Deathstroke #50 Review

Seeing Double

Written By: Christopher Priest

Art By: Carlo Pagulayan, Fernando Pasarin, Jason Paz, Oclair Albert, Norm Rapmund, Danny Miki, Jeremy Cox, Willie Schubert

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: December 4, 2019

This is it, the final issue with the final showdown between Slade Wilson and Deathstroke.  If you haven't been playing at home, for our final arc to this series we've seen a Deathstroke from another world come and run amok, while our title character has been laying low after his supposed death.  After a few deaths and a quest for power in the form of Lex Luthor's offer to Jericho, this twisted Slade from another world finally got on our anti-hero's radar, forcing him to confront himself.  Let's see where this other Slade came from and also see which Terminator will come out on top.  Let's check it out.

For our over-sized final issue of Deathstroke we see that for all the theories about where this other Slade Wilson came from that all roads lead to the Dark Multiverse....... which is something that I never thought of...... for some reason, but we get a quick recap of how and why this Slade showed up here and while it isn't perfect, it works for what it needs to do and once that's all done, it's all about cleaning up the toys and putting them back in the toy box for the next person who wants to work with these characters.  That's right, time to reset Jericho, get Rose right in the head and have Slade stop taking for granted the things that he has in his life, while also getting rid of this dark mirror version of himself.  

There's a lot to unpack with this issue because it's attempting to do a lot of things and for the most part they all pretty much work until you get to the end of the issue and you have to have that big confrontation between the two Slades, which does come off a bit anti-climatic and our Slade does come off a bit more naive and younger than he has previously, but there's a wholesome feeling that he has now that tries to tie into what Priest was setting up for the end of this finale.  It's a brand new Deathstroke that doesn't want to be The Terminator anymore and with the realization of who he could have been now that he sees this other version of himself, it does seem that for all the posturing that he's done throughout this series when it comes to family, he's finally realized what he's had all along.  Too bad that Wintergreen and anyone who's reading the issue doesn't believe this evolution of the character, even if you kind of want there to be a happy ending for this former assassin.

All in all, the art finishes just as strong as it's been throughout the series and while this isn't a perfect conclusion to the story, it does try to play at all the different angles that Priest has woven into the different arcs throughout the run and attempts to tie up any loose threads that might have been dangling.  That's the nature of most finales though, you gotta pick your toys up, dust them off and have them pristine and ready to go for the next person who wants to play with them and for the most part Priest accomplishes this goal and I ended up having a fun time reading this issue and wonder when we're going to get to see any of these characters next.

Bits and Pieces:

While some aspects of this conclusion felt forced to get there, it ultimately was a fun read that did its best to tie up any loose ends and put our characters back to their status quo for the next person who wants to play in Deathstroke's sandbox.  There was some action, some feels and a conclusion that only felt right for the character, even if I wanted more from him in the end, not to mention some great art throughout.  

7.5/10