Deathstroke

}} Deathstroke the Terminator (Slade Wilson), originally simply the Terminator, is a fictional character, a supervillain and sometime anti-hero in the DC Comics Universe. He is a mercenary and assassin who first appeared in The New Teen Titans (vol. 1) #2 (1980). Wizard Magazine rated him the 84th greatest villain of all time.

Publication history
Deathstroke received his own series, Deathstroke the Terminator, in 1991; It was retitled to Deathstroke the Hunted for issues #0 and #41-45 and then simply "Deathstroke" from 46 through 60. The series was canceled with issue 60 shortly after the conclusion of Zero Hour. In total, Deathstroke ran for 65 issues (#1-60, plus 4 annuals and a special #0 issue).

Following his injury in "Last Will and Testament," Deathstroke appears in one of the four Faces of Evil one-shots, written by David Hine. Hine has explained that the series is part of the set-up for future stories: "All of the characters in this ‘Faces of Evil’ series were selected for their potential as major players in the coming year."

Even though the character of Deathstroke the Terminator predates Arnold Schwarzenegger's film The Terminator by four years, the Slade Wilson character is now simply called "Deathstroke", even by characters who had called him "Terminator" for years. The full title has not completely fallen out of use, having been referenced as recently as Justice League Elite.

Origins
Imbued with enhanced physical prowess by secret army experiments attempting to create metahuman soldiers for the U.S. military, Deathstroke the Terminator (called "Terminator" for most of his published existence) became a mercenary soon after the experiment when he defied orders and rescued his friend Wintergreen, who had been sent on a suicide mission by a commanding officer with a grudge. However, he kept this career secret from his family, even though his wife was an expert military combat instructor - indeed, she had been responsible for a significant portion of his early training - until a criminal named the Jackal kidnapped his younger son, Joseph, as a hostage to force Slade to divulge the name of a client who had hired him as an assassin. Slade refused to do so, claiming that it was against his personal honor code, and attacked and killed the kidnappers at the rendezvous. Unfortunately, Joseph's throat was slashed by one of the criminals before Slade could prevent it, destroying his vocal cords and rendering him mute.

After taking Joseph to the hospital, Slade's wife Adeline, enraged at his endangerment of her son, tried to kill Slade by shooting him, but only managed to destroy his right eye. Afterward, his confidence in his physical abilities was such that he made no secret of his impaired vision, marked by his mask which has a black featureless half covering his lost eye. Without his mask, Slade wears an eyepatch.

The Teen Titans
Slade has a long history as an enemy of the Teen Titans, beginning when his other son, Grant, became an early Titans foe called the Ravager who was physically enhanced to fulfill a contract to kill or capture the Teen Titans. However, those enhancements proved fatal and Slade agreed to complete the contract. His first mission involved stealing the fictional element Promethium from S.T.A.R. Labs and selling it as the ultimate weapon. He then kidnapped the Titans and placed them in the path of a Promethium bomb to test his device for the buyers, effectively killing two birds with one stone. The Titans escaped and pursued Deathstroke, but he severely wounded Garfield Logan, then known as Changeling, in his escape. This would be the start to a lasting animosity between the two.

Deathstroke next appeared in New York, holding officials hostage in order to lure the Titans into confronting him. Terra, a new ally of the Titans, and Changeling were the only ones available to answer the call. Terra knocked Logan out in a effort to prove herself worthy of being a Titan and fought Deathstroke singlehandedly. Slade escaped as the other Titans arrived, but by then Terra had proven herself and the team offered her membership. Later that night, it was revealed that both Terra and Deathstroke conspired to fake the fight in a plot to infilitrate the team. It was also revealed that both shared an intimate relationship, despite Terra being fifteen years old. The artist George Perez noted that this constituted "statutory rape".

Judas Contract
The Titans eventually entrust Terra with all of their secret identities. Once Slade has this information, he uses it to systematically take down each of the Titans, exploiting them at their weakest moments. Donna Troy is gassed at her photo studio, Garfield Logan is poisoned with tainted envelopes while responding to fan mail, Victor Stone is electrocuted by a chair in his own apartment, Koriand'r is ambushed with a device that affects her powers, and Raven is taken down by Terra herself. Dick Grayson, who had recently retired his Robin costume, was last to be attacked and he was confronted by Deathstroke himself. He narrowly avoided being captured and soon discovered that his teammates had already been taken. Grayson arrived at Titans Tower to discover Slade's ex-wife Adeline and her son Joseph Wilson. She told Grayson that Terra was a traitor, how each of his teammates were captured, and related the origin of Deathstroke.

