Monday, February 16, 2009

Faces of Evil: Deathstroke #1

I enjoy any book that puts a good character back into circulation. I thought the Last Will and Testament issue where Deathstroke gets taken out was pretty pointless, and maudlin besides. So I had no investment in seeing Slade out of action for any length of time. This issue basically lets David Hine get Slade healed up and back to his status quo. There is some sort of interaction with Slade's daughter, Rose, where he wants to make sure she continues to "feel something" even if it is hate for him. So having given her that feeling while beating the snot out of her, Slade gets loose to pursue his own goals. He claims he's on his own now, with no traces to his old life. He even finds a homeless girl to begin training, fulfilling that Terra-need that is so weird. I'm ok with this if Slade is going to continue as a full on villain, at least he's out there again. The bigger problem for me is once again, I imprinted on the wrong era of DC Comics. When I started reading Titans, Slade was an awesome bad ass helping Nightwing, Phantasm, and Pantha find their old teammates during Titans Hunt. To me, THOSE were the New Titans, the old guys were mysterious and not as cool. So I liked Slade as the anti-hero, but that isn't the way of things now.

Georges Jeantty is always good on art, and this issue is no exception. I loved his fight sequences. The over the shoulder shot as Slade unloads into a chopper was pretty sweet. But overall, this was another exercise in set-up, like all the Faces of Evil. There were no stories that "needed" to be told or that were fantastic on their own. They felt like modern tie-ins. Competent stories by professionals that were editorially driven.

Average

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