Hey gang!
While the year might be in full swing and my days are starting to blur together already, I’ve managed to escape the endless march of time by travelling back in time to the far-off year of 2016, where DC’s Rebirth line was just beginning. That’s right, kids – I’m taking the easy route out and talking about a Rebirth #1 trade again! This week, I’m talking about Deathstroke volume 1: The Professional, written by Christopher J. Priest (Quantum and Woody) and drawn by a string of artists so long that I can’t be arsed writing their names out (seriously, there’s like five of them). Just kidding – artists need love too! The book is drawn by James Bennett, Belardino Brabo (Red Hood/Arsenal), Mark Morales (The Accelerators), Carlo Pagulayan (Atlas) and Jason Paz (America’s Got Powers). You’d think with such a large, rotating roster of artists that the book would be inconsistent and, frankly, shitty, on the art front, but I have to admit being pleasantly surprised by this take on DC’s deadliest assassin.
Someone is messing with the world’s greatest assassin. He might have enhanced reflexes, a healing factor, hyper-intelligence and an unstoppable penchant for violence, but it seems even Slade Wilson – a.k.a Deathstroke – can be manipulated. While on a contract in a war-torn African nation, Deathstroke is led – piece by piece – to his kidnapped partner, Billy Wintergreen, and manipulated by an unknown party to don a prototype battlesuit crafted by his former-partner-turned-superhero Dr Ikon. With Wintergreen safe, Slade discovers that someone else close to him is in peril – someone wants his daughter Rose dead. With two of his closest allies under threat, Slade is determined to find out who’s messing with him – and exact his vengeance.
I’ve got to be honest – this is my first Deathstroke comic and I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve read far more Deadpool – a.k.a. the pisstake of Deathstroke – than I have Deathstroke titles. Really, though, it kinda leaned into my gut feeling that Slade is one -e d g y- boi and the book seems to be going to great pains to tell a story that doesn’t lean too hard on the fact that he’s basically a moody teenager’s idea of a cool character. My gripes about Slade’s background aside, I think Christopher Priest has done an admirable job of stringing together a story that kept me engaged, even if I got a bit confused along the way. There are enough political machinations and plot twists to sate Game of Thrones or House of Cards fans, and plenty of Slade doing what he does best (i.e. killing people). Honestly, one of my favourite parts of the book is when (spoiler warning) Deathstroke kidnaps Damien Wayne in an attempt to manipulate Batman, and Damien spends his entire time in captivity talking shit about Deathstroke to his face. It was a slightly out of place, almost over the top spot of humour in an otherwise serious book, and I loved every panel of it.
A notable feature of the book is that despite the large roster of artists, the whole thing is remarkably consistent in terms of the quality of its artwork. With that many artists involved, you’d expect the quality to change with each artist, but it didn’t noticeably change at all – a hell of an achievement, in my opinion.
All up, while I might not be the target market for Deathstroke comics anymore, this Rebirth #1 trade is still a decent DC tale that will no doubt appeal to comic fans that like their action served with a dash of political machinations.
Written by Alastair McGibbon
