Deathstroke (DC Comics): Part One Deathstroke the Terminator (also known by his name Slade Wilson, originally called simply the Terminator) is a comic book supervillain, and sometimes antihero, who appears in books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. He is a mercenary and assassin who first appeared in The New Teen Titans (vol. 1) #2 (1980). Wizard Magazine rated him the 84th greatest villain of all time and the 72nd greatest comic book character of all time. Also, in 2009, Deathstroke was ranked as IGNs 32nd greatest comic book villain of all time. Publication history Deathstroke the Terminator first appeared in 1980, in the second issue of the book New Teen Titans. He was originally introduced as the Terminator, a mercenary who was completing the terms of a contract undertaken by his son Ravager, but he quickly became one of the main antagonists for the Titans. Deathstroke quickly became a fan favorite character and later in the series often allied with the Titans against mutual threats. Due to his popularity, Deathstroke received his own series, Deathstroke the Terminator, in 1991. It was retitled Deathstroke the Hunted for issues #0 and #41-45; and then simply Deathstroke for issues #46-60. The series was cancelled with issue #60. In total, Deathstroke ran for 65 issues (#1-60, plus 4 annuals and a special #0 issue). Following his injury in DC Universe: Last Will and Testament, Deathstroke appears in one of the four Faces of Evil one-shots, written by David Hine. Hine has explained that the series is part of the set-up for future stories: All of the characters in this ‘Faces of Evil’ series were selected for their potential as major players in the coming year. Even though the character of Deathstroke the Terminator predates James Camerons film The Terminator by four years, the Slade Wilson character is now simply called Deathstroke, even by characters who had called him Terminator for years. The full title has not completely fallen out of use, having been referenced as recently as Justice League Elite. Fictional character biography Origins Slade Wilson was sixteen years old when he first enlisted in the United States Army, having lied about his age. After serving a stint in Korea, he was later assigned to Camp Washington where he had been promoted to the rank of Major. In the early 1960s, he met Captain Adeline Kane who was tasked with training young soldiers in new fighting techniques in anticipation of brewing troubles taking place in Vietnam. Kane was amazed at how skilled Slade was and how quickly he adapted to modern conventions of warfare. She immediately fell in love with him, and realized that he was without a doubt the most able-bodied combatant she had ever encountered. She offered to privately train Slade in guerrilla warfare. In less than a year, Slade mastered every fighting form presented to him and was soon promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Six months later, Adeline and he were married and she became pregnant with their first child. The war in Vietnam began to escalate and Slade was shipped overseas. In the war, his unit massacred a village, which sickened him. He was also rescued by SAS member Wintergreen, to whom he would later return the favor. Chosen for a secret experiment, the Army imbued him with enhanced physical powers in an attempt to create metahuman supersoldiers for the U.S. military. Deathstroke became a mercenary soon after the experiment when he defied orders and rescued his friend Wintergreen sent on a suicide mission by a commanding officer with a grudge. However, Slade kept this career secret from his family, even though his wife was an expert military combat instructor. Indeed, she had been responsible for a significant portion of his early training. A criminal named the Jackal took his younger son Joseph Wilson hostage to force Slade to divulge the name of a client who had hired him as an assassin. Slade refused, claiming it was against his personal honor code. He attacked and killed the kidnappers at the rendezvous. Unfortunately, Josephs throat was slashed by one of the criminals before Slade could prevent it, destroying Josephs vocal cords and rendering him mute. After taking Joseph to the hospital, his wife Adeline Wilson enraged at his endangerment of her son tried to kill Slade by shooting him, but only managed to destroy his right eye. Afterward, his confidence in his physical abilities was such that he made no secret of his impaired vision, marked by his mask which has a black, featureless half covering his lost eye. Without his mask, Slade wears an eye-patch. The Teen Titans Slade has a long history as an enemy of the Teen Titans, beginning when his other son Grant became an early Titans foe called the Ravager to fulfill a contract to kill or capture the Teen Titans. However, those enhancements proved fatal and Slade agreed to complete the contract. His first mission involved stealing the fictional element Promethium from S.T.A.R. Labs and selling it as the ultimate weapon. He then kidnapped the Titans and placed them in the path of a Promethium bomb to test his device