Broken Frontier

Titans supervillain Deathstroke receives his own comic once again, if only as a one-shot. The issue serves as a prologue for some significant changes in the life of Slade Wilson.

Back in the infamous X-days of the early nineties, DC Comics put out an exceptional comic featuring Deathstroke: The Terminator. I enjoyed the book because Deathstroke was a kind of juiced up super-assassin with somewhat of a conscience or code of honor all his own. The stories were of the spy/thriller variety, and Slade was a little more powerful than the everyday assassin, but not nearly invincible.

Somewhere along the line, he has acquired the ability to control every molecule in his body! This is pretty powerful, if fairly confusing stuff. It makes me wonder what forces are acting on these molecules, the power of the mind outside chemical processes? Perhaps, but the implications of this go way beyond any Zen-like control over the body such as Bruce Wayne has displayed. Every molecule? This is bizarre, even for comic book science. The story picks up with Slade being held in a maximum security prison for super bad guys, and in rough shape, near death in fact from his last encounter with Geo-Force. He is paid a visit by his daughter, the Ravager, who doesn't have a terribly happy family reunion in mind.

DC plainly has big plans for Deathstroke, and this one-shot sets it all up, as well as reintroduces Wilson to new fans by recounting some of his history. I admit to being somewhat curious about the future of the character, but was not impressed with the quality of this story. Besides the factual absurdities, i.e...Slade being allowed to wear his chain mail armor in a prison/hospital facility (even as a last request!), there really is no story to speak of. Some of the dialogue is wildly out of place, as when Slade Wilson utters "sweet" like an immature teenager as he fires a gatling cannon. The attempt at a character study of a mega-villain falls far short, with cliched psychology and a basically stereotypical resolution. The entire issue's story could have properly been told in a couple of panels or maybe a couple of pages of a new title, certainly not worthy of treatment in a one-shot.

The artwork of Georges Jeanty is the strong point of the book. His layouts are clean, yet exciting, with a cinematic quality to the action scenes. He seems an odd choice given the gritty nature of the character and subject matter, but it works better than one might expect. The cover by Jose Ladronn is excellent, reminiscent of the early Mike Zeck covers of the original series.

As a fan of the old series, I was excited about the possibility of a revival comic for the character. Sadly, this treatment of Deathstroke has deflated those hopes.