 destruction is one of the endless, fictional characters from neil gaiman's comic book series the sandman. ==fictional biography within the sandman== he is the fourth eldest of the endless, and is depicted as a big, red-haired, bearded man (somewhat resembling actor brian blessed; gaiman has mentioned that he would like blessed to play destruction in the event of a sandman movie). he is also known as olethros. in appearances set in earlier centuries, he is depicted wearing military gear (such as a musketeer's uniform, or plate armour), though in more recent times he is shown in colourful clothes with no particular theme. when delirium and morpheus encounter him in the seventh collection of issues in the series, brief lives, he has taken to wearing his hair in a ponytail, and owns a talking dog, barnabas. since he abandoned his responsibilities there is no sigil in the galleries for him, though he keeps his own gallery (wherein is a sword, his sigil). his realm is not portrayed in the series. destruction abandoned his realm and his responsibilities some time around the turn of the seventeenth century. the reason for this was the onset of the human age of reason, which would eventually culminate in the invention of the atomic bomb. destruction was unwilling to be responsible for the destruction this would cause, and therefore left the family. he did not cease to exist as the active aspect of destruction, he simply stopped directing the affairs over which he has control. as he says, destruction did not stop, it was merely no longer his fault. this is shown in the lucifer character fenrir, who is described as the act of destruction itself; though not said, it has been postulated that this is the manifestation of destruction's realm. destruction features most prominently in brief lives, in which his siblings morpheus and delirium set out to track him down. when they finally meet they do not exactly argue but talk at cross-purposes; destruct
Characters_created_by_Neil_Gaiman Comics_characters_introduced_in_1991 DC_Comics_cosmic_entities Fictional_anthropomorphic_characters The_Sandman