Clock King's Who's Who Entry from 1985

Considering his recent involvement in Christopher Priest's early Deathstroke issues, here is a scan of the 1985 Who's Who entry from issue #5 (V) for the Clock King with art by Dan Spiegle.

Affleck Had Deathstroke Kill the Internet

On the morning of August 29, 2016, Batman star and director, Ben Affleck, released a short piece of video via his personal Twitter account depicting Deathstroke in what appears to be some type of green screen test, which is taking the internet by storm. Numerous media outlets are reporting different things, but at this time there is no confirmation if this is a scene from the Justice League film currently in production or if it is some kind of test footage for the currently-in-development Affleck-directed Batman solo film. The only thing that can be confirmed is that the footage was definitely released by Affleck himself. In any event, this footage seems to the confirm rumors of Deathstroke's involvement in the ever-growing DC Extended Universe, which have circulated ever since Arrow executive producer, Marc Guggenheim, when commenting on the chances of Slade's return to the series, stated that, “The character of Slade Wilson is currently tied up in another DC project." The footage itself is without sound and appears to have a CGI rendered set from which Deathstroke is walking menacingly toward the camera. The footage can be seen below.

(UPDATE: Ben Affleck is no longer attached to a new Batman film. The video originally posted below has since been removed.)

Priest's First Two Issues Are CBRU Certified...Green?

Much like Rotten Tomatoes does for films, Comic Book Round Up is a critical review aggregator for the comic book industry. Comic book reviews from industry leaders like Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, ComicVine, IGN, Adventures in Poor Taste, Comiciosity, and too many more to name here are collected and averaged together to give readers an overall sense of a book's perceived quality within the professional critics' community (Though why reviews from hack sites like Comic Bastards and Slackjaw Punks are included in critics' ratings is beyond me). 

The Comic Book Round Up verdicts are in on Christopher Priest's first two issues of Deathstroke and the reviews are averaging positive for both books. As of this writing, Deathstroke: Rebirth (2016) #1 has an average score of 7.8/10 from 26 reviews, placing it firmly in the green rating zone of green is good, yellow is ok, and red is crap fame. Likewise, Deathstroke (2016) #1 is also holding strong at 7.8/10 from 19 reviews. Given that these issues are mainly set up for the first story arc and are still getting aggregate scores in the high 7s, I have to think that there are still big things to come from this run.

Deathstroke and Gunfire in 1993's SkyBox DC Comics Bloodlines Trading Card Set

Ok, just to drive yesterday's Gunfire feature even farther down everyone's throats, here is some Bloodlines 90s extreme merchandise (I had to use the word "extreme" when talking about the 90s, it's the law). To promote the 1993 storyline, Skybox released a set of DC Comics Bloodlines trading cards. This set featured not only the heroes who debuted in the storyline, but the heroes in whose titles they debuted, the Bloodlines parasites, and different happenings within the storyline. The set featured 79 regular cards and two checklists with a normal art side on the front, but the back was a single piece of a larger image.

Card #40, called "Lock and Load!" features Deathstroke fighting the alien parasite Venev.

Card #41 spotlights Gunfire in the aptly named card, "The Heat of Gunfire!"

Card #42 spotlights our "heroes" together in, you guessed it, "Deathstroke & Gunfire!"

Card #68 features Gunfire in a character profile care.

Enter, Gunfire...I Don't Know Why

Gunfire! Because the comic book crash
of the 90s wasn't happening fast enough
for DC.

