Originally published on Patreon
When I looked at the upcoming comic releases for this week and saw that Deathstroke Inc didn't have a Dark Crisis tie-in attached I was a bit confused; here is a character who's playing a huge part in Dark Crisis (those last few pages of the first issue!!!!) and his title doesn't seem to be a part of the event.
When I picked it up, however, all was explained. Whilst Dark Crisis goes on Deathstroke Inc will be going back in time to give us Slade's origin story in his own Year One.
The issue opens with Slade waking up after he's already been the subject of the military experiments that will grant him his enhanced abilities. He's in hospital, disorientated, confused, and unwell. As the story continues Slade is weaker than we've ever seen him, and has to face the fact that he can't carry on being a soldier.
Retreating to civilian life, and spending time with his young family, gives him some kind of purpose; but fails to satisfy him. He even struggles to connect well with his son, Grant. To help with his boredom and feelings of apathy he takes to the streets at night, getting into fights with criminals and thugs.
It's during these fights that Slade comes to realise that he's stronger than ever before, he's faster, and any wounds he receives heal faster. It appears that the experiments weren't the failure that everyone thought. And when he's approached by a mysterious figure who wants to pay Slade $1 million to stop the information to come out he has to make a choice of whether he wants to dedicate himself to his family, or to return to his mercenary ways.
Slade Wilson is a character who's past I've known for a while, how he was experimented on in the military, but I've not really known any details. The smaller, more personal parts of the story. As such, getting to really spend the time going over this, as more than just a small flashback, is something that I've been wanting for a long while.
Slade is a character that a lot of people like, one who despite being a villain people enjoy reading. And over the years we've seen that he isn't just a one dimensional bad guy, but has had more depth to him. This new story arc seems to be trying to explore that, showing us a man who, at this point, is just a soldier trying his best to do right by his family.
This is the most human that we've ever seen the character, he's unsure of himself, he makes mistakes, and he sometimes lacks confidence in himself. It's strange to see him this way, but it's enjoyable to find these new sides to the character.
I like that the story begins with Slade already having gone through the experimentation. It would have been easy to start the story earlier, to see him considering whether or not to go through with it, and how he came to his conclusions. But this would have been a misstep, as we already know he ultimately goes through with it. Skipping that, to focus on the more important instead, helps to keep the story moving. And honestly, I don't really care if he went through a tough time deciding to volunteer or not. So I'm glad that Ed Brisson skipped it all.
Not a huge amount happens in this issue that folks would consider to be 'action', but the time spent with the character was interesting enough, and I'm curious to see how he goes from the man he is here to Deathstroke the Terminator.
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