Deathstroke #15 Solicitation

Written by JAMES BONNY
Art and cover by TYLER KIRKHAM 

On sale FEBRUARY 24
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
RATED T+ 

Deathstroke versus an army of Bizarros! As the battle within Lexcorp intensifies, the hunt for Slade’s missing daughter takes a surprising turn! Is a betrayal looming…or will it be something far, far worse?

Deathstroke 15 Neal Adams Variant Cover

This is a cool thing for me. Neal Adams was one of the artists that I became a fan of when I began reading comics, longer ago than I'd like to admit.

In February, 25 DC Comics will feature variant covers by the man himself (inked by a variety of people), with a twist; they are all reproductions of his past work but with a different character on display.

Deathstroke is among those honoured. See below.

It was vaguely familiar but I couldn't quite recall the original version so I had to track it down. Deathstroke replaces Deadman from the cover of Strange Adventures #207 (December 1967).

Adams did the interior art for that book as well. Nothing against the current team, but I'd kill for him to do an issue of Deathstroke.

SA 207 is hardly Adams' most iconic work, granted, but a neat deal nonetheless. I just like to see 'stroke included in these if only because he's among the heavy-hitters.

Editorial Interference Is Not a New Thing

I recently took advantage of a Halloween sale by Mile High Comics to close some gaps in my collection and that little bundle of joy arrived this afternoon.

I bought ten books in total, including issues 116 and 117 of Nightwing. Those issues close out the "Renegade" storyline that began in number 112 of the series. In that story, Dick Grayson pretends to be a villain operating under that new name. Complicating best laid plans, Deathstroke comes by for a visit to convince Nightwing to train his loopy (well, to be fair, she's probably still being drugged by old dad at this point...) daughter Rose.

A trade paperback of the storyline came out in late 2006. The cover to that book is at right but it is basically a slightly reworked version of the cover to issue #113.

Here's where the editorial interference appears to come in: DC was in the midst of its Infinite Crisis event at that point. The story is humming along just fine from issues 112 to issues 114. And as is often the case, 114 concludes with a teaser for the following issue, which reads...

Dick Grayson keeps on keeping his enemies closer when Lex Luthor comes into play! And now that all of his actions as Renegade have gotten Oracle's attention, you can be sure Dick's ex is going to be on the scene as well.

And the cover displayed with that blurb appears on the left.

All sounds pretty cool, but none of it happens. Not even close. Luthor is nowhere to be seen, although we do get Deathstroke's attempt to use Rose and Nightwing to take down Superman for Villains Inc.  No sign of Barbara "Oracle" (at the time) Gordon, either.

That group of villains, incidentally, dropped a chemical explosive on Nightwing's then-home of Bludhaven during the Infinite Crisis events. This took place between issues 115 and 116 of Nightwing.

So rather than continue the story of Deathstroke's manipulation and Rose's training, in #116 we instead get an issue of Nightwing running around town trying to ensure that his supporting cast is safe and feeling responsible for the situation. Deathstroke and Rose don't appear at all yet once again the cover is somewhat misleading in regards to their involvement.

So clearly plans were changed at the last minute.

'Stroke and Rose return in issue 117 for the conclusion. Nightwing proves to Rose that Deathstroke is a shit dad (and that the sun rises in the East, I suppose), even though he had pretty well done that at the end of 115, and she bails on her pops as a result.

The expected skirmish between Deathstroke and Nightwing is a good one in this book as 'wing uses his acrobatics and agility to dodge blows more so than to deliver them. Pretty consistent with past battle, in my opinion.

The following month was DC's "One Year Later" event in which every book was "fast forwarded" to, well, a year later. Not sure if the Renegade story had to be wrapped up quicker than intended as a result but obviously the Infinite Crisis event and the destruction to Bludhaven that came with it forced changes onto the Renegade storyline.

So what happened to Rose a year after running out on her crap dad and telling him she hates him? Why at some point she became a member of the New Teen Titans!

With some exceptions, she was a regular in the series until its conclusion at issue 100 (October 2011).

As for Deathstroke, he went on to the Green Arrow book to give that character a hard time in a story called Crawling Through The Wreckage. More on that later.

Deathstroke #14 solicitation

Fresh off his scrap against the Suicide Squad, let's see what's in store for our favourite merc.

