Deathstroke, Volume 1: Legacy

Deathstroke (2011)

by Kyle Higgins (Writer), Simon Bisley (Illustrator)

As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Slade Wilson once ranked as the world’s greatest mercenary. But when his reputation starts to slip, and when a mysterious briefcase enters the equation, the man known as Deathstroke decides to carve a bloody, gory swatch across the DCU in a quest to show the world what exactly makes him the best.

Collecting: Deathstroke #1-8.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2012

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: A hyper-violent onslaught, it seeps in just enough story to avert a bloody slog through the dank and wanton overkill.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remember that movie, “Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag”? Me neither, but if that were the title of this volume and because of Deathstroke’s penchant for decapitating his opponents, they’d need, if not a bigger duffel bag, at least more of them. These pages are liberally splashed red with blood and epic violence, generally of the other guy getting stuck in some fashion on Deathstroke’s nasty sword.

At least DC didn’t water down their treatment of unrepentant assassin Slade Wilson (aka Deathstroke) by letting him bake quiche or watch Golden Girls marathons or having a kitty chase a ball of yarn as a screen saver. He’s a nasty piece of work with only one thing on his mind: reducing the DC universe one bit player at a time.

In the past, I’ve mentioned in my reviews about comic characters having "Daddy" issues, but this one is the mother of all "Daddy" issue comics.

Bottom line: This definitely won’t be everyone’s cuppa, but for what it is, it’s fairly well wrought and has a linear and easy to follow plot.

Don’t leave this one around for the kiddies, Grandma or anyone who has had a pace maker installed recently – it’s a slice-and-dice-lapalooza.



"Hey Ma, Meemaw was reading my Deathstroke funny books again, bring the smelling salts."

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide if I like it or not.
On one hand, there's lots of action, violence, and gore.
Yay!
On the other hand, it's Deathstroke. So, it's not like you're actually rooting for the guy to win.

Higgins' seems like a good writer, and I'd like to read more of his stuff.
Just not his stuff about Slade Wilson.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slade Wilson is Deathstroke, the world’s greatest assassin, but he is aging and it seems his legacy is waning - he is no longer considered as deadly as he once was. Incensed, he sets out to prove the naysayers wrong, killing and maiming the competition and taking out impossible targets. But someone close to him he once thought was dead turns out to be alive - and wants his head! And his long list of enemies have decided enough is enough: Deathstroke must pay!

Kyle Higgins delivers exactly what you’d expect from a book titled “Deathstroke: Legacy” and sporting a Simon Bisley cover - lotsa killing, lotsa attitude, and a helluva lot of blood and violence. Deathstroke reminded me of Frank Miller’s King Leonides from “300”, a battle hardened warrior concerned only with war to the exclusion of all else and an eye to how history will remember them. Deathstroke however is less likeable as he treats his son with the bare minimum of civility, much less be a father to him.

That said, his gung-ho attitude to every task and penchant for over the top violence make him a thoroughly entertaining character in a thrilling story of vengeance. This first book is a non-stop, frothing at the mouth action blitzkrieg of a story as Deathstroke hacks his way through one weaponized lunatic after another, to survive and kill another day, ensuring his legacy is kept intact. It’s the kind of grim, violent story that Garth Ennis and Jason Aaron excelled at when writing “The Punisher”, and Higgins adopts for his take on “Deathstroke”, pulling it off admirably.

The comparison is apt; Kyle Higgins seems to be developing into the kind of quality writer Ennis and Aaron are with “Batman: Gates of Gotham” under his belt and now this; I can’t wait to read his take on Nightwing and other future projects. If bloody action is your bag, you can’t go wrong with “Deathstroke: Legacy”, an outstanding series in the New 52 lineup.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK stories if you like the dark emotions of a ruthless professional killer. Seems well-plotted and well-illustrated, just not my cup of tea.

(So, I had this mixed up with Deathstroke, Volume 1: The Professional. Can you blame me? So many "volume 1" out there in DC-Land.)

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slade Wilson is a jerk. Let's be honest. He has put his desire to be the best warrior before everything. He will take on just about any mission just so he can achieve the recognition and accolades of completing the mission. It's not about the money.

I found him hard to like. That makes it's difficult to root for a character when he's so insufferable. I appreciate how incredibly kickbutt the man is, but his colossal ego and the enormous chip on his shoulder ruins things for me.

This is a very violent comic. Lots of blood and decapitated heads flying. I think the body count is easily in the hundreds.

At the root of it, this is a story about the consequences of dysfunctional families on a person's psyche. Because Slade's father was abusive and pretty much a rat, he became obsessed with being the biggest and strongest, and this nature destroyed his relationship with his own son, Grant.

