‘Deathstroke #42’ (review)

Written by Christopher Priest
Illustrated by Carlo Pagulayan
Published by DC Comics

This is the second part of the storyline called “The Terminus Agenda,” a crossover with the Teen Titans series.

Priest gives us a truly tense story here. It feels like it’s leading to someplace great. The book also has some interesting turns of events in it as well.

We get a brief history of Slade Wilson to open up the issue. It turns out Black Mask is in a prison telling the other inmates about him. Gizmo, Swerve, and Brother Blood are listening to his story.

Then, we get a look over to the other side of the prison and we see Slade Wilson as a captive and just hanging there.

Just what is going on? We find out pretty quickly.

Black Mask wants to get Slade to break them out of this prison. He even offers to throw him a bunch of work if he gets them out of there.

This quirky and intense scene is a great start to the issue and Priest does a great job of maintaining the reader’s interest.

Slade eventually gets free. He easily does it too. He doesn’t let the others go however. We get some subplots and then we see the continuation from the Titans book that had the first chapter of this story. It’s not bad. Then, Slade breaks into the Titans headquarters and says that they are “out of mayo.” It’s touches like this that really make Priest’s writing shine.

The only downside is that the crossover feels a bit forced. We had a great storyline going on here and it’s interrupted a bit. It doesn’t feel as natural as one would hope it would be.

Still, there’s fun to be had. Priest peppers the script with plenty of cool dialogue and the art by Pagulayan is always a treat. Put that all together and you get a decent book that is just a tad overstuffed for my tastes, but still plenty enjoyable as well.

RATING: B