Deathstroke: The Terminator #1: Next Level, Next Contract

This is the Deathstroke that longtime fans of DC Comics know and love. From his first appearance in 1980’s The New Teen Titans #2 by Marv Wolfman to his most recent title series, 2021’s Deathstroke Inc., Slade Wilson has had too many incarnations to count, and in that time, he has retained a relatively stable character identity as DC Comics’ premier superhuman assassin.

Despite dodging dramatic changes to his character with each DC Universe reset, Deathstroke has always remained in kind of a liminal space editorially. While he can best be described as being a villain who sometimes plays for the heroes, when Batman’s check clears anyway, Deathstroke has moved from a Teen Titan’s villain to a Batman enemy to just about everything else you could imagine, short of a full-fledged member of the Justice League.

The issue’s writing portrays Deathstroke as more than just a heartless killer. He’s cold, sure, but he’s still human, and that can be seen in his at best troubled relationship with his daughter, Rose. It’s here that Tony Fleecs highlights the absence of what Deathstroke truly cares about and, in a way, diagnoses his biggest character flaw in real time. For better or worse, Slade is a father, albeit not a very good one. While he still cares about his daughter and has worked to ensure his daughter has a decent life, the warmer fatherly instincts are totally absent due to his checkered past and the morals he left behind long ago.

The real nuance of this relationship and its effects on Slade come out in Tony Fleecs’ writing. As Deathstroke’s mission begins and he banters back and forth with his best friend William Wintergreen, who is essentially Deathstroke’s Alfred Pennyworth, Wintergreen’s probing of Deathstroke’s life and whether or not he intends to reunite with his daughter draw the human out from underneath Deathstroke’s brutal and pragmatic assassin exterior.

All of this builds up to the moment Slade’s mission finally changes. While I won’t spoil what happens here, a one-off contract to kill ends up setting up Fleecs’ first storyline for this brand-new ongoing series. It’s not an “aha” moment or anything, but it creates a thread for the writing to pull on in future issues, which keeps the storyline feeling dynamic and fresh.

Carmine Di Giandomenico’s artwork is over-the-top, packed with explosions, bullets, and debris that moves in perfect unison with the pace of the story. The art goes out of its way to paint the carnage of Deathstroke’s mission in full detail, and it’s brilliant. With exploding vans and bullets that cut through the page at odd angles, there’s never a time when the art takes a break to relax. Slade is at the center, but the focus of the page keeps changing as his mission gets more and more intense. Ivan Plascencia’s colors are worth pointing out as well. From the crimson glow of Slade’s eyepiece to the chilly night skyline, Plascencia’s colors add a sense of tonality to a morally gray story.