Rating: 2/5 – A weak effort in both story and art.
I’ll start off by saying that of all the Villains Month titles from DC, this one was by far my least favorite. Not only for the story, but for the art as well. There were multiple artists in this issue, and some who I have a fondness for that I felt did not put forth their best work nor their best effort. When you combine the above, you can’t expect great results.
I really liked the New 52 relaunch of Deatstroke when he first appeared…except for the costume. I thought it was an over-the-top violent book, with a well crafted story and some great art. Then the book went through some creative changes that had the book take a turn for the worse. With that being said, I picked this book up with the hopes of getting back into the character and finding out how he’ll play into Forever Evil, and the future of the DCU. Unfortunately none of those questions were answered, and quite frankly, I didn’t really care after reading this. Corey May and Dooma Wendschuh were the writers of this issue and I wasn’t familiar with their work. Both work for the same company and have written for video games in the past including Batman: Arkham Origins. This looks to be their first comic work, and regrettably it shows. It’s confusing, jumps around quite a bit, and lacks the impact that it was going for because of it.
The art was not much better. The middle portion of the book had the strongest art in the book, but that was only for 7 pages. The rest of the issue was inconsistent, sloppy, and again seemed as though it lacked effort. The three artists never gelled together and each style was dramatically different from the other.
Although I really liked the Deathstroke series when it first launched, I will say that this is one character that has taken a step back with the New 52. I’m hoping a creative team can breathe life back into this character and bring him back to the great villain he once was. I strongly recommend staying away from this book…even IF you’re a big Deathstroke fan, because that may make it worse.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas – shawn@comicspectrum.com
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