Grayson assumes the identity of Nightwing in order to confront Deathstroke and the H.I.V.E., joined by Joseph going by the name of Jericho. During the confrontation, Deathstroke recognizes Jericho as his son which causes him to hesitate. Jericho freed the Titans by possessing his father's body (although it is important to note that Slade didn't actually try to fight his son's control). Terra turns on Deathstroke as she thinks that he has betrayed her as well. After her suicide, Slade is taken into custody.

Slade was put on trial for his crimes, but the trial was deliberately sabotaged by Garfield Logan so that he could kill Slade himself, believing he was responsible for Terra's betrayal of the Titans. Slade agreed to the confrontation, but showed up out of costume. Logan found himself unable to kill a defenseless Slade, so instead they talked. Feeling some empathy for his grief, Slade explained his past with Terra, and Logan realized Slade was not to blame for the choices Terra had made. The two men parted on peaceful terms afterward with Slade returning to Africa with Wintergreen.

Titans Plague
Months later, Slade encountered the Titans again while they were investigating mysterious attacks and disappearances. Troia is attacked by beastmen and barely survives the encounter. Meanwhile, while attending a fundraiser with his father, Gar Logan recognizes Slade trying to maintain a low profile. When he finally catches up with Slade, he finds him about to kill the host of the fundraiser, Walter Lanier. He stops Deathstroke, but is surprised when Lanier turns into a bat-like creature and flies away. He reveals to the Titans that he was responsible for smuggling the drug the bestiamorphs were using to transform others but did not realize what it was until it was too late. After Jericho, and Raven were stricken by the plague, he aided them in destroying the beastmen and finding a cure for the contagion.

Titans Hunt
Shortly after this, he came to the Titans' assistance again during the Titans Hunt storyline. The members of the Titans, as well as many inactive members, all disappeared in a manner very similar to how they were abducted during the Judas Contract. Logan's stepfather Steve Dayton hires Deathstroke to find the missing Titans. He eventually discovers with Nightwing that the abductions were the work of the Wildebeest Society and that their leader was none other than Jericho himself.

It was revealed that Jericho had been possessed by the corrupted souls of Azarath, who were using him to capture the Titans and use them as physical hosts in order to survive. During the transfer process, Jericho's true self resurfaced briefly, begging his father to kill him. To spare his son any more pain and save the remaining Titans, Slade was forced to drive a sword through Jericho's heart, seemingly killing him. This act still haunts him to this day, though Jericho later turned out to have survived death by transferring his mind into his father's body seconds before his death.

Afterward, Slade continued his life as a mercenary, but also acted as an occasional hero, aiding the Titans or acting on his own to help others, most notably during the Total Chaos storyline when the Team Titans arrived in the 20th Century to assassinate Donna Troy before she could give birth to her son, who in their timeline had grown up into the tyrannical despot, Lord Chaos. Slade also met Pat Trayce, a tough former cop who would become the new costumed Vigilante. Pat Trayce and Slade quickly became lovers, and began a tumultuous on again/off again relationship.

Family business
After Slade thwarted an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, he was subsequently framed for the murder of a U.S. Senator. The man responsible had taken on the identity of the Ravager and was hunting down Slade's friends and loved ones. Eventually with the help of the Titans and Sarge Steel, Slade was able to prove his innocence, and the true culprit was revealed to be Steve Dayton, under the alias of the Crimelord, who had again succumbed to mental instability caused by his Mento helmet.

Meanwhile, his relationship with his estranged wife Adeline took a tragic turn as Slade underwent a process to gain the ability of physical regeneration, allowing him to survive any wound so long as his brain is intact (this power is limited, as Slade cannot regenerate his lost eye since that injury happened before he gained his healing factor). After gaining this power, Slade was forced to give his wife a blood transfusion to save her life, resulting in her gaining a similar healing factor which manifested itself as a form of immortality. This alteration of her DNA drove Adeline insane, shaming Deathstroke into going into a semi-retirement state.

