I recently, on the occasion of Fred Ward's death, re-watched Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins, and I still like it in spite of their being so many intrinsically racist assumptions (compounded by the fact that they cast Joel Grey as an 80-year-old Asian man), not least the specific stated thesis that the biggest problem in America was (implicitly minority) crime.

So I decided to read the original (Remo Williams) book before I wrote up my thoughts on that movie, and oh lord. All of the worst instincts of the movie are here, but compounded by the fact that the author, as far as I can tell, had never met a woman (his mother possibly excepted), and probably not a older Korean man either, in spite of the latter being the co-hero of these books. 8-chan incels have a more realistic mental model of women than Warren Murphy did.

But on the other hand, these books are very readable in a Dan Brown sort of way, with action coming fast and frequently, and the dialogue between Chiun and Remo consistently amusing. I can't, in good conscience, recommend anybody else read these, but I also can't promise I won't keep reading them myself, as a weird look into the '70s male mentality, and a thorough cleanser of deep thoughts. ( )

I loved every minute.
And to think this marvel was brought to my attention by the author of a fanfiction story *shakes head*
Really, I'm looking forward to reading the next books in the series. ( )

A cut above most of the other Men's Adventure series this has a nice line in humour and cynicism as well as a (reasonably) believable hero in Remo Williams. Lighter on action than I might have liked and a little slow in places (especially the middle third) but when Remo is on the page it crackles nicely. ( )

4/5/22

Marking the beginning of an adventure series that would spawn over two hundred novels and multiple adaptations into other formats, Created the Destroyer is the introductory volume of the Destroyer series, following the adventures of America’s personal assassins Remo and Chiun.

This is the origin story of the series that documents Remo Williams’ “recruitment” into the secret government agency CURE, as well as his introduction to his personal trainer Chiun (Master of Sinanju), and his first impromptu mission to eliminate the criminal elements destroying America from within.

Unlike the later part of the series where things tend to get a bit… silly, Created has its criminal elements rooted firmly in the gritty underworld of reality. No invisible suits or sentient robots yet, just street-wise bad hombres and hardened goodfellas.

THE BAD GUY: Remo’s nemesis for his first story is your straight-forward rich crime boss hiding in plain site as a legitimate businessman, this time played by the extremely muscular and cold-blood Norman Felton. Felton doesn’t resemble some of the Bond-type villains that pop up later in the series, and his background as a prostitute’s son that inserts himself into the criminal underbelly of society and creates his own empire is extremely plausible. Remo is forced to confront Felton in a desperate attempt to track down a mysterious unknown figure believed to be the head of the New York crime syndicate, known only as “Maxwell.” Felton also indirectly introduces the crime boss Carmine Viaselli, who I believe turns up in later novels as the Destroyer universe slowly builds its menagerie.

REMO & CURE: Being the origin story of the Destroyer, time is spent demonstrating how the organization works, including its exceedingly compartmentalized structure that prevents practically everybody involved from knowing what they are actually contributing to.

REMO & CHIUN: Chiun has just started training Remo at this point, so we haven’t reached the level of familiarity we’ll be used to later when the “Little Father” stage of their relationship begins. Now they’re (more or less) at a level of mutual respect.

REMO’S LADIES: One of the more entertaining aspects of the Destroyer series is how it plays on typical men’s adventure novel standards, and my personal favorite is the Destroyer approach to the male hero sleeping around with various women throughout his adventures. Created gets the ball rolling right away with CURE ruining Remo’s taste for anonymous sex by arranging some unfulfilling part-time call girls from the steno pool for his “entertainment.” While Chiun hasn’t fully ruined sex for Remo yet, he teaches him enough Sinanju pick-up techniques to ruin the thrill of the hunt. The only other woman Remo beds in this novel is college student Cynthia Felton, whom he seduces in order to get closer her father, wealthy crime boss Norman Felton. Instead of your typical Bond girl full of sexual mystery and clever quips, Cynthia is an emotionally unstable and spoiled brat that creates more headaches for Remo than he needs. Total romantic tally this round, two.

BODY COUNT: I wasn’t planning on counting dead bodies in the series until I started writing this, but off the top of my head I’d say that Remo racked up a meager tally of six dead bodies in his first mission. ( )