At this year’s Emerald City Comic Con, Tony Fleecs teased that Deathstroke: The Terminator #3 would involve a showdown between three DC characters who feature “Death” in their names. True to Fleecs’ words, Deathstroke #3 features Slade Wilson, the titular Deathstroke; Floyd Lawson, the sharp-shooting Deadshot; and Michael Cray, aka Deathblow. Even the title, “Death Comes in Threes”, is a cheeky nod to this. Not many comics could get away with this type of thing, but considering that this is technically a book about a supervillain, it makes sense.
Fleecs and Carmine Di Giandomencio don’t hold back on the violence, either. From the very first page, we see Deathstroke hurl a grenade at his foes, only for Deadshot to catch it and hurl it back while Deathblow fires bullets at it, shattering it in an explosion of steel and fire. Next, Deathstroke leaps from his hiding place, sword drawn and ready to draw blood…until he’s blocked by Deadshot. Di Giandomencio depicts the clash between the trio of assassins as both glorious and terrifying to watch; think the brutal blows of John Wick mixed with the traditional pops of color you’d find in a superhero universe.
In fact, it’s those colors that serve as another major draw for this book, thanks to Ivan Plascencia. Throughout Deathstroke #3, Plascencia depicts a background wreathed in fire, with reddish-orange smoke clouds rising in the distance. Even with all of this apocalyptic imagery, he still manages to give each of the three mercenaries their unique color scheme. You can tell Slade’s orange and blue suit from Deadshot’s red and white armor from Deathblow’s face paint and red bandana. In contrast, the flashback scenes utilize cooler blues, which make the action sequences truly stand out.
DC
Oh, did I mention that there was a flashback sequence? In a moment that takes place early in Slade’s career, we learn about the rules he established for the rest of the DC Universe’s mercenaries, and how whoever’s hellbent on destroying his life is intent on framing him for subverting those rules. Fleecs offers an interesting glimpse into why mercenaries like Deadshot and Deathstroke rarely cross paths, and even gives Slade yet another badass scene in which he manages to face down Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins.
One of the rules Deathstroke develops involves mercenaries cutting ties with their families. “This is business. This is not personal,” he says, and yet in that very scene, we see that his orders to cut yourself loose from your family are to get away from the guilt of wrecking his sons’ lives and the wrath of his ex-wife Adeline. In a way, the reason why Deathstroke is so hellbent on following these rules is that being a mercenary is all he has left…so it only makes sense that if you want to hurt him, you’d take the one thing he’s good at away from him.
Deathstroke: The Terminator #3 cuts between past and present with ease, filling both timelines with plenty of violence and insight into what makes Slade Wilson the man he is. It also ends on a cliffhanger that will have you immediately wanting the next issue in your hands.
You must be logged in to post a comment.