In Titans (vol. 1) #12, Deathstroke teamed up with the Titans to face his wife Adeline, who in her insane state, had revived The H.I.V.E. and sought to rid the world of all superhumans, blaming them for Jericho's death. During the battle, interrupted by Vandal Savage and a band of villains that he had organized from recent Titan battles, Adeline's throat was slit. In a brief return of sanity, she begged Slade to kill her, requesting him to reunite her with "my... our children... " since her version of the healing factor wouldn't heal the wound, but only allow her to live in spite of it. Deathstroke refused, but Koriand'r shocked her teammates and Deathstroke by using her starbolt blast to disintegrate her completely, per Adeline's wishes. This was a turning point, as Deathstroke renounced all ties with the Titans as a result of this act of mercy on Starfire's part.

Recently, it was revealed that Jericho managed to transfer his consciousness into Deathstroke in the instant before his death. Taking control of his father, Jericho forced Deathstroke to murder his longtime butler, mentor, and companion Wintergreen. He then launched a series of attacks against the current Teen Titans, most notably shattering Impulse's knee with a shotgun blast, before leaving his father's body. Deathstroke has since manipulated his one remaining child, Rose Wilson, into the mercenary business as the new Ravager, in order to find and kill Jericho, using a specially-designed serum to heighten her hostility and push her over the edge; unfortunately, the process also resulted in her being driven at least partially insane, to the extent that she cut out her own left eye in an attempt to prove to her father that she was just like him.

In Identity Crisis, Deathstroke was enlisted as a bodyguard for Doctor Light, who was being chased by the Justice League. In the ensuing battle, Deathstroke nearly beat the team of Elongated Man, the Flash (Wally West), Zatanna, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Atom, and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner). He systematically took out every member except for Rayner, whom he had the potential to disable through trying to usurp his ring's energies using his own formidable willpower. Fortunately, before the outcome of this conflict with Rayner ended, Green Arrow stuck an arrow in Deathstroke's right eye socket, enraging him. Slade went ballistic and began to beat Green Arrow, but was stopped when the majority of the team tackled Deathstroke to the ground. Dr. Light used his powers, and the two escaped. Near the end of Identity Crisis, Deathstroke confronts Green Arrow on a rooftop. Arrow sees his reflection in the windows of a nearby building, but when he turns to confront Slade, Deathstroke is gone. Instead, Green Arrow finds Slade's cowl and a note stuck to the wall by the very arrow he stabbed in Slade's eye socket. The note reads, "This is yours - We're not done."

Infinite Crisis
Deathstroke was a founding member of Lex Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains in the Infinite Crisis storyline. He was seen in Infinite Crisis #1, hiding in a warehouse south of Metropolis waiting to ambush the Freedom Fighters with several other members. The battle didn't last long, and by the end, Deathstroke had killed the Phantom Lady. Slade is also the one who landed the final stroke on Uncle Sam by shooting him in the back (and leading to his apparent death).

He was the employer of an undercover Dick Grayson, whom he hired to train his daughter Rose. However, after the two had a confrontation with Superman, Deathstroke discovered that Nightwing had been teaching Rose the values of heroism. He could not kill Grayson in front of his daughter, because doing so would undo all of Slade's teachings. Nightwing offered a deal: he would stay away from Rose if Slade would keep the metahuman villains out of Blüdhaven. The deal held for 34 hours until Infinite Crisis #4, when Slade, under the orders of Alexander Luthor, Jr., the real leader of the Society, went with several villains - who included old Titans and Doom Patrol foes and Brotherhood of Evil members Monsieur Mallah and Brain - to drop Chemo, another fellow villain who appeared to be a nearly brainless monster made of pure energy and radioactive chemicals, on Blüdhaven, killing over one-hundred thousand people. Slade gave the explanation to the Brotherhood that Nightwing should be made to believe that he can never go home again.

Grayson took the first of his revenge by bursting in on Deathstroke and Rose's training session, revealing to the latter that the Kryptonite that Deathstroke had implanted in place of her missing eye was radioactive and deadly to humans as well as to Kryptonians (though slower in its effects on humans, as revealed by Lex Luthor's old possession of a Kryptonite ring that forced him to transfer his brain to a cloned body). Angered, Slade went after Nightwing with a grenade, only to have Rose try to stop him. Amid the smoke of the resulting explosion, Rose fled, telling her father that she hated him. Dick disappeared as well, but not before leaving a note for Slade warning him that he'd be back to make him pay for Blüdhaven.

