Deathstroke #38 Review

Crazy? Insane?

Written By: Christopher Priest

Art By: Fernando Pasarin, Jason Paz, Jeremy Cox, Willie Schubert

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 5, 2018

Slade Wilson is insane........ At least that's what we're led to believe after we discovered that his Wintergreen A.I. that's he's been talking to isn't even a thing that Isherwood put into his Ikon suit.  So yeah, imaginary friends and the fact that Slade believes that he spent the last two weeks fighting aliens when he escaped from Arkham Asylum.  Sounds pretty crazy, especially since his fellow escapee Devon isn't someone that the Asylum has ever heard of and because they say that he hasn't been missing at all.  Let's jump into this issue and see if the craziness escalates and if we discover what Two-Face is up to running around in Slade's costume.  Let's check it out.

Because I love the use of Two-Face in any book and because I wasn't impressed with the last arc of Detective Comics that featured him, I couldn't wait to see what Christopher Priest had in store for Harvey Dent in this story....... sadly though, this isn't like any Two-Face that we've seen.  Here we have a master of martial arts who wants to get to the bottom of what's up with Rose Wilson and the possible possession problem that she's facing.  In the long run this may be cool, but it feels so out of nowhere here.  Another problem that this issue faces is while we are spending time in finishing up open plot threads which focus on Two-Face, Rose, Jericho and Wintergreen........ there isn't a lot of Deathstroke in this issue at all and the bits we do have are just kind of boring because we continue to go over the same stuff that we have in previous issues to this arc.

Yeah, this issue is odd with its pacing and its disjointed nature, which I assume is to add to the "crazy" element to the story, but there are a few enjoyable moments as well, like the parts with the new character "Dev" and what his place is in this story, while also adding to the "out there" alien aspect to this story, which I can't wait to find more out about and with the pretty bad ass cliffhanger that we get here.  It's just not as impressive as I would have liked........ maybe that's just me though.

All in all, the art continues to really impress, while the story kind of meanders here with our main character, while focusing more on supporting guests.  It's not bad, but it's not great either and I hope for some big mind blowing conclusion when we get there because at this point from the narrative, I have no real idea what's going on with our main character, especially since we have this whole virtual world angle that we're playing with here.  We just might get inception-ed here, but as of right now it's all kind of up in the air and getting a bit old........ which is a shame because I was really looking forward to this arc.

Bits and Pieces:

While I continue to look forward to this series every time it comes out, this issue left me wanting more because it's spending a lot of time playing the whole "what is real, what isn't" angle, while the side story just feels odd and out of place.  There's still plenty to enjoy here though and the art is fantastic.  Hopefully the next issue gets me back on the Crazy Slade trolley.

6/10