12-Month Trades #3: "Deathstroke the Terminator, Vol. 1-5"
By cbishop 8 Comments
| Date | 12-MT #3: | View: | Attached to Forum: | Back/ Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/05/10 | Deathstroke the Terminator, Vol. 1-5 | (Blog) (Forum) | Deathstroke... Assassins | (Back) (Next) |
I'm looking at Deathstroke the Terminator this time, from 1991. I proposed collections of some of these issues a little differently, in several installments of Would U Buy It, but soon realized that what I really wanted was the entire series in TPB. Deathstroke is like a guilt-free Punisher. Yeah, Slade Wilson is killing a lot of people, but that's okay - he's an evil assassin; he's supposed to kill people. With Deathstroke, it's not about how he's going to get off scott free. The answer is simple: he's going to run. He's the badguy, he knows it, and he's not sticking around. If he can make it look like someone else did it, all the better, but there's no illusion that he's on some noble vendetta. He's killing people, and he's getting paid for it. And this series is just that: 64 issues of killing-for-hire, and proving why Deathstroke is DC's best assassin.
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| Proposed Title: | Deathstroke, Vol. 1-5. |
| Vol. 1 Collecting 13 Issues: | |
| Vol. 2 Collecting 15 Issues: | |
| Vol. 3 Collecting 13 Issues: | |
| Vol. 4 Collecting 13 Issues: | |
| Vol. 5 Collecting 11 Issues: |
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| Covers: (click to enlarge) |
For the Volume 1 cover, I'd use the cover to #1, or Deathstroke Annual #1. I think I prefer the annual's cover, but I do think I'd have to go with issue #1 here.
This collection would give us the "City of Assassins" storyline, which guest stars Batman, an introduction to Patricia Trayce (successor to the Adrian Chase Vigilante), Slade's tie-in to the "Darkness Within" storyline, and would reprint the "Full Cycle" storyline, where Slade fights the second Ravager. I see that as a bonus, since Deathstroke: Full Cycle is out of print.
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For the Volume 2 cover, I'd use #21. Although 18, 20, or 22 could work.
This collection gives us villains like Hemp, the Janissary, and appearance by Mammoth. We see more of the Vigilante, and Slade's "Bloodlines" annual, which introduces Gunfire. Slade's three "Total Chaos" issues are in here, but there are six other parts to "Total Chaos," from two other titles. I haven't read them to know whether or not the Deathstroke issues will make enough sense on their own. The title went bi-weekly for two months, so we get two extra issues to finish out the year.
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For the Volume 3 cover, I'd use #27, #28, or #32, but my preference is #32. Deathstroke Annual #3 has a nice cover, but I'd avoid it for the TPB, because it's an Elseworlds story.
We see still more of the Vigilante in this collection, the complete "World Tour '93" storyline, as well as the afforementioned Elseworlds story.
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For the Volume 4 cover, I'd use #0 or #42 - my preference is #0.
This collection sees appearances by Green Arrow, Hawkman, Guy Gardner, the Titans, JLA, and pretty much more heroes than Slade would care to think about. It contains the complete "Deathstroke the Hunted" storyline, as well as Slade's "Year One" annual.
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For the Volume 5 cover, I'd use #53, #59, or #60, but my preference is #53.
The bi-weekly issues in Volume 2 made that collection 15 issues, and left this one a little shorter than the rest. This collection sees another appearance by Hawkman, and an appearance by the Joker. I originally included Faces of Evil: Deathstroke, just because that's the only other Deathstroke book, but after a brief consult with Emperor Gonzo Noir, I decided he was right: it doesn't really fit with the series. Besides, the idea is to be somewhat like the Marvel Classics trades - just collecting the series, with no frills.
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| As mentioned at the start, Deathstroke #1-5 have been collected before, in the 1992 Deathstroke the Terminator: Full Cycle TPB. It is the only collected edition of the series, and has long been out of print. |
| Would you buy this if it were reprinted in TPB? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading. |
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I've moved this blog to the forum for the Volume 1 TPB.
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