Green Arrow vs Deathstroke, the history

 At the moment, Deathstroke Year One is telling Slade first days as a mercenary and Green Arrow was there(Yeah, I know, another retcon). As always, here's the history between the two. One of DC's best rivalries that most people forget. But only main continuity stuff,  of course. 

Crossroads

Starting in Green Arrow #84 from march 1994, this two part story is comics at its finest. A very fun and relaxing read at the same time, written by the great Alan Grant(that sadly passed away recently, Grant was easily one of the most legendary names in comics). Yes, Oliver and Slade don't fight here, they work together, it's somewhat of a light hearted adventure but it establishes the dynamic between the two. And it was the first time the two meet. A must read. 

Before I forget there is this really great gag about how the two look similar, the humor is just on point. 

The Death Doctor

In Deathstroke The Terminator #39, Oliver and Slade would meet again as they find themselves on the same case. Again, they don't fight, Oliver shows up more for a cameo than anything else. Still, this is part of the history between the two but I must say, it is a skippable read. 

Identity Crisis

The big one. One of the most infamous moments in DC comics history. How Slade deals with Flash and Green Lantern here is nothing short of ridiculous plot armour. However, how he fights the rest of the heroes  makes sense. Slade was created to be, and used to be, a heavy weight character. The type of combatant that with strategy can beat almost anyone. Well, I guess everyone knows how this ends. But, I'm not going to consider this a win for Slade. due to how the fight ends.

Crawling Through the Wreckage

After Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, Deathstroke would be Oliver's main antagonist for a while. Of course, Oliver knew this day would come so he prepared himself and gave Slade a run for his money. 

Taking place in Green Arrow #62 from 2006, Oliver, technically, beats Slade. I have to say, the dynamic here is great. Oliver is the ultimate underdog and he knows this, so he's not playing around. A good villain is the one who makes the hero do stuff like this. 

Road to Jericho

At the end of that confrontation, Slade lets himself get arrested, some time later after escaping prison he goes after Green Arrow once again and this time Oliver has no chance. Slade dominates the entire fight, even with Black Canary at his side, Oliver stands zero chance of winning. Thanfully, the Justice League shows up at the end to save them. No contest, point for Deathstroke. 

World of Difference

So, Oliver was fighting some werewolvess, because comics are that awesome, he and others got infected, searching for a cure Oliver cross paths with Deathstroke once again. Even with werewolf powers and Emiko's help, Slade still comes on top. This story is collected in Green Arrow Vol. 9: Outbreak.

Honorable Mention: Deathstroke The Balkan and Green Arrow The Children of Vakhar. 

Deathstroke annual #2 from 2016 sees Slade being hired to go up against a mercenary known as the Balkan. Easily top 5 best Deathstroke stories ever made and a must read alone.  2018's Green Arrow #39 shows the fallout of that mission as Oliver tries to repair the damage caused by Deathstroke. Not a fight between the two but a good read. 

Deathstroke Year One

The latest solo adventure for Deathstroke sees Slade at the beginning of his career as a mercenary, filling in some gaps and retconing some aspects of his origin. Naturally, since we're talking about comics, a character has to make a cameo, this time being Green Arrow of course. They fight and the younger, hotheaded and unexperienced Slade loses. Very interesting but as you can imagine this creates some issues. Regardless of that, points for Oliver. 

In Conclusion

When it comes to these two, quality over quantity is the key. Almost every time the two are together in a page something important is about to go down. And now, the results. 

That's it for today, if needed this post will be updated again in the future. Until then, take care and have a good one.

Deathstroke Inc. #11 Review

 Yes, Slade. It has to be orange. 

Year One - Part 2 

Writer: Ed Brisson 
Artist: Dexter Soy

Colorist: Veronica Gandini

Letterer: Steve Wands

Editor: Paul Abernathy
Cover: Mikel Janin 

Year One continues, as we see Slade in one of his first contracts. We get more action with this one, more guns blazing and blood flowing through the pages.The comic still makes time for character development and interactions that still feel for the most part cohesive with what we already know about Deathstroke. And this is starting to remind me of Jason Aaron Punisher, which I'm a big fan so thats a plus. The highlight to me, once again, is the attention to detail when it comes to the character history. For instance, Deathstroke and Green Arrow used to have a big rivalry post Identity Crisis. So, Oliver showing up here feels appropriate and interesting.  As a fan, I'm been dying to see the two fighting once again(last time we had  Green Arrow vs Deathstroke was back in 2016 if I'm not mistaken). Solid issue. Definitely looking forward to the next.

DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War #1 Review

 Deathstroke, vampire hunter

All-out war, Part 1 

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg and Alex Paknadel
Artist: Pasquale Qualano

Colorist: Nicola Righi

Letterer: Troy Peteri

Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover: Alan Quah

Yes, I went in expecting nothing from this comic. Oh, boy, how wrong I was. 

