I have just read the opening arc.
I have just read the opening arc.
I'm interested in knowing some thoughts as well because I hear no one speak about this run.
I thought it gets better and better, or at least it stays at the same quality as the first 2 stories. Wolfman gave him a love interest in this series and they make the best couple in the entire DC universe in my opinion.
My problem with it so far is that Wolfman, who is oddly enough the creator of Deathstroke, tries to make the character as likeable as possible to the degree that it changes the character entirely. Of course Wilson having a a code of honor has intrinsically always been rooted in his character, but it seems in this series, Wolfman stripped away all villainous aspects of Slade in order for him to fit the mold of a protagonist.
Is this assessment fair? Also, does he do anything we villainous in the series?
I used to have the entire series but sold them years back. I'm currently buying them up. I loved the series, it gives him a backstory to go with a great character.
Last edited by icctrombone; 05-29-2019 at 03:48 AM.
Wolfman sees him as an “anti-hero” who was driven over the edge by Terra and Grant’s death, which is not an opinion I agree with, but as his creator Wolfman is entitled to it. But if you’re not a fan of that characterization you might as well drop it because it’s how Slade is portrayed for the whole run.
In Wolfman's opinion, Slade is an 'antihero' who was misunderstood and screwed over by circumstance.This run is basically pretending that Slade is a good guy. Reality is that Slade is a terrible human being who makes everyone around him worse and causes his own suffering.
Like it or not, considering Wolfman created the character (and the series in question was the original), THIS is Deathstroke. Some may prefer what other writers did with him later, but to imply that Wolfman wrote Slade "out of character" just seems... incorrect.
I would agree about the contradiction in characterization... if we were talking about a different writer. Approximately 10 yrs passed between Slade's first appearance, and the launch of his first solo ongoing - and in that time the vast majority of those appearances were still written by Wolfman. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that Wolfman believed he had to give Slade more depth in order to make him a viable solo star, otherwise the one-note killer he had written him as earlier wouldn't fly long term with readers.
So as opposed to looking at it like contradiction, I've always read it as showing other dimensions of the character that weren't applicable in a Titans story (wherein we always saw him "on the clock" so to speak).
Even within the Titans comic itself before Slade was spun-off, the attempt to rehabilitate his character after the Judas Contract by throwing Terra completely under the bus was a contradiction. Trying to write him as an honorable anti-hero who didn't have a personal grudge against the Titans and Terra was the only evil one is an outright lie, not a new facet of his character.
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Fair enough. But I think that the lines between real world reasons and in-universe reasons can blur in these types of conversations. It's also been years since I've read anything from Wolfman about Deathstroke, but in those far off interviews I seem to recall him having quite a lot of affection for the character.
I'd be tempted to say any glaring contractions might lie at the feet of editorial; maybe Wolfman didn't like Slade but editorial did, and forced him to give the guy more screen time (a la Byrne and Alpha Flight)? That's pure speculation of course.
I think it's been speculated that Perez had a lower opinion of Slade's character than Wolfman and wanted to write him as a villain. Then once Perez left, Wolfman started to write him as more sympathetic.
I think that tracks, Deathstroke's trial and the aftermath with Gar are written by Wolfman but Perez was off the book by that point.