Deathstroke, Vol. 5: Fall of Slade (Deathstroke

Deathstroke (2016)

by Christopher J. Priest, Diogenes Neves (Illustrator), Denys Cowan (Illustrator)

The World's Deadliest Assassin takes on...the villains of the DC Universe? In DEATHSTROKE VOL. 5, from writer Christopher Priest (Black Panther), Slade Wilson must face the worst the world has to offer in this newest installment of the Eisner Award-nominated series.

After betraying another assassin and violating an unwritten code of conduct, Deathstroke is kidnapped and brought to stand trial before the Secret Society of Super Villains, a group that includes the Riddler, Black Manta and Reverse-Flash! Will Deathstroke pay for his crime? And what of Slade Wilson's recent turn toward heroism?

This game-changing volume collects DEATHSTROKE #26-29 + Annual 1.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Action, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2018

About the author

Formerly (before 1993) known as James or Jim Owsley.

Christopher James Priest is a critically acclaimed novelist and comic book writer. Priest is the first African-American writer and editor for Marvel and DC Comics. His groundbreaking Black Panther series was lauded by Entertainment Weekly and The Village Voice and will serve as the basis for the 2018 Marvel Cinematic Universe adaption.

Besides Black Panther, Priest has written comics for Conan, Steel, Green Lantern, The Crew and edited The Amazing Spider-Man. He also co-created Quantum & Woody along with Mark Bright and co-founded Milestone Media.

After a decade long hiatus he is currently writing comic books again and recently concluded a stint writing the comic book Deathstroke (2016-2019).

In addition to being a writer, Christopher J. Priest is also a baptist minister.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Defiance falls apart and the team goes off in different directions. Priest exposes how dysfunctional most of his supporting cast is as he ties up almost every plot thread he's unraveled during his run. Winds up with Slade heading in an entirely new direction on his own. Diogenes Neves has really gotten good by cleaning up his art.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Read as single issues]

With Defiance falling apart around him, Slade is running on fumes. And to make matters worse, he’s been kidnapped by the Secret Society Of Supervillains, and his team aren’t particularly interested in saving him. As Slade’s dedication to heroism finally begins to waver, his conscience (and Wintergreen) make one final attempt to convince Slade of his better nature. Then, a trip to Chinatown puts Slade squarely in the sights of Kenan Kong, the New Super-Man!

Defiance was always going to be a phase for Deathstroke – there’s only so long you can convince readers that a man like Slade Wilson is going to fight on the side of the angels. That said, Christopher Priest’s Deathstroke has been someone who toes the line between good and evil, so if anyone would manage it, it’d be him.

There’s certainly a sense of finality, not just for Defiance itself but for a lot of the plot threads that Priest has laid throughout his run thus far; we get a lot of answers, including one of the longest standing mysteries regarding the death of Joey’s fiancé, and if this series was ending, it’d make sense to end it here (thankfully it’s not, but it does go through a bit of a format change, but more on that in future volumes).

I’m not sure all of the conclusions land quite as well as they could, however. The end of the road for Terra and Power Girl especially, feel like they’re drenched with unnecessary tragedy, even if they’re offset fairly quickly afterwards. I hope Priest has plans for both characters later on, or someone else picks up the plot points and runs with them somewhere else.

Series artist Diogenes Neves pencils most of the action here, with Denys Cowan snagging the Defiance-ending annual midway through. Neves has remained a dependable penciller throughout Defiance, and his powerful lines are exactly what Deathstroke’s world needs right now. DC are usually very good at pairing artists with stories, and this has proven over the past two volumes to be another solid selection. Deathstroke’s switch to monthly away from fortnightly has helped Neves remain the sole penciller for most of this arc too, which is always a bonus.

Defiance, and this era of Deathstroke adventures, comes to an explosive conclusion. Deathstroke has been at his highest and his lowest across this arc, and Christopher Priest shows no sign of stopping despite all signs to the contrary. Although a few niggles leave a bad taste in the mouth, Defiance will likely go down as an interesting diversion in this run of Deathstroke, the likes of which I expect we won’t see again for a very long time.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

In very Deathstroke Fashion, there's about 20 storylines all going on at once and you'll probably feel a little bit confused. Don't worry, that's the goal here. However, this one ties pretty much everything up.

What I always tell people about Deathstroke is it feels like a big family drama story with a hell of a lot of death, cursing, and taboo sexual acts. Yes, you heard me right. I don't care what they try to rewrite or change, Slade has fucked a teenager before and used her to hurt her best friends. So this all comes to a boil with Tara, his old friends, the love of his children, and his code.

