Who is Deathstroke; the Terminator?

Who is Deathstroke the Terminator? He’s gone down a long road to get where he is now.

At sixteen years of age, Slade lied to join the US Army and went to Korea. His deception about his age was either never discovered or never followed up on as he proved himself an amazing soldier in a short period of time, becoming the conflict’s youngest decorated hero. He swiftly made a name for himself, and was sent to a specialized training at Camp Washington. The two most important things that happened to him there were his natural fighting skills were polished with extra training, and he met Adeline Kane, then a captain at the camp. They were married soon after his graduation and their oldest son, Grant, was born when Slade was fighting in Veit Nam.

Continuing his special training with the Army, he volunteered for an experiment that was designed to help soldiers resist enemy truth serums and interrogations. Slade’s reaction to the formula was dramatic, but not what was expected, or desired. For months, he was bedridden, unable to walk, or even talk, without assistance. His body began adapting to the formula in unexpected ways- some days he was nearly a vegetable, other days he was off the charts for strength, speed, and endurance. He was assigned a desk job during this period, and swore he’d recover.

He soon got the motivation he required- his long time friend Wintergreen, a major in the British Army, was captured in Veit Nam and the various governments refused to do anything to aid him. Slade gathered various equipment, stole a plane, and got himself to Veit Nam, hunting for, and finding, his friend’s captors. Wintergreen would relate in later years he was astonished at Slade’s attack on the camp- he’d never seen anything like his speed, efficiency, and brutality. Needless to say, Slade freed Wintergreen, and their friendship became a lifelong bond.

Slade left the Army, the command being none too pleased with his thefts, but they decided it would look bad to prosecute him for a successful rescue mission. He told them the various effects of the formula, both good and bad, had faded with time. He lied.

He began a career as a big game hunter in Africa, with Wintergreen as his very able assistant. This was his cover for his long run as an incredibly successful mercenary, using the name Deathstroke the Terminator. The name and the garish costume helped build up his reputation and mystique, once he showed he could back both up. It was during this early part of his career that he and Adeline had their second child, Joseph. Adeline did not know about Slade’s mercenary work, but would find out during one of the many tragedies to haunt Slade’s life.

Things went along well for a number of years, and then a particularly determined enemy learned who Deathstroke really was. This man, the Jackal (not to be confused with Carlos the Jackal), kidnapped young Joey. Slade told Adeline the truth, and the two found the Jackal, who held a knife to Joey’s throat demanding Slade reveal one of his client’s names. Slade refused, the Jackal tried to kill Joey, and Slade shot him dead. Joey lived, but lost the use of his voice. Adeline divorced him over this, and tried to kill him. His abilities saved his life, but she managed to blind him in one eye.

For a period of years, Slade lived the life of international mercenary, occasionally seeing his sons despite Addy’s best efforts. He gained fame, wealth, contacts, and a truly formidable arsenal of both conventional and specialized weapons. Sometime in this period he also took up with a prostitute called Sweet Lili, and fathered another child, a daughter named Rose. Then, things began to get even more interesting in his life.

Grant, Slade’s eldest son, had his apartment destroyed during Starfire’s escape from the Gordanian slavers at the founding of the New Teen Titans. Coincidentally, his attempt at reconciliation with his girl friend went bad when he got violent, and Starfire and Wonder Girl chased him off. Seething by now, he signed up for a special project with the HIVE, who offered to amplify his natural abilities. Calling himself Ravager, he went after the Titans, a job Deathstroke had earlier turned down. His powers proved unstable, which HIVE had known. Deathstroke himself showed up to try and stop him, but was too late, and even Raven’s powers weren’t enough to save Grant. He died in his father’s arms.

Slade blamed the Titans for his son’s death, and clashed with them many times over the years. Finally, he hired a young metahuman named Terra to infiltrate the team, learn their secrets and betray them. As chronicled in the phenomenal story arc “The Judas Contract,” this is exactly what happened. Armed with this knowledge, Slade and Terra captured the entire team but Dick Grayson, who had recently resigned as Robin, but did not yet have a new identity. Ironically, the events that Slade set in motion to destroy the Titans saw Dick first become Nightwing, Slade’s other son Joseph join the Titans as Jericho, and his accomplice Terra die from her own mental instability and powers run amok.

