Good News / Bad News Delivered by Bleeding Cool

First the bad news: It should have struck me that a Batman/Deathstroke book to accompany Deathstroke's regular series was too good to be true, but I was blinded by hopeful optimism. Alas, it it instead a story-within-the-series.

It seems like a hell of a tale, though. Right-click the image below and open it in a new tab (and thanks again to BC for providing the information in this format, I love that).

“Deathstroke vs. Batman” part one! Beginning this month, a six-issue series-within-a-series featuring the ultimate showdown between DC’s fiercest rivals! 

When Batman discovers a mysterious package containing DNA test results proving that he is not Damian Wayne’s biological father, the Dark Knight sets his sights on his son’s true father — Deathstroke! But Damian Wayne can’t really be Slade Wilson’s son — can he? And who sent the package — and why? The ultimate custody battle ensues as the World’s Greatest Detective and the World’s Deadliest Assassin clash in this instant classic!

Rose and Damian as brother and sister. Hilarious. I can't wait for this.

The good news is that Deathstroke does make a guest appearance in another book in April. It was a matter of time, really.

Written by Dan Abnett, art by Viktor Bogdanovic, cover by John Romita Jr. and Sandra Hope. 

“Payback Time,” part one!

The Silencer has been targeted by every hit man, meta-mobster and weapons-depot dropout that the Leviathan organization has to offer — now it’s time for Honor Guest to take the fight back to them! Too bad Deathstroke has other plans. 

Silencer squares off against Slade Wilson as we kick off a brand-new epic! And this duo’s devastating past run-in will leave you speechless! 

32 pages, $2.99, in stores on April 25.

That cover makes it look like the barrel of her gun is nearly poking out of the back of his head!

There's potential there for Deathstroke to hang around for a few issues so let's keep an eye out for that. I'mcurious about this character anyway so if he showed up in the back end of a trade, I'd be all over that.

Our favourite mass murdered also see the fourth book of volume one reprints, called Crash Or Burn, released on May 9th.

Deathstroke returns in these 1990s tales to battle the Vigilante, Fire and Blood, and Janissary! 

Then, Slade Wilson must enter the Black Dome — and he might not make it out alive. 

Collects Deathstroke, The Terminator #21-25, plus Deathstroke, The Terminator Annual #2, featuring the origin of Gunfire!

If there's one character more forgettable than Gunfire, it's certainly Janissary. That was his one and only appearance.

And on top of all that, he will appear in a Titans trade paperback reprinting the dismal Total Chaos storyline that crossed over the Titans family of books at the time.0

A threat from the future has come to the present to destroy the Titans: Donna Troy’s son, Lord Chaos! Bringing with him a futuristic army, the would-be hero turned despot faces Titans past and present in the heroes’ greatest conflict to date. However, when the battle becomes too much for even these super-teams, will they be able to turn to their greatest foe, Deathstroke, for assistance?

This timeless crossover from one of the greatest creative teams of all time is finally here! Collects New Titans #90-92, Deathstroke, the Terminator #14-16 and Team Titans #1-3.

Get it for Nightwing's mullet. I'm pretty sure he was still rocking that thing at that point.

And finally, he has significant involvement in the New Teen Titans Omnibus hardcover third volume.

In this third massive collection of the hit 1980s series, now back in print, the team battles the villainy of H.I.V.E., faces the evil Dr. Light, witnesses the trial of Deathstroke, and tries to rescue the dark hero known as Raven from her own father, Trigon. 

Collects Tales of The Teen Titans #42-68, The New Teen Titans (second series) #1-9 and Tales of The Teen Titans Annual #3.

336 pages! If you're buying specifically for Slade, you might want to track down a trade of The Judas Contract and leave it that. The trial is entirely forgettable. Almost as forgettable as Gunfire. Most of the rest of the material doesn't include Deathstroke at all.

Still, a pretty high-profile month for him. That's always comforting.

That Time Deathstroke Slapped Some X-Men Around

The recent post featuring a mock cover for a Deathstroke/Spider-Man book reminded me of one of his earlier appearances and how stoked I was to see him appear in the book. 35 years ago.

Looking back, it's impressive that Deathstroke's would be included in a book which teamed The Teen Titans and The X-Men. From now-faded memory, I thought he'd already begun building his name by that point, but looking into it further in "real time" it was actually only his fourth appearance. He wasn't featured prominently, mind you, but he was rubbing elbows with Darkseid and Dark Pheonix. Rather good villainous company.

He was not shown on the cover...

...but he wasted little time in delivering some badassery within.

Nice. We don't really see Deathstroke's fondness for the finer things anymore. Hope Christopher Priest brings back that little character tag in Rebirth.

Now it's one thing for Slade to run up against other DC heroes and basically embarrass them.

