Deathstroke: The Terminator #5: Bad Divorce

Warning: This review will contain specific spoilers for Deathstroke: The Terminator #5. Read on at your own risk.

You can feel the duplicity in the dialogue, as Slade lies to his ex-wife in a flashback about his job while going off as an assassin. In most stories, characters are defined by their motivations. But in Deathstroke the Terminator, characters are defined by their grievances with one another, which motivate them towards inflicting as much pain on each other as possible. It’s fitting for a villain’s storyline and poignantly illustrates Deathstroke’s character.

Aside from Slade himself, the issue focuses heavily on the build-up to the reveal of the identity of Deathstroke’s impersonator, which the solicitations for Deathstroke: The Terminator #7 actually spoiled ahead of time. Adeline, Slade’s ex-wife, has been the obvious choice for the imposter since the first flashback in issue #3 back in May. The reveal doesn’t read as a memorable “wow” scene but closer to the “I saw this coming, but I don’t know where it’s going” kind. Readers have seen a limited part of Adeline’s story and her personal grievances, some quite understandable and some less so, build up in the flashbacks of previous issues.

As mentioned above, after a certain point it was relatively obvious that Adeline was the imposter Deathstroke, but the identity of the caller that’s been helping Deathstroke is still a mystery. We get one scene in this issue that teases an important reveal, as Wonder Woman briefly intrudes on Slade’s caller deleting their call logs to inform them of a meeting in the Justice League’s command center.

Carmine Di Giandomenico’s artwork carries endless style in this issue. The panel layout varies widely, while the number of panels on a page ranges from 3 to 6 and often leans towards the latter. Because of the high panel count on individual pages, the art is able to weave in a lot of extra details that highlight the flair and aesthetic of Deathstroke’s story. Whether it be the inside of Slade’s scope forming the space between two panels or the chaotic action that tilts different panels to show the dynamic movement of two world-class assassins clashing in mid-air.

Ivan Plascencia’s colors accentuate Carmine Di Giandomenico’s art and elevate an already excellent visual presentation. Daylight bounces off of car windows, one character standing over another casts an imposing shadow, and the character’s colorful costumes pop out from the backgrounds. A flashback sequence early in the issue has a subtle glow to it, like recalling a happier time in Slade’s life.