Deathstroke #1

Written by Kyle Higgins
Art by Joe Bennett and Art Thibert
Cover by Simon Bisley
On sale September 14, 2011 - 32 pages for $2.99
Rated T+

My rating: 3/5
Will this be in my pull list? It's possible, but probably not.

Previews Text: "Friends die, family disappoints, but a legacy... That lives forever."

Slade Wilson is the best mercenary in the DCU, and he's been doing this a long time. Some might say too long. But they'll learn: Never turn your back on Deathstroke the Terminator. He won't quit, no matter how high the stakes. Kyle Higgins (BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM) and Joe Bennett (TEEN TITANS) team up to bring you the finest in mayhem and gore.

I don't know about gore, there was a bit but not all that much of it (which is a good thing, actually, because if it's nothing but gore then it just becomes gorn and loses my interest entirely) but there was a fair amount of mayhem to the book!

Deathstroke is one of those characters that I never knew all that much about outside of his appearances in Smallville and Flashpoint, but considering this is neither one of those dimensions I understood going into this comic that I should just forget everything I already "knew" about him. Except that he's an older merc. That stayed in place. The only other thing that you should understand about the character going into this issue is that he prefers to work alone. Yeah.

He shows up at the start and is instantly teamed up with three teenagers. He doesn't like this. Then he's sent on a simple mission. He doesn't like this either. And then things start going screwy and by the end of the issue he's just generally angry.

While the hook at the end was great, the issue wasn't quite close enough to my personal tastes to insure it's place in my pull list. It's yet another of those titles that I'd be glad to continue if I have space in my list come this time next month, but I'm not making any promises. I'm also not just going RAWR at it and ignoring it all together. So hey, at least that's something, right?