But there was no way he'd be "allowed" to do that to Marvel characters.

Gad, I hate Wolverine so much...But at least writer Chris Claremont tried to be fair. He had Deathstroke return the favour a few pages later.

On the one hand, Deathstroke made Colossus look stupid...

...But later gets caught off guard by Cyclops.

Deathstroke did not play a huge role in his book, but his every appearance is cool. With perhaps the Cyclops blast as an exception, even when he "loses", he gets built up. He underestimates Wolverine when they first meet and misses his swing but Claremont writes it in such a way that to Deathstroke, not landing a blow is inconceivable. He takes Robin out with one kick.

It was only his fourth appearance, but he was portrayed as a credible threat among some major heavy hitters, good and bad. Yet he would not appear again for about 18 months, in New Teen Titans #34, as the Judas Contract storyline was beginning to be built up.

Uncanny X-Men/New Teen Titans was reprinted in 1995 and included in a "Crossover Classics" book in 1991.

A Deathstroke Appearance on DC's Legends Of Tomorrow! (Or is it?)

The Arrow and Flash TV shows never really hooked me, even after I found out that Deathstroke would appear in the former.

I watched one episode of Arrow in which Slade was shown in a flashback scene on an island. If I recall correctly, he had no dialogue and I thought his uniform seemed a little on the "low budget" side.

Bottom line, I wasn't particularly taken in. It just didn't seem like he was particularly important. As I understand it, his role grew as the season continued but I've read feedback to the effect that he was beaten far too easily when the time for the final confrontation came. None of it seemed particularly compelling.

I gave Legends of Tomorrow a try because it featured a larger segment of the DC Universe. In truth, I find the show kind of stupid but did get a hell of a surprise during this past Thursday's episode.

Season One, Episode Six : When a malfunction sends the Waverider crashing into 2046 Star City, our heroes face a startling version of their own future where they never stop Savage and never return home. The city is in ruins and overrun by criminals, which thrills Rory. Sara is despondent over the destruction of her home and stunned when she learns what happened to her old friend, Oliver Queen.

There's a different Green Arrow in town and he's fighting a different Deathstroke.

The outfit seen from a shadowed distance initially caused me to believe that we were getting the real deal. Depending on how old Slade was in the Arrow series, the comics version has some years on his, so it wouldn't be outrageous that he'd still be kicking asses 30 years hence, in his mid-50s or so.

It wasn't Slade Wilson, however, but his son Grant, as portrayed by Jamie Andrew Cutler.

His screen time was limited but he displayed a bit of crazy and had a good scrap against the Arrows. The time-travelling nature of Legends, and its tendency to unravel potential future timelines, makes it unlikely that we'll see the character again, but it was a good jolt to see the least-used Wilson kid take the spotlight for a change.

Got to love Grant. Aside from a brief appearance in New Teen Titans #1, released on Halloween 1980, the guy died in his first ever "full' appearance the following month.

And yet he still manages to maintain a presence 35 years later. His identity has been copied several times, not only by his sister but also by a number of even less exemplary characters. He's been included in numerous flashbacks and was even suddenly alive in more recent Deathstroke books. Hell, he was even a zombie during Blackest Night. That's a lot of longevity milked out of one issue.

He hasn't been talked about much here yet...but maybe he should be. I'll figure out how I want to approach that. In the meantime, nice to see you again, Grant, no matter how brief it was.

Deathstroke's Who's Who Page

Taking a few minutes to post something I just came across in a seldom-used folder on my computer.

I don't believe the original scan is mine, but I also don't recall where I got it. I do know I cleaned it up some; straightened it, sharpened it, that sort of thing.

Open the image in a new tab to see a larger, easier to read version.

For those joining us late, in 1985 released a series of fact sheets about all its characters in a book called Who's Who in the DC Universe and this is Deathstroke's entry at the time.

Note that he is only referred to as The Terminator here, as opposed to Deathstroke. So since the characters were displayed alphabetically, Slade's profile was not include until volume 23, cover dated January 1987.

I don't know if this is a coincidence, but using the Terminator name specifically meant that Terra's fact sheet was next to be displayed in the book alphabetically.

Terra had an...interesting...relationship with Deathstroke, infiltrating the Titans for him in a story that eventually built up to The Judas Contract. It's considered a classic Titans story and it was during that era that Deathstroke truly came into his own. A great deal of detail was provided about his background, family, etc, including the introduction of his son Joseph as Jericho. Deathstroke evolved beyond being a standard gun-for-hire character.

It also included Dick Grayson adopting the Nightwing identity so the story's impact was felt for quite some time.

Unfortunately, much of that background has since been unraveled and Slade's history is now a cluttered, nonsensical mess, but that's a rant for another day (probably several more days, in fact).