In the history of comic books, the 1990s was a decade defined by volatility, controversy, and a level of consumer gluttony that created a market bubble that almost killed the entire industry. During the run up to the comics crash, market speculators had mistakenly identified comic books as a cheap investment that would payoff in a big way like many of the golden age books did. These speculators either completely ignored, or more likely were oblivious to the facts that the golden age books appreciated in value not only because they featured the first appearances of iconic characters, but that they were extremely scarce due to paper rationing of the WWII years and the SHORT-SIGHTED IDIOCY OF PARENTS WHO MADE THEIR KIDS THROW THEM AWAY FOR COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS REASONS LIKE CLUTTERED BEDROOMS OR POTENTIALLY ARRESTED SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT... AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!! (I'm Ok, really.) In response to the speculator-driven consumer glut on comic books, publishers (mistaking the building market bubble for a real and sustainable increase in demand) introduced features designed to further boost comic book sales by encouraging consumers to purchase multiple copies of the same issue including multiple/variant covers and gimmick covers (i.e. die-cut, chromium, hologram covers, and so on). Furthermore, publishers also vastly increased the total number of titles they offered, which unfortunately featured many characters and teams that ultimately had little or no staying power, essentially diluting the quality of the overall product. DC Comics was front and center in the coming comics quagmire as exemplified by its 1993 Summer comics event, Bloodlines.

Bloodlines was a Summer event that ran through 23 DC Comics annuals and concluded with a two issue mini-series. The plot was simple; seven shape-shifting alien parasites came to Earth and fed on the spinal fluids of random humans, killing them in the process. However, 23 of their victims possessed the metagene, which was triggered by the attacks, giving rise to 23 new metahumans, known as "New Bloods" into the DC Universe. More importantly to DC, it created 23 potential new solo titles and maybe even one new team book. Unfortunately for DC only seven new titles were launched out of the Bloodlines event and six of them were short-lived. Only Hitman, from The Demon (1990) Annual #2, enjoyed any real success with a solo title running from 1996-2001 by Garth Ennis and John McCrea. 

Deathstroke explains Gunfire's powers,

The sales juggernaut that was introduced in Deathstroke: The Terminator (1991) Annual #2, was Gunfire, whose own solo series lasted a whopping fourteen issues. Created by comics legend Len Wein and Steve Erwin, Gunfire was Andrew Van Horn, the son of Gunther Van Horn, owner of the Paris-based weapons manufacturer, Van Horn Industries. The alien parasite, Venev, found herself in Paris and was drawn to Slade Wilson, who came to Paris to acquire new armor and weapons from his old friend Gunther. Following Slade to Van Horn Industries, Venev went on a feeding rampage slaughtering numerous people including Gunther and seemingly Andrew. Andrew, however, had the metagene which was activated as a result of Venev's bite. Andrew had gained the ability to "agitate" the molecules of objects that he touches with his hands and then to project those molecules into gunfire-like blasts (Think the X-Men's Gambit only he doesn't have to throw anything). Long story short; he teamed up with Deathstroke to defeat Venev, had a short-lived solo title, joined other New Bloods in the short-lived Blood Pack team, survived both the Infinite and Final Crises, had his hands cut off by Prometheus, and after Flashpoint he somehow became an African-American police detective named Blake (Dr. Manhattan?!?) That's about it.

Deathstroke XXRAY Vinyl Figure by Mighty Jaxx

Based in Singapore, Mighty Jaxx is a company that makes some unique artistic figurines, but their XXRAY line is a particularly interesting/wicked little set of vinyl figures. Their website puts is best when is says that, "XXRAY builds on your imagination and shows you what your favourite character looks like on the inside." You see, each hand painted individually and assembled XXRAY figures depict your favorite heroes and villains in full flesh, hair, and costume on one half, but cadaver-like guts and bones on the other. Designer Jason Freeny, known for his dissection style of art, and the Mighty Jaxx team have come up with some pretty cool 4" vinyl figures that are half cute, half creepy, but all cool. Freeny handled the X-ray dissection element, Ben Qwek illustrated the design, and Adam Tan sculpted the 3-D model. In an interesting detail, the hero figures have their insides exposed on the right side (where the heart is), whereas the villains display their innards on their left, or heartless sides. Deathstroke, one of only three villains to be featured to date, debuted in the figure line's third wave, which is pictured below. Check out xxray.com for their other twisted little figurines.

The Deathstroke XXRAY figure alongside ones for Black Manta and the Joker

Who (Supposedly) Killed Grant Wilson First?: Post Flashpoint Edition

Grant Wilson died, but not really, in
two entirely different ways, both of
which were witnessed by his father
Slade Wilson. Totally makes sense.

