A Good Begining
“Deathstroke the Terminator—the scariest badass on the planet.” With these words (and a pile of dead Russians), Kyle Higgins kick starts the new Deathstroke series, spelling out for us exactly how, in his eyes, this character should be perceived. There was a lot of fear from fans coming into the DCnU that the abuse of this character would continue, but Higgins successfully manages to assuage the majority of these terrors with this excellent setup for what could possibly be a fantastic series.
The purpose of this first issue is to cut out the crap which has stuck to this character over the years, and he successfully does so by shoving it in the readers face before smashing it into the ground. He mercilessly plays with the reader’s expectations, reenacting several recent abuses of the character before violently and unambiguously grinding them into dust. To be honest, I spent the majority of my time reading this book wallowing in despair over a particular dynamic, only to see my fears gunned down without remorse in the final pages. It was a fantastic statement which leaves little doubt over where this book is going.
Or, well, at least over where it’s not going. Slade Wilson ultimately comes across as a little two dimensional due to the fact that only very specific parts of Deathstroke’s personality were targeted by this issue. What we really get from this is an explanation of who he is not. And fortunately, based on that characterization, this series has a lot of promise. Only time will tell if they capitalize on this or not. Unfortunately, the overt plotline that was included in the issue came off as tacked on, rather than smoothly blending into the story. We’ll see how well he manages to follow up on this.
When it comes to the art, the best description I can give consists of the word “good” (as well as the following paragraph). It’s not one the best of the new DCnU, and it certainly isn’t the worst. The cover illustration, as well as the faces (or at least those deemed important enough to be emphasized), were fantastically done. The facial expressions did well to convey what the characters were thinking, and while there are a few in the background at points that seem a little off, it doesn’t stop you from understanding the terror in their eyes. Additionally, the use of the color scheme to illustrate the tone from page to page was a great inclusion, if a little overpowering at times. My major complaints, artistically speaking, have to do with that gigantic sword that Deathstroke lugs around with him now. Very rarely while it was in use was I able to tell exactly where it was pointing or what path it took to get there. I never was really able to get a hold of the swords spatial orientation while it was in action. Hopefully, at some point in the near future, they revert to a more standard, less cartoony blade.
This issue was a hard one to rate. I came back from it with very different opinions after my first and second reads. Because this issue really isn’t epic in its own right, and focuses mostly on the setup for future epicness, I gave it the score I did. It is nice to see a Deathstroke who isn’t being watered down so his enemies can beat him, and it’s obvious that Higgins’ has plans for this character. This setup gives the series a lot of promise, and as I said before, we’ll see how well he manages to capitalize on it.
