The Destroyer
Encyclopedia
The Destroyer is a paperback series of novels created by Warren Murphy
Warren Murphy
Warren Murphy is an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal...

 and Richard Sapir
Richard Sapir
Richard Ben Sapir is best known for The Destroyer series of novels that he co-created with Warren Murphy. The first Destroyer was written in 1963, while Sapir worked as a city hall reporter in Jersey City and Murphy served as secretary to the city's mayor...

 about a U.S. government operative named Remo Williams. The first novel was published in 1971, although the manuscript was completed on June 25, 1963. Along with Don Pendleton
Don Pendleton
Don Pendleton was an author of fiction and nonfiction books, best known for his creation of American hero The Executioner: Mack Bolan.-Biography:...

's The Executioner series, The Destroyer is one of the original and longest lasting men's adventure
Men's adventure
Men's adventure is a genre of magazines that had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Catering to a male audience, these magazines featured glamour photography and lurid tales of adventure that typically featured wartime feats of daring, exotic travel or conflict with wild animals.These magazines are...

 series. It was adapted into the 1985 feature film, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, also released as Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous, is a 1985 American film. The action–adventure-thriller film featured Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley and Kate Mulgrew, as well as many guest roles...

, starring Fred Ward
Fred Ward
Freddie Joe "Fred" Ward is an American actor. He began his career in 1979 alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. He is best known for his starring roles in the motion pictures Remo Williams, Tremors, Henry & June, Short Cuts, The Right Stuff and Exit Speed...

 as Williams.

Authors

The series was originally co-written by Warren Murphy
Warren Murphy
Warren Murphy is an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal...

 and Richard Sapir
Richard Sapir
Richard Ben Sapir is best known for The Destroyer series of novels that he co-created with Warren Murphy. The first Destroyer was written in 1963, while Sapir worked as a city hall reporter in Jersey City and Murphy served as secretary to the city's mayor...

. Early in the series, only one of them would write a book alone. The usual process was for one of them to begin the book and for the other to finish it. In the late 1970s, the relationship between the two men became tense, and Sapir left the series. In the early 1980s, Murphy began using ghostwriters to help with the series, including his wife Molly Cochran. By the mid-1980s, Sapir returned to the series to write some more books.

In the late 1980s, Will Murray
Will Murray (writer)
Will Murray is the author of more than fifty novels, a scholar of pulp fiction and a writer of numorous comic books. Much of his fiction has been published under pseudonyms.-Novels and magazines:...

 took over the responsibility of writing the series alone, after writing several of the books with either Murphy or Sapir. After Sapir died, Murray continued the series until the late 1990s. When Murray left after novel #107, there were three novels without a steady ghostwriter (#108 & #110 by Mike Newton; #109 by Alan Philipson). Jim Mullaney
Jim Mullaney
Jim Mullaney is an American ghostwriter and later credited writer of 26 novels in The Destroyer paperback-novel series. In addition, he and Warren Murphy co-authored the Destroyer companion guide, The Assassin's Handbook 2: Chiun's Big Book of Rainy Day Fun. Mullaney has also worked on Iron Fist...

 took over for novels #111-#131, followed by two more by Newton. Tim Somheil was ghostwriter from #134 through #145.

On July 11, 2006, it was announced that The Destroyer would be moving to Tor Books
Tor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...

, part of the St. Martin's publishing group. Along with the change of publisher, author Somheil was dropped in favor of previous author Mullaney, who will co-write the novels with Warren Murphy. The last novel published by Gold Eagle, Dragon Bones, came out in October 2006. The first Tor novel, The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel, was published in May 2007, as well as a re-release of three older novels in a collection called The Best of the Destroyer. The second novel, Choke Hold, was out October 31, with Dead Reckoning to follow in April 2008 and Killer Ratings on July 28 of that year. Due to disagreements between the authors and the publisher, this fourth New Destroyer will remain the last one for the time being.

A few years ago, Murphy started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

In 2011 the rights to most of The Destroyer reverted to Warren Murphy. They are being released on Kindle. Warren Murphy has stated on his Facebook page, that he's writing a new Destroyer story which will also be available on Kindle. No date is given.