More time passed, and Slade mellowed a bit toward the Titans. He even managed a sort of friendship with Changeling, the one stung the most by Terra’s betrayal as he had come to love her. When the Wildebeest Society came after the Titans in “The Titans Hunt,” Slade even aided the Titans. All were shocked to learn that the Wildebeests were led by Jericho, who had been tainted by the souls of Azarath, under the influence of the demonic Trigon. Slade was forced to stab Jericho through the chest, ironically now killing his other son to save the Teen Titans. Slade entered a somewhat less villainous phase for a while, even helping train Pat Trayce as the new Vigilante when she stole Adrian Chase’s former gear.

Slade’s ex-wife helped Slade for a time with his missions, but when she was nearly killed by a slow acting poison, he tried to help her with a transfusion of his own blood. She lived, but the blood gave her healing powers similar to Slade’s, at the cost of her sanity. Addy eventually became mistress of the new HIVE and launched a plot to lure the Titans, and as many other heroes as possible, to Zandia, where she would set off a nuclear weapon and kill as many as she could, blaming the Titans for her sons’ deaths. She was captured by a group of villains called Tartarus, who were hunting the Titans, and wanted Addy’s blood to try and make them immortal. Vandal Savage slit Adeline’s throat before the Titans, and Deathstroke, who was trying to get his ex out of harm’s way. She was brain dead, but the power from Slade’s blood was keeping her alive. Seeing no way out, Starfire incinerated Addy with one of her starbolts, ending her suffering.

After this, Slade slipped a lot more toward the villainous side. While this was somewhat understandable, he even began breaking his own code of ethics, being bought off a contract after he accepted it at one point. He took on his daughter Rose as his apprentice, and risked killing her with Kryptonite poisoning during a scheme to try and subvert Nightwing. Later, he impersonated Batman, feeding false information to Arsenal’s Outsiders. Finally, he and Wintergreen were able to determine that Joseph had used his body possession powers to save his life at the last minute, and his spirit was inside Slade, still tainted by the evil Azarathians. They tried to exorcize him, but failed, and Joey possessed Slade fully, forcing him to kill and behead Wintergreen.

Later, Deathstroke was recruited to be one of the inner cabal ruling the new Society of Supervillains, along side Lex Luthor, Talia Al Ghul, Dr. Psycho, Calculator, and Black Adam. Since that time he has acted as a villain for hire, coming into conflict several times with his grown daughter, Rose, who has also taken the name Ravager. He most recently claimed he would not take any more clients, recruited a young girl to serve as his new apprentice, and has clashed with the Outsiders.

Powers, Skills, and Weapons:

The serum Slade was injected with gave him superhuman strength, speed, and agility, roughly four times better than human. It increased his brain capacity to nearly 90%, and made his reflexes nearly instantaneous. Later, he also developed the ability to heal from wounds, which further mutated into immortality.

Slade has been trained in multiple forms of hand to hand combat and with nearly every weapon known to man. He has fought teams of heroes to a standstill on his own, and is one of the few to beat the Batman in hand to hand. He is a highly skilled tactician, driver, pilot, and is highly adept at turning situations to his advantage, even over super powered foes.

Slade wears a costume comprised of body armor that augments his ability to stand up to damage. He has used a variety of conventional weapons over the years, such as guns, rifles, explosives, and throwing blades. Among his customized weapons are: a sword that can cut through building materials and hold his own weight; explosive throwing discs; a staff that telescopes out to use in melee combat that can also fire powerful explosive blasts; and various drugs to “brainwash” people.

Recommended Readings:

New Teen Titans 2 (first appearance)
X-Men Teen Titans cross over (fights the X-men and downs them all on his own)
Tales of the Teen Titans 42-44 (The Judas Contract with Terra’s betrayal)
New Titans 83 (1992)(kills Jericho/Joseph)
Titans 12 (2000) death of Addie
Identity Crisis (fights off a team of JLAers including Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Zatanna, Hawkman, and the Atom).
Villains United (joins the Society as one of the inner cabal)

Tags: Teen Titans