How Old Is Drax? (MCU & Comics)

Drax the Destroyer is one of the fan-favorite MCU characters to date. Portrayed by Dave Bautista, Drax is a hilarious but super strong member of the Guardians of the Galaxy who’s been with the team for years since they first banded together. But, is MCU’s Drax similar to his Marvel Comics counterpart, and how old is he in the MCU and the comics?

We never learn Drax’s true age in the MCU, so we can only assume he’s about the same age as the actor portraying him. Dave Bautista was born in 1969, meaning Drax is around 54 as of now in the MCU. In the comics, though, things are a bit more complicated, as Drax died and was reborn in a different body.

You see, Drax the Destroyer had an interesting comic book history, mostly because the character’s creator, Jim Starlin, didn’t know what to do with the character. Over the years, his skills and power levels became somewhat consistent and similar to those of MCU’s Drax, but their origin stories are completely different. Let’s try to figure out Drax’s true age.

Who is Drax the Destroyer?

Before talking about the age of Drax the Destroyer, it’s important to get to know the character and the difference in his origins between Marvel Comics and the MCU. It’s vital to know Drax’s history to try and determine his age precisely.

Drax the Destroyer in Marvel Comics

In the comics, Drax the Destroyer first appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #55 in 1972 and was created by Jim Starlin. He was an odd character, to begin with, revisited a couple of times because Starlin didn’t really know what to do with him. As the creator revealed in an interview with CBR, he first imagined Drax as ‘Kryptonite for Thanos’:

“In the beginning, Drax was versatile because I didn’t know what the hell to do with him. He was an element; he was supposed to be Thanos’ Kryptonite. I sort of drifted away from that idea, and when I came back to using him, I made a big change in him. 

I brain-damaged him and made him into the Hulk because Marvel didn’t have a dumb green thing at the time, and I thought they should. And so I sort of made him like that. 

Later on, they wanted to change his visuals, which I had no problem with because I was never crazy about that costume. It didn’t make a lot of sense. I wasn’t invested enough in the character to go back and do anything more with it.”

That led to several revisions of his power levels and intelligence but also a pretty unique and interesting origin story.

In Captain Marvel #32 in 1974, we learn that Drax was originally a human named Arthur Sampson Douglas. He was an ordinary family man that was also a jazz musician, living in California, US.

One night, Arthur, his wife Yvette, and daughter Heather were driving home from an Elvis Presley concert in Las Vegas through the Mojave Desert when they were attacked by Thanos’ spaceship. Yvette and Arthur died in the crash, while little Heather survived and was taken to Titan by an alien entity named Mentor, where she was raised and became Moondragon.

Arthur’s soul drifted into space, where a powerful entity named Kronos found him and used his soul to instill life into an artificial body of his own creation, with incredible strength, durability, telepathic abilities, and more. That moment was the creation of Drax the Destroyer, whose only purpose was to find and destroy Thanos, leading him into mayhem across the Galaxy.

With time, his powers were toned down, as well as his intelligence, but his memories of the family he once had on Earth also came back. Still, he never stopped until getting Thanos.

Drax the Destroyer in the MCU

In the MCU, Drax had an origin revision, made much more straightforward than his comic book counterpart. He was a Kylosian (alien from the planet of Kylos), a powerful species that, for all their physical attributes, wasn’t really the brightest. Kylosians were incapable of understanding metaphors, so everything you say to them – they take literally.

While Thanos was on his quest to wipe out half of the universe, Ronan the Accuser had slain half of the population of Kylos in Thanos’ name – including Drax’s wife and daughter. Drax then vowed to exact revenge on Ronan and, subsequently, Thanos.

Not much else is known about Drax’s species, but we do know that he in no way was a human at any point. His appearance also changed a bit, having grey skin instead of green.

How old is Drax in the comics?

Now that you know the complicated nature of Drax the Destroyer’s comic book origins, you can understand why it’s hard to determine how old he actually is. His exact age was never disclosed, but we can make educated guesses by looking through the comics.

In Captain Marvel #32, we can see that Arthur’s daughter is already in her pre-teens or early teenage years. Arthur had to be at least over 30 then, but to me, he appeared closer to his late 30s – early 40s.

After he passed away, though, it’s even harder to determine his new age, as we don’t know the ‘age’ of the artificial body created by Kronos. Therefore, we can assume that Arthur continued aging in his new body normally, making him around 40 when he became Drax the Destroyer.

He had several revivals and revisits, but I believe part of his storyline is consistent.

How old is Drax in the MCU?

Just like his comic book counterpart, Drax the Destroyer’s age has never been fully disclosed in the MCU. However, even though some elements of his origin story were different, some similarities could point to Drax’s age being pretty much the same as in the comics.

When we met Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, he was imprisoned due to going on a rampage trying to get to Ronan the Accuser to avenge his murdered wife and daughter. That means he was likely around the same age as Arthur Douglas was when he lost his human life in the comics, which would be between 30 and 40.

That being said, I’d put it closer to 40-45, as that’s actually how old the actor behind the character is. Dave Bautista was born in 1969, and seeing that the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out in 2014, that’d make him 45 years old at the time.

If we take Dave’s age as approximately the same age as his character, Drax, it’d mean that Drax is around 54 years old right now in the MCU, at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Well, minus the five years he lost in the Snap.

While Drax will likely never appear in the MCU again, it’s comforting to know that he’s alive and doing what he does best – being a father and raising the Star Children found on High Evolutionary’s ship.

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