Written by JAMES BONNY
Art and cover by TYLER KIRKHAM
Adult Coloring Book Variant cover by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO
On sale JANUARY 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+ 

Slade Wilson would move heaven and Earth to get his daughter back—and not even LexCorp will stand in his way! But after barely surviving a tussle with the Suicide Squad, how can a battle-ravaged Deathstroke take on Lex Luthor’s forces?

Bonny had been named as co-writer for a few months but now gets sole billing. For DC, he's also worked on The Savage Hawkman before Rob Liefeld took over that book. Tony Daniels is no longer involved with Deathstroke, at least for this issue.

Interesting, seems Rose will continue to appear in the book, even if she sounds like something of a victim.

Strange variant theme this month; colouring book style. That's it below.

A Little Ravager Art from Secret Origins #7

Just a brief post today. I was again filling some gaps on the (New)(Teen) Titans, Volume 1 and Rose Wilson pages and came across an image I thought I should share, in case some people missed it.

The art below is by Robson Rocha (pencils), Oclair Albert (inks) and Mike Atiyeh (colour). As stated in the subject line, it is copied from issue #7 of Secret Origins, which came out late last November.

One of the three back-filling stories included in the book continues Superboy's habit of whining about who he really is, his purpose for being created, etc. Since the delightful Rose Wilson was a supporting character for much of his ongoing series, she makes a cameo appearance in flashback form.

Saying that she wanted to "help" might be quite kind, if my memory is sound, but that's neither here nor there...

Too bad Rose wasn't used a bit more in this story. However, one of the (many) frustrating things about the Superboy series was that Rose's appearances were often limited to about a page an issue, if that. So while her inclusion in SO7 is not at all impactful, it's at least appropriate in its brevity.

Recent Updates: Showcase '93

Earlier this week, six issues of Showcase '93 were added to the guest appearances page above.

Deathstroke, technically, is not a guest in this book but it was the most appropriate page in which to include this series. Showcase, for those who may not remember, was an anthology book that ran monthly from 1993 to 1996. 'Stroke appeared in one of the regular stories in issues 6 to 11 during the first year of publication.

That story was called "The Kobra Kronicles" and included several other characters such as Peacemaker, Deadshot and Katana (Huntress is on the cover at right, but appears in one of the other stories). It was written by Mike Baron and continuity buffs would have to assume that it took place between issues 20 and 21 of Deathstroke's own book (volume 1) based on the uniform he wore.

I am struggling to find my copies of this book, but I admit I don't have found memories of it. My lasting impression is that Deathstroke was often out of character. He seemed a little too jovial and more like a wise-cracking type. It's been many years though so perhaps my opinion would change if I read it now.

And that suit sucked. The funny thing about it is that it was only used in Deathstroke's own book for about four issues, during the Nuclear Winter storyline (issues 17 to 20), yet he wore it in six issues of Showcase and several issues of another book called Chain Gang War. That outfit was featured more outside Deathstroke's own series than in it!

The Chain Gang War book only lasted one year but Deathstroke was involved a fair bit.  I only own the issue at left so I'm still trying to determine if all the issues are worthwhile to own but that one certainly was.

The Chain Gang was a group of vigilantes that kidnapped criminals and jailed them in a place they referred to as a the House of Correction. Essentially, they sought to clean up the city and weren't above killing to do it.

Deathstroke's appearance originally looks to be based around a war crime committed many years before for which Slade wants to dish out punishment. Well...that, and the family of one of the people held captive by the Chain Gang hires 'stroke to break him out. Money matters to our boy too! He tracks the gang down then gets to knocking heads.

This is a pretty solid, and probably often overlooked, guest spot by Deathstroke. The only criticism is that after kicking the members of the gang around for a few pages, he gets captured far too easily.

In all, he shows up in eight issues but I believe that in a number of them, it's only for one page or so. Once I determine which issues "matter", I'll list them on the guest-appearances as well.

Deathstroke #13 solicitation, and a look at sales figures.

Revealed earlier today:

DEATHSTROKE #13
Written by TONY S. DANIEL and JAMES BONNY
Art and cover by TYLER KIRKHAM
On sale DECEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+ 

The showdown between Slade Wilson, the Suicide Squad and Amanda Waller looms in what’s left of Belle Reve Penitentiary...but first he’ll have to face off against a deadly new super-villain who could bring an end to Deathstroke’s “Suicide Mission”!

