Deathstroke has long been a fan favorite D.C. supervillain, yet he has not gotten his due share of attention or depictions in the DC Animated Universe or the DC Extended Universe. This individual, like Wonder Woman and Flash, is almost a metahuman, with a brain that works at 95% capacity and reflexes that are nine times faster than the normal human.
Deathstroke is frequently dismissed as just another mercenary, but real fans know that he is the most efficient mercenary on the planet, and unquestionably the best thinker. Despite these attributes, his origins and biography are fraught with ups and downs. Deathstroke, no matter what, is a master at blurring the lines between good and evil, black and white.
I mean, if we accept previous tale arcs like Batman: The Adventures Continue #3, he did at first appear to be a good guy, even assisting Batman and Robin in their struggle against Clayface. So, let us take a closer look at this sinister supervillain and learn more about his backstory, activities, and goals.
Deathstroke’s First Appearance In Comic
Appearing in New Teen Titans Vol 1 #2, Slade Wilson addresses himself primarily as Deathstroke The Terminator when he appears before members of the evil organization called Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Eliminations or HIVE. They asked Deathstroke to eliminate the new Teen Titans, but the deal could never take off, and Deathstroke was showered with bullets. However, he managed to dodge the attack and escape. What he didn’t know, however, was that his physiological and psychological traits were carefully noted down by the HIVE, with the intent that the information would be planted on another person, giving them Deathstroke’s powers.
And well, who other than Deathstroke’s estranged son, Grant Wilson. Grant comes into the picture when we see his girlfriend breaking up with him because of his several vices, including infidelity. However, Grant was not man enough to face the breakup in good humor, and he tried to get abusive with her. But lucky for Carol Sladky, Starfire and Wonder Girl arrived at the scene and saved her from Grant. In the past, the teen titans had unintentionally destroyed Grant’s apartment, and now that he had lost his girlfriend as well, he blamed the teen titans and swore to take revenge.
Grant immediately contacts HIVE, and they subject him to a process that gives him Deathstroke’s powers and the ability to use hundred percent brain capacity. When the process is finished, Grant Wilson becomes the Ravager and attacks Cyborg. The battle was tense, and Cyborg was about to overpower The Ravager, but Deathstroke arrived and saved his estranged son. Meanwhile, the New Teen Titans were having a day off from all the superheroic stuff in the estate of Steve Dayton, Changeling’s stepfather.
On the other hand, Deathstroke took the Ravager to his mansion and warned the child supervillain that using his newfound powers would be fatal for him, but Ravager was not interested in being schooled by Deathstroke, even though he considered Deathstroke as an idol. Filled with bloodlust, the Ravager left Deathstroke’s mansion and came to face the Teen Titans, who were prepared to fight him off.
But the situation changed when Deathstroke followed the Ravager and offered him backup. After an intense battle, Deathstroke’s warning turned into a reality, and his son aged prematurely and quickly because the energy for his hyper reflexes was being sourced from his own body, and it was not enough.
Within a short span of time, the Ravager passed to the other realm, and Deathstroke, who lost his son, blamed the teen titans. Naturally, he swore to finish what his son started and vowed to slay the teen titans. Interestingly enough, the HIVE got what it wanted. Deathstroke would now do their bidding, without having to pay him even a penny.
The Origin Of Deathstroke
Slade Wilson’s story began when he was just about 16 years of age. Back in the early 60s, when the Vietnam War hadn’t started, the military was a lucrative and promising career. Slade ran away from home to get enlisted. He was just 16 and not eligible to get into the military, so he lied about his age and got through. The kid had a real talent for warfare and turned out to be a murder machine later in his life.
Speaking of murder machine, did you know that one of Batman’s forms was called Murder Machine after he took the powers of Cyborg? Anyway, Slade’s talent bestowed him with several quick promotions, but his life was far from easy. One thing that’s strange about Slade Wilson is that despite being the mercenary that he is, he always has a code by which he lives. When he was serving as a member of the peacekeeping force of the United Nations, he was asked by his superior to shoot down innocent civilians, their only crime was scourging for food in a place where armed hostiles were present.
He refused to shoot, which brought him under the bad books of his superior, who asked his men to cripple Slade. But lucky for Slade, he was saved by the British military man Wintergreen, who would go on to become his closest confidant. He later became a butler to Slade, just as Alfred was to Bruce. A few years later, Slade had risen to the rank of a Major in the army, and coupled with his talents, he was sent on a deputation to learn combat skills at Camp Washington, along with several others who were as good as him.
Camp Washington was supposed to be a training ground where the best of the best were to be shortlisted. He came under the wing of Captain Adeline Kane, his then instructor, and future wife. Slade’s mastery and quick learning of the guerrilla warfare techniques impressed Adeline, but more importantly, he fared with remarkable colors in a class of super soldiers and was soon promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Adeline and Slade got married and had a super productive honeymoon because they had their first son, Grant Wilson, sometime after their return.
