City of Assassins

As stated in the "About This Blog" page, I'm using this page to organize my Deathstroke collection and refamiliarize myself with a character of whom I've been a fan for about three decades. While I won't be reading every single appearance in order, I did want to jump on City of Assassins ASAP.

I recall that there were "soft spots" in the first volume. Not all of it was gold, but as I recall the first year or so was outstanding, at least.

That includes the second storyline in the series, City of Assassins. A team-up with Batman bring high expectations and these books delivered. The storyline runs through issues six to nine inclusively.

The inevitable fight between the two characters (in the second part, issue seven) may be my favourite one-on-one Deathstroke scrap. It was written in such a way that Batman's image does not suffer from the loss and he is recognized as a formidable challenge.

After a face-off to build up the action, artist Steve Erwin fills the page with as many panels of action as he can fit. Batman appears to go down for the count, but gets back up for another exchange, underscoring his determination. Deathstroke ultimately gets the upper hand, but later acknowledges that he isn't sure he would have if not for his enhancements. So 'stroke wins (it is his book after all), but Batman is handed a disclaimer.

It's pretty great stuff, in my opinion. Because the two meet fairly late in the book, it felt as thought the battle may be brief, but the pace is so quick that the opposite turns out to be true.  Here's a sample page.

That I know of, this story has not been collected in trade format. Perhaps Deathstroke's recent "push" in other forms of entertainment will prompt DC to reconsider that but if you can get your hands on the individual issues of City of Assassins at a reasonable price, I would recommend doing so.