for the buyers, effectively killing two birds with one stone. The Titans escaped and pursued Deathstroke, but he severely wounded Changeling in his escape. This would be the start to a lasting animosity between the two. Deathstroke next appeared in New York, holding officials hostage in order to lure the Titans into confronting him. Terra, a new ally of the Titans, and Changeling were the only ones available to answer the call. Terra knocked Changeling out in an effort to prove herself worthy of being a Titan and fought Deathstroke single-handedly. Slade escaped as the other Titans arrived, but by then Terra had proven herself and the team offered her membership. Later that night, it was revealed that both Terra and Deathstroke conspired to fake the fight in a plot to infiltrate the team. It was also revealed that both shared an intimate relationship, despite Terra being fifteen years old. The artist, George Pérez, noted that this constituted statutory rape. Judas Contract The Titans eventually entrusted Terra with all of their secret identities. Once Slade had this information, he used it to systematically take down each of the Titans, exploiting them at their weakest moments. Donna Troy was gassed at her photo studio, Changeling was poisoned with tainted envelopes while responding to fan mail, Victor Stone was electrically shocked by a chair in his own apartment, Koriandr was ambushed with a device that affected her powers, and Raven was taken down by Terra herself. Nightwing was last to be attacked and he was confronted by Deathstroke himself. He narrowly avoided being captured and soon discovered that his teammates had already been taken. Nightwing arrived at Titans Tower to discover Slades ex-wife and son. She told Nightwing that Terra was a traitor, how each of his teammates were captured, and related the origin of Deathstroke. Nightwing, in order to confront Deathstroke and the H.I.V.E., joined Jericho (Joseph Wilson). During the confrontation, Deathstroke recognized Jericho as his son which caused him to hesitate. Jericho freed the Titans by possessing his fathers body. Terra turned on Deathstroke, thinking he betrayed her as well. After her suicide, Slade was taken into custody. Slade was put on trial for his crimes, but the trial was deliberately sabotaged by Changeling so that he could kill Slade himself, believing he was responsible for Terras betrayal of the Titans. Slade agreed to the confrontation, but showed up out of costume. Changeling found himself unable to kill Slade, so instead they talked. Feeling some empathy for his grief, Slade explained his past with Terra, and Changeling realized Slade was not to blame for the choices Terra had made. The two men parted on peaceful terms, with Slade returning to Africa with Wintergreen. Titans Plague Months later, Slade encountered the Titans again while they were investigating mysterious attacks and disappearances. Donna Troy is attacked by a group of strange beastmen and barely survives the encounter. Meanwhile, while attending a fundraiser with his father, Gar Logan recognizes Slade trying to maintain a low profile. When he finally catches up with Slade, he finds him about to kill the host of the fundraiser Walter Lanier. He stops Deathstroke, but is surprised when Lanier turns into a bat-like creature and flies away. Slade reveals to the Titans that he was responsible for smuggling the drug the bestiamorphs were using to transform others, but did not realize what it was until it was too late. After Jericho and Raven were stricken by the plague, he aided them in destroying the beastmen and finding a cure for the contagion. Titans Hunt Shortly after this, he came to the Titans assistance again during the Titans Hunt storyline. The members of the Titans, as well as many inactive members, all disappeared in a manner very similar to how they were abducted during the Judas Contract. Mento, an on-and-off member of the Doom Patrol, hires Deathstroke to find the missing Titans. He eventually discovers with Nightwing that the abductions were the work of the Wildebeest Society, and that their leader was none other than Titan member Jericho, Deathstrokes son. It was revealed that Jericho had been possessed by the corrupted souls of Azarath as they were using him to capture the Titans and use them as physical hosts in order to survive. During the transfer process, Jerichos true self resurfaced briefly, begging his father to kill him. To spare his son any more pain and save the remaining Titans, Slade was forced to drive a sword through Jerichos heart, seemingly killing him. This act still haunts him to this day. Afterward, Slade continued his life as a mercenary, but also acted as an occasional hero, aiding the Titans or acting on his own to help others, most notably during the Total Chaos storyline when the Team Titans arrived in the 20th Century to assassinate Donna Troy before she could give birth to her son, who in their timeline had grown up into the tyrannical despot, Lord Chaos. Slade also met Pat Trayce, a tough former cop who would become the new Vigilante. Pat Trayce and Slade quickly became lovers, and