SHADES OF SLADE: Flashpoint's Pirate Deathstroke

Yesterday's post on the Deathstroke Files titled, "DEATHSTROKE COVERED: Joe Bennett and John Dell's Flashpoint: Deathstroke And The Curse of the Ravager (2011) #1," began the spotlight on DC Comics' pirate version of Deathstroke from Flashpoint. Today's SHADES of SLADE post takes a closer look at the alternate Slade Wilson, who was both a scourge of the high seas and a devoted father on a mission.

The Flashpoint Crisis (the fifth of the DC Multiverse's seven official crises), began as the Flash, Barry Allen," in a moment of weakness, attempted to go back in time to prevent his mother from ever being murdered at the hands of Eobard Thawn, aka the Reverse-Flash, aka Professor Zoom. While the Flash succeeded in saving his mother, he also fundamentally changed reality in such a way that while some vestiges of the world he knew where still present, the new status quo had become a nightmare version of Earth-0.

In the new reality of the Flashpoint Crisis, though Barry Allen's mother was alive, Allen himself never acquired superspeed powers thus never became the Flash. Gotham City's Joe Chill did gun down Martha Wayne in Crime Alley, but instead of killing her husband Thomas, Chill murdered her son, Bruce, thus putting Thomas Wayne on the path to becoming a callous and brutal incarnation of Batman. Instead of being raised in the loving arms of a young Kansas farm couple, an infant Kryptonian refugee instead fell into the hands of Gen. Sam Lane who looked at the child as nothing more than a lab specimen ordering experiments to be conducted on the child, depriving him of the humanity necessary for him to become the planet's greatest hero. Wonder Woman and Aquaman were not heroic allies in this reality, but instead were superpowered tyrants engaged in a devastating war, which resulted in the Amazons conquering and annexing the United Kingdon and the cataclysmic sinking of Western Europe into the Atlantic Ocean by Atlantis.

But the global chaos of Arthur and Diana's war brought opportunity to some willing and able to grasp it as a new age of metahuman pirates was unleashed on the high seas. One such metahuman was Deathstroke, Captain of the pirate ship, the Ravager. Deathstroke is an infamous pirate with a well-deserved reputation for brutality, but that reputation is an honorable one. Deathstroke doesn't kill unless it is necessary to do a job and he honors all of his fallen crew members with a dignified burial. Honor is especially important when it comes to his pirate rivals as evidenced from his battles with Travis Morgan, the Warlord to whom he refers as his "esteemed enemy." When he defeated the Warlord on his second ship, the Skartaris, Deathstroke expressed pleasure when Morgan had escaped because he desired a rematch because so he could take the Warlord out on his best ship, the Tara, because "anything less just seems unfair."

Deathstroke, Captain of the Ravager, along with members of his crew,
Clayface, King Shark, Icicle, and Briggs.
Art by Joe Bennett

Though he and his crew were pirates out for loot and plunder, Deathstroke had a more pressing agenda. His daughter Rose had been taken captive and his mission was to recover her. The reason that Deathstroke and his crew engaged the Warlord was that Slade had intel that Morgan was transporting a metahuman female in a containment pod, whom he hoped was Rose. I turned out that the pod did have a young female, but it was not Rose, but a young woman named Jenny Blitz, whom I assume was the Flashpoint reality's iteration of the Wildstorm Universe's Jenny Sparks. I won't spoil the remainder of the story, but suffice it to say that more swashbuckling, mutiny, double-crosses, death, and, yes love are all yet to come in this tale (and no I didn't spoil anything, I simply enumerated the required elements of every single pirate story, including this one).

One interesting tidbit about Flashpoint's pirate Deathstroke is that this version also had some legs to it outside of its initial three-issue miniseries. Pirate Deathstroke has made more than one cosplay appearance at different conventions and even at Halloween since his 2011 debut. He even appeared in a short scene from the animated film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013) voiced by Teen Titans' (2003) Slade voice actor, Ron Perlman. Pirate Deathstroke's look was such a hit that NetherRealm Studios included a Flashpoint Deathstroke skin in a DLC pack. Flashpoint Deathstroke received much love from the fans, and never once had to resort to the worn out "Yar, me maties," shtick. Though, if he wanted to do so, he could have pulled that off too.

