Batman and Deathstroke find themselves in a Daddy’s Home scenario.
Written by Christopher PriestCover Lee Weeks & Brad Anderson
Illustrated by Carlo Pagulayan
Inked by Jason Paz
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Willie Schubert
“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!
The Godzilla film franchise is one of my first cinematic loves; however, titles that operate around a formula of X vs Y are not very good titles. It builds the expectation that the movie is about an event and not something more, which is why the best Godzilla films tend to eschew this formula. ‘Deathstroke vs Batman’ is a title that follows the formula, but per usual with writer Christopher Priest and artists Carlo Pagulayan and Jason Paz’s run on “Deathstroke,” they buck the trend and begin to tell a story about something. Priest has described this story as a “separate thought,” and an editors note tells readers it takes place in the vague past. These attempts at separation don’t really hold when looking at the motifs Priest is setting up. This isn’t a story about Batman fighting Deathstroke, though that does occur, but about fathers and their relationships with their sons. In the aftermath of ‘Defiance,’ and “Deathstroke” general focus on exploring Slade Wilson’s dysfunction and his family unit, this story feels right at home and may offer a different perspective on the one eyed assassin.
Much like the Godzilla title formula, the messaging around most cape books falls into a similar pattern of emphasizing an event or object over previewing for readers what they think the story is actually about. As the solicit makes clear, ‘Deathstroke vs Batman’ could be a daytime episode of Maury when the paternity of Damian Wayne is called into question. It’s a big splashy hook, but also one Christopher Priest seems to delight in removing and discarding once he’s caught his prey. After a seemingly unrelated bank heist turns up a paternity test for Damian, it’s quickly discarded. Bruce doesn’t give it a second thought, at least in the straightforward sense, “this is language Alfred . . . I need to decipher the message.” There’s some larger more mysterious game at play, which is an infinitely more interesting plot structure than a battle of the Dads.
The title characters are definitely the focus of this series, but they are not the only set of father figures in this issue. Priest opens on a pair of meetings between spiritual fathers, Alfred and Billy Wintergreen as they talk about the state of English football and their enfant terrible. Both noting how despite their status as employees, they see themselves as having a duty to help keep their charges on the straight and narrow. Much like a wise crack Slade gives Bruce later in the issue, it is both a recognition of their odd lives but also serves to infantilize both Bruce and Slade. Infantilizing them this way calls into question their ability to act as fathers, as well as set up their battle this issue as nothing more than a childish outburst where one kid doesn’t want to play with the other, much like how the titular fight in Batman v Superman is characterized.
It’s worth noting for a story about fathers and sons, the sons are no where to be seen this issue. At least, in the corporeal sense. Priest structures his books in an elliptical fashion that can alternate time period at the turn of a page. While these moments can read as somewhat disconnected, the use of title cards helps to cohere every scene into its own unit. “Deathstroke” #30 features a modification to this structure with how Robin and Jericho are used. They haunt the pages they’re featured in as they give confession on the inner workings of their fathers. In both cases Carlo Pagulayan and breakdown artist Larry Hama place these testimonials at the top of the page, looking down on the scene. These testimonies interject and disrupt the coherence of these scenes. For a series that has been known for its layered, methodical, presentation these disruption will be interesting to track going forward.
Continued belowThe core content of their testimony is almost interchangeable in applying it to either father. Both Robin and Jericho speak to how their fathers have core codes and methods that have driven them to this point. Robin speaks to how Batman has weaponized mystique to a degree that makes people think he is deep, but the Boy Wonder compares him to an Etch-a-Sketch. Jericho on the other hand points to his father’s innate drive to be the best at what he does. The Etch a Sketch is a pretty good metaphor for the fraught nature of the Batman, one misstep and it can be erased. Jericho’s description of his father is seemingly laudatory but shows the limit of how that drive can be used only in concrete professions (sous chef, international assassin) not amorphous ones like fatherhood. Both metaphors continue the infantilizing trend, as both make out the father to being underdeveloped or volatile.
As willing as the creative team is to poke fun at and connote their actions as “childish,” the fight between Deathstroke and Batman in this issue can’t help but look awesome due to the art teams’ work. Unlike their last encounter in issues 4 and 5 of “Deathstroke,” this one isn’t as methodical, but entertains in that way Saturday morning cartoons do. All told it’s about six pages, but how Pagulayan and Hama position everything makes it read as big and bold. In particular the use of a splash page of Batman wrapping a chain around Slade’s throat as he bursts out of a high rises. Pagulayan creates a beautiful bisected symmetry with the trail of glass and chain separating, yet connecting, the two combatants. I’m not sure how, but the perspective shifts towards the bottom of the page. Normally this would feel wonky, but the curvature of the high rise at ground level creates a real sense of motion even if the presentation of the bodies is pretty static and dead on.
This segment is the first real interaction of the title characters and art teams chance to visually develop the mirrored nature of Deathstroke and Batman. In particular colorist Jeromy Cox fills in the background of a couple of headshot panels with blue and red. Who gets what color is interesting and continues the childlike narration to this encounter. Batman is given red, the angry, aggressive color. Meanwhile Slade is the calm blue as he urges Batman not take the bait. Much like Pagulayan’s splash page, by choosing the color pallet associated with Star Wars it reinforces how similar but different the two are.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – ‘Deathstroke vs Batman’ lives up to its name but also dreams of being more as Christopher Priest and Co. take another crack at Slade Wilson, family man.