So we have a storyline that follows Rose/Willow, which leads to some questionable moments with another character. We have Superman come in to town, but not Clark, our favorite chinese superman! Slade is the main star here though. He was following a new code to "not" kill anyone. However, we knew that wouldn't last. This is DEATHSTROKE, and he's always a villain.

Good: The fights are pretty brutal. Priest sets up for the artist to really let them be bloody and fucked up. There's a kid flash moment that's really harsh. I also thought the storylines all coming together was nice. Not a lot of loose ends here. The emotional bits somehow work, mostly because everyone is flawed here.

Bad: The rewriting some history and also the Rose storyline could have been better for sure.

Okay so going with a nice 4 out of 5 because, sorry, Deathstroke is always super fun. There's been some weaker volumes overall in this run but this one isn't that. This is as fun and over the top as I expected and man, Priest knows how to write this character.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disjointed, disconnected and disappointing compared to previous volumes, particularly the tedious crossover with the Teen Titans.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Priest may make a few plot stumbles here (the Rose/Willow bit really doesn't work/make sense for me), and some might complain about his rewriting of canon (see The Judas Contract and Terra), but the end result is pretty satisfying.

Because when interviewed upon taking on the title Priest emphasized that he sees Detahstroke/Wilson as a villain. That hasn't really changed despite Wilson's experiences where he saw the future. Sure, he got talked into/agreed to try to run a team. Yes, he arguably does some good, but even as a villain his actions sometimes came out for the best of some (detriment to others).

Wilson manages to maneuver things to where he's back on his own by the end. Whether this means we are nearing the end of Priest's run, or Priest wants to place the book's emphasis on Wilson again I'm not certain. I don't think the supporting cast will disappear, as there seems way too much to resolve regarding Rose, Joeseph, Isherwood, Wintergreen and Adeline.

If you ever watched the television shows Justified and/or The Shield I think this is the comic series for you. I think enough people know I've recommend this title in the past, but I think those shows are good comparisons.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Priest's Deathstroke continues to be a fun read for its focus on characters and for its genuine consequence. This volume tracks the rest of the story of Defiance, Slade's support group of heroes — who Priest has made just as interesting as Slade himself. There are surprising twists to previous stories and good reveals of mysteries. The only downside is that this volume ends in a much more reduced circumstance than any of the other books, but I'm sure Priest can continue with this newest twist in an interesting way. (Sadly, to date the next volume has only been released in hardcover, but one presumes that time will eventually repair that lack, so that all the volumes can match on my shelf.)

Oh, and it's good to see more of the Judas Contract in modern DC continuity. I mean it's still a trainwreck: DC continuity is the worst it's ever been, and that's saying something! But it's good seeing more of how this crucial story played out.

[B. P. Rinehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

As anyone could see coming, Deathstroke's "Team Defiance" "project" came crashing-down in the typical, bloody, messy fashion that you expect from this series. Christopher J. Priest does, a good job, with this series even though I didn't completely get the Rose/Willow thing until the very end. He did as good a job as was possible with addressing the elephant in the room that was Slade & Terra's backstory, but given the meta-issue that is DC Comics' timeline, it was going to be a tall-order. I am very excited to see how the next storyline of mistaken paternity pan's out.

[Des Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woof! What a volume! Deathstroke is just off the rails, comic book goodness. It so soap-operaey, but with no lack of dramatic and dynamic character arcs. It's all so violent and sexual, truly a strange fruit of the Rebirth crop, but one that embraces comic books for what they are, complex sordid history and everything. There are some limitations here, and the art isn't amazing, but the story (complicated as it is) is seriously well written, and a fantastic demonstration of Priest ability and reverence for the craft.

[Scott Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deathstroke's experiment with Adeline and the Defiance team slowly crumbles in predictable but well-told fashion, and Slade personally gets put through the ringer. The end of this one leaves Slade in a whole new place. It will be interesting to see where/how he surfaces next after this run. It could be an endpoint for Slade, but when, really, do characters from either of the big two get an ending that sticks. And hell, Slade isn't even dead...

[The Spooky Jedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite volume in the series so far and a great surprising ending!

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A LOT of storylines happening as Defiance breaks up, but at least all the threads are tied up.

