Written by Kyle Higgins
Illustrated by Joe BennettSlade Wilson is the best mercenary in the DCU, and he’s been doing this a long time. Some might say too long. But they’ll learn: Never turn your back on Deathstroke the Terminator. He won’t quit, no matter how high the stakes. Kyle Higgins (BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM) and Joe Bennett (TEEN TITANS) team up to bring you the finest in mayhem and gore.
Can Deathstroke carry a book on his own? Is this something that a relative unknown like Higgins can pull off?
These are the questions I had.
The answers can be found after the jump. Some spoilers are discussed.
You know, coming into the book, I didn’t really know what to expect. Deathstroke is a great character and without a doubt one of my favorite villains in DC comics. But could he carry his own book? If so, what would it be about?
When I found out it was about Deathstroke becoming the world’s most intense nanny, protecting the children of the some of the biggest and baddest villains in the DCU, I was very surprised. I was even more surprised when he started to develop something he never even had for his own kids: feelings.
Oh, who am I kidding.
This book is about Slade Wilson (aka Deathstroke) being a complete badass.
I think the best thing that Kyle Higgins, a writer I’m not familiar with, does with this book is he spends most of the issue doing two things – introducing us to Deathstroke (“the scariest badass on the planet”) and delivering a new (and odd for the character) status quo for him (a supporting cast of young and tough mercs known as either “The Alpha Dawgs” or “Harmory”) – and the last few pages completely reaffirming the former and destroying the latter.
I mean, completely.
It’s like Higgins wanted everyone to think that he might be in the process of taking the greatest lone wolf in the DCU villain community and turning him into part of a team, just so they would be sort of pissed at him, and then turning the story on its head just so he can say “gotcha!” to the fanboys.
And it is completely entertaining.
The issue as a whole is, with Deathstroke just doing badass things like performing one man assaults on in-air planes, beheading Russian targets, and mowing down unsuspecting characters with a very, very large gun. Higgins understands that this book should just be Deathstroke being Deathstroke, and while he assuredly will get some great character development in later, this is a really, really good intro to the character.
The art from Joe Bennett is solid. He’s an artist whose work never bothers me but I never really enjoy either. It tells a story well enough, the character work is fine, the action is well designed, and he intermittently will have a really nice moment in there (Slade killing a fly with a paperclip!), but overall, he’s just a guy who gets the job done. He achieves everything Higgins asks of him, but nothing about his work is really stellar.
He’s the Horace Grant of this book; Deathstroke is the Michael Jordan (the reason to watch), Higgins is the Scottie Pippen (he does the little things to make the main guy look great), and Bennett just brings his lunch pail to the office and does work. Sure, it’s not really pretty (especially after reading Batwoman — my word!), but it’s effective storytelling in art. Like I said, it gets the job done.
All in all though, this book was a surprise hit with me. Was it spectacular? No. Was it entertaining? Definitely. I’ll be back next month, if only to see Deathstroke do what he does best: kill people and be a total badass. As long as Higgins is on this book, I can’t imagine we’ll get anything less.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy
