Deathstroke

Deathstroke
File:VillainsUniteddeathstroke.png Deathstroke, as seen in the Villains United #1 (2005). Art by J. G. Jones.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	New Teen Titans (vol. 1) #2 (December 1980)
Created by	Marv Wolfman George Pérez
In-story information
Alter ego	Slade Wilson
Team affiliations	United States Army Injustice League Secret Society of Super Villains Titans East H.I.V.E. Checkmate
Abilities	Enhanced physical and mental attributes, Regenerative healing factor, Expert martial artist, Skilled armed/unarmed combatant, Master tactician and strategist, Access to hi-tech equipment, Skillful manipulation.

Deathstroke the Terminator (Slade Wilson), originally simply the Terminator, is a fictional character, a supervillain and sometime anti-hero in the DC Comics Universe. He is a mercenary and assassin who first appeared in The New Teen Titans (vol. 1) #2 (1980). Wizard Magazine rated him the 84th greatest villain of all time and the 72nd greatest comic book character of all time. Also in 2009, Deathstroke was ranked as IGN's 32nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Publication history

Deathstroke, originally referred to mostly as Terminator, first appeared in 1980, in the second issue of the book New Teen Titans. He was originally introduced as a mercenary who was completing the terms of a contract undertaken by his son, Ravager, but he quickly became one of the main antagonists for the Titans. Deathstroke quickly became a fan favorite character and later in the series often allied with the Titans against mutual threats.

Due to his popularity, Deathstroke received his own series, Deathstroke the Terminator, in 1991; It was retitled to Deathstroke the Hunted for issues #0 and #41-45 and then simply "Deathstroke" from 46 through 60. The series was canceled with issue 60 shortly after the conclusion of Zero Hour. In total, Deathstroke ran for 65 issues (#1-60, plus 4 annuals and a special #0 issue).

Following his injury in "Last Will and Testament," Deathstroke appears in one of the four Faces of Evil one-shots, written by David Hine. Hine has explained that the series is part of the set-up for future stories: "All of the characters in this ‘Faces of Evil’ series were selected for their potential as major players in the coming year."

Even though the character of Deathstroke the Terminator predates Arnold Schwarzenegger's film The Terminator by four years, the Slade Wilson character is now simply called "Deathstroke", even by characters who had called him "Terminator" for years. The full title has not completely fallen out of use, having been referenced as recently as Justice League Elite.

Fictional character biography

Origins

Imbued with enhanced physical powers by secret army experiments attempting to create metahuman soldiers for the U.S. military, Deathstroke the Terminator (called simply "Terminator" for the first 11 years of his publication history) became a mercenary soon after the experiment when he defied orders and rescued his friend Wintergreen, who had been sent on a suicide mission by a commanding officer with a grudge. However, he kept this career secret from his family, even though his wife was an expert military combat instructor - indeed, she had been responsible for a significant portion of his early training - until a criminal named the Jackal kidnapped his younger son, Joseph, as a hostage to force Slade to divulge the name of a client who had hired him as an assassin. Slade refused to do so, claiming that it was against his personal honor code, and attacked and killed the kidnappers at the rendezvous. Unfortunately, Joseph's throat was slashed by one of the criminals before Slade could prevent it, destroying his vocal cords and rendering him mute.

After taking Joseph to the hospital, Slade's wife Adeline, enraged at his endangerment of her son, tried to kill Slade by shooting him, but only managed to destroy his right eye. Afterward, his confidence in his physical abilities was such that he made no secret of his impaired vision, marked by his mask which has a black featureless half covering his lost eye. Without his mask, Slade wears an eyepatch.

The Teen Titans

Cover to New Teen Titans (vol. 1) #2. The first appearance of Deathstroke (in the shadows). Art by George Pérez.

Slade has a long history as an enemy of the Teen Titans, beginning when his other son, Grant, became an early Titans foe called the Ravager who was physically enhanced to fulfill a contract to kill or capture the Teen Titans. However, those enhancements proved fatal and Slade agreed to complete the contract. His first mission involved stealing the fictional element Promethium from S.T.A.R. Labs and selling it as the ultimate weapon. He then kidnapped the Titans and placed them in the path of a Promethium bomb to test his device for the buyers, effectively killing two birds with one stone. The Titans escaped and pursued Deathstroke, but he severely wounded Garfield Logan, then known as Changeling, in his escape. This would be the start to a lasting animosity between the two.

Deathstroke next appeared in New York, holding officials hostage in order to lure the Titans into confronting him. Terra, a new ally of the Titans, and Changeling were the only ones available to answer the call. Terra knocked Logan out in an effort to prove herself worthy of being a Titan and fought Deathstroke singlehandedly. Slade escaped as the other Titans arrived, but by then Terra had proven herself and the team offered her membership. Later that night, it was revealed that both Terra and Deathstroke conspired to fake the fight in a plot to infiltrate the team. It was also revealed that both shared an intimate relationship, despite Terra being fifteen years old. The artist George Perez noted that this constituted "statutory rape".

Judas Contract

The Titans eventually entrust Terra with all of their secret identities. Once Slade has this information, he uses it to systematically take down each of the Titans, exploiting them at their weakest moments. Donna Troy is gassed at her photo studio, Garfield Logan is poisoned with tainted envelopes while responding to fan mail, Victor Stone is electrocuted by a chair in his own apartment, Koriand'r is ambushed with a device that affects her powers, and Raven is taken down by Terra herself. Dick Grayson, who had recently retired his Robin costume, was last to be attacked and he was confronted by Deathstroke himself. He narrowly avoided being captured and soon discovered that his teammates had already been taken. Grayson arrived at Titans Tower to discover Slade's ex-wife Adeline and her son Joseph Wilson. She told Grayson that Terra was a traitor, how each of his teammates were captured, and related the origin of Deathstroke.

Grayson assumes the identity of Nightwing in order to confront Deathstroke and the H.I.V.E., joined by Joseph going by the name of Jericho. During the confrontation, Deathstroke recognizes Jericho as his son which causes him to hesitate. Jericho freed the Titans by possessing his father's body. Terra turns on Deathstroke as she thinks that he has betrayed her as well. After her suicide, Slade is taken into custody.

Slade was put on trial for his crimes, but the trial was deliberately sabotaged by Garfield Logan so that he could kill Slade himself, believing he was responsible for Terra's betrayal of the Titans. Slade agreed to the confrontation, but showed up out of costume. Logan found himself unable to kill a defenseless Slade, so instead they talked. Feeling some empathy for his grief, Slade explained his past with Terra, and Logan realized Slade was not to blame for the choices Terra had made. The two men parted on peaceful terms afterward with Slade returning to Africa with Wintergreen.

Titans Plague

Months later, Slade encountered the Titans again while they were investigating mysterious attacks and disappearances. Troia is attacked by beastmen and barely survives the encounter. Meanwhile, while attending a fundraiser with his father, Gar Logan recognizes Slade trying to maintain a low profile. When he finally catches up with Slade, he finds him about to kill the host of the fundraiser, Walter Lanier. He stops Deathstroke, but is surprised when Lanier turns into a bat-like creature and flies away. He reveals to the Titans that he was responsible for smuggling the drug the bestiamorphs were using to transform others but did not realize what it was until it was too late. After Jericho and Raven were stricken by the plague, he aided them in destroying the beastmen and finding a cure for the contagion.

Titans Hunt

Shortly after this, he came to the Titans' assistance again during the Titans Hunt storyline. The members of the Titans, as well as many inactive members, all disappeared in a manner very similar to how they were abducted during the Judas Contract. Logan's stepfather Steve Dayton hires Deathstroke to find the missing Titans. He eventually discovers with Nightwing that the abductions were the work of the Wildebeest Society, and that their leader was none other than Titan member Jericho, Deathstroke's son.

It was revealed that Jericho had been possessed by the corrupted souls of Azarath, who were using him to capture the Titans and use them as physical hosts in order to survive. During the transfer process, Jericho's true self resurfaced briefly, begging his father to kill him. To spare his son any more pain and save the remaining Titans, Slade was forced to drive a sword through Jericho's heart, seemingly killing him. This act still haunts him to this day, though Jericho later turned out to have survived death by transferring his mind into his father's body seconds before dying.

Afterward, Slade continued his life as a mercenary, but also acted as an occasional hero, aiding the Titans or acting on his own to help others, most notably during the Total Chaos storyline when the Team Titans arrived in the 20th Century to assassinate Donna Troy before she could give birth to her son, who in their timeline had grown up into the tyrannical despot, Lord Chaos. Slade also met Pat Trayce, a tough former cop who would become the new costumed Vigilante. Pat Trayce and Slade quickly became lovers, and began a tumultuous on again/off again relationship.

Family business

File:Roseslade.jpg

Deathstroke with his daughter Rose Wilson.

After Slade thwarted an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, he was subsequently framed for the murder of a U.S. Senator. The man responsible had taken on the identity of the Ravager and was hunting down Slade's friends and loved ones. Eventually with the help of the Titans and Sarge Steel, Slade was able to prove his innocence, and the true culprit was revealed to be Steve Dayton, under the alias of the Crimelord, who had again succumbed to mental instability caused by his Mento helmet.

Meanwhile, his relationship with his estranged wife Adeline took a tragic turn as Slade underwent a process to gain the ability of physical regeneration, allowing him to survive any wound so long as his brain is intact (this power is limited, as Slade cannot regenerate his lost eye since that injury happened before he gained his healing factor). After gaining this power, Slade was forced to give his wife a blood transfusion to save her life, resulting in her gaining a similar healing factor which manifested itself as a form of immortality. This alteration of her DNA drove Adeline insane, shaming Deathstroke into going into a semi-retirement state.

In Titans (vol. 1) #12, Deathstroke teamed up with the Titans to face his wife Adeline, who in her insane state, had revived The H.I.V.E. and sought to rid the world of all superhumans, blaming them for Jericho's death. During the battle, interrupted by Vandal Savage and a band of villains that he had organized from recent Titan battles, Adeline's throat was slit. In a brief return of sanity, she begged Slade to kill her, requesting him to reunite her with "my... our children... " since her version of the healing factor wouldn't heal the wound, but only allow her to live in spite of it. Deathstroke refused, but Koriand'r shocked her teammates and Deathstroke by using her starbolt blast to disintegrate her completely, per Adeline's wishes. This was a turning point, as Deathstroke renounced all ties with the Titans as a result of this act of mercy on Starfire's part.

Recently, it was revealed that Jericho managed to transfer his consciousness into Deathstroke in the instant before his death. Taking control of his father, Jericho forced Deathstroke to murder his longtime butler, mentor, and companion Wintergreen. He then launched a series of attacks against the current Teen Titans, most notably shattering Impulse's knee with a shotgun blast, before leaving his father's body. Deathstroke has since manipulated his one remaining child, Rose Wilson, into the mercenary business as the new Ravager, in order to find and kill Jericho, using a specially-designed serum to heighten her hostility and push her over the edge; unfortunately, the process also resulted in her being driven at least partially insane, to the extent that she cut out her own left eye in an attempt to prove to her father that she was just like him.

Identity Crisis

In the Identity Crisis miniseries, Deathstroke was enlisted as a bodyguard for Doctor Light, who was being pursued by the Justice League of America as a suspect in the murder of Sue Dibny. In the ensuing battle, Deathstroke nearly beat the team of Elongated Man, the Flash (Wally West), Zatanna, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Atom, and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner). He systematically took out every member except for Rayner, whom he had the potential to disable through trying to usurp his ring's energies using his own formidable willpower. Fortunately, before the outcome of this conflict with Rayner ended, Green Arrow stuck an arrow in Deathstroke's right eye socket, enraging him. Slade went ballistic and began to beat Green Arrow, but was stopped when the majority of the team tackled Deathstroke to the ground. Dr. Light used his powers, and the two escaped. Near the end of Identity Crisis, Deathstroke confronts Green Arrow on a rooftop. Arrow sees his reflection in the windows of a nearby building, but when he turns to confront Slade, Deathstroke is gone. Instead, Green Arrow finds Slade's cowl and a note stuck to the wall by the very arrow he stabbed in Slade's eye socket. The note reads, "This is yours - We're not done."

Infinite Crisis

Deathstroke was a founding member of Lex Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains in the Infinite Crisis storyline. He was seen in Infinite Crisis #1, hiding in a warehouse south of Metropolis waiting to ambush the Freedom Fighters with several other members. The battle didn't last long, and by the end, Deathstroke had killed the Phantom Lady. Slade is also the one who landed the final stroke on Uncle Sam by shooting him in the back (and leading to his apparent death).

He was the employer of an undercover Dick Grayson, whom he hired to train his daughter Rose. However, after the two had a confrontation with Superman, Deathstroke discovered that Nightwing had been teaching Rose the values of heroism. He could not kill Grayson in front of his daughter, because doing so would undo all of Slade's teachings. Nightwing offered a deal: he would stay away from Rose if Slade would keep the metahuman villains out of Blüdhaven. The deal held for 34 hours until Infinite Crisis #4, when Slade, under the orders of Alexander Luthor, Jr., the real leader of the Society, went with several villains - who included old Titans and Doom Patrol foes and Brotherhood of Evil members Monsieur Mallah and Brain - to drop Chemo, another fellow villain who appeared to be a nearly brainless monster made of pure energy and radioactive chemicals, on Blüdhaven, killing over one-hundred thousand people. Slade gave the explanation to the Brotherhood that Nightwing should be made to believe that he can never go home again.

Grayson took the first of his revenge by bursting in on Deathstroke and Rose's training session, revealing to the latter that the Kryptonite that Deathstroke had implanted in place of her missing eye was radioactive and deadly to humans as well as to Kryptonians (though slower in its effects on humans, as revealed by Lex Luthor's old possession of a Kryptonite ring that forced him to transfer his brain to a cloned body). Angered, Slade went after Nightwing with a grenade, only to have Rose try to stop him. Amid the smoke of the resulting explosion, Rose fled, telling her father that she hated him. Dick disappeared as well, but not before leaving a note for Slade warning him that he'd be back to make him pay for Blüdhaven.

At the climactic Battle of Metropolis at the conclusion of Infinite Crisis, Slade was confronted by Batman, Robin (Tim Drake), and Nightwing. During the struggle, he was questioned regarding his motives for aiding the Secret Society. His claims of monetary motivation were deemed unsatisfactory, Batman accused him of having forsaken his code of honor; and Nightwing said it was because his family had abandoned him. An enraged Slade said that was because of Nightwing, and that it was always because of him, before Batman told him to take responsibility for his actions and he was rendered unconscious.

One Year Later

Cover to Teen Titans #43: Titans East Part 1. Art by Tony Daniel.

Slade appears in the Green Arrow series after the one year jump in DC Comics's storylines. Apparently in hiding, he nearly murders a crony of several Star City businessmen who want to hire him for a murder. Before finishing his violent refusal, he asks the name of the target; when informed that it was to be the mayor of Star City, Oliver Queen (whom Deathstroke knows is secretly Green Arrow), he spares the lackey and decides to take the job.

However, things don't quite go according to plan, with Green Arrow using the resources of both his identities, then trapping him within a ring of armed National Guardsmen. The fight ends with Deathstroke's arrest and subsequent conviction and incarceration; however, this is revealed as a ploy to gain access to another jailed foe of Green Arrow's who has information on the hero's activities in the "lost year", which include Green Arrow studying under an assassin who once trained Deathstroke himself.

Deathstroke is also active behind the scenes in Teen Titans, currently in the process of organizing a counter-team of teen superhumans that will be known as Titans East. The current Titans team included Ravager, who now wanted nothing to do with her father. Deathstroke seemingly intended to "reclaim" Ravager and a recently resurrected Jericho from the Titans or, if that failed, to crush them along with the rest of the team. For these reasons, he specially selected each member of Titans East, believing that, overall, each member would successfully counteract every member of the current Teen Titans line-up.

As indicated over the course of the subsequent issues, Deathstroke was manipulating every member of his new team in one way or another. He had blackmailed former Titan Risk while at the same time offering him an outlet for his rage, was drugging Cassandra Cain with the same serum he'd used on Rose, and supplied Inertia with a formula which granted superhuman speed to compensate for the loss of the Speed Force following the initial battle with Superboy-Prime. His team, however, slowly fell apart over the course of the attack, as Robin managed to free Batgirl of his mind control serum and Raven convinced Duela Dent to switch sides. Slade and his remaining Titans subsequently faced off against both the current Titans and a group of old Titans led by Nightwing. Although he was defeated, he still manages to escape with the aid of Inertia. In the end, however, it was revealed to the readers that Slade's real mission was to provide his children with something he could never offer them - a real family, in the form of the Teen Titans. By attacking the Titans, he insured that Rose and Jericho would become more trusted by their associates, and thus grow closer to the team.

Recently, Deathstroke took credit for somehow twisting (through unknown means) the powers of Brion Markov, the half-brother of the original Terra, into the same powers as his traitorous sister's. Using this leverage, Deathstroke offered to reverse the process only if Geo-Force became his own personal spy within the Justice League. Unfortunately for Deathstroke, Geo-Force alerted Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman of Deathstroke's scheme which culminated in Geo-Force alerting the League that Deathstroke (whose rivalry with Green Arrow has reached vendetta-level proportions) planned on using an army of supervillains to crash Green Arrow and Black Canary's wedding. Weeks later, Geo-Force was tortured by Gorilla Grodd after the League was kidnapped by the Injustice League and ultimately transferred to Batman's newest incarnation of the "Outsiders" afterward, robbing Deathstroke of his potential pawn.

He can be seen as the member of Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains.

Deathstroke is gravely injured with his own sword by Geo-Force in Last Will and Testament. Following his injury in "Last Will and Testament," Deathstroke appears in one of the four Faces of Evil one-shots, written by David Hine. Hine has explained that the series is part of the set-up for future stories: "All of the characters in this ‘Faces of Evil’ series were selected for their potential as major players in the coming year." Deathstroke is at Belle Reve, recuperating from a vicious injury wrought by Geo-Force. While doctors labor to save him, Deathstroke dreams of his family members and all of the people that he has let down. When he awakens, he vows that he will never again be haunted by the past.

Ravager comes to visit him, but in fact, wants to finish her father off. She tries to strangle him with a plastic wire, but Deathstroke is recuperated enough that he can fend off her attack. He escapes from the facility and steals a helicopter. Later, Deathstroke finds a young street urchin that he decides to take under his wing.

Blackest Night

In the Teen Titans (vol. 3) tie-in to the Blackest Night crossover, Deathstroke is living in the deceased Wintergreen's house and reading his journal, when he is attacked by Rose. During the fight, the two are attacked by their deceased relatives Grant, Wade and Adeline, who, along with Wintergreen, have all been reanimated as Black Lanterns. Deathstroke and Rose are forced to work together and fight for their lives against the Black Lanterns.

Powers and abilities

Deathstroke possesses various enhanced abilities. These include the strength of ten men and heightened speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes. He has the capacity to use up to 90% of his brain making him a tactical genius, adept at turning opponents' own abilities against them; this can also be attributed to his years in the military and combat with various heroes. Deathstroke also possesses a healing factor in his blood that enables him to heal from physical injury much faster than a normal person; it does have limitations as he could not heal his eye and cannot regenerate entire limbs. This enables him to recover from what would otherwise be fatal injuries, though recovering from such injuries renders him insane and animalistic for a short period.

He is also a highly formidable opponent in physical combat to the point that even Batman cannot defeat him solo (and only succeeded in defeating him with the aid of his sidekicks, in Infinite Crisis). Deathstroke, who was sick and tired, soundly defeated Batman in Deathstroke the Terminator (vol 1) #7, beating him unconscious in Batman's home turf of Gotham City. Deathstroke easily defeated Batman twice more in Detective Comics (vol 1) #710. Finally in their third confrontation in the issue Batman managed to secure Deathstroke momentarily by catching him off guard and knocked Deathstroke out with his own gun. Batman then turned his attention elsewhere and when returned Deathstroke was gone. Deathstroke left his mask and sword as a sign he could have taken Batman out from behind as well to proving that Batman couldn't defeat him in a straight fight or without assistance. Green Arrow (vol. 4) #66 claims that an assassin known as Natas taught Deathstroke "almost everything he knows" (a retcon of his origin in The New Teen Titans: Judas Contract, where his future wife Adeline Kane trained him while Slade was in the military). There has been argument among fans as to how good a martial artist Deathstroke is. While he has defeated multiple opponents in hand-to-hand combat and has even been acknowledged by Cassandra Cain as "toying with me, he is holding back", he is not considered one of the DCU's greatest martial artists despite his impressive record, as his enhanced capabilities and artificial enhancements provide him with an unfair advantage. Deathstroke is also skilled in the use of many weapons ranging from guns, rifles, and swords, which are usually among his current weapons of choice. His signature weapon is a power staff that fires lethal and non-lethal energy blasts from both ends. The staff can also be used to strike using energy at each end. His body armor is composed of a mesh-woven, kevlar, chainlink mail, capable of stopping small arms fire. Most of the metal he wears and uses is Promethium.

Deathstroke also has super-reflexes hightened to an unheard of degree which is how he was able to blast apart Impulse's knee cap with a shot gun and impale the Flash while both were running at super-speed.

Other versions

• In the intercompany crossover The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans, Deathstroke meets his equal in the form of Wolverine; the two fight to a near standstill. At the same time, however, he proved skilled enough to defeat Colossus in a one-on-one fight despite the latter's superior physical strength.
• The Marvel Comics character Deadpool is similar to Deathstroke. Deadpool commonly uses the name "Wade Wilson", similar to "Slade Wilson". In Superman/Batman Annual #1 written by former Deadpool author Joe Kelly, Deathstroke from the antimatter universe appears and has similar characteristics related to Deadpool (such as Deadpool's "merc with a mouth" wisecracks, a black spot on his mask over his eye somewhat resembling Deadpool's. While this character didn't seem to be as skilled at fighting as Deathstroke, his healing factor seemed far more effective, with Slade becoming annoyed at how hard he was to kill). This character tries to introduce his name multiple times but is always interrupted. The most he was able to get out was "Dea-". It could be implied Deadpool is the Marvel counterpart of Deathstroke, who was created 11 years earlier. Marvel seemingly acknowledged this in the Cable/Deadpool series, where Deadpool sometimes answers a letters column. Deadpool claimed that he didn't want to be in a Marvel/DC crossover, because people might mistake him for a certain DC character.
• In Amalgam Comics, Deathstroke is combined with Marvel's Daredevil to become "Dare the Terminator", real name: Slade Murdock. Unlike Wilson and Murdock, Dare is a woman. Though Dare is legally blind, she wears an eyepatch because of her mangled right eye. She also has horns surgically attached to her forehead. She uses a sword in combat.
• In Tangent Comics, Deathstroke is an armoured supervillain and a member of the Fatal Five. This version exists on Earth-97 of the Old Multiverse and Earth-9 of the New Multiverse.
• In the Superman/Batman storyline "Mash-Up", elements of Slade are combined with parts of Doomsday, creating the villain Doomstroke.

• In the Teen Titans animated series, Slade has superior physical strength and fighting skills that surpass Robin's, having beaten him every time they fought in the series. It eventually took all 5 of the Teen Titans to defeat him, though they did so soundly. He is a bona-fide genius, with great knowledge in robotics, as well as military, political and subversive strategy. However, he was easy to anger, which Robin eventually took advantage of. He seems to possess some knowledge of ceremonial magic (as seen in Forces of Nature). He appears to have access to extremely advanced technology and various secret hideouts, nearly unlimited resources, and a vast army of robot minions. However, Slade's most notable quality is that he is a master of manipulation and psychology, allowing him to get his foes to do almost anything he wants through shrewd manipulation.

In other media

Lois & Clark

In the fourth and final season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, an assassin by the name of Deathstroke appeared in "Bob and Carol and Lois and Clark," played by Antonio Sabàto, Jr. The only commonality is the fact that he is an international assassin known as Deathstroke. In Lois and Clark, Deathstroke is a former scientist. An accident in the lab exposed him to magnetic particles, permanently altering his body and granting him magnetic powers. His assistant, who afterwards becomes his wife, helps by creating a special suit to contain his powers and keep metal from being drawn to him while out in public. The suit even has a symbol of its own: resembling the force lines of a magnetic field, forming a stylized figure eight. After this, he becomes an assassin, murdering his targets with his powers, first by drawing the target to him, then by magnetizing the iron in their blood cells, causing a figure-eight mark on the chest as the person dies of a heart attack.

The couple take the name Bob and Carol when they arrive in Metropolis; they become friends with Clark Kent and Lois Lane as they discover that Lois is going to be interviewing an eccentric reclusive billionaire. The couple plan to assassinate the billionaire before he goes public, taking his identity and thus his fortune. The plan is foiled when Superman interferes, destroying Deathstroke's containment suit, which causes him to be magnetically drawn to a steel pillar until the police arrive. Very much like Superman, this Deathstroke kept a secret identity by wearing a pair of glasses.

Teen Titans

File:SladeTTanimated2003.jpg

Slade as he appears in the Teen Titans animated series.

Deathstroke appears in the Teen Titans animated series, portrayed by voice-actor Ron Perlman. The name "Deathstroke" did not make it through the censors due to hesitance to use the word "death" in a children's animated series, thus the character is referred to by his first name from the comics, Slade. As a nod to his comic counterpart, his mask only has one eye hole, though his "true" face is never shown, and his mask was only taken off half-way during his first battle with the Titans, but was silhouetted by a shadow, and then he was seen with his face as a skull when he accompanied Robin against a battle with Raven's father. He is also changed from a mercenary and assassin to an enigmatic criminal mastermind -- somewhat akin to The Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- dispatching slews of supervillains and android ninjas to kill the Teen Titans instead of directly coming after them himself. He is the primary antagonist for the first two seasons of the show, and is the longest-running villain in the series, having appeared in a total of 17 episodes, more than double that of any other villain. Although the connection is never stated in the course of the series, Slade's son Jericho is also introduced into the Teen Titans series during the series finale. His daughter Rose is also introduced in the animated series based comic book Teen Titans Go!; a painting of Slade, without his mask, is briefly seen in the comic book.

Slade is shown to be ambitious, calculating, and dispassionate; however, his underestimating of the bonds that exist between all the Titans and his fury over not being able to sever those bonds have often led to his undoing. His main goal is apparently to kill the Titans and conquer the city, and quite possibly the world. In both seasons he seeks out an apprentice, starting with Robin in the first season, who he coerces into working for him by threatening to kill the other Titans with nanobots, and then Terra, whose desire for control and acceptance he preys on. He is well-trained in most forms of combat, both unarmed and with weapons, to the point that he appears to be Robin's better. In the Teen Titans: Know Your Foes interview on the Season 2 DVD, Slade is said to have enhanced strength and an enhanced healing factor. Most of Slade's plans are strictly scientific in nature, though he did summon a fire elemental in one episode.

Slade is killed in the second season by Terra, who drops him into a lava-filled pit, and is as a result, mostly absent in the third season, with Brother Blood acting as (in some aspects) Slade's 'replacement' (both as a villain and as the series' antagonist) during the third season. In the Season 3 episode "Haunted", Slade appears as a figment of Robin's imagination, due to a chemical reagent released from his mask when Robin touched it, causing Robin to see hallucinations of Slade which attacked him. His mind made the injuries inflicted upon him real. Robin eventually figures out what is happening and overcomes the hallucination. However, it is revealed that this gas had been triggered from the outside by an unknown party.

Slade returns in the fourth season as an undead servant of Raven's demonic father Trigon. He is empowered with vast pyrokinetic abilities, superhuman strength and durability, flight, regeneration, phasing, electricity generation, teleportation, and other supernatural powers making him far stronger than the Teen Titans. Slade entered into the deal in exchange for being brought back to life, but was predictably betrayed. Intent of getting his due, he helps Robin find Raven, locating the source of power which restores his mortal form along the way. He aids the Teen Titans in defeating Trigon afterward. He escapes capture after the world is saved.

Slade appears in the last episode of the series, "Things Change", when Beast Boy is searching for answers on why a newly revived Terra seems to have lost all memory of her past or superpowers. Slade confronts Beast Boy, denying anything to do with Terra's sudden return and stating that if Terra doesn't remember her past, it's because she doesn't want to remember and that he should leave her in peace. Infuriated by his speech, Beast Boy attacks Slade, only to find out that it's just another robot duplicate.

Jericho appears in the episode "Calling all Titans", but Slade's relation to him, if any exists in this adaptation, is never mentioned.

The Judas Contract

Deathstroke was going to appear in the upcoming straight-to-DVD film Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, an adaptation of the Terra storyline of the same name from the comics unrelated to the more youth-oriented anime-like Teen Titans. However, the film was put on hiatus.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

On August 20 2008, Ed Boon announced Deathstroke as one of the DC villains who would appear in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and is played by Chris Matthews and voiced by Patrick Seitz who also voiced Scorpion over actor Sorin Brouwers, Shao Kahn over actor Jorden Brun and the second voice of Dark Kahn in the game. In the story, he attacks Sub-Zero, who is trying to hunt down Scorpion, seeing this new assassin as an enemy. Sub-Zero wins the battle, but doesn't bother finishing off Deathstroke, fearing the essence of the Netherrealm that leads to Scorpion would become too weak to follow if he wasted any more time. Later he teams up with Lex Luthor and the Joker and helps Joker try to take on Sonya Blade and Kano. Joker fights Sonya while Deathstroke battles Kano. During the middle of his fight, Deathstroke is pushed aside by Joker and the Joker defeats Kano, then turns on Deathstroke himself. Deathstroke's game ending has him realizing that other-worldy assassins are seen as unwelcome competition. As a caution, he creates an army of assassins in his image, becoming the leader of the Deathstrike Clan.

Other Related Media

An action figure of Deathstroke has been released as part of the toy line for The Dark Knight. There are some differences in the appearance of the figure from how the character usually appears including a dark blue jacket-like top instead of promethium chain mail and black pants instead of blue. His gloves, belt and boots have also been changed to black, and he has a slashing right arm attack. Deathstroke did not actually appear in The Dark Knight despite the action figure release.

Similarities to other characters

A similarity between Deathstroke and the Marvel Comics mercenary Taskmaster was also noted in Wizard Magazine #177: "Both Tasky and Slade are amoral profiteers, and thanks to mutual designer George Pérez, even their original costumes are similar." They share an orange/blue color scheme and many design elements (such as buccaneer boots, flared gloves, and a near-identical collection of weapon belts). The largest differences were their masks, Taskmaster's cloak, and the white in Taskmaster's costume. Both characters were designed by George Pérez in 1980, within a few months of each other.

His original code name, Terminator, is the same as that of the antagonist in the film The Terminator, although there is no relationship between the characters.

Another Marvel Comics character having many similarities to Deathstroke is Deadpool. Both have similar costumes, professions, rhyming names (Deathstroke is Slade Wilson while Deadpool is Wade Wilson), and similar code names (Death=Dead, you do a "stroke" in a "pool"). However, the two have completely different personalities with Deathstroke being a brilliant cutthroat mercenary whereas Deadpool is a sarcastic "merc with a mouth".

There is also another Marvel character who is actually named Deathstroke. Differences are that he has two eyes, he has an arsenal of specially attributed throwing stars, and an energy sword that can cut through steel, oddly enough he also leads a team called the Terminators. (Note: This is not from the Marvel-D.C. cross over issues, he first appeared in Spider-Woman #39, and again in Captain America #395)

The Hanna-Barbera cartoons Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and the more recent Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law both feature a character named "X, the Eliminator", who is similar to Deathstroke in both outfit and character - X is a mercenary hired by the agents of F.E.A.R to retrieve the crest on Birdman's helmet.

Collected editions

Part of the eponymous series has been collected into a trade paperback:

• Deathstroke, The Terminator: Full Cycle (collects Deathstroke the Terminator #1-5 and New Titans #70, ISBN 093028982X)

References

• Deathstroke at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Template:Imdb character

External links

• The Origin of Deathstroke at DC Comics.com
• Titans Tower Biography
• Deathstroke at the DC Database Project
• Template:Imdb character