Deathtroke 25 Preview/Discussion

[adrikito]

I said this before but... I am tired of Riddler..

https://www.avclub.com/slade-is-tort...5-e-1819916205

[adrikito]

As I said... I am tired of Riddler..

LEX LUTHOR... The hero virus infected him..

Of course that he is evil..

[Chubistian]

I liked the issue, but I don’t think showing an ilusion of Slade against the society was necessary because:
1-It was clearly an ilusion, as cool as it was, it isn’t impactful if it’s no surprise
2- It gave a simple resolution to the conflict. I would’ve preferred if it was resolved completely through dialogue

[K. Jones]

I knew it was illusion the very second Hammond was depicted. But I still liked the resolution.

I actually thought this was a really good cross-section of villains to have a discussion about "what is evil?" There's obvious notes; OF COURSE Savage presides. He should always be the president of the Secret Society. He's so evil. He's so ancient evil. There's no competition in that regard. And his relationship to other villains is really fun to explore. But I was curious about Frost's appearance here - but it worked out rather perfectly because it's addressed so specifically. And interesting, too, because by Riddler's argument and the villainous logic - ultimately they're saying "hey Frosty, you know ... you're still pretty evil, in spite of your genuine redemption arc."

Thawne's inclusion caused more red flags, mostly because his current appearances have involved TWO really deadly deaths. Like, does this take place before or after that Flash arc? Or The Button? And Wally's inclusion in Defiance makes that even more hard to pin down. But it's not something that bugs me too much, one because of how he's always turning up like a bad penny, and two because I can fudge the timeline a little in my head.

I was stoked to see Ultra-Humanite in the extreme because that's my dude and of course he should be a stalwart member of a Society led by Vandal - after all, Humanite is THE FIRST SUPERVILLAIN. Ever. In the superhero/superpowers sense. (Not the first "arch-villain", of course.) And I was obviously thrilled to see his eponymous albino ape look, though god, I adore him, I wish he got a really slick Rebirth costume makeover. I prefer the albino ape body to the freaky deaky Greg Pak stuff but would be pleased to see some fusion of all Ultra-Humanite version history, with good costume design, not red spiky He-Man suspenders.

Last to discuss is the obvious inclusion of Manta. While not one of the "big talkers" on philosophy of evil or the trial, Manta is a perfect inclusion because he is one of Deathstroke's utmost "peers" in the villainous community. Ice cold killer. Mercenary. Vendetta-seeker. Hyper-efficient. Father of a heroic Teen Titany kid. They have a ton in common, and I'm itching for Slade and Manta to team up in the future, even if they can't stand one another.

Oh, and Riddler. Good mouthpiece for the defense. He was used really well here - annoying, for sure - but I think Priest might have been the most natural Riddler writer I've read in 20 years. The riddles were actually good and made sense for his arguments, and the riddling itself was actually very annoying!

The membership for this storyline was solid. I dug Raptor being like "oh my god eff these crazy villains". I dug Deadline just trying to make Slade hurt, but being kind of too low-tier to really make it stick. He still gets his super-gun back, so whatever. I dug that at least a handful of these members are a solid "Legion of Doom" lineup (Riddler, Manta, and if Luthor had been there ...)

And yeah, I really, really dug Priest's use of current Luthor continuity to further solidify the arguments. And even just discussion on the nature of evil, and confirmation that a redemptive Slade is still an evil bastard. But I mean ... evil ... what is evil? It's not all like meta-demon Barbatos shit or stern, stoic, serious Darkseid antics. Evil in the hearts of regular human beings? That's just a part of almost everyone. Anyone who isn't totally altruistic like Superman or something. There's real evil in Batman's paranoia, manipulation and game-playing. There's real evil in Aquaman's chip on his shoulder and deep, deep anger. There's real evil in Mera, who was a trained assassin before redemption. There's real evil in Hal Jordan's fearlessness because it can tend toward a bit of ruthlessness, too.

They aren't wicked humans. They skew toward goodness by far. But they have evil, too. So Riddler's argument that Slade, in particular, even when engaging in public heroism, is still skewing evil, is a fair assessment. He's hyper manipulative. He's still a killer for money or means. He's messing with children. His redemption in particular seems to be to make up for a couple of specific "failures" in his past, and once he feels like he's made up for them, he'll likely call it accomplished and move on.

[Robotman]

I just love the idea of The Society. The villains basically have a union and can file grievances.

I like the philosophical discussion of “evil.” Having Killer Frost there really didn’t make sense. They should’ve had Cheetah as a member of the council.

I just wish they would’ve had The Brain from Doom Patrol as a member. He’s such a great “comic booky” villain. An evil brain in a skull shaped jar. Plus he’s in charge of the Brotherhood of Evil!

[protege]

This issue was weird; riddler for the defense made no sense, and who are the society to impose judgement on slade anyway? Does he pay membership dues or something? Who was that slade- beast at the end? I think i’d kind of like to know the rest of slade’s origin- was he always a sociopath?

[Ivy_b]

Who was that slade- beast at the end?

That was spoilers:

David Isherwood/Dr. Ikon, whatever Dr. Villain did to revive him really did a number on him.

end of spoilers

[Robotman]

This issue was weird; riddler for the defense made no sense, and who are the society to impose judgement on slade anyway? Does he pay membership dues or something? Who was that slade- beast at the end? I think i’d kind of like to know the rest of slade’s origin- was he always a sociopath?

Organized crime has pretty strict rules and there are terrible consequences if they’re broken. Have you ever seen Goodfellas? So we can only image what organized super crime would be like.

[Outside_85]

Organized crime has pretty strict rules and there are terrible consequences if they’re broken. Have you ever seen Goodfellas? So we can only image what organized super crime would be like.

Those only really work if they are agreed on by everyone, also it is about maximizing profits while avoid war. In comics this doesn't really work since there are alot of villains, like Slade, who are one man armies and have a terrible habit of getting even... not to mention with villains in comics being what they are, they dont tend to step on each others feet that often.

The idea is nice, but it sort of only works if everyone is actually organized.