Today, the Deathstroke Files celebrates the 65th birthday of Deathstroke the Terminator's legendary co-creator, George Pérez. Pérez's storied comics book career began in 1974 for Marvel Comics' black-and-white magazine imprint, Curtis Magazines, in the horror title Monsters Unleashed (1973) #8 in the issue's fourth feature; a 14-page story titled, "A Martian Genesis." Much of Pérez's early work was for other Curtis titles including a regular run on Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (1974) and some issues of Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction (1974).
Pérez's actual Marvel Comic's premiere was in Creatures on the Loose (1969) #33, the first of a short five-issue run on the title, but this run opened the door for higher-profile titles like The Inhumans (1975), The Avengers (1963), and the Fantastic Four (1961). Pérez became a Marvel mainstay for the next five or so years adding a comic book adaptation of the film, Logan's Run (1976) and a six-month stint on the team-up book Marvel Two-in-One (1974) to his already impressive résumé.
By 1980, Pérez was taking penciling jobs from Marvel's "distinguished competition," DC Comics, the first of which was a Firestorm back-up tale, "Firestorm Is Back in Town," from The Flash (1960) #289. But it was Pérez's second DC job that signaled the project that would his legacy as one of the most influential comic book artists in the history of the medium. DC Comics Presents (1978) #26 would play host to the debut of Pérez and writer Marv Wolfman's seminal creation, the New Teen Titans. But in addition to the New Teen Titans' soon to be released series, Pérez was also penciling, The Avengers for Marvel Comics and Justice League of America (1960) for DC Comics at the same time.
The following month would witness the launch of one of DC Comic's most important titles ever with The New Teen Titans (1980) #1. This watershed comic figuratively exploded in popularity, eventually outselling the reigning sales champion, Marvel Comic's Uncanny X-Men (1963), making DC Comics a serious threat to Marvel's long-standing industry dominance. Of major importance to this blog, The New Teen Titans #2 gave birth to a certain "world's greatest assassin," Deathstroke the Terminator, who served as the premier antagonist in the series' apex story arc, "The Judas Contract."
After departing from the Teen Titans' titles, Pérez and Wolfman would again collaborate on the genre-changing maxi-series, Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), which altered the foundations of the DC Comics Universe as well as signaling an end to comics' Bronze Age. Following Crisis, Pérez would redefine and reinvigorate a Golden Age classic for the new post-Crisis era with Wonder Woman (1987) #1. Pérez would return to Marvel to pencil the now classic Infinity Gauntlet (1991) (though he departed the series midway through issue #4 due to creative differences), the alternate future tale Hulk: Future Imperfect (1992), and the Epic Comics series Sachs and Violens (1992). The remainder of Pérez's was spent bouncing around many different publishers for projects like Malibu Ultraverse's Ultraforce (1994), a Marvel Comics relaunch of The Avengers (1998), a truncated creator-owned project for Image Comics in George Perez's Crimson Plague (2000), CrossGen Chronicles (2003) and Solus (2003) for CrossGen Entertainment, the intercompany crossover JLA/Avengers (2003), DC Comics' New 52 relaunch of Superman (2011), and his creator-owned George Perez's Sirens (2014) for Boom! Studios.
Pérez announced his retirement from comic book work in early 2019 due to vision complications from diabetes, but he has already established a body of work worthy of any comic book industry hall of fame. Happy birthday, George Pérez!
I don't normally use my Deathstroke Files blog for self-serving purposes, but why bother creating a virtual soapbox if you're not going to climb atop it from time to time to let your voice be heard. Of late, DC Comics has entered a new era of cooperation with other comic book companies. Collaborations with companies like Archie Comics [Harley & Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica (2017)], Boom! Studios [Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern (2017)], Dark Horse Comics [Wonder Woman/Conan (2017)], and Dynamite Entertainment [Batman/The Shadow (2017) and The Shadow/Batman (2017)] are becoming commonplace.
Frequent DC Comics collaborator,
IDW Publishing
DC Comics has cultivated an even closer relationship with IDW Publishing than with the previously mentioned comic book companies. This partnership has yielded many crossover series and specials including Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2015), Star Trek/Green Lantern (2015), Love is Love (2016), Star Trek/Green Lantern vol. 2: Stranger Worlds (2016), Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (2017), Batman/The Maxx (2018), and Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (2019). But to me, DC Comics' relationship with IDW is of particular interest because of one character: Judge Dredd.
