Deathstroke: Arkham

Deathstroke (2016) #7

by Christopher J. Priest, Ed Benes (Illustrator), Fernando Pasarín (Artist)

After being declared criminally insane, Deathstroke is committed to Arkham Asylum! It isn’t long before the hunter becomes the hunted as Slade, powerless and weaponless, is targeted by some of Gotham City’s most wanted. But Deathstroke soon learns that his only hope for survival may be to confront his own inner demons. Has Slade really lost his mind? And just who is this impostor masquerading as Slade on the outside? Collects DEATHSTROKE #36-40.

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

138 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2019

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]

Slade gets committed to Arkham where the inmates are running the asylum or are they? Priest's storytelling is even more disjointed than usual due to the nature that Slade doesn't know if everything is really happening either. Meanwhile, Joey tries to fix Rose and her belief that she's possessed. Even though the storytelling can leave you discombobulated, I enjoyed this volume. Seeing Deathstroke go up against Batman's rogues gallery was pretty fantastic. Fernando Pasarin has a crisp, clean art style that I dig.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deathstroke continues to be entertaining, and this is by far the weirdest volume yet, and that's saying something.

So after the events of Batman vs Deathstroke, we have Slade locked up in Arkham. He's considered batshit crazy. Which is mostly true. However, when this is happening, we have his son and daughter working together to free him. But not before some trouble comes there way and a new villain shows up to show Rose who she really is. While this is happening, the doctors at Arkham are trying to "fix" slade but a lot of weird shit is happening.

Deathstroke remains fun. That's the key word for this series. It's family drama mixed with high end action and insane twist. Slade remains a dick, Rose is crazy, both his sons have had enough of his shit, and the end result to this volume is pretty shocking. It is hard to follow at points and there's one really stupid part in issue 4, but overall this is pretty entertaining. A 3 out of 5.

[Des Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have loved Priest's Deathstroke. The gross family drama about hitmen and secret agents all up against the world of superheroes is absolutely addictive. This volume was a little rougher though. Anyone reading along up to this point knows Christopher Priest can have a fairly obtuse approach to storytelling, and with Slade possibly going insane in this volume, that effect is compounded. I frequently found myself wondering if I missed something, or a crossover event along the way.

The business with Rose and Two-Face kinda just flew over my head here. It's all a little frustrating trying to pick up the pieces of two equally absurd story-lines. I still really enjoyed this, but putting Slade with Batman's rogues gallery does little to elevate the character, although they made some fine points about the nature of villainy in Gotham.

Art was solid. Death Masque was fun, albeit totally superfluous to the narrative.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

I really thought this had potential. The idea of Deathstroke in Arkham surrounded by Batman's rogues gallery sounds like a can't miss story. However, the direction taken here just didn't click. It was so confusing I'm still not sure exactly what happened. I would have preferred a more straight forward story rather than the surreal weirdness here. A lot of potential wasted here I think.

[B. P. Rinehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

As we go further along with the world's most amazing soap opera about a mercenary, we now are at that point that we cannot trust what Deathstroke is perceiving with his own mind. It goes into high-gear here when he is in the worlds worst mental institution.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been kind of plodding through this series but this volume was a pleasant uptick. With just two volumes to go I'm happy to ride this series out.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

After his defeat at the hands of Batman in the previous volume, Deathstroke finds himself incarcerated...in Arkham Asylum? But it's not the Arkham he's used to - no, this one is run by the inmates, for the inmates, and as Slade's already tenuous link to reality frays even further, Hugo Strange and the rest of Gotham's villains threaten to warp his mind beyond repair. Plus, on the outside, Rose and Joey deal with their father's absence in the only way they know how - by fighting.

This is a weird one. Probably the weirdest arc of Priest's Deathstroke so far. There are more than few points where I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't, which I guess is the point since neither is Slade. It gets a bit muddled, and Priest's unapologetic plotting does get a bit murky (to it's detriment this time around, unfortunately).

That said, the idea is sound, and he uses all of the characters you'd expect to see in interesting ways - Two-Face's role in the proceedings is surprising, definitely. Fernando Pasarin pencils most of these issues with his usual clean lines and solid-looking characters; I'd love to see him on more regular books again.

Aside from that, there's not much else to say. You know what to expect with Deathstroke by now, which is why I find it weird that DC are billing this as a one-off mini-series or something, when it most definitely isn't, and the context of all that came before it is basically necessary to understand anything more than the most basic plot.

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deathstroke in Arkham? What's not to love? The execution. Really wish this had been more straight forward. Many distractions that added nothing. Would've rather seen Slade run the gauntlet of villains inside...

[Nicole Westen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is really good at leaving you scratching your head along with Slade. I do have to admit, sometimes the format of 'Deathstroke' leaves me feeling a little confused, that was amplified in this issue, since someone/s (who shall remain nameless to avoid spoilers), is messing with Slade and trying to make him believe he is crazy. That aside, I love Devon. He's basically DC's response to Deadpool. I hope they keep him on as a character, and stop trying to make Harley Quinn into a Deadpool-esque character. Sometimes you try too hard and the results just aren't good.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you actually know when you are insane? Are the aliens really invading?

