Deathstroke the Terminator #5 – Tony Fleecs, Writer; Carmine Di Giandomenico, Artist; Ivan Plascencia, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: For the entirety of this issue, Slade has found himself up against the wall. Wintergreen is dead. Slade is wanted not just by law enforcement, but by his former allies in the assassin world. All his money has been taken away, and a massive bounty has been placed on his head. His one remaining ally, Rose, turned away from him when she saw how far he was willing to go – and now she’s been kidnapped too. His only remaining ally is a mysterious voice who sends him information – and seems to be operating out of the JL Watchtower, which is an intriguing wrinkle. Slade has now been reduced to taking low-level revenge contracts against cheating spouses in order to get the information he needs on his new enemy – a mysterious masked villain known as the Terminator, capitalizing on Slade’s image and ruthlessly hunting down anyone who might be willing to help him stay one step ahead.
This issue features some flashbacks to Slade’s early years as an assassin, when he was still keeping everything from his family. It’s easy to see how it all slipped away from him, as his lies became too much to balance until they literally came home, but this run also does a good job of showing us that there was a time when there was some humanity left in the man. Hell, there might still be – after all, he does seem to care for his daughter and genuinely grieves for Wintergreen. And those weak spots are exactly what’s now coming back to haunt him. The reveal of the Terminator’s identity isn’t a huge surprise, as it’s one of those mysteries with only one answer that makes sense, but it’s a huge status quo shift and one that promises to dramatically alter the trajectory of the series going forward. Fleece has more than earned my trust to see where he plans to take these characters.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
