Story: Christopher Priest
Art: Carlo Pagulayan
Inks: Jason Paz
Colors: Jeremy Cox
Letters: Willie Schubert
Covers: Aco, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Stephen Platt, Peter Steigerwald
Deathstroke created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.
Like most Rebirth issues, the comic certainly works as a reintroduction to the character. The fragmentary storytelling moves back and forth between a younger Slade Wilson taking his two sons camping in the woods during the dead of winter, and the present-day version working on a job for an African warlord. The former is terrible human being. An absentee father figure who’s hellbent on teaching his kids life’s harshest lessons and moulding them into manly survivalists like himself, even if it means literally beating those lessons into them. The latter’s a soldier of fortune who follows a strict professional code of ethics. But an unexpected appearance of someone from his past complicates his loyalties.
Carlo Pagulayan draws a pretty cool looking update to the original design of George Perez. His style conforms to DC’s house style, which is to say that it’s good but not particularly unique to look at. What let’s the issue down are the muddy colors of Jeremy Cox. The usual bright blues and oranges of Deathstroke’s costume are replaced by more neutral hues that make it harder to read the character on the page. This is exacerbated by the African setting being drenched in dull earth tones.
The strangest part of the comic is the unexplained presence of an elderly Clock King. His advanced age and his Silver Age style costume are oddly out of place in this comic’s more down-to-earth milieu. He adds an element of intrigue in a competently told, but otherwise conventional comic.
The strangest part of the comic is the unexplained presence of an elderly Clock King. His advanced age and his Silver Age style costume are oddly out of place in this comic’s more down-to-earth milieu. He adds an element of intrigue in a competently told, but otherwise conventional comic.
