Yes. Against the advice of the very kind anons of rpanons, I do use some stuff from the comics. It felt necessary to do. (Sorry, anons.) Drax has only been in one film and not much of his stuff has been revealed. I also try to play him and his past really open-ended and vague, in respect to any development that might occur in future films.
First things first: Drax has never been Arthur Douglas, and he isn't a sentient pile of dirt; this guy has always been Drax the Destroyer. His family was murdered, and this dude's new purpose in life was to kill his wife and daughter's murderer. This purpose was pursued with a monomaniacal obsession, to the point of alienating everybody and anybody that would want to be his friend or become closer to him. These last two things are comic-stuff that appear in the film.
Comic Canon that I use, that isn't explicitly in the film, pertains to an extrapolated trajectory of his post-film development. In the comics, Drax the Destroyer (not Arthur) survived two deaths and, with each death, had huge shifts in personality:
His first incarnation was a pretentious-sounding asshole, who took his job as the cosmically assigned Destroyer of Thanos like way too seriously; he was killed by his daughter, Moondragon, after she took over a planet with her mind-control and he called the Avengers on her. Thanos' father, Mentor, and this god stand-in called Kronos originally made this dude's form out of dirt and, right after Arthur and his family were killed by Thanos, took his soul and bound it to this golem. Even after memories of his old life came back, the Destroyer didn't get too fazed; he was just like, "oh, Mentor hid this from me because he didn't want me to get too traumatized, how nice, back to destroying Thanos," because he cared very little about anything outside of killing the Mad Titan.
The second was a muscle-bound idiot, who forgave his daughter for killing him; he had this thing, in the mini that had his second death, where he became a bit smarter while fighting. Kronos brought this second incarnation to life, but Drax's mind was really damaged from the telepathic assassination job that Moondragon performed. People call this version space!Hulk, because he was really strong and spoke simply; truthfully, this guy made Hulk (not Banner) look like a genius. Moondragon had developed a conscience and felt really bad, like she had an existentialist crisis and worried that there wasn't anything left of her old Dad in him; eventually, she helped him get his mind back by petitioning with Kronos. IDK why it sort of wore off.
The third regained his intelligence and became a hardened man-thing (yes, he was a metaphorical dick); he was manipulative and often cold, but also metaphorically strove to reconnect with his lost humanity. Paternity had always been like a big thing in this dude's character, and a struggle to return to this role was really emphasized in this incarnation. The first incarnation was a little too focused on killing Thanos to care, whereas the second was too childish to have trouble with being incredibly affectionate. The third had to deal with Moondragon's death, getting her back, and growing enough of a conscience and self-awareness to give a shit about putting effort into returning to this role; this dude not only tried to be a better father for Moondragon, but also served as a paternal-figure to Cammi and sort of Phyla-Vell (daughter of the first Captain Marvel, who was his first incarnation's enemy).
The one I write is a selective combination of these three (namely the personalities and arcs, not the convoluted history), in addition to the dude from the movie. The biggest difference between the dude from the movie and the other three a-holes, aside from the 'maybe-tribal alien who doesn't get metaphors' stuff, is that the movie guy is legitimately loyal to the Guardians. The third was the only one to have been a Guardian, but, after finding out that his Peter Quill pretty much had Mantis brainwash the team into cooperating, he left with Phyla and probably only returned to give himself a purpose outside of destroying Thanos (who was temporarily dead, because Drax tore his heart out). Drax's second incarnation had been a part of another team, prior to the Guardians, called "Infinity Watch". This group was assembled to look after the Infinity Stones. Even though this dude had been a part of teams, he was usually more of a solo act; even while on a team, he'd leave and do his own thing. Although the Drax I write is very fond of the Guardians, he'll still be prone to doing his own stuff. Like, finding ways to take down Thanos.
Whenever he also thinks about his daughter or describes her, his kid was like Moondragon. To a lesser degree, his kid would have also been a little bit like Cammi (if only for the slight similarity in names). Both girls were haughty, manipulative, and a little awful; they were also really compelling characters and fascinating.