Some of the solicitations for books being released in December make mention of a variant cover, but Deathstroke's does not, unfortunately. I didn't see any guest appearances by 'stroke in other books, either.

And yesterday, DC Comics announced the cancellation of a handful of their books. The last volume of Deathstroke did not last very long, so I was pleased to see that this one is continuing. Still, I wanted to take a look at sales figures to see if my confidence was warranted and, for the moment at least, it appears to be.

65 Batman Beyond 2..............35,000
66 Inhumans Attilan Rising 3....34,919
67 Grayson 10...................33,990
68 Starfire 2...................33,659
69 Deathstroke 8................33,648
70 Red Skull 1..................33,246
71 Batgirl 42...................33,168

The info above is lifted from comichron.com. I don't know if digital sales are included (I don't believe so) and are considered estimates regardless, so they shouldn't be considered pinpoint accurate no matter how specific the number.

Still, it gives a good idea of how well a book may be performing (or not). Grayson and Starfire are pretty good company, I think, and absolutely appropriate considering the history those characters have. We should continue to have a Deathstroke book for the forseeable then, it would appear.

Man, The Titans Get Hunted A Lot...

For a rather mundane title, "Titans Hunt" seems to come up a lot.

I was reminded of this while reading an interview with writer Dan Abnett about the coming Titans Hunt book from DC Comics. Being that there are large gaps in this blog's "(New) (Teen) Titans" page, this seemed like a good time to fill them a bit, since Deathstroke is so often involved with that group.

I've added some covers and a couple of issues from the New Titans series that ran from 1984 to 1996. My Titans fanhood has come and gone over the years, so I can't claim to be an authority on them, but it seems to be consensus that the 14-issue period between numbers 71 and 85 is referred to as Titans Hunt (see Comicvine for an example).

Deathstroke was very prominent in the book during that period, spending much of the time leading a ragtag group of Titans family members on a search for the abducted team. As the rather dramatic cover at right displays, he ultimately finds himself needing to combat a possessed version of his son and needing to make a pretty tough decision.

Those books came out in the early 90's. The other Titans story to take that name featured a totally different team and was released several years later.

Starting in 1996, Dan Jurgens wrote and drew a Teen Titans book featuring a mostly new team of young heroes, along with the Atom and Captain Marvel Jr. Titans Hunt ran from issues 21 to 24 of that series. The basis of the "hunt" is that one of the team members, nicknamed Risk, appears to have killed a villain in battle and is wanted by the authorities as a result.

Deathstroke steps up to the plate in issue #22 (also now added to the Titans page) and captures the team over the course of five pages for some anti-alien group called The Veil. Sounds very similar to how he took on his son's contract with HIVE against the original Titans way back in his first appearance, doesn't it? Can't imagine that's a coincidence.

The only slight downside is that Deathstroke is still wearing the blue and black outfit that he changed to briefly at the end of the first volume of his own series. There have been worse redesigns, I suppose, but I could never get used to the hubcaps on the shoulders. And what the hell did they replace his staff with? A cattle prod?

That's Risk getting acquainted with Slade's boot heel, for those who are unfamiliar with him.

'Stroke must have seen something in that character that I didn't at the time because he recruited him for his team in the Titans East story that ran in early 2007 (that's him over Slade's left shoulder below), almost a decade later.

Risk had lost an arm in a battle against Superboy Prime during Infinite Crisis (first panel below) and has since encountered him again to similar results (second panel).

Yikes. Why don't you just get lost before he start going after your legs? Love the sound effect consistency, however.

Anyway, I doubt Slade will be recruiting Risk for anything again any time soon.

One last thing about the East storyline; there actually seems to be a Tiny Titans version of it, released shortly after the original.

Slade's looking pretty suave in that suit!

Hard to imagine the story being made kid friendly (obviously they're not being fully faithful to the original version) but it's tempting to buy it anyway. They're using mostly the same Titans East characters so maybe a Tiny Rose Wilson appears too? If she does, I'll bet she doesn't carve her eye out to be more like dad. ;-)

Anyway, now we need to pay attention to see if Slade is involved in the upcoming story that takes the Titans Hunt name. I haven't seen his name in the solicitations yet, but he has such a strong connection to that team that it shouldn't surprise anyone if he makes an appearance.