Deathstroke Inc. #12: On the Back Foot

It’s nice to see Deathstroke backed into a corner.

Not everyone can start their lives or careers in the perfect place, even superpowered assassins like Deathstroke. In this issue, Ed Brisson continues showing readers the early days of Slade’s career and recontextualizes his first meeting with Green Arrow in a way that makes their years-long rivalry seem even more deep and engaging. Brisson manages to cut deep into the heart of Slade Wilson by showing us a bit of anger and frustration as his first contract goes awry because of a man “dressed like Robin Hood” blocking him from his quarry. It’s great writing that portends his future dealing with the capes and tights crowd and also allows him to feel what defeat tastes like as Green Arrow bests him in their fight.

Brisson also does a great job of juxtaposing both of these characters against each other in their early years. Green Arrow is portrayed as this almost plucky hero type thrust into a dangerous situation that, though it seems out of his league, he manages to hold his own and prove himself as the hero his city needs. Deathstroke, on the other hand, is portrayed as being semi-new to the world of contract killing and he is failing at what he thought was a surefire assignment – especially with how he excelled in the Army.

Dexter Soy doesn’t let the art for this book slip even once from near perfection. Every single page is astoundingly good to look at with a wide variety of shot sizes and angles that doesn’t allow the eye to get bored. His lines are very thick and further accentuated by his inks which give this book further depth and excellent shadows since most of it takes place in the evening. Every shot of loosing of an arrow has a palpable sense of speed and every blow between Green Arrow and Deathstroke has a blur and impact that makes them feel even more hard hitting. 

Soy plays with these characters in such a way that they begin to feel larger than life once you really get into the story of the book. In the panels where Soy utilizes full body shots, both Arrow and Slade look so imposing and ready to do serious damage. Their poses are dynamic with each brandishing their various weapons of choice, shadows and lighting bounce off of them to set the moody atmosphere and the action of the book rarely ever stops. There are about two moments in the book where things slow down, but they serve as great breaks between the high intensity action.

Veronica Gandini’s colors remain as vibrant and lively as they’ve been since this arc started. Arrow’s green coloring (and his line about protecting his city) speak true to his down to earth nature and contrasts well against the heavy black shadows of the initial few pages’ backgrounds. Deathstroke’s orange can be taken as a sign of his determination to finish the mission and the newfound balance he feels in this line of work. I feel like Gandini made great use of saturation when it came to both characters to pull focus toward them and less on the background elements because this book was truly about them and their conflict. The colors are very lively and draw the eyes to these characters.

Steve Wands letters in this issue are absolutely fantastic as well. Despite the book being very action oriented, there are still a good amount of narrative boxes and work bubbles spread throughout the book. They never clutter the pages of the book and make use of the empty space that Soy provides. Of course, I always have to espouse my love for sound effects and thankfully Wands provides these in spades. While a lot of them are standard BLAMs and repeated BRATTAs because of gun fire, there are a healthy amount of weird ones like FWUNK as Slade gets body slammed and a KRAKK as Arrow gets elbowed in the jaw. My absolute favorite, however, has to be a nasty SHUK sound effect as an arrow pierces Deathstroke between all of his bodily organs, keeping him alive, but in tremendous pain.