Flashpoint Deathstroke skin from the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us.

SHADES OF SLADE: Batman Ninja's Deathstroke

Image Source: Warner Bros.

When I first heard about this anime, I was thrilled to find out that Deathstroke would be one of the featured villains and it is this version of him that will be the focus of SHADES OF SLADE.

In recent years DC live-action films have been of inconsistent quality. For every Wonder Woman (2017) or Aquaman (2018), there was a Man of Steel (2013) or a Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). But for well over a decade, animated films based on DC properties have experienced far more hits than misses. One of the more intriguing and original animated films released is Batman Ninja (2018).

Batman Ninja was made in Japan but was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment in conjunction with Kamikaze Douga, Yamatoworks, and Barnum Studio. The anime was directed by Junpei Mizusaki (Zoo, Jojo's Bizare Adventure the series), from an original script by Kazuki Nakashima (Gurren Lagann, Oh! Edo Rocket, Kill la Lill), and character designs by Afro Samurai creator, Takashi Okazaki. 

The film's premise is that while in Arkham Asylum, Gorilla Grodd invented "a Quake Engine." As Batman, Catwoman and the extended Bat-family arrived to foil Grodd's experiment, the Quakes Engine activated sending them and several of Gotham's super-criminals to feudal (pre-Edo period) Japan. For unknown reasons, the criminals and Batman's allies arrive about two years before Batman does. In that time the villains established themselves as feudal warlords leading warring factions. It's up to Batman and his allies to stop the Joker and the other villains and return them all to the present. 

Deathstroke in his Masamune Date-inspired
traditional armor.

One of the villains transported to medieval Japan was none other than Deathstroke the Terminator. The first thing that jumped out at me was the outstanding character redesign by Takashi Okazaki. Keeping the dual-color motif of his mask, Okazaki incorporated it into a nusubito-style half-mask leaving exposed his remaining baby-blue eye as well as his black-with-yellow highlights eyepatch. The remainder of his attire also sported the signature blue-with-orange accents scheme into a traditional samurai armor. Another design element, which was a clever nod to Japanese history, is Deathstroke's helmet, which had mounted upon it a large crescent moon symbol, which was synonymous with another legendary, one-eyed feudal lord, Masamune Date, aka the "One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshu."

While I really liked the film itself, Deathstroke's part in it is a bit of a mixed bag. While I am pleased Mizusaki and Nakashima thought enough of the character to include him in the film, his role wasn't much more than an extended cameo. Though introduced early in the film via a dramatic, stylized identification graphic (seen below), he didn't actually appear in earnest until the third act.  By that point in the film, his role felt more like fan service and not the addition of a genuine plot-contributing antagonist. Once the heroes turned the tide, Deathstroke, one of the most dangerous and highly-skilled fighters in all the DC Universe, was bested in a gun battle quickly and quite easily and by the Red Hood. In my opinion, this film was a perfect opportunity to showcase Deathstroke's preternatural skill as a swordsman, but that opportunity was completely wasted here.

Deathstroke introduction graphic

Batman Ninja was a gamble for Warner Bros. and DC Comics, that in my opinion paid off in spades. It was equal parts period anime, time travel head trip, and experimental filmmaking that works on many levels. I very much liked the film and do recommend it, but just don't expect Deathstroke to be one of its big-time players. I think my biggest disappointment is that Deathstroke comes off as a weak, incompetant, non-factor in the film's overall plot. Deathstroke, when used correctly, is a blue-chip badass, not the window dressing he is made to be in this film. All things considered, the film is a solid B+, but its use of Deathstroke should be a D- at best.

SHADES OF SLADE: President Slade Wilson.