This "survivors trapped/living in hiding" type of narrative is very well used, how they are surviving feels very believable. Need to tip my hat here due to the attention to detail. Deathstroke however was my biggest surprise here, the character is very well utilized, his plan is very cohesive with the character. Azrael story was the highlight, there's is a lot of potential for him in this series and seeing him with Bane makes it even better. The humor was another thing that worked really well. Same needs to be said about the artwork. The ending hypes up the next issue, but regardless of that, I'm definitely going to be excited whenever a new issue from this series comes out.

Slade Wilson: Contract Journal - Part 3 - The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans

 Back when crossover used to be a thing 

What X-Men was doing for Marvel, Teen Titans was doing it for DC. This is no surprise for anyone, one title even influenced the other. The creation of Terra was supposed to be a "dark" version of Kitty Pryde just as one example. 

And since crossovers used to be a thing during the 80, why not a crossover with the two? The result was what many consider the best Marvel/DC crossovers. 

Apokolips . . . Now!

Writer:  Chris Claremont
Artist: Walt Simonson

Colorist: Glynis Oliver

Inks: Terry Austin

Letterer: Tom Orzechowski

Editor: Len Wein
Cover: Walt Simonson and Terry Austin

This might sound weird, but for a comparison, this comic feels like a summer blockbuster. Think about the first Avengers movie, you had these characters you learn to care about coming together to stop a villain who wants to conquer the world. Obviously, the situation here is much different but the feeling you get reading is somewhat similar to watching that movie for the first time, you just know you're in for something special. 

As the comic opens, we're presented to the X-Men, so if you're here but only read Teen Titans you would not feel lost, the group is brilhant presented and made easy to understand the basics of them. 

And the plot is also made clear, Darkseid wants the Phoenix. (And of course, we're presented to the basics about the Titans and Deathstroke, in case you only read X-men) 

Darkseid hires Slade to collect residual energy from places where the Phoenix had appeared, when doing so, he gets attacked by the X-men. Meanwhile, the Titans attack the X-men mansion. With help from some parademons, Deathstroke captures the X-men and brings them to Darkseid, and a character named Ravok captures the Titans. Both groups get put inside a machine, Darkseid uses their energy to summon the Dark Phoenix. 

He leaves, letting the two groups to escape the machine and unite. And here is the point I have to stop just to comment about how cool and unique it is to see so many characters from completely different places interacting. It is the type of thing you would never see today.

They catch up to the bad guys, the art and text working tremendously well to sell the action. Cyclops using the Phoenix Force manages to trap Darkseid in the Source Wall, this sequence is gorgeous to look at. As you can expect i did simplify the plot a lot, however the plot is simple, maybe this is one of the reasons it is so good. 

The simpler the plot, the better for the characters, the interactions that you can't get anywhere else, the action, the artwork, etc. The plot is not bad by any means, it is good, i want to make that clear. 

The plot works, the art is great, everyone has enough space to be memorable, you get everything a crossover promises with this one. Maybe the only downside is how text heavy it can be at certain times. Still, this is a 100% recommendation for anyone who likes super hero comics. 

Dark Crisis #2 Review

Oh no, not the Titans Tower 

FALL OF THE TITANS

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Daniel Sampere

Colorist: Alejandro Sánchez

Letterer: Tom Napolitano

Editor: Paul Kamisky
Cover: Daniel Sampere and Alejandro Sánchez 

I have lots of mixed feelings about this. The art was great, all the fights looked cool but the story felt... slow? 

To start, I must say that Beast Boy being alive is a good thing, I'm relieved for that. (And it's funny since almost the same happened way back in New Teen Titans #10 and 11) Again, the artwork was amazing, and that was my favorite part about it. Seeing Kyle at the end was my second favorite thing, the ending here definitely hypes up the next issue. 

But, we're promised this big fight between Dick and Slade and the whole thing was posted by the artist on social media or some site posted it.  It was so short that I felt tricked(?). And the lack of original ideas is bothering me. The identity of this event is the theme about legacy, However everything else has been done before. But of course, one could just say that's how comic books are theses days and that's fair.  This comic ain't bad by any means, although it can feel very basic. 

Deathstroke Inc. #10 Review

 Year One Begins! 

Year One - Part 1 

Writer: Ed Brisson 
Artist: Dexter Soy

Colorist: Veronica Gandini

Letterer: Steve Wands

Editor: Paul Abernathy
Cover: Mikel Janin 

Year One begins, as Deathstroke joins the list of DC character with a Year One storyline.

To start off, this is the first time we see Slade's origin by his own eyes, his own perspective and feelings about it. We also getting details for the first time about his daily life. Slade feels human here, real, speaking in a more personal way, he had the same job I have now. Crazy coincidence but it really helps making the character... relatable. Anyway, this is a love letter to the character for sure, references to Wolfman and Priest runs. Besides the references, everything feels cohesive.

The art is spectacular, the colours, the pages layout. Outstanding job.

