Deathstroke #1 – Review

Written by Kyle Higgins, Pencils by Joe Bennett, inks by Art Thibert, colors by Jason Wright

The Story: A dude with Wolverine’s candor and Deadpool’s skill kills a lot of people.

What’s Good: Is it wrong to say that out of all the New 52 I’ve read so far, this is the one I’ve had the most fun reading? Death Stroke…he’s not one of the good guys. He’s not even an antihero. At least, not yet. He’s not like Deadpool, doing the mercenary thing but also willing to be the hero when he needs to be. He’s just a mercenary out for blood. No law. No code of conduct. (No way did I just accidentally quote X-Men Origins: Wolverine). The issue starts by showing you exactly the kind of guy Mr. Wilson (really?) is. He’s–in his associate’s words–“a major damn badass.” To prove this, he rips the door off of a cargo jet going 300 miles per hour, twenty thousand feet in the air. Also, by the double page spread very early on, you know that if he were singing a duet with Julie Andrews, he might count decapitating Russians as one of his favorite things. Higgins sells Deathstroke with the kind of ease that makes it clear that the writer had a damn good time with this character. The twists are well placed, and the action is incredible. Of course, that’s also thanks to Bennett’s pencils–who seems to love the character as much as Higgins. He really has Deathstroke do some pretty insane stuff. Both the artist and the writer are on the same page–they are not looking to tell a story about a Merc with a Heart. This guy is brutal, all the way down to Wright’s color scheme, they’re out for blood. And I think it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

Faces of Evil: Deathstroke #1 – Review

By David Hine (writer), Georges Jeanty (artist), Mark McKenna (inker)

From what I understand, “Faces of Evil” is supposedly tied to Final Crisis, and it supposed to portray what happens when evil finally wins.  Okay, for the stories DC are telling right now, this seems like a logical event to run, right?  You would think so, but so far that’s been anything but true.  “Faces of Evil” has largely been a disaster, and issues like this one are a perfect example of why this event is not working.

There was a time when Deathstroke was a force to be reckoned with, a savagely cunning mercenary who had no problems manipulating the Teen Titans and beating them nearly to death.  Over the years though, writers and editors have diluted the strength of his character, so that when we find Slade Wilson now, he is a broken and hollow man, praying for death in a prison hospital.  Here, Deathstroke spends almost half of the issue thinking about his family and practically crying like a schoolboy filled with teenage angst, about the pain and suffering he’s inflicted on them.

I was hopeful when Deathstroke suddenly mans up and manipulates his daughter into helping him escape Belle Reve, but that soon gave way to a bizarre monologue about Wilson needing a new purpose in life and wanting to become a “prophet of death”,  killing the people he feels that need to die rather than eliminating those he’s paid to kill.  The issue ends on a truly creepy, pedophilic note that left my wife cringing when I showed it to her.  Hine and editor Michael Marts seem to be moving Deathstroke back into an anti-hero status quo, and under any other circumstance I’d be fine with that.  But this is a “Faces of Evil” issue, and a grossly emotional one at that.  If they’re not going to write Deathstroke as the brilliant, manipulative villain that so many of us know and remembered him best as, then why bother releasing this issue now?  Why not wait until after Final Crisis and “Faces of Evil” are over?  I wanted a return to Deathstroke’s roots, but I was disappointed that Hine and crew didn’t deliver.

Grade: D

-Tony Rakittke