Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Deathstroke #4

By Hervé St-Louis
October 28, 2016 - 10:50

Slade Wilson suspects Batman of having put a hit on the Ravager. So Slade and his daughter, the Ravager travel to Gotham City where they want to confront Batman. But to get to Batman, Deathstroke has to play a cat and mouse game which may cost Robin, Batman’s sidekick, his life.

The problem with Christopher Priest’s writing continues. While this issue is very fun. I enjoyed the cat and mouse game and the justified paranoia Deathstroke felt at the thought of going into Gotham City, it was not exactly clear if his confrontation with Batman was a flashback or happening in the present. This is the kind of problem that continually plague Priest’s work where just when the reader thinks he has a grasp on things, they become slippery again.

Making things slippery and forcing readers to second guess is not a bad thing. But it is when the second guessing affects the very understanding and nature of the comic or any other work of fiction. It’s not that Priest is playing with layers. It’s just bad plotting. Wintergreene’s voice over narration could be set in the past or the present. It’s impossible to know.

Marv Wolfman wrote the classic confrontation between Deathstroke and Batman way back in the first volume of Deathstroke in the 1990s. Back then, it was as grandiose and exciting. Each was a master strategist and the fight that finally followed showed how much Deathstroke had to fear Batman, even though he was much more powerful as a super human. It has been argued that Deathstroke is the equivalent of Captain America but turned bad. Captain America and Batman confrontations are classic, especially the one in the JLA/Avengers mini-series.

So, it feels like a must for Priest to pit Deathstroke against Batman so early in his run. It is what must be done if one seeks to write a comprehensive and memorable Deathstroke series. The problem that I have with this confrontation is that it did not transition well from the first storyline. It appears that the two stories are somehow connected but Deathstroke is one step ahead of the reader here, even though we are privy to Wintergreeene’s notes.

Joe Bennet’s work here is great. He is used to drawing urban action scenes. But here, he does the kinetic and step by step storytelling well.

Rating: 8 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12