Originally published on Patreon
The first issue of the new Deathstroke Year One story was okay, it was a decent look at the man that Slade Wilson used to be before he became the masked mercenary Deathroke, and how he was driven to the point where he was willing to become a killer for hire.
This second issue really kicks things into gear, however, and we get to see Slade's first mission, being hired to kill the scientist who experimented upon him.
Across the course of the issue we see Slade justifying taking on the job, rationalising taking money to kill a man, and to most likely kill bodyguards and federal agents in order to do so. We get to see inside his head, and perhaps begin to see how the experiments changed his mind too, as he puts up an outward facade of being a kind father, and of wanting to kill the doctor as a sense of justice for the other soldiers that lost their lives in the experiments; but inside his head we see that he's started to hate his son, and hiss family life, and how he wants to kill the scientist for his own revenge.
Because we didn't really get to see much of Slade before this point it's not clear if perhaps he was always like this, if maybe he has always been harbouring a dark heart and a lack of care for others, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a 'you've changed' style moment with his wife at some point in this story.
We also see the origin of his iconic suit in this issue, albeit with a few tweaks yet to come. It's kind of amusing to see him hating on the bright orange, considering he keeps it and it becomes an iconic part of his identity. It's a silly moment, but I did appreciate it being in there.
Once the mission begins we see the Slade we know, a man willing to gun down anyone who gets in his way. He kills multiple agents in his pursuit of his target, and seems to feel no remorse in doing so. We're only two issues in, but it already feels like he's become Deathstroke the Terminator, at least mentally anyway.
Unfortunately for him, there is someone to stand between him and his target; and we get a great reveal as an arrow jams up his rifle. Green Arrow. I honestly can't wait to see the next issue, to see these two fight. They're both favourite characters of mine, and I'm looking forward to seeing them go toe to toe here. we've had a few different versions of how Slade loses his eye, and Ollie has jammed an arrow into that eye socket in the past (Identity Crisis I think?) so am interested to see if perhaps they give us another version here, and that he loses it to an arrow.
Two issue in, and this is easily the best arc in the series so far that isn't part of a big event.
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