began a tumultuous on-again/off-again relationship. Family business After Slade thwarted an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, he was subsequently framed for the murder of a U.S. Senator. The man responsible had taken on the identity of the Ravager and was hunting down Slades friends and loved ones. Eventually, with the help of the Titans and Sarge Steel, Slade was able to prove his innocence and the true culprit was revealed to be Steve Dayton, under the alias of the Crime Lord, who had again succumbed to mental instability caused by his Mento helmet. Meanwhile, Slades relationship with his estranged wife Adeline took a tragic turn as Slade underwent a process to gain the ability of physical regeneration, allowing him to survive any wound so long as his brain is intact (but this power is limited as Slade cannot regenerate his lost eye because that injury happened before he gained his healing factor). After gaining this power, Slade was forced to give his wife a blood transfusion to save her life, resulting in her gaining a similar healing factor which manifested itself as a form of immortality. This alteration of her DNA drove Adeline insane, shaming Deathstroke into going into a semi-retirement state. In Titans (vol. 1) #12, Deathstroke teamed up with the Titans to face his wife Adeline, who in her insane state had revived the H.I.V.E. and sought to rid the world of all superhumans, blaming them for Jerichos apparent death. During the battle, interrupted by Vandal Savage and a band of villains that he had organized from recent Titans battles, Adelines throat was slit. In a brief return of sanity, she begged Slade to kill her, requesting him to reunite her with my... our children... because her version of the healing factor would not heal the wound, but only allow her to live in spite of it. Deathstroke refused, but Koriandr shocked her teammates and Deathstroke by using her starbolt blast to disintegrate her completely, per Adelines wishes. This was a turning point, as Deathstroke renounced all ties with the Titans as a result of Starfires act. It was then revealed that Jericho managed to transfer his consciousness into Deathstroke in the instant before his death. Taking control of his father, Jericho forced Deathstroke to murder his longtime butler, mentor and companion Wintergreen. He then launched a series of attacks against the current Teen Titans, most notably shattering Impulses knee with a shotgun blast, before leaving his fathers body. Deathstroke has since manipulated his one remaining child Rose Wilson into the mercenary business as the new Ravager, in order to find and kill Jericho, using a specially designed serum to heighten her hostility and push her over the edge. Unfortunately, the process also resulted in her being driven at least partially insane, to the extent that she cut out her own left eye in an attempt to prove to her father that she was just like him. Nightwing and Birds of Prey Deathstroke appeared in Nightwing #23 as a mercenary against Black Canary and Conner Hawke as part of the Brotherhood of the Fist tie-in to the No Mans Land story arc. Deathstroke also appeared in Birds of Prey #22-24, where he was sent to Gorilla City by Blockbuster to get an ape-heart. He is accompanied by Lady Vic, Grimm, and Black Canary, who is posing as Oracle. Identity Crisis In the Identity Crisis miniseries, Deathstroke was enlisted as a bodyguard for Doctor Light, who was being pursued by the Justice League of America as a suspect in the murder of Sue Dibny. In the ensuing battle, Deathstroke nearly beat the team of Elongated Man, Flash, Zatanna, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Atom and Green Lantern. He systematically took out every member except for Rayner, whom he had the potential to disable through trying to usurp his rings energies using his own formidable willpower. Fortunately, before the outcome of this conflict with Green Lantern ended, Green Arrow stuck an arrow in Deathstrokes right eye socket, enraging him. Slade went ballistic, which derailed his pre-planned strategy and began to beat Green Arrow, but was stopped when the majority of the team tackled Deathstroke to the ground. Dr. Light used his powers to allow the two to escape. Near the end of Identity Crisis, Deathstroke confronts Green Arrow on a rooftop. Arrow sees his reflection in the windows of a nearby building, but when he turns to confront Slade, Deathstroke is gone. Instead, Green Arrow finds Slades cowl and a note stuck to the wall by the very arrow he stabbed in Slades eye socket. The note reads This is yours - Were not done. Infinite Crisis Deathstroke was a founding member of Lex Luthors Secret Society of Super Villains in the Infinite Crisis storyline. He was seen in Infinite Crisis #1, hiding in a warehouse south of Metropolis waiting to ambush the Freedom Fighters with several other members. The battle didnt last long, and by the end, Deathstroke had killed the Phantom Lady. Slade is also the one who landed the final stroke on Uncle Sam by shooting him in the back (and leading to his apparent death.) He was the employer of