Cyborg From 1985's Who's Who #5

Regardless of specific comic book continuity, Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, became the symbolic embodiment of the future's promise to overcome the challenges and tragedies of today through the continued advancement of knowledge and technology. Even though he was created in 1980, it's apropos that a character born of state-of-the-art technology has really come into his own in the twenty-first century. Two years before the real world's Jarvik 7 artificial heart was implanted in a human, Marv Wolfman used cutting-edge technology to reconstruct over half of Victor Stone's body following a catastrophic lab explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs. Now, in a world of routine artificial hip replacements, cochlear implants, and voluntary embedding of microchips in the human body, a character like Cyborg seems more prophetic that fictional.

Even though he has been associated with other superhero groups, like the Doom Patrol or more recently the Justice League, Cyborg will be forever linked with the New Teen Titans. Cyborg lengthy tenure with the began with the team's revival, putting him squarely on a collision course with the original Ravager, Grant Wilson, and his father, Deathstroke the Terminator. In fact, Grant's first ever act as the Ravager from New Teen Titans (1980) #2 was an attack on Cyborg, from which he needed an unexpected assist from the Terminator to avoid defeat. This event made Cyborg the first Teen Titan to cross figurative swords with Deathstroke. Posted below is a scan from Cyborg's 1985 Who's Who entry from issue #5 (V) featuring art by both Deathstroke's and Cyborg's legendary co-creator, George Pérez, and Romeo Tanghal.

Art by George Pérez and Romeo Tanghal

Deathstroke Animated Series to Air on CW Seed

A funny thing happened at this year's broadcast and cable television industry trade exposition, known as The TV Upfronts. During a live presentation to prospective advertisers, CW Network President, Mark Pedowitz announced that an animated series starring none other than Deathstroke is currently in development and was on its way to the CW Seed digital streaming platform. In the past few years, the CW Seed has a put together a strong track record of developing other animated series based on DC Comics' television properties such as Vixen (2015), Freedom Fighters: The Ray (2017), and Constantine: City of Demons (2018). Though unconfirmed, it is speculated that the animated series will draw its inspiration from the television version of Deathstroke that appeared in the CW's Arrow, which was portrayed by the fan-favorite actor, Manu Bennett.

A promo image for the animated Deathstroke series in development
for The CWSeed digital streaming platform.

Pedowitz was light on details like voice cast members or even a premiere date, but he did drop some interesting nuggets about the series premise. The show will "follow Slade [Wilson] as his family is threatened by the murderous villain Jackal and terrorist organization HIVE." It certainly sounds like the animated series' developers are borrowing heavily from Deathstroke's early appearances in New Teen Titans (1980) and the "Full Cycle" story arc from Deathstroke the Terminator (1991), all of which was written by Deathstroke's legendary co-creator, Marv Wolfman. If the image above is any indication, it appears that Deathstroke's look will resemble the bulky New 52/Arrow-style armor rather than the sleek and stealthy Ikon Suit. 

As more details about Deathstroke's CW Seed animated series emerge, you can be sure that The Deathstroke Files will bring them straight to you.

DEATHSTROKE COVERED: New Teen Titans (1980) #34 By the Legendary George Pérez

The cover for New Teen Titans (1980) #34 is amazing in multiple ways. First, it is a prime example of a trademark George Pérez multi-character scene. Secondly, it is jarringly symbolic as it clearly illustrates Deathstroke's desire to terminate the Teen Titans. Thirdly, this comic marked only the fifth ever appearance of Deathstroke, still commonly referred to as "Terminator," and, despite his popularity with fans, Deathstroke had not appeared in New Teen Titans in two years, though Chris Claremont and Walt Simonson did use him for Marvel and DC Present: The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans (1982) #1. 