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ninetydegrees
Comic Canon:
First things first: Drax has never been Arthur Douglas, and he isn't a sentient pile of dirt; this guy has always been Drax the Destroyer. His family was murdered, and this dude's new purpose in life was to kill his wife and daughter's murderer. This purpose was pursued with a monomaniacal obsession, to the point of alienating everybody and anybody that would want to be his friend or become closer to him. These last two things are comic-stuff that appear in the film.
Comic Canon that I use, that isn't explicitly in the film, pertains to an extrapolated trajectory of his post-film development. In the comics, Drax the Destroyer (not Arthur) survived two deaths and, with each death, had huge shifts in personality:
His first incarnation was a pretentious-sounding asshole, who took his job as the cosmically assigned Destroyer of Thanos like way too seriously; he was killed by his daughter, Moondragon, after she took over a planet with her mind-control and he called the Avengers on her. Thanos' father, Mentor, and this god stand-in called Kronos originally made this dude's form out of dirt and, right after Arthur and his family were killed by Thanos, took his soul and bound it to this golem. Even after memories of his old life came back, the Destroyer didn't get too fazed; he was just like, "oh, Mentor hid this from me because he didn't want me to get too traumatized, how nice, back to destroying Thanos," because he cared very little about anything outside of killing the Mad Titan.
The second was a muscle-bound idiot, who forgave his daughter for killing him; he had this thing, in the mini that had his second death, where he became a bit smarter while fighting. Kronos brought this second incarnation to life, but Drax's mind was really damaged from the telepathic assassination job that Moondragon performed. People call this version space!Hulk, because he was really strong and spoke simply; truthfully, this guy made Hulk (not Banner) look like a genius. Moondragon had developed a conscience and felt really bad, like she had an existentialist crisis and worried that there wasn't anything left of her old Dad in him; eventually, she helped him get his mind back by petitioning with Kronos. IDK why it sort of wore off.
The third regained his intelligence and became a hardened man-thing (yes, he was a metaphorical dick); he was manipulative and often cold, but also metaphorically strove to reconnect with his lost humanity. Paternity had always been like a big thing in this dude's character, and a struggle to return to this role was really emphasized in this incarnation. The first incarnation was a little too focused on killing Thanos to care, whereas the second was too childish to have trouble with being incredibly affectionate. The third had to deal with Moondragon's death, getting her back, and growing enough of a conscience and self-awareness to give a shit about putting effort into returning to this role; this dude not only tried to be a better father for Moondragon, but also served as a paternal-figure to Cammi and sort of Phyla-Vell (daughter of the first Captain Marvel, who was his first incarnation's enemy).
The one I write is a selective combination of these three (namely the personalities and arcs, not the convoluted history), in addition to the dude from the movie. The biggest difference between the dude from the movie and the other three a-holes, aside from the 'maybe-tribal alien who doesn't get metaphors' stuff, is that the movie guy is legitimately loyal to the Guardians. The third was the only one to have been a Guardian, but, after finding out that his Peter Quill pretty much had Mantis brainwash the team into cooperating, he left with Phyla and probably only returned to give himself a purpose outside of destroying Thanos (who was temporarily dead, because Drax tore his heart out). Drax's second incarnation had been a part of another team, prior to the Guardians, called "Infinity Watch". This group was assembled to look after the Infinity Stones. Even though this dude had been a part of teams, he was usually more of a solo act; even while on a team, he'd leave and do his own thing. Although the Drax I write is very fond of the Guardians, he'll still be prone to doing his own stuff. Like, finding ways to take down Thanos.
Whenever he also thinks about his daughter or describes her, his kid was like Moondragon. To a lesser degree, his kid would have also been a little bit like Cammi (if only for the slight similarity in names). Both girls were haughty, manipulative, and a little awful; they were also really compelling characters and fascinating.