Story editing at DC Comics after the launch of the New 52 had developed a reputation for being rather iron-fisted. Many comics professionals, including Rob Liefeld and George Pérez, left gigs at DC allegedly due to too much story and art interference on the part of editors. It seems strange that an editorial staff that garnered a reputation as notorious micromanagers would be so lax in their treatment of Deathstroke's continuity. I've already discussed the curious case regarding Slade Wilson's multiples fathers in an earlier post, but it seems that DC allowed multiple versions of Grant Wilson's apparent death, a seminal event in Slade Wilson's life and career, in less than two short years. Let's explore the "first" deaths of Grant wilson below.

Version one of Grant's death was shown in 2012's Deathstroke (2011) #6. Slade was hired to recover a briefcase that he was told contained nuclear technology documents. A few contact betrayals later, Slade opened the case to find Grant's old Ravager mask covered in fresh bloodstains. Slade believed that the mask was meant to be bait for him, but found it hard to believe that Grant could be alive. In a flashback, we see Grant tied to a chair being savagely beaten by the Midnighter, with Deathstroke on his way to save his son. Midnighter appears to has some vendetta against Slade as his comments seem to suggest something personal is motivating his actions as Midnighter is next shown to place a time-bomb, with 57 seconds remaining, near Grant telling him, "Like your dad always says...it's about the statements.'" As Slade closed in on his son's location, the bomb detonates, apparently killing Grant. These events are pictured below.

Version two of Grant's death was depicted in the 2013 Villain's Month issue, Teen Titans (2011) #23.2: Featuring Deathstroke. As relayed via a flashback, Slade took a job to stop a North Korean missile launch and brought Grant with him as his partner. After the rather cacophonous operation at the missile installation was complete, Slade and Grant hid out in home of an old acquaintance of Slade's. The North Koreans not only managed to figure out where Slade and Grant were laying low (Duh!), but also somehow managed to send in a military hit squad replete with two, count them, two military helicopters without the scientifically enhanced and battle-wise Deathstroke being aware of them until it was too late (Um...OK). As the North Koreans bust through the front door with all guns blazing, Grant was cut down in a hail of bullets. Grant's death distracted Slade to the point that some random North Korean soldier shot him in the head, putting out his now-famously missing eye. Slade goes into berserker mode and takes out the whole squad, but Grant was lost to him forever, or at least as far as Slade believed. These events are pictured below.

So which is it, blown up by the Midnighter, or gunned down by a North Korean military hit squad? Grant's apparent death, while not as final as Slade first believed, greatly influenced Slade Wilson's family life and career, which in turn shaped the character we all know him to be today. As such, there should be some degree of continuity stability for such a foundational event from Deathstroke's past. I wrote in the post regarding Slade's father(s) that I understand the need for retcons at times, but these conflicting versions of Grant's supposed death were published a little more than a year-and-a-half apart (February 2012 to September 2013) with no explanation, or even acknowledgement, as to why the past had apparently changed. Grant's multiple choice death scenario is either a case of absolutely ludicrous staff editing, or the newly-returned original Wally West (Wow, talk about a retcon.) is right and Dr. Manhattan truly is playing with us all.

DEATHSTROKE BY: Michele Fiffe

Michele Fiffe, creator of the independent comic COPRA, tried his very talented hand at rendering the world's greatest assassin, to some pretty cool results.

Unlocking Deathstroke in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

The Lego Batman series from DC Comics, Traveller's Tales Games, and Warner Bros. Interactive Games was released in 2008 to great reviews and great sales. Capturing the gameplay of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones series, Lego Batman presented players with the same quirky and fun gameplay that they were used to, but within the rich and deep Batman mythos. A 2012 sequel was released, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which expanded the character rosters beyond the scope of Gotham including Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and more. In 2014, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham was released with an even deeper character roster, with multiple forms of Deathstroke making their debuts as playable characters. As with many characters, all Deathstroke variations have to be unlocked to be playable, the methods of which will be covered below.

DEATHSTROKE (NORMAL)

Method 1:

Go to Area 2 of the stage "Big Trouble in Little Gotham." Find five of the objects that look like pinwheels or upright roulette wheels. Grapple the wheels to activate the them. The wheels will light up and spin when activated. Now shoot the wheels to destroy them. Once the final wheel has been destroyed, pick up Deathstroke's character token and then cash in 450,000 studs to acquire him.

