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| New Teen Titans (1980) #2 |
Deathstroke the Terminator made his comic book debut on the very first page of New Teen Titans #2 on September 11, 1980. In the "Terminator," as he was commonly called, his creators, Marv Wolfman and George Perez, unleashed upon the Teen Titans and the rest of the DC Universe the most deadly and bad-ass mercenary/assassin it had ever seen. Enhanced reflexes, elite combat training, and the ability to utilize 90% of this brain capacity made the Terminator an instant fan favorite full of believable menace and instant dread at first sight. Deathstroke even previewed 1980s grim and grit five years before Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns defined the decade in comics.
Wolfman and Perez's Deathstroke clearly influenced the work of many aspiring comics creators. Rob Liefeld, for example, said in a 2012 interview with Comic Book Resources that he had "always been in awe of...Deathstroke -- and 'always' means since I was a child." This affinity for Slade was evident in many of Liefeld's future creations such as Cable, Deadpool, Shatterstar, Chapel, Battlestone, etc. as they all share more than just a few similarities to Deathstroke's look, methods, or personality. Liefeld loved the character so much that he even wrote and penciled Deathstroke's title for a while not even a year after the New 52 era began.
Yet Deathstroke was more than just gunplay and hand-to-hand combat. The Judas Contract storyline in 1984 (Tales of the Teen Titans #s 42-44 and Tales of the Teen Titan's Annual #3) demonstrated that Slade's strategic mind was just as deadly as any of his guns, swords, or round-house kicks. Slade played the long game with the Teen Titans having the unbalanced Terra infiltrate the team to gain their trust and the feed information about the Titans' personal lives to Slade with devastating results. Deathstroke has proven to be the villainous total package capable of tormenting the likes of the Teen Titans, the Suicide Squad, and the Justice League as well as being a credible rival for Batman, Green Arrow, and Nightwing. He continues to be featured prominently in comic books, television shows, video games, and soon-to-be feature films some 36 years after his dynamic debut.
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The first comic book panel ever to feature Deathstroke
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