Back To Anger (Some Spoilers)
I would just like to say that the solicitation for this issue was completely misleading and untrue. Roy and Deathstroke didn’t have to team up together. Hell, they didn’t even spend most of this book in the same room together.
Following the last issue, the Losers for Hire infiltrated the center of a drug lord named Elijah, who distributes a drug called Bliss… which is made from children. Deathstroke’s pre-school sociopaths were attacked by Elijah’s Dominators.
This issue we finally learn their names, and they are: Pisces, Brute, Spike (a Texan), and, wait for it… DJ Molecule.
As Deathstroke deals with the Dominators, Roy goes in search of the holding chambers, and gives more inner monologue, wondering about justice, the only reason he’s with these “Titans” because of Cheshire… for Lian… and looking forward to killing Slade when he gets the chance. Then he finds the kids
“Cheshire was right. This is a harvesting chamber. And children are the crops.”
Roy tries to get one out, and the kid dies.
“If that’s how far Elijah was willing to go to make sure his ‘product’ isn’t tampered with… then Bliss must be one helluva high.”
“…I wonder what it tastes like?”
And then Roy gets attacked by Spike. Here’s an example of the dialogue between them:
Spike: Say yer prayers, Red. I’m gonna slice and dice you like a side of Travis County BBQ.
Roy: Stuff it, Tex. You’re about as
Meanwhile, Osiris deals with a Bliss-fueled vision/hallucination of Osiris, talking about bringing her back, the blood he’s spilt and the shadows in his soul, and what he’ll have to do to bring Isis back. And how many people might have to die because of it.
Roy beats Tex, gets the kids out safely. Osiris kills Elijah. Deathstroke and the others leave, with Deathstroke getting what he wanted. DJ Molecule, for some reason.
Back at base, Roy discovers his stash of drugs is missing. Cheshire has it. She offers him something else:
Cheshire: I’ve got something… far more addictive.
And the two have sex. While Deathstroke watches from a security camera, holding a vial of Bliss.
Ugh. Ugh! UGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Even when they write Roy out of character, they manage to write him out of character! The whole reason he’s become like this is because his daughter was killed! I can understand the heroin, or any other drug, but to contemplate using a drug made from children is just contradictory and stupid! And the fact that he actually had a vial of Bliss just makes it worse. (The drug inside the vial is the same color as Bliss). Exactly how long was he in the Villains HQ long enough to get his room in order AND hide a stash?
I’d say that still thinking of Lian and saving the kids would be a good thing, but that gets shot down to hell with the reveal that Roy has some Bliss on him.
More Brightest Day crap with Osiris, who’s temper tantrum can be cleverly written off as under the influence of Bliss. But now it looks like he might have to kill more to bring Isis back. Not to mention he continues to deny that it wasn’t his fault that Ryan Choi is dead, that Deathstroke is the one who did it.
As for the other two? Cinder and Tattooed Man?
Cinder: Die child killers!
Tattooed Man (possibly, or Cheshire): Cinder might be nuts but she does get right to the point.
This issue still doesn’t do anything in terms of sympathy for Cheshire. She bemoans that the kids are going back to their parents, unlike Lian. Every time they try to pass her off as sympathetic I just remember what she did in Villains United. To add more to that, the reason she let Roy raise Lian in the first place was because she said she couldn’t. Obviously she was unfit to do so. But she was perfectly willing to raise the child she had by Thomas Blake. The idea of her having sex with Roy makes my stomach turn, simply because there is nothing attractive about this uber-witch, and to pass her off as that is the same as a slap in the face.
Deathstroke managed to subdue DJ Molecule (UGH) by firing… foam? Into DJ’s mouth? Since when could his staff do that?
In the scene where Roy kicks his arm on the floor during his little temper tantrum, the posture of his leg doesn’t make sense given the amount of force applied to that gaudy gold thing.