Method 2:

During gameplay, hit the pause button. When the "Extras" menu opens, choose the "Enter Code" option. Enter the code "5SW59X" to unlock Deathstroke

DEATHSTROKE (NEW 52)

Download "The Squad" DLC. It costs $14.99 as part of the Season Pass, or $2.99 for just the individual DLC pack.

SLADE WILSON (ARROW)

Download the "Arrow" DLC. It costs $14.99 as part of the Season Pass, or $2.99 for just the individual DLC pack.

Deathstroke The...Little Pony?!?

We all know about Bronies, but now there is fad of rendering pop culture characters as My Little Ponies. So this apparently is a thing and it seems that Deathstroke is not immune from this treatment. Um...I got nothin'...pictures below.

By Tyler Marcelo, AKA KuddlyFatality

Injustice Deathstroke pony by doom.vader

Teen Titans animated Slade pony by Official-TT-RP-art

Unmasked Deathstroke pony by Hal N. Shumaker,
AKA Scintillant-H

Deathstroke pony figurine by ChibiSilverWings

Deathstroke vs. Deadshot: Part 1

Floyd Lawton: Deadshot

Deadshot, the professional name of assassin Floyd Lawton, debuted in 1950 in the pages of Batman (1940) #59. The year 2016 marked Deadshot's coming-out party to the general public with the recent release of Suicide Squad in theaters worldwide. Will Smith's portrayal of the world's best marksman even meet with some critical praise. Given the nature of their chosen profession, it seems only natural that Deathstroke and Deadshot would cross paths from time to time, leaving a trail of blood behind them. This feature will take a look at some of these bullet-filled confrontations.

Our first stop on our tour of blood between these two super-assassins takes place in Deathstroke: The Terminator (1991) #41. In part two of the "Deathstroke The Hunted" storyline, Slade Wilson finds himself on the run, framed for a crime of which he has no knowledge. With people coming out of the woodwork to bring him in, Deathstroke finds himself confronted by not one, but two of the world's deadliest men, the Bronze Tiger and Deadshot. Thought Deathstroke had the upper-hand against Deadshot in close-quarters combat, the interference of Bronze Tiger complicated matters greatly for Slade. Slade took Deadshot to the ground, but while distracted by Tiger, Deadshot opened up his wrist guns on Deathstroke at close range ending the confrontation. This battle is depicted below. Round One goes to Deadshot, but with a huge assist to Bronze Tiger.

Another confrontation took place in Secret Six (2008) #6, even though it was pretty short. This was little more than a deadly form of a game of chicken with neither killer "winning."

Two battles between the two master assassins with no decisive victor. But both of these battles took place prior to Flashpoint. In part two of this feature, I'll take a look at more confrontations between Deathstroke and Deadshot, featuring some within the New 52.

DEATHSTROKE COVERED: Phil Noto's Birds of Prey (1999) #45

Deathstroke has had some pretty cool covers over the years and the DEATHSTROKE COVERED feature will spotlight some of the best. Today's feature is the awesome cover for Birds of Prey (1999) #45 by Phil Noto.

Deathstroke HeroClix From the Streets of Gotham Assassins Team Pack

In 2002, WizKids' HeroClix hit the scene. HeroClix, now published by NECA, is a tabletop turned-based, team-centric combat game that uses figures based upon characters from comic book, video games, movies, etc. Teams are formed and battles tale place on a gridded battlefield in which players take turns attacking one another. A dial with various character statistics are on the base of the figures, which are turned, or clicked, when a character is attacked. The DC Comics Universe is well represented within the HeroClix world and that means that Deathstroke is also plying his deadly trade there as well.

Pictured below is the Deathstroke figure and battle statistics from the DC HeroClix: Streets of Gotham Assassins Team Pack from 2012.

Jericho in 1992's DC Comics Cosmic Cards Trading Card Set

Pictured below is card #98 from the 1992 Impel DC Cosmic Cards trading card set, which is Jericho's "World's Mightiest Villains" card.