This wasn't a bad graphic novel, for the subject matter. It has action from beginning to end. I just don't like Deathstroke. His motivations are shallow and the fact that he places no value on human life about his own ego are a real turnoff for me.

I doubt I will keep reading this series.

[John Yelverton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know who the Deathstroke fanboy was who gave the green light to this, but they should be fired.

[Wolverina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun pulpy action with the requisite daddy drama that seems to always come with these narratives as it seems to be safer than having women in roles that aren't the victim.

I'll stick to FPS's for my explosions and lack of women, but if it's your cup of tea to get that does of bad arseness in comic form, you'd probably enjoy this.

That said, Higgins doesn't actually treat women that badly in this. Mostly it seems by avoiding them, but given what this kind of genre can be like that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[John Lamberth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New 52 hasn't impressed me. This version of Deathstroke basically takes away all of the stuff that made him an interesting character and now he's just a guy that likes violence.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been slowly, haphazardly backtracking my way through the New 52. I never really followed Deathstroke, so it took me a while to get to him. The story was a little hard to follow, some of the action sequences were hard to make out (Does someone throw a submarine at him in a fight scene? What the shit was going on there?)

Anyway, this book collects issues 1-8 of the reboot. Deathstroke's a metahuman mercenary with a poor father figure. He is also a poor father figure himself. And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon. I don't really feel up to recounting the story, it was a'ight.

Probably won't read anymore of this particular imprint. More of a Deadpool/Punisher girl for this type of stuff.

( you know what does kick ass in the New 52? Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman.)

[Ronald Esporlas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is one of the best inagural title of the New 52. It start with no backstory and straight to the action. Your only knowledge is that Slade is a mercenary assassin. Unlike the other New 52 titles, the story of this volume has a direction. Throughout the seven issues the story has stakes, consequences, backstory, and challenge.

The art of Joe Bennett is gorgeous and very consistent. It has an exact violence, gore and blood which serves the story of Deathstroke.

Even though you are unfamiliar with Deathstroke this is a good starting point to know the character more.

[Logan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not like this volume. I mean it literally starts out with the book really wanting you to think that Deathstroke is the coolest guy around, but when you make your character invincible for the sake of being cool, it takes away any consequences for or connections to the character.

[Joshua Adam Bain · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I originally read this book 6 months ago, I didn't find it special in any way. After reading it again I was surprised to find I enjoyed it a lot!

This was one of the first titles I tried from the New 52, at the time it didn't really grab me at all. So little in fact that I still haven't bothered picking up the second and last volume 'Lobo Hunt'. Upon reading through it again I saw so many things I missed the first time round. Maybe it was because my knowledge of the N52 universe has been expanded in the last 6 months, but I really enjoyed this book. Little things like spotting Midnighter as the one who murders Slade's son Grant Wilson, aka Ravager (Don't worry I promise that wasn't a spoiler). This volume is full of action, blood and brutality, but of course it does it's a freakin Deathstroke title. There's even a nice twist thrown in there for good measure.

Slade is a ruthless killer (emphasis on ruthless) and he's getting old. Everyone thinks he's past his prime as the worlds greatest assassin, so he's setting out to prove everyone wrong. After a job leaves him with a suitcase containing something from his past, he sets out to find out who's behind it. With the use of flashbacks we get to delve in to what sort of person Deathstroke is under the mask. His relationships with his family are very disturbing, but equally intriguing.

I've seen a lot of bad reviews for this series, which is probably why is got cancelled. It wasn't anything perfect, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Going to get my hands on volume 2 now!

[Arturo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deathstroke is the biggest a-hole in the DC universe, one of the deadliest villains right next to Joker, that the chances of getting killed by him just for standing near him is pretty high. Every thing I've read with him from Identity Crisis to Teen Titans makes me strongly dislike him. I've never read his series from the early 90's to see him as an anti-hero, to read this series in that way. I also don't like innocent (well maybe not innocent) bystanders getting killed for no reason, and this has a lot of that. So I just wasn't into the story, or see a reason to cheer for the bad guy. To top it off Deathstroke acts a like a bigger and bigger ahole through the series. Overall it was a pretty bland book.
On the other hand, it's been a couple months so to review the book I flip through it again. I try to see Deathstroke as the badass from the tv show Arrow, who just loses his way. All of a sudden the story becomes this crazy, over the top, action extravaganza. Slicing and dicing, beheadings, eye gougings, it just gets crazier and crazier. He even uses a type of motorcycle and flying gadget that are very Kirby-esque. It still ends with him reaffirming what an ahole he is, though. I ended up reading the whole thing very quickly, the second time around, which kinda says how nice the story flowed. So that's and A+ on the writing. Plus the Legacy characters where kinda neat.
Overall it's still something you have to be in the mood for.