IDW holds the North American license to publish Judge Dredd through a partnership with the UK-based Rebellion Publishing, which owns and publishes Judge Dredd in Britain. For the uninitiated, Judge Dredd, created by writer John Wagner and the late Carlos Ezquerra, follows the exploits of Joe Dredd: a government-sanctioned street judge charged with keeping the peace and administering swift, street-level justice as literally judge, jury, and often executioner in the mean streets of the post-apocalyptic North American megalopolis, Mega-City One. Dredd metes out justice from atop of his Lawmaster motorcycle, which is armed with machine guns and a laser cannon as well as his multifunction high-tech sidearm, the Lawgiver. Needless to say, Judge Dredd is a no-nonsense, tough as nails badass. Does Dredd's description sound familiar to Deathstroke fans?
Tell me this isn't an intriguing matchup!
As if it isn't obvious by now from the image above, I am proposing that DC and IDW come together for either a limited series or an original hardcover graphic novel pitting Deathstroke the Terminator against Judge Dredd. Think about it, Deathstroke, the world's greatest assassin going to war with Mega-City One's greatest lawman. Deathstroke accepts a contract to take out someone in the future with Judge Dredd sparing no violence at all to bring him down. Brawling, explosions, gunplay, and plot twists colliding intelligently with savage, heavy artwork that harkens back to a 1980s Frank Miller-style blood fest! The assassin that always fulfills his contracts and the judge who is the law; SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE! This project has to happen (Ok, I suppose the world could continue on just fine if this doesn't happen, but it would be a cooler world if it did)!
Let's see what we can do to make this dream matchup a reality. Use the hashtag, #DeathstrokevsDredd, to discuss this topic on DC Comics' and IDW's social media. I'm not saying we can make this project happen (this is not the largest blog out there after all), but I'd at least like to give it a try. Feel free to use the image below in any way you see fit to help me promote this idea to the powers that be to see if we can make this dream matchup a reality.
#DeathstrokevsDredd
DC Comics, IDW, Rebellion Publishing...Please make this happen!
#DeathstrokevsDredd
Happy birthday to Deathstroke's
co-creator, Marv Wolfman!
Today the Deathstroke Files celebrates the 73rd birthday of Deathstroke the Terminator's legendary co-creator, Marv Wolfman. Wolfman's first professional work was in 1968 as a plotter for DC Comics' Blackhawk (1956) #242. Marv has worked as a writer and an editor for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics and continues to put out great stories to this day.
He has written some of the most important comic book titles ever published in the United States including DC Comics' House of Secrets (1956), Green Lantern (1960), Superman (1939), Action Comics (1938), Adventure Comics (1935), Batman (1940), The New Teen Titans/Tales of the Teen Titans (1980), thelandmark maxi-seriesCrisis on Infinite Earths (1985), Vigilante (1983), The New Teen Titans/The New Titans (1984), andof course, Deathstroke the Terminator (1991).
Wolfman also made significant contributions to the Marvel Comics Universe, not only as its one-time Editor-in-Chief, but with seminal runs as a writer on titles such as Amazing Spider-Man (1963), Daredevil (1964), Fantastic Four (1961), Marvel Two-in-One (1974), Nova (1976), and Tomb of Dracula (1972).
In addition to his mainstream work, Wolfman also had successful runs on some independent comics like Sable (1988) for First Comics, a creator-owned series The Man Called A-X (1994) for Malibu Comics' Bravura imprint (volume 2, however, landed at DC Comics), both Rob Liefeld's Brigade (1992) and Darren G Davis' 10th Muse (2000) at Image Comics and Defex (2004) for the Aftermath imprint of Devil's Due Productions. The man's work is prolific!
Wolfman has left comics at times to make some pop culture contributions in other genres of speculative fiction. After the release of Transformers: The Movie in 1986, fans and many parents were outraged at the death of Optimus Prime and were resistant to his successor, Rodimus Prime during season three of the animated television series. To assuage angry fans and toy buyers, in Wolfman was charged with co-writing a two-part story that aired in early 1987, which resurrected Optimus Prime after the original season finale had aired in 1986. In 1999, Wolfman developed the series Transformers: Beast Machines to air on Fox television. In addition to his work in television, in 2005, Wolfman wrote a prose novelization of his watershed comic book, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and then he novelized the film, Superman Returns in 2006, which almost by most accounts was the superior way to experience the story.
Wolfman is still putting out excellent comic book work today. He returned to his New Teen Titans creation, Raven, for two well-received limited series, Raven (2016) and Raven: Daughter of Darkness (2018). Originally written for the ultimately canceled Superman Confidential (2007), Wolfman's Man and Superman 100-Page Super Spectacular (2019), which Wolfman himself describes as “...the best Superman story I’ve ever written,” was a critical success as evidenced by a 9.6 rating on comic book review aggregator, ComicBook Round Up.
