Rebirth Designs by Aco

I admit to not being particularly familiar with the artist known simply as "Aco" but I became familiar with him yesterday when Comic Book Resources shone a spotlight on some of his recent work.

Aco started a Facebook folder of covers and designs for the upcoming Deathstroke book following Rebirth. Let's see...




Hmmm...I wasn't crazy about that at first. There's some good and some not-so-good.

Upside: They didn't mess with the mask much and he's back to using a sword similar to his original one as opposed to the Samurai style sword he'd been using of late.

On the other hand, the customary navy blue is gone from his colour scheme and that white sleeve makes no sense to me. Also, I would have hoped that a redesign would include his battle staff but no such luck, apparently.

I thought the negatives outweighed the positives slightly but Aco posted a cover as well (by Carlo Pagulayan, presumably a variant to issue #1) and the whole thing seems to work a little better "in action".

Damn, that's gorgeous...And if you've been a fan for a while, you have to be encouraged by all the good "traditional" stuff going on there. You have to assume that's (ex?) wife Adeline, sons Grant and Joey at right and (hopefully) Wintergreen at two o'clock. Rose's design has swung back towards dad's look too, as opposed to looking like she escaped from Captain Harlock's Arcadia.

Oh, and another thing...

He's got some years on him again! Making Slade Wilson young never sat right with me. I find that having him be in his late 40's or early 50's sets him apart from most of the characters of the DCU.

Back to Rose...




Love the mask, love the hair...in fact, love everything until I reach the pants. I don't really care to see Rose wearing Lululemon merchandise and Reeboks. But she's young, athletic...It probably makes sense.

I might be making stuff up here, but do you detect an Asian influence on the mug shot? I wonder if Sweet Lilly will be restored as her mother? In volume two, she referred to Adeline Wilson as her mom. I initially assumed that she meant her adoptive mother but that was never confirmed.

We're all tired of events and reboots but the more this one rolls along, the more encouraged I become that we're going to get the Deathstroke we haven't had since the second-to-last year of volume one in the mid 90's. With a sleeker outfit, mind you.

Deathstroke June 2016 Solicitations

A little later than usual this month.  They did send out a list of the titles that were coming out but no solicitation text or covers were included. The full version went out today and, as mentioned earlier, in addition to the 19th issue, we get an annual as well.

DEATHSTROKE #19 

Written by JAMES BONNY
Art by PAOLO PANTALENA
Cover by TYLER KIRKHAM 

With the life of his daughter Rose hanging in the balance, Slade Wilson is forced into a tense alliance with Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins. And before he can carry out his vendetta against Victor Ruiz and his mercenary army, Slade must first engage in a violent rematch with his latest deadly foes, Lawman and Snakebite. Can Deathstroke survive this all-out “Blood Feud”? 

On sale JUNE 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

DEATHSTROKE ANNUAL #2 

Written by PHIL HESTER
Art by MIRKO COLAK
Cover by JORGE JIMENEZ 

When the son of a powerful drug warlord is assassinated by a mysterious costumed hitman known only as The Balkan, Deathstroke is hired by his family to take revenge!
But who is The Balkan? And what is his endgame? Find out in a stunning annual you won’t want to miss! 

On sale JUNE 29 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T+

Also, it isn't listed because it doesn't come out until September but the third trade paperback for volume three is scheduled for September 20th, according to Amazon. It collects issues 11 to 16 of the current volume.

More on Deathstroke's Rebirth

According to Comic Book Resources, themselves reporting from WonderCon in Los Angeles earlier today, here is what we can expect when Deathstroke is "Rebirthed" later this year.

"Deathstroke" will be written by Christopher Priest, with art by Carlo Pagulayan, Igor Vitorino, and Felipe Watanabe. It ships twice monthly, beginning in August.

He doesn't seem to be involved in any other book, whether Titans or Suicide Squad or what-not. Although...

All-Star Batman will also feature art from the likes of Sean Murphy, Jock and Tula Lotay, and the first story features Batman and Two-Face on a road trip, being hunted by the world’s best assassins.

All we know for now is that he's getting an annual again in June. More details as they are made available.

Slade Wilson Has Only One Eye And It Changes Colour!

While filling out the guest-appearances page some more, I stumbled into another cover used in solicitation material that was later modified.

I don't know specifically what threw it off course, but about halfway through the The Team 7 series from 2012, what was delivered varied greatly from what was advertised. Come to think of it, the Deathstroke book at the time (volume two) and the other series in which he was appearing, The Ravagers, were also apparently disrupted greatly. All the books were lightly connected at the time so probably several changes were dictated in one book and those caused ripples in the others.

In any event, here's the cover that was used for issue six, with solicitation text below.

In a tale from the recent past, Team 7 is on a mission to rescue Caitlin Fairchild when a team member dies. Meanwhile, in the present day, Deathstroke hunts down his former Team 7 partners.

If my memory is sound, that is actually fairly close to that issue's content.  And the text hasn't changed much from what was originally promoted in February 2013. So little, in fact, that I won't even bother to copy it.

But the cover went through some significant alterations. This was the one displayed prior to its release.

Most of the changes make sense. The "final" version is more focused and arguably more eye-catching.

I personally prefer the colouring on the early version with one exception; Slade Wilson has blue eyes (well...one...) so either someone did his/her research or an attempt to make the newer cover more attractive coincidentally made it more accurate as well.