Deathstroke The Terminator #3: Everyone Loves an Anti-Hero (Not Me!)

 

This will not be an unbiased review because I've always hated Deathstroke.  You know the guy, he uses 90% of his brain so he can beat Superman by shooting glow sticks at him.  The guy who single-handedly beats the Teen Titans nearly every single time.  The guy who took down more than half the Justice League due to writer stupidity.  Yeah that guy.

Well it came to pass that someone at DC said 'hey remember Deathstroke, we should give that guy his own comic.'  Well it also came to pass that I needed something to help light the grill and this comic was only a quarter so here it is. So before it lights my beautiful charcoal briquettes let's take a look inside.

We start in Qurac one of DC's favorite places for Middle Eastern war, terrorism, or just scary brown people.  Deathstroke runs around trying to look cool.

He gets his hand on an anti-aircraft gun and uses it to blow up a main battle tank.

So many things wrong with this but let's just keep moving to Deathstroke watching the tank's crew burn alive.  

That's your protagonist everyone.  

We get some exposition from Alfred, Woodhouse, Wintergreen, while Deathstroke does some meditating.  Cut to...the other side of the war where someone dressed at Ravager (Ravager #3) evidently has their sights set on Deathstroke.

The bad guy's base is under a mosque so Deathstroke has to infiltrate it on foot.  He's being guided by an enemy mole (code named Mole #writing) but Ravager sneaks in, kills him, and then takes his place.  Evidently Ravager has super-mimickery or Deathstroke has serious hearing problems because he could not tell these two guys apart.

Ravager ambushes Deathstroke and shoots him repeatedly in the chest.

Hey Batman how to you feel about this page?

Me too Batman, me too.

Deathstroke eventually gets the upper hand in the fight and Ravager is only saved by the intervention of Kaddam.  Alfred Woodhouse Wintergreen busts in and promptly gets blasted.  Ravager says he's going to take everything away from Deathstroke and leaves him to suffer, because leaving an enemy to suffer always works out.

CIA types arrive to pickup Deathstroke and Alfred Woodhouse Wintergreen.  A closeup on a mysterious ring tells us they're probably bad guys.  Meanwhile, the other bad guys arrive with their plutonium in Washington D.C.

Thank god that's over what a piece of crap.  Now I can start my grill and cook my burgers.  But wait...what's this?

I can't believe Batman Holy Terror is 30 years old.  I like that they acknowledge that Gotham by Gaslisght  was inspiration for the Elseworlds imprint.     

I vaguely remember War of the Gods, do you?  Evidently it was the crossover event of 1991.

Wait a minute wasn't Armageddon 2001 the crossover event of 1991?

Let's face it Hawkman continuity has the half-life of thorium-224, but I thought Hawkworld was interesting.

Next time: maybe something from the 80s.