At the climactic Battle of Metropolis at the conclusion of Infinite Crisis, Slade was confronted by Batman, Robin, and Nightwing. During the struggle, he was questioned regarding his motives for aiding the Secret Society. His claims of monetary motivation were deemed unsatisfactory, Batman accused him of having forsaken his code of honor; and Nightwing said it was because his family had abandoned him. An enraged Slade said that was because of Nightwing, and that it was always because of him, before Batman told him to take responsibility for his actions and he was rendered unconscious.

One Year Later
Slade appears in the Green Arrow series after the one year jump in DC Comics's storylines. Apparently in hiding, he nearly murders a crony of several Star City businessmen who want to hire him for a murder. Before finishing his violent refusal, he asks the name of the target; when informed that it was to be the mayor of Star City, Oliver Queen (whom Deathstroke knows is secretly Green Arrow), he spares the lackey and decides to take the job.

However, things don't quite go according to plan, with Green Arrow using the resources of both his identities, then trapping him within a ring of armed National Guardsmen. The fight ends with Deathstroke's arrest and subsequent conviction and incarceration; however, this is revealed as a ploy to gain access to another jailed foe of Green Arrow's who has information on the hero's activities in the "lost year", which include Green Arrow studying under an assassin who once trained Deathstroke himself.

Deathstroke is also active behind the scenes in Teen Titans, currently in the process of organizing a counter-team of teen superhumans that will be known as Titans East. The current Titans team included Ravager, who now wanted nothing to do with her father. Deathstroke seemingly intended to "reclaim" Ravager and a recently resurrected Jericho from the Titans or, if that failed, to crush them along with the rest of the team. For these reasons, he specially selected each member of Titans East, believing that, overall, each member would successfully counteract every member of the current Teen Titans line-up.

As indicated over the course of the subsequent issues, Deathstroke was manipulating every member of his new team in one way or another. He had blackmailed former Titan Risk while at the same time offering him an outlet for his rage, was drugging Cassandra Cain with the same serum he'd used on Rose, and supplied Inertia with a formula which granted superhuman speed to compensate for the loss of the Speed Force following the initial battle with Superboy-Prime. His team, however, slowly fell apart over the course of the attack, as Robin managed to free Batgirl of his mind control serum and Raven convinced Duela Dent to switch sides. Slade and his remaining Titans subsequently faced off against both the current Titans and a group of old Titans led by Nightwing. Although he was defeated, he still manages to escape with the aid of Inertia. In the end, however, it was revealed to the readers that Slade's real mission was to provide his children with something he could never offer them - a real family, in the form of the Teen Titans. By attacking the Titans, he insured that Rose and Jericho would become more trusted by their associates, and thus grow closer to the team.

Recently, Deathstroke took credit for somehow twisting (through unknown means) the powers of Brion Markov, the half-brother of the original Terra, into the same powers as his traitorous sister's. Using this leverage, Deathstroke offered to reverse the process only if Geo-Force became his own personal spy within the Justice League. Unfortunately for Deathstroke, Geo-Force alerted Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman of Deathstroke's scheme which culminated in Geo-Force alerting the League that Deathstroke (who's rivalry with Green Arrow has reached vendetta-level proportions) planned on using an army of supervillains to crash Green Arrow and Black Canary's wedding. Weeks later, Geo-Force was tortured by Gorilla Grodd after the League was kidnapped by the Injustice League and ultimately transferred to Batman's newest incarnation of the "Outsiders" afterwords, robbing Deathstroke of his potential pawn.

He can seen as the member of Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains.

Deathstroke is gravely injured with his own sword by Geo-Force in Last Will and Testament. Following his injury in "Last Will and Testament," Deathstroke appears in one of the four Faces of Evil one-shots, written by David Hine. Hine has explained that the series is part of the set-up for future stories: "All of the characters in this ‘Faces of Evil’ series were selected for their potential as major players in the coming year." Deathstroke is at Belle Reve, recuperating from a vicious injury wrought by Geo-Force. While doctors labor to save him, Deathstroke dreams of his family members and all of the people that he has let down. When he awakens, he vows that he will never again be haunted by the past.

Ravager comes to visit him, but in fact, wants to finish her father off. She tries to strangle him with a plastic wire, but Deathstroke is recuperated enough that he can fend off her attack. He escapes from the facility and steals a helicopter. Later, Deathstroke finds a young street urchin that he decides to take under his wing.