Background

The series is about Remo Williams, a Newark cop framed
Frameup
A frame-up or setup is an American term referring to the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence or false testimony in order to falsely prove someone guilty of a crime....

 for a crime and sentenced to death. His death is faked by the government so he can be trained as an assassin for CURE, a secret organization set up by President Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 to defend the country by working outside the bounds of the Constitution. The sitting US President and the head of CURE were initially the only other people that know about the organization. (Over the years this circle of people has increased slightly.) The head of CURE is Harold Smith, a man selected by the President because of his brilliant mind but more importantly, because of his integrity. Smith was a former law instructor at Yale
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

 and served in the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Remo's trainer is Chiun, a deadly assassin and the last Master of Sinanju
Sinanju (martial art)
Sinanju is a fictional martial art of a cult paperback book series, The Destroyer, by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir...

. Over the years, Remo and Chiun's relationship has transformed from student-teacher to son-father. It's also been discovered over the years that Remo is the Avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....

 of Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

, as prophesied in the legends of Sinanju. In 1985, a companion book entitled Inside Sinanju was published. This was a revised and updated book that was formerly titled The Assassin's Handbook. Most of the book is written in the first person of "Chiun". It covers anecdotes as well as information on the various villains and story arcs from the series.

Although the series settled down into its formula by around the third book, there are many elements which are not present in the first book, Created, The Destroyer. Many of these have, however, been "retconned" into later stories about the early days of Remo's training. In the first book, the word Sinanju is not used at all to describe the martial arts that Chiun teaches Remo. Zen, karate, aikido and judo are used instead. Remo has many trainers for other aspects of being an undercover operative, he is taught to use different types of firearms, and trained in close-quarters assassination. He smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and eats red meat, all activities that would later prove harmful or impossible as his body became changed by the harsh Sinanju training regime. Remo uses a gun to shoot somebody, although it is only to wound, and all his actual kills are hand-to-hand. He does make a conscious choice not to use weapons, after a fight in which he kills a man who had been pointing a gun at him. He realizes that Chiun never carried a gun and is over 70, whereas MacCleary, who had told him to always carry a gun, is dead. The retelling of Remo's origin in the story "The Day Remo Died" in The Assassin's Handbook and in Destroyer #120-121 square his origin more fully with later developments.

Chiun is a minor supporting character who appears only briefly in this book in an early training sequence, and is not referred to again. Much of the humour that comes in the later books from the relationship between Remo and Chiun is correspondingly absent. The book also lacks the 'signature' touch, in that the first line of chapter two does not start with the words: 'His name was Remo'.

Villains

Remo and Chiun have encountered a number of colorful villains, both human and superhuman. Their foes have run the gamut of pulp fiction, from mobsters to mad scientists. Given their talents as assassins, few have survived their encounters with Remo and Chiun, but some of their more powerful foes have managed to survive, such as the sinister android Mr. Gordons, super-soldier Elizu Roote, the computer program known as Friend, renegade Sinanju practitioner Nuihc (backwards spelling of the name Chiun), and his protege Jeremiah Purcell, a.k.a. the Dutchman, and a Chinese vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

 known as The Master.

Film

In 1985, The Destroyer concept was adapted for the theatrical movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, also released as Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous, is a 1985 American film. The action–adventure-thriller film featured Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley and Kate Mulgrew, as well as many guest roles...

, starring Fred Ward
Fred Ward
Freddie Joe "Fred" Ward is an American actor. He began his career in 1979 alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. He is best known for his starring roles in the motion pictures Remo Williams, Tremors, Henry & June, Short Cuts, The Right Stuff and Exit Speed...

 as Williams and Joel Grey
Joel Grey
Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...

 as Chiun. The film shows the first meeting of Remo and Chuin, and centers on a corrupt weapons manufacturer who is selling guns to the US Army. Like many films based on other material, this one did not follow the source material very closely, much to the disgust of some fans and the authors of the Destroyer series. Several Destroyer books actually make fun of the film and its promotional materials.