Soon after, Slade was offered to volunteer in a top-secret medical experiment, that was supposed to make soldiers resistant to the enemy’s truth serum. However, it is a white lie, and the true purpose of the serum was the creation of super soldiers. Oblivious to the truth, Slade participated in the experiment, but his body couldn’t bear the serum and reacted violently to it, at least initially.
Slade would go through bouts of rage and aggression, and at other times, he would stay in a catatonic state or sedate. Under these circumstances, Slade’s second son Joseph was born. As time passed, Slade became more stable, only to learn the truth about the experiment. His strength, speed, senses, stamina, intellect, and reflexes had increased beyond measure, so much so that he was using ninety percent of his brain capacity.
The only catch was that he didn’t tell anyone about his newfound powers, not even his wife. The army believed that he was unstable for fieldwork, and he was assigned to desk jobs, but a man like Slade Wilson got bored, but he found refuge in hunting and became a world-famous hunter.
But even this had to stop for Slade when William Wintergreen was forced to go on a suicide mission, where he was captured. Unable to get help from his superiors for Wintergreen, Slade took it upon himself to do the impossible to save Wintergreen. He designed himself a suit for the task and would become the Deathstroke. Tracking down Wintergreen was not difficult, and he slashed through 38 Vietcong members in less than two minutes, all the while screaming like a wild, unstoppable banshee.
Despite saving Wintergreen, Slade was discharged from the army for insubordination and disobedience. But Slade didn’t take this as a punishment, but rather as a relief because he had grown tired of the blind loyalty that the army followed. His code was different, and to him, more justified. He assumed the mantle of Deathstroke, The Terminator, and trained under Natas, the master of martial arts.
Interestingly, the word terminator was dropped from his name because of the Terminator films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nevertheless, Slade started taking contracts and became one of the greatest hitmen alive, but his way of life brought him into a direct confrontation with a terrorist named The Jackal, who kidnapped Slade’s younger son Joseph to get information from Slade. Although Slade managed to save his son, the bad guys had slit his throat, cutting Joseph’s vocal cord, and leaving him forever mute.
While taking his son to the hospital, Slade’s real identity was revealed to Adeline. She was furious at Slade for choosing a path that put their family in mortal danger and shot him in the head. Had it been any regular man, he would have died, but Slade lived through the gunshot because of the super-soldier serum, which gave him enhanced healing. In the end, he only lost an eye. Adeline later told Grant Wilson about Slade, hoping that it would keep the child away from his father, but it backfired.
Deathstroke Story In Titans T.V. series
Played by Esai Morales in the live-action T.V. show Titans, Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke was one of the major antagonists and an archenemy of the young superheroes. He had a bloodlust for several personal reasons and sacrificed quite a lot to achieve his objective, which was eliminating the Titans. Much like Slade’s original story and origin, the show portrayed him as a member of the U.S. Army, more specifically, the Delta Force, after which he became a member of HIVE, which subjected him to experiments objected toward bio-enhancements.
Although, in the comics, it was the army, that had infected the super-soldier serum into him. As far as his family life is concerned, it’s pretty much similar to the comics, albeit with a few differences. For instance, with his wife Adeline, he had a son named Jericho, and instead of two sons, he had a daughter named Rose from a woman named Mei, with whom he had had a one-night stand in Kansas City. Much like in the comics, Adeline and her son were attacked by Slade’s enemies and were held, hostage. Slade did manage to save the duo, but Jericho lost his voice, after which Adeline left Slade.
But Jericho’s life was shorter than his comic counterpart Joseph because Slade accidentally killed Jericho while attempting to take Robin’s life. Such a tragedy! But then, Slade had it coming. After this, Slade turned to his estranged daughter, Rose, who he initially thought was not worthy of taking his mantle, but after she showed enough skills and competence, Slade gave her a Deathstroke uniform similar to his own, and also trained her in combat.
Slade was truly a ruthless and selfish man, and getting his firstborn son didn’t serve much as a warning to him. He ordered his last-child, Rose, to infiltrate the Titans, and pretend to them that he was after her. He was able to accept the mission because Rose looked up to him and because he told her about Jericho’s death and how the Titans were behind it all. I mean, to give legitimacy to the charade, Slade gouged Rose’s left eye. That’s one terrible father there, but then what else do we expect from a supervillain?
Interesting Storyline of Deathstroke In Arrowverse
Slade’s life is definitely more interesting and happening in the Arrowverse than in any other arc. Here, along with Billy Wintergreen, he goes on a mission to rescue a man named Yao Fei. However, after both get captured, Wintergreen betrays Slade to side with Edward Fyers, the field commander of a mercenary unit.
Although Slade escaped, he had to go into hiding for safety, but this was until he met Oliver Queen, who found Slade in a downed and abandoned cargo plane. Eventually, Oliver and Slade launched an attack, in which Slade avenged himself by stabbing Wintergreen in the eye, but Slade got shot by Flyers. Fortunately for him, Oliver used some super herbs to cure Slade, almost magically.