Powers and abilities
Deathstroke possesses various enhanced abilities. These include the strength of ten men and heightened speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes. He has the capacity to use up to 90% of his brain making him a tactical genius, adept at turning opponents' own abilities against them; this can also be attributed his years in the military and combat with various heroes. Deathstroke also possesses a healing factor in his blood that enables him to heal from physical injury much faster than a normal person; it does have limitations as he could not heal his eye and cannot regenerate entire limbs. This enables him to recover from what would otherwise be fatal injuries, though recovering from such injuries renders him insane and animalistic for a short period.

He is also a highly formidable opponent in physical combat to the point that even Batman can only fight him to a stalemate (and only succeeded in defeating him with the aid of his sidekicks, in Infinite Crisis). Green Arrow (vol. 4) #66 claims that an assassin known as Natas (backwards for satan) taught Deathstroke "almost everything he knows" (a retcon of his origin in The New Teen Titans: Judas Contract, where his future wife Adeline Kane trained him while Slade was in the military). There has been argument among fans as to how good a martial artist Deathstroke is. While he has defeated multiple opponents in hand-to-hand combat and has even been acknowledged by Cassandra Cain as "toying with me, he is holding back", he is not considered one of the DCU's greatest martial artists despite his impressive record, as his enhanced capabilities and artificial enhancements provide him with an unfair advantage. Deathstroke is also skilled in the use of many weapons ranging from guns, rifles, and swords, which are usually among his current weapons of choice. His signature weapon is a power staff that fires lethal and non-lethal energy blasts from both ends. The staff can also be used to strike using energy at each end. His body armor is composed of a mesh-woven, kevlar, chainlink mail, capable of stopping small arms fire. Most of the metal he wears and uses is Promethium.

In the animated series, Slade has superior physical strength and fighting skills that surpass Robin's, having beaten him every time they fought in the series. It eventually took all 5 of the Teen Titans to defeat him, though they did so soundly. He is a bona-fide genius, with great knowledge in robotics,as well as military, political and subversive strategy. However, he was easy to anger, which Robin eventually took advantage of. He seems to possess some knowledge of ceremonial magic (as seen in Forces of Nature). He appears to have access to extremely advanced technology and various secret hideouts, nearly unlimited resources, and a vast army of robot minions. However, Slade's most notable quality is that he is a master of manipulation and psychology, allowing him to get his foes to do almost anything he wants through shrewd manipulation.

Other versions

 * In the intercompany crossover The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans, Deathstroke meets his equal in the form of Wolverine; the two fight to a near standstill. At the same time, however, he proved skilled enough to defeat Colossus in a one-on-one fight despite the latter's superior physical strength.
 * The Marvel Comics character Deadpool is similar to Deathstroke. Deadpool commonly uses the name "Wade Wilson", similar to "Slade Wilson". In Superman/Batman Annual #1 written by former Deadpool author Joe Kelly, Deathstroke from the antimatter universe appears and has similar characteristics related to Deadpool (such as Deadpool's "merc with a mouth" wisecracks, a black spot on his mask over his eye somewhat resembling Deadpool's.  While this character didn't seem to be as skilled at fighting as Deathstroke, his healing factor seemed far more effective, with Slade becoming annoyed at how hard he was to kill).  This character tries to introduce his name multiple times but is always interrupted.  The most he was able to get out was "Dea-".  It could be implied Deadpool is the Marvel counterpart of Deathstroke, who was created 11 years earlier.  Marvel seemingly acknowledged this in the Cable/Deadpool series, where Deadpool sometimes answers a letters column.  Deadpool claimed that he didn't want to be in a Marvel/DC crossover, because people might mistake him for a certain DC character.
 * In Amalgam Comics, Deathstroke is combined with Marvel's Daredevil to become "Dare the Terminator", real name: Slade Murdock. Unlike Wilson and Murdock, Dare is a woman.  Though Dare is legally blind, she wears an eyepatch because of her mangled right eye.  She also has horns surgically attached to her forehead.  She uses a sword in combat.
 * In Tangent Comics, Deathstroke is an armoured supervillian and a member of the Fatal Five. This version exists on Earth-97 of the Old Multiverse and Earth-9 of the New Multiverse.

