It's the 1990s, do you know where your Antiheroes are?

Deathstroke the Terminator #1

Written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Steve Erwin, the cover blurb declares this the “1st Take No Prisoners Issue!” In the 90s, the age of the antihero was upon us and every cool-looking bad guy in the multiverse was being trotted out to star in their own series. Mercenaries, bounty hunters, assassins, and outlaws jostled for space on the shelves, so it only made sense to for DC to give one of their most marketable villains an ongoing series.

A mysterious attacker dressed in the gear of Wade Wilson's dead son, the Ravager, goes after Deathstroke’s ex to bring him out of retirement. Meanwhile, Deathstroke kills an aggressive bull elephant to show off what a bad-ass he is. Not such a great look, but Wolfman manages to thinly lampshade some justification. Wintergreen, the Watson to Deathstroke’s Holmes or (since this is DC) the Alfred to his Batman, gushes a little bit too much. Wintergreen comes across like one of Doc Savage’s worshipful Fabulous Five. It's hard to imagine Slade Wilson’s tolerating such a yes-man as his major domo.

Setting all that aside, this isn’t a bad debut issue at all. You get a sense of the character’s history and power set. There is just the right touch of implied tragedy blended into the mix. Of course, editorial probably had them gloss over Deathstroke screwing a sociopathic fourteen-year-old as part of his most famous revenge scheme, but that would have been a very problematic tidbit for even the edgiest antihero to feature in their first issue.

To judge by online chatter, there is some debate these days as to precisely just what went on between Deathstroke and Terra during the Judas Contract. In the move to make Deathstroke more marketable, perhaps some of this has been retconned away. Back in the day, I remember how it was pretty much understood Slade Wilson was just that evil.