[Paul Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems the chickens are always coming home to roost in Christopher Priest's Deathstroke, and again that's the case in Deathstroke Vol. 5: The Fall of Slade; there's so many storylines tiled over storylines here, so many bad deeds, that it seems something nefarious is always coming to light. The next volume collects Priest's "Deathstroke vs. Batman" miniseries-within-a-series, and on the chance that story will focus more on Deathstroke Slade Wilson than his compatriots, this present volume could be read as a conclusion of sorts — or, at least, some of this series' earliest secrets have now been aired, bringing us full circle by this book's conclusion. Priest's Deathstroke remains complicated and complex, an instant classic, surely due for perennial collection formats once it concludes.

When, in the middle of the book, Slade finally ends his no-killing streak (begun after a mystic experience in the Titans: The Lazarus Contract crossover), it is with exceptionally little fanfare. It's not a great struggle or moral decision, but rather Slade is attacked and defends himself reflexively. It's been coming for a while, as Slade has hardly been a prince even if he's been nonlethal, and as some have supposed in the book, the effects of Slade's awakening are likely wearing off. It is the beginning of the end for Slade's pseudo-Titans "Defiance" team, symbolically because of Slade's turn but also because, in the same moment, Priest brings in Kid Flash to reveal the apparent suicide of Power Girl Tanya Spears, hearkening the team's actual demise.

At the point Priest convinces the audience that Tanya has killed herself over Deathstroke's bad actions, it means that the audience acknowledges that Deathstroke's actions really are that bad; no longer can the audience root for Deathstroke under the guise that Slade works in shades of gray. And then, of course, Priest pulls back the curtain; the audience has lost faith with Deathstroke, but Tanya apparently hasn't, alive but victim to a technological mishap. Possibly the purest (if self-righteous) among Deathstroke's Defiance team has not left the fold even with a clear understanding of what Slade's done; all is morally lost, though Priest offered the audience redemption before that happened.

In a wonderfully complex series in which characters are often duplicitous and assassinations have multiple purposes not always apparent to the reader, Priest now introduces both time travel and doppelgangers. We knew that Slade's mystic experience involved a brief use of the Flash's Speed Force, but it was never quite clear until now that the sword from the future somehow in daughter Rose Wilson's possession was secretly brought back by Slade in a time jaunt. That opens a world of possibilities, that every trip and fall in this book, backward and forward, might be by Slade's design, making every one of Priest's scenes even more rife for scrutiny than they already are. Additionally, Priest has now revealed that some of the book's most mysterious side characters are actually the main characters in disguise (known to themselves or not), further obfuscating what the audience can and cannot trust in front of us.

Fall of Slade ends with Deathstroke constrained to Arkham Asylum, so much the better for running afoul of Batman. We know, too, that the storyline following "Deathstroke vs. Batman" is called "Deathstroke: Arkham," leading me to wonder if there's not more story in between when Slade's frenemy David Isherwood drops a car on him and we next see Slade in Arkham. Again, we have something of a throughway here in that Slade seemingly went good, but as soon as he goes bad again, he "falls" all the way down — killing, losing his team, and being almost immediately imprisoned not just in Belle Reve or some traditional prison, but in Arkham. The implication is that Slade has gone crazy, seemingly seeing visions of pal Wintergreen who isn't there, though the audience half-suspects someone is scheming against Slade again. As usual, Priest muddies right and proper here; Slade should be in Arkham, likely deserves it, but his probable unjust imprisonment puts the audience in a sticky situation, to argue against the right thing done for the wrong reasons.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

El final de Defiance. Fue lindo mientras duró, pero ahora, como de costumbre, las cosas vuelven a la normalidad y Deathstroke será un asesino de nuevo. Este volumen comprueba que Deathstroke no puede ser líder de un grupo. Aunque tiene muchas facultades para definirlo como tal, él carece de un un compás moral que lo impulse a luchar por los demás. Deathstroke es muy cínico, por eso el grupo de viene abajo y porque también era un supervillano. La verdad no entiendo por qué no lo meten a la cárcel, especialmente tras ese clavo de Lazarus Contact.

El diseño de Cowan es lo máximo. Es historias crudas como Django o Scalped, su dibujo crea una sensación de realismo y naturalidad gracias a sus anchas y geométricas líneas. Pero en cómics de superhéroes no se queda atrás, Cowan puede dibujar tanto poses serias como dinámicas de manera llamativa. Especialmente sus secuencias y líneas de movimiento. Hay un panel de Kid Flash girando que me pareció especialmente divertido.

Todo esto fue el annual. El verdadero final de este arco está en los fascículos regulares. Al fin se concluyen muchas líneas narrativas para dar paso a Deathstroke vs Batman.