And lastly, (bear with me here as I admit that this one is a stretch) if one looks at the cover as a photograph taken in the middle of an in-progress action, Deathstroke is firing at the Titans from the viewer's left to right. If the action continued along that path it is reasonable to assume that all of the Titans would be struck by Deathstroke's gunfire. That is, all of the Titans except one. Raven, Robin, and Kid-Flash had not yet been shot because the line of fire had yet to reach them. But the line of fire had already passed through Terra, and she had not been shot. In a certain context, this cover foreshadows the yet-to-be-revealed relationship between Deathstroke and Terra as well as Terra's role as a mole within the group as the reason she was not shot on the cover (I know, it sounds a little conspiracy theorist on my part, but it was fun to speculate). Anyway, the cover is posted below and as always, for best viewing results, open the image into its own tab.

Art by the Legendary George Pérez

TOOLS OF THE TERMINATOR: A Sword Called...Deathstroke!

The Deathstroke
Art by ACO

Since Deathstroke the Terminator's debut in the pages of The New Teen Titans (1980) #2, there has been at least one constant companion (with the exception of stints during the New 52) for Slade Wilson and his business of blood. That faithful companion is none other than his iconic battle sword with the yellow/orange cross-guard. Over time, this sword has become as closely associated with Deathstroke the Terminator as the trademark bifurcated color pattern of his mask so I thought that it was time to take a closer look at this infamous instrument of death.

When Christopher Priest took the reigns of the Deathstroke (2016) title as part of DC Comics' Rebirth publishing initiative, he not only returned the sword itself, which had been missing for much of the "New 52" and "DC You" runs, he greatly expanded its history and its connection to Slade himself. On Priest's own website, he wrote detailed new information including the origin of the sword and how it came to be owned by Slade (much of this information can also be found nearly word-for-word in dialog from Deathstroke (2016) #9). Priest wrote about the sword as follows:

Deathstroke's sword was originally named "Scrymgeour." Eòsaph Mar cut down a thousand of King Charles' men with it after Jenny Geddes threw her stool at the head of the minister in St [sic] Giles' Cathedral, inciting the Bishops' Wars. Or, at least, that's the story Deathstroke told. One of dozens. Slade Wilson actually won the sword from a rich collector in Glasgow with a full house, queens full of nines. An antique Grete war sword the blade was forged of three seperate pieces hammer-welded together, the bottommost a flattened diamond cross-pattern. The blade became mangeled during the "Judas Contract" incident and HIVE re-cast it in Type-II, or "Volatile," Promethium—a dangerous mutagen capable of absorbing unlimited amounts of energy—which Deathstroke  stole from S.T.A.R. Labs. It is suspected that particle bleed may have played a role in activating dormant metagenes in Slade's children. The blade cannot be damaged or destroyed by any known means.

An additional piece of information about the sword was revealed during a flashback scene in Deathstroke (2016) #9 when one of the other card players explained that the sword was eventually named "Deathstroke" as illustrated in the image below.

Slade Wilson seated at the bottom of the page...and the rest is history.
Art by Cary Nord

Slade used the sword for years, but it was all but destroyed during the events of the "Judas Contract." As described by Priest in the quote from above, when H.I.V.E. repaired the sword they added the super-metal Promethium giving it extra-physical properties (think of Promethium as a combination of Marvel Comics' Adamantium and Vibranium). The sword became virtually indestructible and capable of cutting any substance. It also gained incredible energy absorption abilities, the limits of which have yet to be seen. The sword's new abilities are illustrated below.

Deathstroke's Promethium sword is capable of cutting Superman
Art by Carlo Pagulayan

The sword can easily handle Superman's powerful heat vision.
Art by Carlo Pagulayan.

So to recap:

• The sword was originally called Scrymgeour, named for the medieval Scottish clan to whom the warriors that wielded it belonged.
• The sword was eventually renamed "Deathstroke," and was, therefore, the inspiration for Slade Wilson's professional nom de guerre.
• Slade won the sword in a card game. The sword-winning hand was a full house of queens and nines.
• The sword's extra-physical properties, granted by the super-metal, Promethium, make the sword indestructible, capable of absorbing massive amounts of energy, and may be partially responsible to the emergence of superpowers in Slade's children, Joseph (Jericho) and Rose Wilson.

The Terrible Tale of Marvel Comics' Death-Stroke

Yep, Death-Stroke just said that $#!+.
Art by Steve Leialoha

If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then Marvel Comics writer, Chris Claremont must have really loved Deathstroke. In 1981, Claremont was more than five years into his seminal run on Uncanny X-Men (1963), which had experienced a revival and was one of the most popular and best selling comic book titles of the late 1970s and into the early 80s. 

But in the fall of 1980, Marv Wolfman and George Pérez relaunched DC Comics' Teen Titans with the New Teen Titans (1980). Wolfman and Pérez returned popular DC teen characters such as Robin, Wonder Girl, and Kid Flash in addition to a newly renamed Changeling, the angst-filled Cyborg, the dark and mysterious Raven, and the alluring alien sex-symbol, Starfire. And by issue #2, Wolfman and Pérez introduced an extremely charismatic, one-eyed, Terminator in blue and orange battle gear. The popularity of the New Teen Titans heroes (and a certain bad-ass villain) skyrocketed the title to the top of the sales charts and made itself serious competition to Claremont's band of mutant heroes.

By 1981, in addition to his duties on Uncanny X-Men, Claremont also wrote Marvel's Spider-Woman (1978) title. In Spider-Woman #39, Claremont decided to poke a little fun at his "distinguished competition" by lampooning Wolfman and Pérez's breakout villain, Deathstroke. Claremont's "master assassin," Death-Stroke (the hyphen means it's original), was contracted by Yakuza gangsters to murder Dan Ishima, a friend of Spider-Woman's alter ego, Jessica Drew. To assist Death-Stroke in his deadly work is his murderous crew of mercenary assassin named, the Terminators (that's correct: Death-Stroke and his Terminators). Once Spider-Woman arrived on the scene and engaged Death-Stroke in hand-to-hand combat, she made relatively quick work on him, despite his use of self-described "snazzy moves," and an always dangerous, "energy blade" that was capable of slicing a steel girder in twain. Death-Stroke would not make another appearance until his final one about a decade later in 1991 in the pages of Captain America (1968) #395 where he was killed while auditioning for a spot in the Red Skull's Skeleton Crew. That's right, Death-Stroke died during a job interview.

Whether it's his cleverly (?) hyphenated name or the ease of his defeat at the hands of Spider-Woman, Death-Stroke was clearly Claremont having a bit of fun at Wolfman, Pérez, and DC Comics' expense. Marvel apparently got the joke as evidenced by his ridiculous death. But I suppose as a parody character Death-Stroke isn't the worst I've seen. I mean he's no Red Tool...or Death Masque for that matter (I know; I'm sorry). In any event, enjoy the eight panels of glory that was Death-Stroke vs. Spider-Woman posted below.

Art by Steve Leialoha

Deathstroke Co-Creator, George Pérez, Retires from Comic Book Industry

Comic book legend, George Pérez
Image Source: TV Tropes

Citing health reasons, comic book legend, George Pérez announced his retirement from the industry in a press release on January 9, 2019. Pérez, along with writer Marv Wolfman,  co-created Deathstroke, the Terminator as the primary antagonist for their revival of the Teen Titans, The New Teen Titans in 1983. Deathstroke would emerge as a breakout character for DC Comics due in no small part to Pérez's bad-ass character design as well as his realistic, yet emotionally charged and dynamic art style.

In an official press release, Pérez explained that "I’ve been dealing with a myriad number of health issues (diabetes, heart ailments, vision issues, etc.), they have indeed have forced me to, for all intents and purposes, formally retire from the business of creating new comic stories." Pérez still plans on attending a handful of comic book conventions, but can no longer do live sketches for fans. However, he still intends to do photo and autograph sessions.

Pérez impact on the comic book industry cannot be overstated. He has had critically acclaimed runs on such titles as the aforementioned The New Teen Titans/Tales of the Teen Titans, Justice League of America, The Avengers, The Brave and the Bold, JLA/Avengers, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Who's Who, Wonder Woman, Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu, The Fantastic Four, Ultraforce, and Marvel Two-In-One. Later in his illustrious career, Pérez was charged with writing and penciling DC Comics' 2011 rebooted Superman title as part of the New 52 and then launched a creator-owned title, Sirens, for Boom! Studios in 2014.

Just to further illustrate the impact that George Pérez has had on the comics industry as a whole, just imagine today's comics landscape without the following characters and concepts that were at least co-created by him. (List not exhaustive.)

• Deathstroke the Terminator
• The Anti-Monitor
• Ares
• Blackfire
• Brother Blood
• Captain Ultra
• The Crisis on Infinite Earths/New Earth
• Cyborg
• Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi)
• The Fearsome Five
• Harbinger (Lyla Michaels)
• Henry Peter Gyrich
• H.I.V.E.
• Jericho
• Jocasta
• "The Judas Contract"
• Lady Quark
• Maxima
• The Monitor/Monitors
• The New Teen Titans
• Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
• Nova (Frankie Raye)
• Pariah
• Plasmus
• The Ravager (Grant Wilson)
• Raven
• The Silver Swan (Valerie Beaudry)
• Starfire
• The Taskmaster
• Terra (Tara Markov)
• The Texas Twister
• Trigon
• White Tiger (Hector Ayala)
• Wintergreen
• Vigilante (Adrian Chase)
• X'Hal

Thank you for everything, George Pérez.

Happy Batman Day 2016!

HAPPY BATMAN DAY! I know what you're thinking, "Hey, this is a Deathstroke blog. Why are you making such a big deal about Batman Day?" There are three reasons.

1. Batman is an important foundational character to not only my favorite comic book publisher, DC Comics, but to the entire comic book industry as a whole.
2. Batman is cool and I like him!
3. No Batman, no Deathstroke. The line of logic goes as follows.
• Batman created in 1939.
• Batman gets Robin as a partner in 1940.
• Robin joins original Teen Titans in 1964.
• Marv Wolfman and George Pérez reunite Robin with former Teen Titans teammates and some newcomers to form the New Teen Titans in 1980.
• With Robin/the future Nightwing specifically in mind, Wolfman and Pérez create Deathstroke the Terminator as an "evil Batman" figure to be a major adversary for the New Teen Titans. The rest is history.

So, thank you Batman for being so awesome that Ben Affleck and Geoff Johns wanted a total badass character like Deathstroke to fight you in your movie.

Deathstroke's 36th Anniversary

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.

The first comic book panel ever to feature Deathstroke

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.

My First Encounter with Deathstroke

I am not a Deathstroke expert, nor am I one of the lucky folks that can claim that they have followed the character from his first appearance in New Teen Titans (1980) #2. I grew up in a very small town some 35 miles from that nearest real comic shop and even a subscription through the mail was out of the question for me. In fact, the reason I started this blog in the first place was to learn more about the character that had always fascinated me through the years even if I wasn't always able to follow his exploits month-to-month. 

My very first exposure to Slade Wilson wasn't even through a traditional comic book, but rather through a New Teen Titan's black and white budget format reprint digest. I purchased it from a grade school book fair in 1982 for the discounted price of $1.49. The digest featured a forward by Marv Wolfman and an original cover by George Pérez (front and back covers pictured below). It collected the New Teen Titans introductory story from DC Comics Presents (1978) #26 as well as the first several issues of the New Teen Titans (1980), which, as the back cover tells us, included the debut of the "Terrible Terminator" in #2. Even the absence of interior coloring couldn't hide all the Deathstroke coolness from his half-dark mask, to his choice and use of weapons, to the way he completely handled the starring cast. Sadly, my copy of this digest didn't survive the 80s, but if your are interested in a rare bit of comics nostalgia merchandise, copies of this digest are still out there to be had if you look in the right places.