New film

In 2009, Dark Horizons suggested that a new Remo movie may be in the works, produced by The Dark Knight producer Charles Roven
Charles Roven
Charles Roven is an American film producer. He was previously married to Dawn Steel.-External links:...

 and Transporter producer Steve Chasman, in association with Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

. Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides are writing the screenplay.

Television

In 1988, an American television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

, Remo Williams, aired but did not lead to a series. It was a follow-up to the movie incorporating footage from the movie in the opening credits and music from the movie throughout. It starred Jeffrey Meek
Jeffrey Meek
Jeffrey William Meek is an American actor. Meek and his family moved often; as a child, Meek lived in Zweibrücken, Germany, Michigan, and San Francisco....

 as Williams, Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...

 as Chiun, and Stephen Elliott
Stephen Elliott (actor)
Stephen Elliott was an American actor. His best known role was that of crime boss, Burt Johnson, in the hit 1981 film Arthur.-Theatre:Elliott's first acting engagement was at the New York Neighborhood Playhouse in 1946...

 as Harold W. Smith and is loosely based on the novella "The Day Remo Died". Set one year after the events of the feature film, the pilot episode (titled "The Prophecy") was directed by Christian I. Nyby II
Christian I. Nyby II
Christian I. Nyby II is an American television director.Nyby graduated from Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, California in 1959. He attended the University of Idaho for two years before transferring to the University of Southern California...

 and the teleplay written by Steven Hensley and J. Miyoko Hensley. The episode featured guest stars Carmen Argenziano
Carmen Argenziano
Carmen Antimo Argenziano is an American actor who has appeared in over 50 movies and around 100 television movies or episodes....

, Judy Landers
Judy Landers
Judy Landers is an American film and television actress.-Early years:Landers was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was raised in Rockland County, New York. She is the daughter of Ruth Landers, and is the younger sister of fellow actress Audrey Landers...

, and Andy Romano
Andy Romano
Andy Romano is an American actor, known for playing "J.D." in the 1960s Beach Party movies ....

. Music by Craig Safan
Craig Safan
Craig Safan is a Hollywood film composer whose biggest scores include The Last Starfighter, Angel, Fade to Black, Major Payne, Remo Williams, and music to the TV series Cheers, for which he won numerous ASCAP awards.After getting his start in theater, Safan moved to film composing in the 1980s,...

.

The television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

 had not been seen since 1988 until the Encore cable television channel began airing it in the summer of 2009.

Comic books

There have been several Destroyer comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 and magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 series published by Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

.

On-line

In 2010, a custom trailer/intro/teaser was uploaded to YouTube, called "Created the Destroyer"