[Brendan Richmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because: 1, Deathstroke is my favorite anti-hero in all of comic books (well tied with the Redhood) and 2, because this book ha a fairly simple but awesome story. The story goes that Slade Wilson (Deathstroke) is known as the world's best bounty hunter\mercenary and everyone knows it. But his reputation has faded through the years and people think he just isn't what he used to be anymore. And so he takes on a mission in Moscow, Russia with three other younger and much less experienced mercenaries. He undergoes the mission and during this mission he is given a mysterious briefcase containing a "message" for him. After the successful mission he goes back to his team to find them celebrating and he is extremely upset that he, the best mercenary on the planet is stuck working with three punk teenagers. So he unleashes bullets killing them all in rage while e yells at his "agent" Cristoph for setting him up with these teenagers then leaves him to clean up the mess. This is a really good but violent book, it doesn't do much to develop the characters but it really does make sure you know the motives of Slade. I would recommend this to people who can handle some blood in their graphic novels but otherwise it isn't really for everyone.

[Jeremy Slezak · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read for someone who was unfamiliar with the character, Deathstoke outside teen titans. Very bloody and violent. They really emphasize the fact that he's enhanced, dangerous, and a strategist. The only problem is that he doesn't seem to strategize, and is more like a bull in a china shop.
There are many times where he kills needlessly because he's trying to gain a reputation to get more money to get a better reputation and so on and so forth. His reason for all this is to be "the best."
:SPOILERS: Some of the plot doesn't make sense because Deathstroke's son, Grant is revealed to be working with a girl named April's parents. An April that Deathstoke murders after an aircraft assassination. The plot hole is that a suitcase containing ravager's (grant) mask and knife are given to Deathstroke as a message from Grant before the aircraft explodes. Grant is working with April's vengeful parents before she is murdered? What? :SPOILERS OVER:
Overall, it's entertaining, bloody, violent and has a lot of shock value. It's interesting new take on an anti-hero but doesn't have a lot of depth.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slade Wilson is Deathstroke a top assassin who's a bit past his prime. He's superpowered and has all the toys. When he feels he's being played with he slaughters his allies and goes on a hunt to find out who's behind it all.

Someone took "badass" to mean "can kill everyone by running up and chopping their head off." Slade has no smarts or tactics in this. He is invincible and cannot be killed by anything. It's like a bad version of Superman. Then when he does start getting hurt later in the series, it just makes him look incompetent. There was a weak father-son storyline involving lots of action movie cliches. Then the last story just made him look like an arrogant jackass. The art was okay and I guess you can get into this if you like mindless violence. I don't.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a somewhat hard book to rate. On the one hand, the writing is quite good, especially as it relates to the relation of Deathstroke and his family. The main artist meanwhile offers up a clean, detailed, and attractive style that works well for a modern comic. I also really appreciate the fact that this comic isn't as mired in decompression and cliffhangers as most of the New 52.

On the other hand, the violence in Deathstroke is so over-the-top as to be offensive at times. Issue #2 is one of the most horrible comics I've ever read, and in several other issues the extended violence pads out the story.

So, it gets an average rating. If the violence were toned down and not used for shock and padding, this could be quite good, as Higgins seems to have the talent.

[Alex Sarll]

One of the libraries I use has at the counter a selection of free bookmarks by somewhat noted artists - I think Jeremy Deller is probably the biggest name. And despite being situated in a deeply religious area, many of them are rude either in wording or imagery (which, obviously, I applaud). Among the more polite is the one reading 'THIS BOOKMARK WISHES TO BE SOMEWHERE ELSE'. While polite, it is also of course paradoxical - place that bookmark anywhere, however genial, and it will still be saying the same thing. But you know what? It's still the perfect bookmark to use in this tedious slice of would-be-badassery.

[Lillian Francis · Rating 2 out of 5]

#1 That was sickening. The art is nowhere near as good as the art in #13. Deathstroke randomly kills the team he had been working with for no reason that I could comprehend. It puts the title on the back foot with me because now Deathstroke has no redeeming features.
#4 - 7. Still don't like this. Horrible characters. Just an excuse for pointless violence.
#8 So Slade is a killer to show his father that he’s not worthless. Poor excuse.

Horrible but I know it’s about to get worse. Liefeld is about to get involved.

[Kitap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wherein assassins' filial relationships are explored as per a Cat Stevens song, but with more decapitations than a Saudi coronation.

[Ashe Catlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is mediocre at best, the fact that this has to actually tell you Deathstroke is a badass, just shows the level of quality of it. You don't tell people someone is awesome you show them, comics after all is a visual media.