No matter how much I write here, I can never come close to doing Wolfman's career justice. With that said, happy birthday, Marv Wolfman!
Rob Liefeld: In denial, delusional,
or full of crap?
Rob Liefeld based Deadpool on Deathstroke. For years comic book fans have openly acknowledged, in one way or another, that Marvel Comics' Deadpool is, at the very least, an "homage" (I'm being polite) to DC Comics' Deathstroke the Terminator, a fact that Deadpool's co-creator, Rob Liefeld vehemently denies. As of this writing, the Google search string "is Deadpool a ripoff," yielded close to 74,700 results. About 30,900 results are returned if the prepositional phrase "of Deathstroke," is added to the end of the original string. Even the animated film, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018), riffs on the notion that there is more than just a passing similarity between the two characters. I have even addressed the "homage" phenomenon before on this blog (click here to read the "Deadpool and other Deathstroke 'Homages'" post).
Please don't misunderstand, I kid about this topic from time to time on this blog relative to Deadpool and Deathstroke, but I'm not saying that this is practice is by definition a bad thing. Comic book companies and creators have a long tradition of "borrowing," or to put it more rudely, "ripping off," character archetypes or other such defining characteristics from industry competitors dating back to the earliest days of the super-hero genre ("SHAZAM!"). If not for these homages/ripoffs we wouldn't have characters like Wolverine (Timberwolf), Aquaman (Namor the Sub-Mariner), Black Cat (Catwoman), Swamp Thing (Man-Thing), Quicksilver (the Flash), Miracle Man (the original Captain Marvel/Shazam), or even Thanos (Darkseid). Recently DC Comics launched The Terrifics (2018), which is basically a send-up of Marvel Comic's Fantastic Four, and I'm having a blast reading it. Given the long-standing practice of "homaging" characters in comic books, why does Rob Liefeld continue to deny that he did essentially the same thing when creating Deadpool?
At the 2018 LA Comin-Con, Liefeld was asked point blank "Did you, for the first issue of Deadpool, did you ever use Deathstroke as your...?" Liefeld didn't even let the question come completely out of the fan's mouth before he launched into a histrionic fit/diatribe that began thusly:
I DID NOT! I CAN DO THIS! If we had Deathstroke here: buccaneer boots, buccaneer gloves, half an effin’ mask, chainmail! WHERE IS THE CHAINMAIL?
Let me tell you guys how it went: "Hey guys, Todd McFarlane, he’s kind of blowing up on Spider-Man. I need a Spider-Man in my book. Oh, wow, so, I also like Wolverine. He’s my favorite character. Black and red, black and red. Can I tie him into Wolverine’s origin? So, can I do Spider-Man with guns and knives?” "Liefeld, Cable’s blowing up for us. We’re selling a million copies of New Mutants. Whatever you want to do Liefeld." YEAH!
I didn’t even hear about this until 10 years ago when it became cool to (unintellegible). I don't see it. I never have seen it! Like, strap me up! I'll do the lie detector that [Brett] Kavanaugh wouldn't! I'll sit there; ask me that question! Give me, give me the golden lasso! I really don't get it! That's why it's like, I just look at people and I go, "How are...I don't, yeah." There's your answer.
To view the question and Liefeld's answer in their entirety, the video is posted below.
OK. At this point, Shakespeare might have said that the gentleman "doth protest too much, methinks." First, I'd like to address Liefeld's statement, "If we had Deathstroke here: buccaneer boots, buccaneer gloves, half an effin’ mask, chainmail! WHERE IS THE CHAINMAIL?" Liefeld seems to be making the argument that just because Deadpool doesn't look like Deathstroke, then that means that Deadpool can't be based on Deathstroke. Unfortunately for Liefeld, that argument has already been proven deficient in a court of law is it was used by Fawcett Publications when they were sued by National Comics Publications (who would become DC Comics in the 1970s) for copyright infringement [National Comics Publications Inc. v. Fawcett Publications Inc. et al, 191 F.2d 594 (2d Cir. 1951)]. Even though some cosmetic details were changed, like Captain Marvel's suit was red instead of Superman blue and his cape was white instead of Superman red, the court ruled that Fawcett's Captain Marvel was too similar to the core concept of National's Superman to be coincidental and therefore was plagiarized. So Liefeld basing his argument that Deadpool could not be based on Deathstroke because Deadpool didn't have buccaneer boots and chainmail wouldn't even come close to holding up in a court of law.