This genuinely has the potential to be one of the best things ever done with the character.

Deathstroke's extended origin

 As Deathstroke Year One approaches I decided that would be fun to look at Slade basic origin and some details that seen forgotten. As you know, the basics are that Slade lied his age, got in the army to run away from his abusive father, and quickly became one of the best soldiers there. He meet Wintergreen, his best friend, and Adeline, his future wife. Slade got into an experiment, sometimes referenced as Project X, that made him into a super soldier. However since Slade entered a comatose state for weeks after it it was deemed a failure and the project was scraped. Sometime later, Slade found himself with superhuman capabilities but made it a secret and became the mercenary Deathstroke the Terminator. 

There is much more to that! 

Before anything, let's talk about Slade's half brother, Wade. Yes, it's almost what it seems. 

Wade is a mercenary, in a red costume, yes, and Slade's half brother. They share the same father. Wade used to date Adeline, 4 years before Slade meet her. Hating Slade for being more successful than him, Wade took the name Ravager, becoming the third person to use this name, and hunted his brother. If you're feeling a deja-vu, yeah, this very similar to the second Ravager, the Jackal. Now let's get to the real interesting parts!

Slade's time in the army

Besides the most well known events during that time, we can find other elements like this, Slade served with Lois Lane's father, Sam Lane. He even got to meet Lois as a kid. I'm personally a big fan of this detail since it makes Deathstroke more connected to the rest of DC's universe besides the Titans. 

But I think the most important event during Slade's time in the army was the "death" of one of his rivals, John "Dragon Rider" Rogers, A.K.A. Drago. The character didn't die for real, he showed up to be an antagonist for Deathstroke, but Slade believing he was dead, started thinking about leaving the army to be a mercenary. Making this quite relevant for Deathstroke's origin. 

After the army 

When Slade was discharged he searched for people to train him in martial arts, sword fighting and more. One of his masters was an assassin called Natas. So, contrary to popular belief, Slade isn't just a soldier. Green Arrow went after Natas to learn how to be a better fighter as well.

We also get some explanation to why Slade wears a costume. Similar to Moon Knight, we wants attention to better intimidate his targets.

High changes of this not even being canon, but Slade also took a contract to kill Bruce Wayne at one point. And of course, it was a failure. But, again, since there is a good change of this not being canon we can ignore that. 

That lead us to the New 52, where Deathstroke got a new origin but things were messy for him. From time to time you could see details changing, it's confusing. But today we'll be only talking about small details. 

Probably the most well known change was Slade participation on Team 7, the group originated from the Wildstorm universe but was one of the elements that DC introduced in their main continuity. Team 7 is a black ops military unit, Slade fought alongside Dinah Drake and Amanda Waller during tha time, with some other characters of course. 

Another notable detail during this era is the introduction of Lawman, someone who Slade fought alongside in his early days as a mercenary. 

Now we can go to DC Rebirth, where Slade once again had some details about his origin changed. Everything was made more cohesive and easy to understand. We learn how Slade got his sword, in a poker game basically, and the full details about said sword. He got the name Deathstroke after the sword too. 

We also see Slade's first contract and first time using his iconic mask. Still in the army, Slade got a bounty on the head of a General called Dragas.

We learn that in his early days as a mercenary Slade also had a team to back him up. The group was composed by Wintergreen, his best friend, Isherwood, responsible for weapons and gear, Rax and Frederic.

Frederic is not in this image. 

There was also this joke about Slade in one of his first missions getting an address wrong. Not really important but funny to mention.

Later DC would try to introduce a new set of characters, among them, the Silencer. DC's true deadliest assassin. She and Slade would have fought in his early days as a mercenary, with Slade losing. Ok, I do have problems with this. When we meet Slade, he's presented as the mercenary who never failed a contract, so this does not add up. 

In another character breaking moment, we would learn that Slade accepted a contract to kill Robin and fought Batman. One of the first things we learn about Deathstroke is that he does not want to mess with super heroes, since he believes that if you mess with one of them, the rest will come after you. He only went after the Titans due to personal reasons. 

Obviously, Slade also failed this contract. But at least this comic gave us the excuse that he simply covered up his failure. Still, very character breaking and incoherent.

And things get even more confusing, since Slade had been seen trying to kill Batman way before he had a Robin. 

And yes, this is also character breaking. Besides Slade's rule about not going after super heroes, Slade has expressed he absolutely does not want to kill Batman out of respect for him. And, for the third time, this is a contract Slade failed. Oh, the inconsistencies. 

And that's it, some small details that make Deathstroke origin more rich and some inconsistencies, because comics. I do not expect Deathstroke Year One to follow said details, i fully expect some retcons and changes and that's fine by me, some of it needs to be change in my opinion to restore one of Slade core aspects, he's the mercenary who never fails. Or at least he was and should be again. 

Thanks for the time and I hope to see you again here next week as we will be talking about Deathstroke Year One part 1. Have a good one.