Deathstroke is a great mercenary, but two mistakes embarrass him in front of DC Universe heroes and cost him his mission.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from “Bad News” in Batman: Gotham Nights #14, by Tom Taylor, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarron, Adriano Lucas and Tom Napolitano, as well as “The Killing” from Birds of Prey: Sirens of Justice #2 by John Layman, Cully Hamner, Dave McCaig and AW’s Justin Birch, both on sale now.
Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, is a supervillain with a reputation for being one of the best mercenaries money can buy. First appearing in Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s New Teen Titans #2, Deathstroke was primarily used as a nemesis for the team before venturing into other parts of the DC Universe.
Deathstroke is perhaps best known for nearly taking out several members of the Justice League on his own in Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales’ Identity Crisis #3, which makes the two embarrassments he suffered this week even more surprising.
In “Bad News,” a story by Tom Taylor and Daniel Sampere that appears in Batman: Gotham Knights #14, Deathstroke is hired to eliminate Jimmy Olsen in Metropolis. Olsen has gotten on the bad side of the mob for taking photos of a politician on the payroll committing a criminal act.
Deathstroke tracks Olsen down, but doesn’t take the photographer’s calling out for Superman seriously, reasoning that the Man of Steel has too much on his plate to care about helping one person. Deathstroke pays dearly for his assumption when Supergirl shows up to rescue Olsen. Realizing he has no hope of defeating the Girl of Steel, Deathstroke retreats, although he does manage to destroy Olsen’s camera before leaving.
While there is no shame in Deathstroke being thwarted by one of the most powerful beings on the planet, there is a ton of shame in the fact that he isn’t better prepared. To his credit, Deathstroke did have a vial of Kryptonite gas on hand to help enable his escape, but he knew he was going to Metropolis.
Being a master tactician, he should have better researched his target. If he had done so, he would have known that Superman regularly shows up to pull his buddy’s fat out of the fryer and he could have been prepared for Kryptonian interference — or at least prevented Olsen from calling for help.
Deathstroke made another appearance this week in John Layman and Cully Hamner’s “The Killing” in Birds of Prey: Sirens of Justice #2, where he runs afoul of the Huntress while attempting to take out a member of the Russian mob.
Deathstroke isn’t downright defeated by the inferior combatant, but his target does get away when the Huntress tricks the mercenary into believing she has killed the mobster in an explosion. Surprisingly, Deathstroke makes the novice mistake of taking her at her word instead of checking for a body, thus allowing his quarry to escape.
Even with these fumbles under his belt, Deathstroke is still a very formidable foe, as he proved recently in the pages of Batman when he incapacitated the Dark Knight by way of a sword driven through his leg.
However, in order to operate at peak efficiency, DC’s greatest mercenary should take a nod from the Caped Crusader and make better use of his much vaunted tactical skills before embarking on any more missions — particularly when the target in question is located in a city protected by superheroes.
