"Someone made business personal. And I am not going to rest until they pay."
Review
Two obvious things concerning DC's relationship to Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke.
1) DC Comics LOVES Deathstroke. For the past decade the character's gotten more exposure in the comics which lead to more media outside said comics including a few video games, more cartoons, and the biggest which helped lead to his second chance at a book being the popular CW show Arrow (though a lot of this involved glossing over the character's troubling history with teenage girls and distancing him away from being a Titans villain but those are issues for another time).
2) DC Comics doesn't know what to do with Deathstroke. Really, it seems pretty pointless to buy the previous New 52 Deathstroke series as with this book seems to be a hard reboot within a big reboot for the Wilson family. Not too surprising as DC's New 52 reboot had some signs of being rushed and poorly planned, Deathstroke's book being good evidence given a confusing timeline and jarring difference once the first writer Kyle Higgins left for Rob Liefeld to take over ...the book didn't recover well and seemed DC attempted to reboot a reboot away in the Deathstroke Villain's Month one-shot yet still it's all messy and confusing with little evidence these two series and one-shot re connected.
However, in this review we will try to just stick to issues in this book.
Tony Daniels' New New 52 Deathstroke starts out with quite a surprise. Deathstroke is de-aged to a young man looking slightly more like his Arrow actor Manu Bennett which means basically a pointless hair color change from blond to brunet for the character unless that's explained somewhere down the line. One of the better things to come out of this is the return of Slade's son Jericho...though "better" in that he's alive and thankfully not acting like the power-hungry, unstable serial killer from the previous run (worth noting DC doesn't know what to do with one of their very few mute heroes besides make him not mute and not a hero) who "died." Here, Jericho seems to have yet another pointless power upgrade to be more deadly via gory head-exploding powers which he hates showing he at least has some compassion that he was known well for in his character's New Teen Titans history. A "missing memories" moment leads to Slade remembering he had to free his son from his father who he long thought dead. And interestingly Slade's father was in Higgins' initial run but went by a very different name and was a nobody crook who exchanged his son for payment for a debt. Here he's a sort of Ras Al Ghul knock-off. You can really tell DC was either trying to distance from the previous run or just wasn't aware of what went on there.
The initial Daniels run is a huge, messy (and I mean that in many ways) Wilson Family reunion with also the addition of Rose Wilson with no mention of her previous portrayal in her father's early book or even others like Superboy or Teen Titans. At first she oddly seems like the Wilson child who is more respectful of her father, dressing similar to him, and she's shown to be quite a skilled killer thus saddling poor Rose with the usual "kill happy and daddy issues" character she's sometimes watered down to. What's stranger though is it seems Rose is now the older sibling which has only been a thing in the adorable Tiny Titans. And like Tiny Titans, Jericho is just referred to as "Jericho" and not Joseph or Joey even by his family. Really curious to hear that reasoning. Also in this run is of course a fight with the Dark Knight and Harley Quinn where the latter warps the book into some Looney-Tunes-esque violent humor and is appreciated for that. The Bat Brawl mainly serves as a fan-servicey hinder on Slade's quest to find his kids but also foreshadows this Deathstroke book being partially about pitting Slade against the most popular characters of the DCU. He's already fought the Trinity, Suicide Squad (again), and soon Lex Luthor. Probably in honor of the movies coming out yet of course nothing to do with Titans so far.
At best, you can see this book as a distilled elements of 80s action movies as it's one thing the book excels at is action and violence. I give it some credit to at least making family an important concern for Slade again as despite being vital to his original character it's been long ignored for his "the most deadliest assassin ever" aspect. Also having more than one of his children alive is a plus and promising some relationships slightly maybe more in line with the pre-reboot Wilson family. Jericho shows compassion for the first time in awhile as well as an actual happy reunion with his sister. However, the book fumbles at story and characterization which is expected with Tony Daniels. With all respect, he's a great artist and there's attempts at interesting story but doesn't always make it. Not to mention minor, pointless changes such as Slade's hair, Wilson siblings ages, and even Jericho's power upgrade and lack of his original name. Let's not even go into all the problems from previous volume and other stories...Still better than Liefeld.
Recommendation:
This book is definitely for the much older audiences. There's the previously mentioned violence and gore but also some nudity and a not-that-graphic sex scene. And if you're looking to collect Deathstroke books for your shelves this seems to be the Wilson canon DC might be sticking with for the foreseeable future. Also Marv Wolfman's Deathstroke series is being published in collected editions again. Those are always worth it. You can also get one with a cool looking Deathstroke mask!
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