly defeated Drax in hand-to-hand combat, claiming no memory of killing his family and dumping his unconscious body ignobly in a vat of yellow liquid to drown. Groot and Rocket recovered and revived him. While the others were with the Collector, they had learned that the Orb contained the Power Stone, one of the six cosmically powerful Infinity Stones.

Ronan trounced him handily. Ronan left him unconscious in a vat of yellow liquid, where he was later recovered by Groot and Rocket after the smoke had cleared. Ronan had taken the Orb, and Quill and Gamora had been captured by the Ravagers—Quill had recently betrayed them and their leader, Yondu Udonta, who had been searching for him ever since. Drax deeply regretted his hubris, realizing that his rage was just a mask for his anguish. Rocket chastised Drax for trying to take on Ronan’s army. Drax was deeply regretful, calling himself a fool for trying to use rage to cover up his loss. Rocket told Groot that their only chance now that Ronan had the Power Stone was to get as far away as possible. Groot had more compassion, and he and Drax insisted that they try to save Quill and Gamora. By the time they arrived at the Ravager ship in the Milano, however, Quill had arrived at an arrangement with Yondu and the others to team up and steal the Power Stone from Ronan.

The plan entailed giving the Stone to Yondu so that he could sell it once Ronan was defeated. Rocket was concerned at the idea of giving the Power Stone to Yondu, who was liable to sell it to someone “even worse” than Ronan—Quill said they would figure it out when the time came. Quill and the others realized that assaulting Ronan and his forces amounted to a suicide mission, but with a rousing speech he galvanized their loyalty and will. Together they came up with a thorough plan to storm Ronan’s Dark Aster mothership alongside the Ravagers, defeat him and retrieve the Power Stone, preventing him from reaching the surface of Xandar and using the Stone to destroy all life on the planet. Quill also sent a message to a Nova Corps officer who arrested him previously and asked for help from the people of Xandar in the coming battle. Quill's request was a success, as the leaders of Xandar rallied their forces for war and evacuated the people below.

Before long, the assembled forces arrived in the Xandarian atmosphere to counter Ronan's Kree forces, initiating a vast battle in the air. Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Groot boarded the Dark Aster via the Milano while Rocket continued to fight in the sky. Gamora ran into and battled her sister Nebula while the others fought through Ronan's forces at large. Gamora knocked Nebula through a hole in the ship—as she hung by her cybernetic hand, Gamora implored her to help them defeat Ronan, but Nebula refused, breaking off her hand and escaping in a smaller ship below. The four soon arrived at Ronan's throne room, where he stood with the Power Stone installed in his Cosmi-Rod. Quill fired at him with Rocket's powerful, self-made Hadron Enforcer, but the might of the Power Stone protected him. Moments later, Rocket crashed into the hall in the Milano, plowing directly into Ronan and causing the Dark Aster to begin plummeting to the surface. Amidst the rubble, Groot enveloped his friends in a thick ball of roots and branches, sacrificing himself to protect them in the crash. Rocket pleaded with him not to do it, but Groot simply responded, "We are Groot."

After the Aster crashed, Ronan emerged from the wreckage effectively unscathed. Rocket angrily charged at him, but Ronan and the Stone effortlessly zapped him away as the others lay recovering in the rubble. As a frightened crowd gathered, Ronan sarcastically referred to Quill and the others as the "Guardians of the Galaxy." As Ronan prepared to at last unleash the Power Stone and achieve his quest, Quill distracted him by singing and dancing. Utterly confused and annoyed, Ronan was indeed distracted long enough for Drax to fire the Hadron Enforcer at the Cosmi-Rod, causing the Power Stone to fly out. Quill made a desperate leap for it and successfully grabbed it inches before Ronan could, cognizant of the fact that it would certainly kill him. A torrent of purple energy swirled around the vicinity, and Quill's body began to crack under the immense power. Gamora grabbed his hand to spread out the energy, and Drax and Rocket connected themselves as well. A distraught Ronan asked them how they could survive the Power Stone's energy, and Quill responded, "You said it yourself, bitch: we're the Guardians of the Galaxy." He then harnessed the Power Stone's energy to vaporize Ronan in seconds, and Gamora used a substitute Orb to safely contain the Stone.

With the smoke having cleared, Yondu and the Ravagers approached the newly christened Guardians, reminding them of their side of the deal. Quill pleaded with Yondu to let them give the Power Stone to the Nova Corps instead, but Yondu was having none of it. With a begrudging look on his face, Quill handed him a decoy Orb and urged him not to open it. Satisfied, the Ravagers left Xandar. As Rocket mourned his friend Groot, now reduced to a pile of sticks, Drax sat beside him and gently pet him on the head in a rare moment of vulnerability for both. Rocket retrieved a stick from the crash site and plant it in a flower pot—before long, this stick would blossom into a newborn Groot. Later, the Guardians spoke with Nova Prime Irani Rael, who explained to Quill that, when he was initially imprisoned, they found that he was human on his mother's side but that his father possessed an ancient blood they couldn't identify—Gamora reasoned that this was likely why he was able to hold the Power Stone for as long as he did. The Guardians handed off the Power Stone to the Nova Corps, who securely stored it for safe keeping. Realizing that Ronan was "merely a puppet," Drax turned the attention of his vengeance to Thanos. With the Milano having been nearly destroyed in the Aster crash, the Nova Corps showed their gratitude to the Guardians by repairing it to a like-new condition. With the threat of Ronan and the Power Stone stopped, the Guardians of the Galaxy looked ahead to their next adventure.