The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me
Hello Enthusiasts,
It has occurred to me that Deathstroke can be a difficult character to write, as more of his comics seem to be bad than good. Today we will be looking at the first volume of his new 52 run and see where exactly it falls. As always, there will be some Spoilers Below.
So the story follows Slade as he is still a well known assassin, but is generally hired for jobs as a bodyguard or bouncer rather than the mercenary work that he's used to. Thus, he is starting to feel like he is loving the respect that he spent so much time earning around the world. He gets fed up with this, feeling that the money from these jobs isn't worth the respect he's losing, and he takes a job that will have him working with another group of mercenaries. They pull off the job, Slade kills the other mercenaries to eliminate competition, and he feels that he is back on track. However, he soon receives a briefcase that holds evidence suggesting that his son, Grant, is alive. While Deathstroke pursues this lead, it turns out that someone is questioning his talents and has been sending several would-be assassins after him, all wearing similar costumes. Stacked on top of all of this is Deathstroke realizing that, while he does retain the majority of his abilities, he does begin to notice that his age is starting to catch up with him, It all leads up to a final showdown where Deathstroke confronts the enemy behind many connecting dots of the story (I don't want to give too much detail away.
To start out here, Deathstroke is my favorite comic book character. He's clever and has defeated foes that he had no business even getting in a fight with. This story is fast paced and frequently shows the kind of awesome work that Slade Wilson is capable of. I think one of my favorites is one where Slade is brought into a prison, all tied up, and proceeds to take down all of the guards around him. He also takes out a pretty powerful meta-human with a submarine, though you'll need to read it to see how that feat plays out. The artwork in the story is great, and I love the design that they give Deathstroke in this volume. It has a traditional look to it, but it's updated to also look a little bit more like armor. I was also glad that they didn't fundamentally change the character for the New 52 lineup like they've done with other characters (like Superman was near the start, when he was just wearing jeans and a T-shirt). Deathstroke was a true product of the 80's, he always felt like the action star of a big action movie, and this graphic novel certainly keeps up that feeling.
Despite the positives I have listed out above, this is not the best volume of comics you will ever read. My biggest problem is the plot point I mentioned about Slade's age catching up with him. Everyone is aged back in the New 52 except for Deathstroke, and I was really upset by that. Give me a few volumes of Deathstroke being the world's greatest assassin first, then we can have a story about his age giving him issues. Overall I felt like we could have used a better story, as the "Slade's son is alive and he'll do anything to find him" isn't actually original for Deathstroke. Deathstroke has beaten Batman in a fight, has held his own against Green Lantern, and numberous other feats, so I don't feel like it should be too difficult to come up with a great, original story.
When it's all said and done, this wasn't a great read. It didn't ruin the character for me at all, but there are better Deathstroke stories out there. This comic looked nice and felt right, but it wasn't as strong as I think it could have been. Check it out if you're a Deathstroke fan like me, but you can leave it alone otherwise. I will try to get a positive Deathstroke review out next time.
I give Deathstroke vol 1: Legacy a 5.5 out of 10
Sincerely,
The Bored Enthusiast
No comments:
Post a Comment