Written by: Christopher Priest
Art by: Jason Paz, Carlo Pagulayan
Publisher: DC Comics
Apart from his portrayal in the Teen Titans TV Show and CW’s Arrow, I don’t really know much about Deathstroke. The character has always interested me, but not enough for me to read his critically panned New 52 series. But with characters like Green Arrow and Flash coming into Rebirth with massive upgrades in quality, I decided to give Deathstroke a shot. The new series is written by Christopher Priest, known for his run on Black Panther. It stars Deathstroke on what seems to be an ordinary assassination mission for him, but the terms change when his past catches up with him.
The story itself is way too short to form any kind of opinion for it as the issue splits it’s pages between showing Deathstoke’s current mission and a vignette from his past. Form the very little we see of both sides, I’m definitely intrigued by where the plot is headed. Apart from the two different stories, the book also shows the two different versions of Deathstroke. The straight up ruthless villain and the antihero doing some good. On one page he’s helping a murderous dictator fill mass graves, and then on the other he vows to protect the families of soldiers. On one page he’s being a complete douchebag to his children, and then on the other he reveals his mission is to kill a supervillian and he was paid by the villian’s victims to do so.
The duality of Deathstroke shown here just shows he’s neither a good guy or a bad guy. He’s just a guy who’s likes killing people, and whether he kills the good guys or the bad guys doesn’t really matter to him. It’s an interesting take on the character and helps explain the things he has done in the past.
I also really enjoyed the art of the book, it’s more of realistic and grittier look than some of the other DC comics. The art also does a good job of showing how much of a badass Deathstroke is and the action is very fun to read.
I liked this issue because of the way it portrayed Deathstroke, both his past and present self, but apart from characterization there’s not really much else here. Not much is accomplished in terms of the plot and i still don’t know what direction the series is going in. But Priest’s writing so far has been great and has inspired confidence that Deathstroke is in the right hands.