There are a few examples of this, for example this has a mystery box in it. What is in it? Well you find out 3/4 of the way through, is it that big of a reveal no it's not since right after you have to get flashbacks to explain the said importance of it. If you're new to Deathstoke and got shown the contents you'd literally have no idea what it is so it doesn't really matter if you see inside or not. Again even if you saw inside it doesn't mean very much, I knew what it was but it wasn't until they straight out said what it meant it was pretty meaningless.

This also has a similar thing with one of the villains, in a case of not show us until towards the end. Even though it wouldn't make any difference what so ever if they did, as both reveals where pretty soulless. Speaking of which this whole comics was pretty soulless, I didn't care for a single person. The action was bland, there was a part in the middle that could have been cool but it was brushed away as soon as it was introduced. I don't mind having fodder charters but at least give them a cool design or something you if you throwing group after group after group at us.

I'm pretty disappointed in this as a whole, Kyle Higgins did an awesome job with Nightwing but this just a far in the wind. It even goes as far as bashing Deathstroke because he's an old man, yes he's older than most of DC characters but who gives a damn? He's awesome when done right just look at the Teen Titans animated show or Arrow.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Album zawiera zeszyty z serii Deathstroke #1-8 (2011).

Cokolwiek miałbym pisać o fabule, może rzec że jakaś jest. Od zaufanego człowieka Slade dostaje do wykonania zlecenie na pewną walizkę, które to wymaga akcji drużynowej. Po jej zakończeniu Wilson morduje ko-pracowników, bo przecież nie może być dobrej konkurencji. Jednocześnie na drodze mordercy staje przeciwnik, który mimo pacyfikacji usilnie wraca i psuje postaci krew.

A to nie koniec rewelacji, bo całe zamieszanie wynika z czynów Slade'a oraz jego przeszłości, gdyż w pewnym momencie fabuła zrobi się bardzo osobista. Tak jak mówiłem, dzieje się dużo. Szybko i niespecjalnie mnie to angażowało. Sama akcja z kolei to miód malina. Tempo, dynamika i płynność. To główne atuty tej historii, która pędzi na łeb na szyję, ale łącząc to z nieco większą brutalnością, całość okazuje się przyjemna w kontakcie.

Kreska jest tu też bardzo ładna dla oka, choć mamy tu różne style rysowników i każde ma jakieś uchybienia typu uboższy drugi plan, to i tak wygląd jest sporym plusem tej pozycji.

Dobre rozpoczęcie kolejnej serii w ramach New 52. Szkoda tylko, że seria w rękach Higginsa była tak krótko.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't have any real expectations starting this, and those medium expectations were met, but not exceeded.

Slade Wilson is interesting as a character, and I appreciated how the volume tried to humanize him by emphasizing his weaknesses and obsession with legacy, this almost, almost manages to humanize him. But just misses the mark.

The action is fast, and ok, but at times tough to follow.

Not bad, but not great.

[JJ Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

It started out a little slow, but I think it really picked up in the last third. The first half felt mostly like a set of action pieces, which were definitely done well (and extra violent), but the mystery didn’t do much to pull me in. The emotional arc at the end was really good, and I think Higgins did a great job of humanizing Slade without making him feel too emotional. A good choice for my first Deathstroke comic, I think.

[Sean Sexton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know the character of Deathstroke, or Slade Wilson, only from seeing him in the show "Arrow". This collection, the first volume for Deathstroke in the New 52 series, has him taking jobs as an assassin and trying to figure out who is behind a set of events. I found the series mildly interesting, but without enough depth to the Deathstroke character to really pull me in.

[Will Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little apprehensive to read this, but I ended up really enjoying this story about an older Deathstroke. Slade works great here as a villainous protagonist who’s past his prime, and there’s some great build up towards the mysterious briefcase and the antagonist behind it. Simple, straightforward, but very enjoyable.

[Eugenio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un comic bastante mediocre, que tenia bastante potencial pero se centra en que el personaje se vea fuerte y chulo más que en contar una historia decente.

No tiene mucha gracia una historia que ya sabes que va a ganar siempre el mismo independientemente de quien sea el enemigo. Y la aparición de Ravager es un sin más

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Action packed from start to finish, volume one of Deathstoke's New 52 is your perfect B movie popcorn fare. The narrative is thin, really just an excuse to put Slade on a killing path from point A to B, but that's what he does best, I guess.

[Rocky Schulz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than the DC movies.

Slade is a beast that loves to kill and establish an intimidating reputation. He's a badass killing machine, not even a villain as much as a kill for hire. I love this version of deathstroke. He's like a grumpy old man that is simply unstoppable.