It's fitting that on this Presidents' Day in the U.S., to explore what undoubtedly was the most badass president of all time: Slade Wilson!?! Of course, I'm referring to President Slade Wilson from the alternate Earth-3 universe portrayed in the animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010), which was the seventh of the DC Universe Original Movies.

The film itself used an adapted screenplay from a canceled animated film titled Justice League: Worlds Collide, which was to act as a story transition between the just ended Justice League animated series and the then-upcoming Justice League Unlimited series. The script for Crisis on Two Earths was written by the late Dwayne McDuffie, who incorporated some elements, including a "good guy" Lex Luthor, from the Grant Morrison's original graphic novel, JLA: Earth 2 (2000).

Earth-3's U.S. President Slade Wilson meets with his Lex Luthor and the
Justice League.

In Crisis on Two Earths, The evil Earth-3 doppelgangers of the Justice League, known as the Crime Syndicate, despite the existence of independent nations, for all intents and purposes control the entire world. The Justice League from the Prime Earth, who were brought to Earth-3 by its hero, Lex Luthor, clashes with the Crime Syndicate and manages to capture the evil version of Superman known as Ultraman. The League next meets with the U.S. President Slade Wilson to discuss what comes next. 

Visually, President Wilson cuts the same imposing figure that his Prime Earth counterpart, Deathstroke, does and is also missing an eye, though it is the right eye as opposed to Deathstroke's left. President Wilson next does what the Justice League views as unthinkable and orders the unconditional release of Ultraman. Though the Leauge and Wilson's own daughter Rose see this as an act of cowardice, President Wilson justifies Ultraman's release in terms of the millions of American lives that will be saved by avoiding any unnecessary retaliation from the rest of the Crime Syndicate.

At the end of the story, the Justice League prevails over the Crime Syndicate. President Wilson arrives on the scene leading the U.S. Marines and assists in taking the Syndicate members into federal custody. After showing proper gratitude to The Justice League President Wilson orders the Marines to support all local authorities in their mission to capture all remaining members of the Crime Syndicate. So even after a rocky start, President Wilson proved to be a real American hero.

SHADES OF SLADE: Amalgam Comics' Dare The Terminator

Slade Murdock: Dare the Terminator

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).

SHADES OF SLADE: Tiny Titans' Principal Slade

Within the DC Universe's Multiverse concept, it is not uncommon to see multiple versions of the same basic character be they a vampire Batman, a Soviet Superman, a wild west Wonder Woman, or even an anthropomorphic turtle Flash. Deathstroke is no exception as there are myriad different forms of Slade Wilson active throughout the DC Multiverse. From time-to-time, I will explore these alternate Deathstrokes in a feature called "SHADES OF SLADE." So, to continue the back to school theme of yesterday's post, it's on to our first featured Deathstroke.

You do NOT want to be sent to this
principal's office.

In 2008, DC launched a younger ages title based upon the Teen Titans properties named Tiny Titans. Creators Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani take the Teen Titans back to grade school. Sidekick City Elementary School to be exact. In Tiny Titans (2008) #1, the students returning from summer vacation were given some jarring news. It seems that Sidekick City Elementary has a new principal and that principal's name is Slade...Principal Slade. This bombshell sent chills down the collective spines all of the students, but none more so than Rose Wilson, who apparently had no idea that her father would be the new head of her own school. 

The students had heard that this new principal was strict and mean...and they were right. Principal Slade spent little time imposing his ways on the school as one of his first acts was to hire Mr. Trigon as a substitute teacher, much to the dismay of his own daughter, Raven. Other questionable administrative decisions include having Dr. Light teach science, having Lobo teach P.E. and coach sports teams, and appointing Darkseid to be the Lunch Lady and then allowing him to run the school when Principal Slade took a day off, thus putting in motion the... "Finals Crisis." But on the bright side, he spoke to each students' parents or guardians one-on-one when handing out report cards and he seems to have stable and loving relationships with his children Rose and Jericho. Plus, that is one snazzy plaid jacket.