Nightwing, whom he hired to train his daughter Rose. However, after the two had a confrontation with Superman, Deathstroke discovered that Nightwing had been teaching Rose the values of heroism. He could not kill Grayson in front of his daughter, because doing so would undo all of Slades teachings. Nightwing offered a deal: he would stay away from Rose if Slade would keep the metahuman villains out of Blüdhaven. The deal held for 34 hours until Infinite Crisis #4, when Slade, under the orders of Alexander Luthor, Jr., the real leader of the Society, went with several villains (including old Titans and Doom Patrol foes and Brotherhood of Evil members Monsieur Mallah and Brain) to drop Chemo, another fellow villain who appeared to be a nearly brainless monster made of pure energy and radioactive chemicals, on Blüdhaven, killing over one-hundred thousand people. Slade gave the explanation to the Brotherhood that Nightwing should be made to believe that he can never go home again. Nightwing took the first of his revenge by bursting in on Deathstroke and Roses training session, revealing to the latter that the Kryptonite that Deathstroke had implanted in place of her missing eye was radioactive and deadly to humans as well as to Kryptonians (as revealed by Luthors old possession of a Kryptonite ring that forced him to transfer his brain to a cloned body). Angered, Slade went after Nightwing with a grenade, only to have Rose try to stop him. Amid the smoke of the resulting explosion, Rose fled, telling her father that she hated him. Nightwing disappeared as well, but not before leaving a note for Slade warning him that he would be back to make him pay for Blüdhaven. At the climactic Battle of Metropolis at the conclusion of Infinite Crisis, Slade was confronted by Batman, Robin and Nightwing. During the struggle, he was questioned regarding his motives for aiding the Secret Society. His claims of monetary motivation were deemed unsatisfactory; Batman accused him of having forsaken his code of honor, and Nightwing said it was because his family had abandoned him. Enraged, Slade said that was because of Nightwing, and that it was always because of him, before Batman told him to take responsibility for his actions and he was rendered unconscious. One Year Later Slade appears in the Green Arrow series after the one year jump in DC Comics storylines. Apparently in hiding, he nearly murders a crony of several Star City businessmen who want to hire him for a murder. Before finishing his violent refusal, he asks the name of the target. When informed that it was to be the mayor of Star City, Oliver Queen (whom Deathstroke knows is secretly Green Arrow), he spares the lackey and decides to take the job. However, things do not quite go according to plan, with Green Arrow using the resources of both his identities, trapping him within a ring of armed National Guardsmen. The fight ends with Deathstrokes arrest and subsequent conviction and incarceration; however, this is revealed as a ploy to gain access to Constantine Drakon, another jailed foe of Green Arrow who has information on the heros activities in the lost year, which include Green Arrow studying under Natas, an assassin who once trained Deathstroke himself. Deathstroke is also active behind the scenes in Teen Titans, currently in the process of organizing a counter-team of teen superhumans that will be known as Titans East. The current Titans team included Ravager, who now wanted nothing to do with her father. Deathstroke seemingly intended to reclaim Ravager and a recently resurrected Jericho from the Titans or, if that failed, to crush them along with the rest of the team. For these reasons, he specially selected each member of Titans East, believing that, overall, each member would successfully counteract every member of the current Teen Titans line-up. As indicated over the course of the subsequent issues, Deathstroke was manipulating every member of his new team in one way or another. He had blackmailed former Titan Risk while at the same time offering him an outlet for his rage; was drugging Batgirl with the same serum he had used on Rose; and supplied Inertia with a formula which granted superhuman speed to compensate for the loss of the Speed Force following the initial battle with Superboy-Prime. His team, however, slowly fell apart over the course of the attack, as Robin managed to free Batgirl of his mind control serum and Raven convinced Duela Dent to switch sides. Slade and his remaining Titans subsequently faced off against both the current Titans and a group of old Titans led by Nightwing. Although he was defeated, he still managed to escape with the aid of Inertia. In the end, however, it was revealed to the readers that Slades real mission was to provide his children with something he could never offer them: a real family, in the form of the Teen Titans. By attacking the Titans, he insured that Rose and Jericho would become more trusted by their associates, and thus grow closer to the team. Source: Wikipedia article of the same name.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 16:46:46 +0000