They needed a new plan, but first, they had to eliminate Fyers, which they did indeed with help from Yao’s daughter, Shado. But the peace that came with Fyer’s death didn’t last for long as Anthony Ivo and his group of mercenaries attacked the island, intending to salvage wreckage from the second World War. More specifically, they wanted a substance called Mirakuru, which gave its users superhuman strength and stamina. It was something similar to Venom, the serum that gave Bane his powers.
The bombardment that Ivo started, critically wounded Slade, who was saved by Shado, who had no choice but to inject him with Mirakuru. So, in this show, Slade gets his powers from Mirakuru, and not a bio-enhancement experiment. But the downside of Mirakuru was that Slade gradually lost his sanity and reason, becoming a ruthless, paranoid, and irrational man. In due course of time, Oliver made a hard choice which led to Shado’s death, but by now Slade had fallen for Shado. He pledged to take revenge on Oliver and became a mortal enemy of Oliver Queen.
What Makes Deathstroke So Deadly?
Due to the medical experiments performed on him, Slade Wilson not only developed superhuman speed, strength, and endurance but his intellect increased manifold. In fact, he could now perform mental calculations, devise strategies, and plan his moves, nine times faster than an average human, and due to this, his reaction time was also 9 times lesser. This made him a master strategist, with a brain that resembled a computer built for devising battle and combat strategies.
And of course, his physical strength was more than ten times that of a regular human. This largely happened because his muscles had been strengthened and hardened. In the comics, he was seen fighting the Teen Titans, and could easily catch up to Kid Flash’s speed, and evade Star Fire’s energy blasts. In the comic titled Deathstroke #1, he ripped open a plane’s door at 40000 feet.
One may say that Deathstroke is like a basic version of a metahuman like Wonder Woman or Flash. We’ve already mentioned how Deathstroke has superhuman healing, but he lacks the power of regeneration. So, although he can recover from heavy injuries, he can not regenerate a lost limb or even an eye. One of his underrated abilities is a heightened body temperature, which allows him to withstand extremely cold weather with ease, and also prevents illnesses and infection because his body is a hostile place for pathogens.
And yet, Slade’s most important skill is his expertise as a combatant and marksman. Much like characters such as Grifter and the Black Canary, he’s an expert in hand-to-hand combat, and god saves you if he gets his hand on a weapon. Apart from his own physical traits, Slade’s source of power is his suit, which was created by Dr. Ikon. The suit provides him durability, but it has another special feature.
It can absorb kinetic energy from rapid and extreme physical movements, which keeps the suit charged up and functioning. If you still don’t have an idea of the true extent of his suit’s capabilities, then here’s one for you—he once took a string of Superman’s punches, and yet, he was able to standstill. Since the movements required to produce this level of kinetic energy are extreme, only Slade can use the suit. However, there are other ways to charge the suit, such as lithium cells. Furthermore, if the suit gets surplus kinetic energy, it can emit shockwaves.
Insane Versions Of Deathstroke In Various Forms Of Media
Although there has been just one live-action depiction of Deathstroke in a D.C.E.U. the film, the character has been a recurring villain in several animated and live-action T.V. shows and a few animated films. Let’s explore these, shall we?
Animated Shows
Being a children’s cartoon, Deathstroke was called Slade in Teen Titans, and while his motives and intentions were never specifically mentioned, it seemed that he only intended the destruction of the titans. In the first season, he manipulated Robin so much that robin was practically his assistant, but that changed by the end of the season. In the second season, he was trying to use Terra as a sleeper agent amidst the Titans, just like he tried with his daughter Rose, in the live-action show. However, she betrayed him when he forced her into eliminating beast boy.
In Young Justice: Invasion, Deathstroke’s character was somewhat depreciated because they made him serve as Black Manta’s bodyguard and an enforcer, and later in the series, he works with the League of Assassins.
In Beware the Batman, Deathstroke is shown as Alfred’s protégé, but he was incarcerated by Alfred once he learned how ruthless and violent Deathstroke was. However, in the web series titled Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons, he was the star of the show and goes on to hatch ultra-elaborate plans and schemes.
Live-Action Shows
Apart from the T.V. shows Titans and Arrow, Deathstroke also starred in Smallville, where he’s portrayed by Michael Hogan. In the show, Slade proves to be a cunning man who tortures Aquaman using his own weakness and tricks Arrow into signing a wrongful act. He is later sent to the Phantom Zone by Superman but is saved by Zod, who now serves Darkseid, along with Slade himself.
Apart from these shows, Slade also appeared in animated movies such as Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, which is based in an alternate reality where Slade is the President of the United States, and the world is ruled by an evil version of the Justice League. But more notable films with Deathstroke are Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox and Son of Batman.
So, you see, Deathstroke has been a fairly important villain in the D.C. universe. I mean, people often undermine and discard him as just another mercenary, but Slade Wilson is much more than that. He’s a bad guy with a code, but more importantly, he’s not a black and white character. His character and personality are pretty grey and may confuse his opponents, both on and off the battlefield.