For the sake of argument, let's take Liefeld at his work that it was Spider-Man that played a huge part in his creating Deadpool. This is obvious, especially in Deadpool's red-and-black color scheme and the large eyes thickly outlined in black. But when Liefeld added the guns and swords motif in addition to making him an assassin it made him a little too close to Deathstroke for Deadpool to be at least a factor in his creation. Apparently, Liefeld feels that it is completely acceptable to homage Spider-Man, but not Deathstroke? Additionally, his lie detector and golden lasso comments were nothing more than toothless quips to elicit laughs from the crowd. So, Deadpool not based on Deathstroke? STRIKE ONE!
Deadpool's first appearance in
New Mutants (1983)
Next, let's examine statements made by those directly involved in Deadpool's creation including then New Mutants co-plotter, Fabian Nicieza and Liefeld himself. When Liefeld sent his original concept art for his new character to Nicieza, he called Liefeld and stated bluntly that, "this is Deathstroke from Teen Titans." Nicieza further acknowledged the similarity between the characters by giving him the name "Deadpool," which is not unlike "Deathstroke." Nicieza further connected the characters by giving Deadpool the real name of Wade Wilson, which was a straight-up riff on Deathstroke's name, Slade Wilson. So while it was Nicieza that came up with names "Deadpool" and "Wade Wilson", it was Liefeld's "original" design that first made the obvious association with Deathstroke.
Liefeld himself took a stab at writing Deathstroke (2011) in early 2012. As part of promoting his run, Liefeld was interviewed by Jeffrey Renaud for Comic Book Resources (CBR). In the interview, Liefeld admitted to an affinity for Deathstroke, confirming that he chose to write and pencil his title. Later in the interview, Liefeld confessed that he passed on working with other characters because he had no connection to them. His connection to Deathstroke was further cemented when Liefeld said, "I've always been in awe of Hawkman and Deathstroke -- and 'always' means since I was a child." This comment from Liefeld corroborated earlier statements by Nicieza that both he and Liefeld were huge fans of the Teen Titans comics growing up. Because childhood "awe" drew Liefeld to work professionally on Deathstroke as an adult, it is reasonable to think that some of that same Deathstroke "awe" found its way into the creation of Deadpool. Deadpool not based on Deathstroke? STRIKE TWO!
The third piece of evidence I'll present against Liefeld's claim that Deadpool wasn't based on Deadpool is that if you look at other characters Liefeld has created, it becomes apparent that Liefeld definitely has a signature character type that looks suspiciously like Deathstroke. In my earlier post, "Deadpool and other Deathstroke 'Homages'", I included the aforementioned Deadpool and the character Deadborn that he created for his run on Deathstroke (2011), based upon a loosely assembled list of Deathstroke traits. Those traits included being an assassin or mercenary, utilizing a full-face mask, having an ominous or foreboding character name, preternatural skill with firearms and melee weapons, having superhuman strength, agility, or reflexes, and having white hair. I wanted a way to objectively compare these "homages" to Deathstroke himself. Using the six traits described above, I came up with an admittedly ridiculous scale that gages a character's similarity to Deathstroke. The Deathstroke Homage Scale (or DHS) awards one point for each characteristic that a given character has in common with Deathstroke. Using the 2/3 standard, if a given character gets a score of 4 or higher, the character will be considered an "homage" (not a "ripoff") of Deathstroke.
So what happens when characters are evaluated with the DHS? Chris Claremont and Steve Leialoha's Death-Stroke was by design an homage to/parody of Deathstroke the Terminator, so if any character would score high enough to be considered an homage to Deathstroke on the DHS it should be him. Marvel's Death-Stroke earned a DHS score of 4, making him a Deathstroke homage. I next took a character that I knew could not possibly be a Deathstroke homage, Superman. Superman's DHS score was 1, making him definitely not a Deathstroke homage.
Now let's see what happens when seven different Liefeld-created characters are evaluated using the DHS. The characters evaluated were Deadpool, Cable, Bloodstrike, Deadborn, Lethal, Jagger, and Crypt. The results appear below.