RAVAGER ROLL CALL: Grant Wilson

The name "Ravager" is an important one in the Deathstroke mythos, but it is also a name with many, many meanings. In a series of features called RAVAGER ROLE CALL, I'll investigate the individuals and groups that have had the audacity to call themselves a "Ravager." 

Grant Wilson, the first Ravager

For our first stop on the roll call, it's only fitting to start at the beginning with the first Ravager, Grant Wilson. However, due to the DC Universe's penchant to restart from scratch every few decades or so, Grant Wilson's story is different depending on whether it was told before or after Flashpoint. Therefore Grant's story will be told in two parts with the first part focussing on the Pre-Flashpoint days.

Grant Wilson made his comics debut in New Teen Titans (1980) #1. He grew up hearing fantastic stories told to him by his father about the world's greatest mercenary, Deathstroke the Terminator. Grant's father, Slade Wilson, somehow neglected to tell young Grant that he actually was the terrible Terminator himself, which would come back to haunt him in time. The elder Wilson's stories had a great impact upon the future of Grant as he revered the legend of Deathstroke so much that he aspired to one day be just like him.

After military schooling, Grant moved into a Manhattan apartment with his girlfriend, Carrol Sladky. The two had long relationship, but not necessarily a good relationship as Grant's wandering eye resulted in some dalliances outside of their relationship. In addition Grant began associating with members of the H.I.V.E. organization and had become more aggressive toward Carol. As a result of Grant's erratic behavior, Carol moved out of their apartment.

Grant's first contact with the Teen Titans came when Starfire's ship destroyed the apartment he used to share with Carol when it crash landed after she escaped from her Gordanian abductors. Grant went to Carol's new place to tried to convince her to mover back in with him. Carol asked him to leave, but Grant would't take "no" for an answer. As he violently grabbed Carol's arm Starfire and Wonder Girl arrived and witnessed the assault. Starfire reacted and unleashed a starbolt, which knocked Grant across the room and into a wall. Grant recovered from the blast and left, swearing vengeance as he did so.

Grant turned to H.I.V.E. who promised to give him powers that would exceed even those of the Terminator, so that he could have his revenge on the Titans. After the procedure, Grant was christened "the Ravager" as he accepted the same H.I.V.E. contract to kill the Teen Titans that Deathstroke had earlier turned down because H.I.V.E. refused to pay him in advance.  The Ravager's first target was Cyborg as he confronted him at S.T.A.R. Labs. The two began to battle with the Ravager enjoying early success. Cyborg, however, gained the upper-hand and had Grant reeling. Only the interference of the Terminator stole the victory from Cyborg. During a verbal confrontation with Grant, the Terminator tried to convince him to let the contract go as he knew that Grant's powers were killing him. Refusing to back down, Grant vowed to get his revenge and made off to confront the Titans. Deathstroke followed after him.

As the Ravager began his assault on the Titans, he was joined by the Terminator and the two assassins fought side-by-side. The Ravager and Deathstroke were dominating the Titans when Starfire began to unleash her starbolts at Grant. Grant became overwhelmed at when dodging the starbolts as his powers were extracting their final tolls on his body. He collapsed during the battle as his body began to rapidly age and become frail. As Grant died he asked the Terminator, "D-Did we do it? D-did we kill the Titans?" Taking mercy upon the dying Ravager, Raven cast an illusion in his mind showing him the bodies of the Titans slain before him. As Slade witnessed his son's final breath, blaming the Titan's for his son's death he collected Grant's body and made his leave. Slade assumed responsibility of Grant's contract to kill the Titans beginning his legendary vendetta with the team.

As he died, Raven showed the Ravager the illusion of his revenge over the Teen Titans.

Unlike his New 52 incarnation, Grant Wilson really did die at this point never to return to life. Though the original Ravager did return in a fashion when he was resurrected by black ring during the Blackest Night storyline attacking his father and sister (and a Ravager in her own right), Rose Wilson. Only the intervention of his brother Jericho saved Rose and Slade from the undead wrath of the Ravager.