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did not like how this volume handled Slade or Isherwood’s grooming of Terra and Joey respectively. Terra is given no personality outside of her obsession with Deathstroke which came across demeaning and trivializing to me. On the other hand, you can’t just repeat that Joey was 21 when he “seduced” a guy Slade compares to “the favorite uncle” or something along those lines as if that makes it morally passable. This book also continues the trend of every guy that’s ever introduced having to hit on one of the girls, with Kenan falling victim to it. You can only get away with this so many times. I understand that the target audience for this series isn’t women, but I’m shocked by the number of comics released in the last 15 years where I could feel that nobody intended for me to be reading this.
I’m also still confused about Etienne’s killer’s reveal. Why would the killer do that? There was no personal motivation.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do stylu prowadzenia narracji przez Priesta trzeba przywyknąć, bo prowadzi on na raz kilka wątków, mieszając płaszczyzny czasowe na przestrzeni jednego zeszytu dosyć często, co wymaga od czytelnika sporej dozy uwagi, bo zazwyczaj całość ładnie składa się w logiczny ciąg zdarzeń.

Albo więc się nie należycie przyłożyłem do tego komiksu, albo jest on zwyczajnie mało atrakcyjny/przegadany. I choć dzieje się całkiem sporo, a Slade nadal chadza w białym wdzianku, kierując się zasadą "już nie zabijam". Phy. Do czasu oczywiście.

W tle jak zwykle sporo tarczek słownych z rodziną (choć nie tylko, vide Terra i jej nieco chory przypadek). Sporo mordobicia oraz jest nadzieja, że wróci oryginalna Power Girl. No i nie czuję wyjaśnienia wątku zabicie Etienne. Zero w tym logiki.

Całość wygląda nieźle, ale preferuję Deathstroke działającego solo. Tu to zwyczajnie nie wychodzi.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

As expected the whole "Slade as a hero" thing didn't work out as expected. There are a lot of subplots going on here, which at least keep things interesting. I thought it was cool how we found out the Wintergreen AI had only been Slade's imagination the whole time. I really should have seen that coming, but I didn't and it surprised me. Also, we end up with Slade in Arkham? Pretty cool.

Overall this has been a very interesting series, although at times it feels overdone. I'm used to Deathstroke as more of a solo character, but really almost this entire series has read like a team book. Still good, but not really what I would like out of a Deathstroke series.

[Ian Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Priest brings his bold "Defiance" arc of Deathstroke to a tragic (but still hopeful) conclusion. The Annual, which properly concludes the Defiance arc, is the best issue of the story, focusing on how Deathstroke slips back into evil after trying to be virtuous, but "Chinatown" is a shattering, weird, brilliant two issue arc that wraps up several plotlines and pushes the series forward into equally bonkers future...on hold for six months as Priest revitalizes his sales numbers with the Batman crossover set in the past of the series.

[mint · Rating 1 out of 5]

Staggering. Defiance in the last collected book is pretty interesting, but this book is a pile of hot mess. Like, really, really bad. Starting from the annual, the story wrapped up in an obviously rushed pace to the point that it’s almost incomprehensible. All the development during the defiance arc goes straight to dogshit. I’d like to think that some editorial power struggles happened behind the scene, and at the end of the day this has been extremely disappointing.

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2. I've always felt Slade could lead a team and I liked this combo but Priest does nothing with it and may have gotten caught in too many potlines, some good some bad. This ham fisted resolve was a bit disappointed. Back to status quo!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't have too much to say about this. If you read the previous volume, you'll want to read this too, since it completes the "Defiance" storyline. It gets a little messy near the end, and I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with it, but it's still very much worth reading.

[Sean Goh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit of a rambly, disjointed mess, probably should have read the preceding issues first. Even so, there's like 5 different storylines happening at once. Good luck keeping them all straight. The fights are fun to see though.

[Gbolahan]

DNF after like the first few pages. Disjointed story telling, I'm not patient for things like that currently. Imagine patiently reading all that and you still feel like you wasted your time??

Art was awesome though as I skimmed through.

[Joe IV · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, an action-packed story by Priest.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmm, 3.5, jumps between fantastic to maybe a bit too much going on which can be jarring in Preist's style.

[Craig · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh...what a chore to read and try to make sense of this. Some terrible art here and there, too.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

So little all over the place.
To many jumps of story for me to enjoy
Good story, I just didn't like the flow.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to remember.

I remember it felt a little interstitial and like the supporting cast had totally swallowed up the story.

[Brendan Mckillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was impressed with how Priest is able to tie up all the plot threads he spun up. Some close better than others, but it’s certainly a lot of fun getting to the end.

[Edward Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt like nothing really happened in this volume.