Thursday, September 15, 2016

Deathstroke's (Mistaken) Identity Crisis in Superman: American Alien

While I prefer for Deathstroke to be the conquering badass in his various adventures, I understand that as a villain he'll be on the receiving end of a butt-whipping every now and again. Even so, when he does lose he normally puts up a pretty good effort. But even I have to admit that in Max Landis' alternate universe story as told in Superman: American Alien (2015) #3, Slade's shellacking at the hands of a drunk Clark Kent is pretty hilarious.

To set the scene, a young Clark Kent's plane crashes in the middle of open waters. He boards the first vessel that he encounters, which just happens to be a yacht on which young billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne's birthday soiree is going down. Alcohol googles abound on board the party barge as everyone at the party mistakes Clark for the guest of honor. Unfortunately, so does Deathstroke, who had been hired by Carmine Falcone to take out the young Mr. Wayne. Slade spikes "Bruce's" drink with more than enough poison to kill a normal human, but the toxic concoction simply gets the young Clark hammered. What ensues next, which is shown below, is pretty darn cool. Slade's reactions to the bent up sword and unharmed target is priceless.