[Marc "The Marc Knight" Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was definitely different from any Deathstroke story I've read and I'm still confused whether I actually found it good.

It takes place in Arkam during Slades incarnation and Slade is on ( or isn't?) under some mind melting drug by Hugo Strange and everything around him either happens or didn't? Which I found confusing?

And so many parts in the story are just skipped over and forgotten easily. Is this just a thing? Where it just jumps from one thing to other and has no consequences? I finding that very strange.

I get you need to branch out the story for other characters but there were parts in this that could of been cut out entirely.

Main point:
Isn't Deathstroke meant to be this badass mercenary killer with incredible power and a presence like no other. A stoic figure and all round elite killer.....
... so why is he given a comic sidekick?

I just don't get it.?



Onto the next one

The Marc Knight

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I'm slowly, but surely, making my way through the series (unlike Nightwing, where I'm pretty much caught up). And honestly, I'm not sure what to make of this volume. I've generally enjoyed the Rebirth run of Deathstroke, barring a few instances (the whole Deathstroke could be Damian's dad thing for instance), as a sort of guilty pleasure since I'm a fan.

That being said, Deathstroke: Arkham, feels really weird. He's in Arkham and everyone seems to thnk he's crazy. Not a bad premise, but I couldn't help thing why? Not to mention the whole, "is is real or not" thing they got going on and the whole thing with Joey and Rose.

Maybe I'm just at a lose since I haven't picked up Deathstroke since I read Batman vs Deathstroke months ago. However, compared to earlier issues I can't say I enjoyed this as much, but it wasn't entirely bad either.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't too enthusiastic about this initially, since I've read too many "mind games" storylines lately, and I wasn't looking forward to another one. But Priest does some stuff here that makes it worthwhile. He actually makes some interesting observations about mental health and the way it's perceived and handled in the US (and in the DC universe). And he works in some pretty funny meta-parody, involving a character who's based on Deadpool (who was, of course, based on Deathstroke). In the end, I'm not entirely sure this whole thing came together and wrapped up in a way that made any sense, but it was fun to read, and probably made more sense than either of the recent Batman "mind game" stories I've read.

[Robert Hultman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t you hate when they put Joker on the cover of something where Joker makes zero appearances? This volume had some cool moments and maintains the art and style of previous issues, but feels like a lost opportunity. Though, should I be surprised when this is the team that brought us the Defiance issues (lame) and the villain behavior committee (super lame). So much potential in an Arkham, is-he-crazy-?, what is real?, set of issues and these fall just short of cool. Not overly bad, but not very good.

[Jerry Aguirre · Rating 2 out of 5]

All over the place. Story is hard to understand sometimes. The artwork is okay, too. Very skippable.

Although, I’ve read that the author does make his comics complex, so maybe jumping into a series without really understanding doesn’t help. That’s why I’m giving it 2 stars. Initially, I gave it one, but after learning of the author, I gave him props. Because I def was confused.

So that’s my advice: read the previous comics.

[20hrsinamerica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, but I think I came into an arc with no idea what was happening. The only thing I recognized were the pop culture references from Devon and the bit with Damian at the end (which I guess this means it comes after Terminus Agenda).

But, not a big fan. I definitely prefer morally ambiguous mercenary Slade to crazy or killing homeless men Slade.

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was a little bit of a mindfreak (props to Criss Angel) and it made me like it even more? The craziness made sense and I thought the back and forth and what was real and what wasn't real was followable. Let's keep this wild ride goingggggg!

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Priest, Deathstoke, Craziness, Marvel Jokes...good as always.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

S

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mucha gente parada hablando. Poca acción pero la comedia me hizo reír. El dibujo es excelente como siempre. El de Batman sigue siendo el mejor.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me - "Hello, my name is Eric and I may hate this series."

Self-Destructive Readers Anonymous - "Hi Eric."

[Aidan]

For an already insane series, this is appropriately the most insane book so far

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slade is confided to Arkham and questions his sanity. The story embraces this, throwing several twists that feel like nonsense. They do pay off in the end, but are frustrating to read.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta semana eu acabei lendo algumas coisas bem fora do comum. E até aquelas que estão dentro do comum normalmente estão um pouco fora da curva. Será que está refletindo o meu humor essas escolhas aleatória de loucuras... opa, de leituras?! Este volume de Exterminador mostra a fase em que o grande e mais foderoso mercenário do Universo DC Comics passou encarcerado dentro do manicômio Asilo Arkham, não sabendo distinguir o que era loucura, o que era realidade e o que era uma simulação feita por um vírus alienígena que queria subjugar o planeta Terra. Sim, uma ideia muito legal, mas não quando os leitores também acabam entrando nessa confusão e não entendendo a narrativa. Acho que este sexto volume do Exterminador é o mais fraquinho de todos até agora, infelizmente, que vinham numa pegada muito boa de histórias. Destaque para a homenagem feita à Queda de Murdock, nas abertura das cinco edições que compõem esse encadernado em que Slade Wilson está dormindo em um quarto-cela visto de cima como na saga magistral do Homem sem Medo da Marvel.

[Asha McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was sort of back and forth with different stories lines and different realities but it all came together. I couldn’t put it down!