Deathstroke #41 Review

How Deathstroke Got His Groove Back

Written By: Christopher Priest

Art By: Fernando Pasarin, Cam Smith, Sean Parsons, Jeromy Cox, Carrie Strachin, Willie Schubert

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: March 6, 2019

Deathstroke is out of crazytown for the time period and he's trying to get his groove back, which this issue is primarily about, but it's also the prologue to the to the new crossover going on between this book and Teen Titans called the "Terminus Agenda".  Can we squeeze enough out of this story to warrant a prologue issue?   Let's find out.

Alright, that was a bit of a setup because besides for referencing the homeless people who Slade killed in the previous issue, who he thought were aliens, throwing the name "The Other" out there two times and having Damian Wayne on the last panel of this book.......... this isn't much of a prologue to anything.  It's pretty bare bones and seems to just be referencing things that we've dealt with previously.  The whole idea that Slade has lost his edge and the way that two older men talk about Slade and Batman in this issue is pretty similar to Wintergreen and Alfred's discussions about the two when we had that Deathstroke Vs. Batman arc........ the only problem is...... those issues did it better than this one does.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Slade losing his edge and what it means to get him back on the unrighteous path is explored here in one issue and doesn't take an entire arc to get to that idea.  So maybe this issue is doing that aspect better, but since we just got done dealing with that..... it feels unneeded.  

There doesn't seem to be a lot of focus in this issue, which is a real shame because this makes Christopher Priest's way of setting up his panels with chapters that break up the story come out of nowhere and just seems to happen to happen.  The only real bit of action you get in this issue is thanks to the Electrocutioner, who has been believed to be dead up till this point and him coming back really doesn't seem to serve any real purpose other than to use the character and reference that death so that people like me can keep their mouths shut, but really......... it feels odd the first fight we get, but it feels even odder the second time he shows up in this book.

All in all, the art in this issue is as good as it always is, but the art has never been the problem in this series....... it seems that ever since we ended the Defiance storyline that this series has been struggling to find a focus and I really thought that this arc would have been the thing to get this title back on track, but this prologue to the Terminus Agenda does little to inspire confidence since it just seems to be here just to be here until the crossover properly begins. 

Bits and Pieces:

While I continue to love the art in this series, the focus seems to be all over the place and this prologue to the Terminus Agenda just seems to be here to remind everyone what's been going on in the world of Deathstroke........ and sadly, it doesn't do it very well.  This issue just reiterates the same things we've seen previously, while giving us small references of things to come.  

6/10