All seven Liefeld characters that I evaluated with the DHS were, in fact, Deathstroke homages, including Deadpool (DHS score of 5). Some will say that not every single character that Liefeld has ever created can be considered a Deathstroke homage so this exercise is flawed and should be discounted. But, this exercise was not about showing that every single character that Liefeld ever created was a Deathstroke homage, but was instead just to illustrate that a large number are and that Deathstroke-like traits are ubiquitous in Liefeld creations over his entire career. Liefeld is so drawn to the Deathstroke character type that during his run on the Savage Hawkman (2011), he pitted Hawkman against the Jim Lee and Brandon Choi-created mercenary Pike, himself a Deathstroke homage (DHS score of 5). Deadpool not based on Deathstroke? STRIKE THREE!
With three strikes, Liefeld should be out as far as his claims that Deadpool was not based on Deathstroke. But Deathstroke is not the only character that Liefeld has homaged over his career. The following list represents a number of other Liefeld-created characters and the established characters from which they were homaged.
Avengelyne: (Angela, Vampirella, Warrior Nun Areala)
Deadpool not based on Deathstroke? STRIKE FOUR! Out for real this time!
Rob Liefeld based Deadpool on Deathstroke. He continues to deny this and I don't know why. The evidence is clear. Liefeld's claim they don't look alike so Deadpool can't be based on Deathstroke utterly falls apart under historical and legal scrutiny. Both Liefeld's and Fabian Nicieza's previous public statements on Deadpool's creation and Deathstroke as a favorite character of both men contradict Liefeld's own recent, and very public denial. When quantifiably compared to Deathstroke, Deadpool, and many other Liefeld creations are too similar to the Terminator to be simply coincidental. Lastly, Liefeld has a long and proven track record of borrowing character designs and characteristics from other well-established characters. Rob Liefeld based Deadpool on Deathstroke and it is 100% OK that he did. I just wish Liefeld would believe that himself.
When Dick Grayson debuted in 1938's in the pages of Detective Comics (1937) #38, he originated the role of Batman's colorfully dressed teen sidekick, Robin. Grayson would carry this mantle until 1984's "The Judas Contract" story where he (along with Marv Wolfman and George Pérez) forged a new crime-fighting identity in Nightwing, during which his rivalry with Deathstroke really took off. I know that DC and Comixology recently re-released a digitally remastered version of the series, but posted below is a scan of the original 1986 Who's Who entry from issue #17 (XVII) featuring art by the Nightwing persona's co-creator, the legendary George Pérez.
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.
As the DC and Marvel Universes merged during 1996 inter-company crossover, forming the Amalgam Comics universe, a number of characters from each fictional universe also merged into completely new people. A funny thing happened though when DC's Slade Wilson (AKA Deathstroke the Terminator) and Marvel's Matt Murdock (AKA Daredevil) merged as the two he's somehow became a she. Enter Slade Murdock: Dare the Terminator. As a courtesy for the remainder of this post, I will combine the original character names with a plus sign in an effort to clearly describe the Amalgam character and their constituent identities with the DC character listed first.
As depicted in the DC Comics-published Assassins (1996) #1, Dare the Terminator (Deathstroke + Daredevil) was former big time New Gotham City power attorney, Slade Murdock, who walked away from practicing law when she no longer had faith that the law could truly provide justice. Having been trained by her father to fight, Slade became a successful mercenary despite the fact that she was both blind and had lost an eye to a bullet from the assassin Deadeye (Deadshot + Bullseye). Slade earned the name Dare because of her reputation for accepting dares posed to her regardless of how outrageous they were. Knowing this about Slade, New Gotham City mayor Enigma Fisk, AKA the criminal mastermind the Big Question (the Riddler + the Kingpin), had her abducted so that he could have prosthetic devil horns permanently affixed to her head to make her look like a literal "daredevil."
Wanting her eliminated, the mercenary Tombstone the Ravager (the Ravager + Tombstone), hired the assassin Catsai (Catwoman + Elektra) to take out Dare. After an initial confrontation between the two, Dare and Catsai joined forces to kill Tombstone instead. The two assassins then formed what would become a close friendship with one another. Evntually the pair took a contract from a mystery client to kill Mayor Fisk. En route to the Big Question's tower office, Dare and Catsai manage to fatally dispatch both Deadeye and Lethal (the Cheetah + Kraven the Hunter) as well as lay out Wired (Manhunter + Cable) after a wicked brawl. In the final showdown, even though Dare lost her remaining eye, her horns, and apparently her life to the Big Question, Catsai did manage to land the death stroke (See what I did there?) on him, to put him down for good. Luckily for Dare, Dr. Strangefate (Dr. Fate + Dr. Strange) would later bring her back to life. Little else is known about Dare other than she had two daughters; Jericha (just mentioned and not actually appearing in any book) and Terra-X (Terra + Terrax the Tamer).