Series listing

  1. Created, The Destroyer
  2. Death Check
  3. Chinese Puzzle
  4. Mafia Fix
  5. Dr. Quake
  6. Death Therapy
  7. Union Bust
  8. Summit Chase
  9. Murder's Shield
  10. Terror Squad
  11. Kill or CURE
  12. Slave Safari
  13. Acid Rock
  14. Judgment Day
  15. Murder Ward
  16. Oil Slick
  17. Last War Dance
  18. Funny Money
  19. Holy Terror
  20. Assassin's Play-Off
  21. Deadly Seeds
  22. Brain Drain
  23. Child's Play
  24. King's Curse
  25. Sweet Dreams
  26. In Enemy Hands
  27. The Last Temple
  28. Ship of Death
  29. The Final Death
  30. Mugger Blood
  31. The Head Men
  32. Killer Chromosomes
  33. Voodoo Die
  34. Chained Reaction
  35. Last Call
  36. Power Play
  37. Bottom Line
  38. Bay City Blast
  39. Missing Link
  40. Dangerous Games
  41. Firing Line
  42. Timber Line
  43. Midnight Man
  44. Balance of Power
  45. Spoils of War
  46. Next of Kin
  47. Dying Space
  48. Profit Motive
  49. Skin Deep
  50. Killing Time
  51. Shock Value
  52. Fool's Gold
  53. Time Trial
  54. Last Drop
  55. Master's Challenge
  56. Encounter Group
  57. Date With Death
  58. Total Recall
  59. The Arms of Kali
  60. The End of the Game
  61. Lords of the Earth
  62. The Seventh Stone
  63. The Sky Is Falling
  64. The Last Alchemist
  65. Lost Yesterday
  66. Sue Me
  67. Look Into My Eyes
  68. An Old-Fashioned War
  69. Blood Ties
  70. The Eleventh Hour
  71. Return Engagement
  72. Sole Survivor
  73. Line of Succession
  74. Walking Wounded
  75. Rain of Terror
  76. The Final Crusade
  77. Coin of the Realm
  78. Blue Smoke And Mirrors
  79. Shooting Schedule
  80. Death Sentence
  81. Hostile Takeover
  82. Survival Course
  83. Skull Duggery
  84. Ground Zero
  85. Blood Lust
  86. Arabian Nightmare
  87. Mob Psychology
  88. The Ultimate Death
  89. Dark Horse
  90. Ghost in the Machine
  91. Cold Warrior
  92. The Last Dragon
  93. Terminal Transmission
  94. Feeding Frenzy
  95. High Priestess
  96. Infernal Revenue
  97. Identity Crisis
  98. Target of Opportunity
  99. The Color of Fear
  100. Last Rites
  101. Bidding War
  102. Unite and Conquer
  103. Engines Of Destruction
  104. Angry White Mailmen
  105. Scorched Earth
  106. White Water
  107. Feast or Famine
  108. Bamboo Dragon
  109. American Obsession
  110. Never Say Die
  111. Prophet of Doom
  112. Brain Storm
  113. The Empire Dreams
  114. Failing Marks
  115. Misfortune Teller
  116. The Final Reel
  117. Deadly Genes
  118. Killer Watts
  119. Fade To Black
  120. The Last Monarch
  121. A Pound of Prevention
  122. Syndication Rites
  123. Disloyal Opposition
  124. By Eminent Domain
  125. The Wrong Stuff
  126. Air Raid
  127. Market Force
  128. The End of the Beginning
  129. Father To Son
  130. Waste Not, Want Not
  131. Unnatural Selection
  132. Wolf's Bane
  133. Troubled Waters
  134. Bloody Tourists
  135. Political Pressure
  136. Unpopular Science
  137. Industrial Evolution
  138. No Contest
  139. Dream Thing
  140. Dark Ages
  141. Frightening Strikes
  142. Mindblower
  143. Bad Dog
  144. Holy Mother
  145. Dragon Bones

The New Destroyer series
  1. Guardian Angel (May 2007)
  2. Choke Hold (October 2007)
  3. Dead Reckoning (April 2008)
  4. Killer Ratings (July 2008)

  • The Best of the Destroyer (May 1, 2007) -- A collection of three early Destroyer books: Chinese Puzzle, Slave Safari, and Assassin's Play-off.

News

Dec., 2007: Guardian Angel, Choke Hold and The Best of the Destroyer make Bookgasm's top ten list of the best crime novels of 2007.

See also

  • Able Team
    Able Team
    Able Team is a series of action-adventure novels first published in 1982 by American Gold Eagle publishers. It is a spin-off of the Executioner series created by Don Pendleton....

  • Death Merchant
  • Nick Carter-Killmaster
    Nick Carter-Killmaster
    Nick Carter-Killmaster is a series of spy adventures published from 1964 until the late 1990s, first by Award Books, then by Ace Books, and finally by Jove Books. At least 261 novels were published....

  • Phoenix Force
    Phoenix Force
    Phoenix Force is a series of action-adventure novels first published in 1982 by American Gold Eagle publishers. It is a spin-off of the Executioner series created by Don Pendleton....

  • Mack Bolan
    Mack Bolan
    Mack Bolan, alias The Executioner, is a fictional character who has been serialized in over six hundred novels with sales of more than 200 million, according to Amazon.com. Created by Don Pendleton, Bolan made his first appearance on the printed page in 1969's War Against the Mafia...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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