Lois & Clark
In the fourth and final season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, an assassin by the name of Deathstroke appeared in "Bob and Carol and Lois and Clark," played by Antonio Sabàto, Jr. The only commonality is the fact that he is an international assassin known as Deathstroke. In Lois and Clark, Deathstroke is a former scientist. An accident in the lab exposed him to magnetic particles, permanently altering his body and granting him magnetic powers. His assistant, who afterwards becomes his wife, helps by creating a special suit to contain his powers and keep metal from being drawn to him while out in public. The suit even has a symbol of its own: resembling the force lines of a magnetic field, forming a stylized figure eight. After this, he becomes an assassin, murdering his targets with his powers, first by drawing the target to him, then by magnetizing the iron in their blood cells, causing a figure-eight mark on the chest as the person dies of a heart attack.

The couple take the name Bob and Carol when they arrive in Metropolis; they become friends with Clark Kent and Lois Lane as they discover that Lois is going to be interviewing an eccentric reclusive billionaire. The couple plan to assassinate the billionaire before he goes public, taking his identity and thus his fortune. The plan is foiled when Superman interferes, destroying Deathstroke's containment suit, which causes him to be magnetically drawn to a steel pillar until the police arrive. Very much like Superman, this Deathstroke kept a secret identity by wearing a pair of glasses.

Teen Titans: The Animated Series
Deathstroke appeared in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by actor Ron Perlman in a manner very reminiscent of Vincent Price. The name "Deathstroke" did not make it through the censors due to hesitance to use the word "death" in a children's animated series, thus, the character is referred by his first name, "Slade", from the comics. He is also changed from a mercenary and assassin to an enigmatic criminal mastermind. He is the Teen Titans' main adversary and primary antagonist for the first two seasons of the show. Slade is shown to be ambitious, calculating, and emotionless. His main goal is apparently to destroy the Titans and conquer the city, and quite possibly the world. In the episode "Apprentice" Slade revealed to Robin that he caused all those crimes to test Robin, to see if he's good enough to be his apprentice. This means that one of Slade's main goals is to have an apprentice to follow his footsteps. Slade is also the longest-running villain in Teen Titans history, having appeared in a total of 17 episodes throughout the course of the series, and was mentioned in three others, whereas other villains only appeared in either 2 (in Blackfire's case), 4 (in Brother Blood's case), 5 (in Trigon's case), or 7 (in The Brotherhood of Evil's case).

Initially, Slade appears as a shadowy, unseen character, until in the episode "Masks", but Robin only manages to capture a robotic duplicate. In the "Apprentice" story arc, Slade forces Robin to join him by threatening to use nanobots that he planted in the Titans to destroy them. Robin eventually forces him to destroy the control for them after injecting himself with the nanobots, after which the Teen Titans hand Slade his first defeat in the series. In season two, Slade recruits and manipulates the superpowered girl Terra, with whom he manages to defeat the Teen Titans and take over the city. The Titans however, believed to be dead, return, and with help from Beast Boy, Terra is able to overcome Slade, and sends him to his doom in a lava pit. In the Season 3 episode "Haunted", Slade appears as a figment of Robin's imagination, due to a chemical reagent released from his mask into Robin's body, which made him see, hear, and feel Slade. Robin is nearly killed, but in the end, he learns that it really isn't Slade, and discovers that light banishes the hallucination, which only worked in the dark. Oddly enough, it is revealed that this gas had been triggered from the outside, but it is unknown of who set it off.

Slade returns for season four as the servant of Raven's demonic father Trigon, who promises to give him back his flesh and blood body in exchange for his services, granting Slade almost God-like pyrokinetic powers, as well as red mark on his forehead called the Mark of Skath, an alias of Trigon. Slade's powers allowed him to easily defeat the Teen Titans whenever he confronted them. However, Trigon goes back on the deal, though Slade expected that he might and had a item in his possession called a a Ring of Azhar that protected him, and Slade helps the Teen Titans defeat Trigon after having recovered his flesh and blood. However, Slade manages to escape the Titans shortly thereafter. During Season Four, Slade shows something of a sense of dark humor, making jokes such as "Hello birthday girl, ready for your present?" and "I love my job". This is saying a great deal, because in the past, Slade has been an antagonist who dwells on a level of villainy that leaves no room for humor. However, his humor is dark, dry, cruel, and almost totally deadpan.

Slade appears in the last episode of the series, "Things Change", when Beast Boy is searching for answers on why a newly revived Terra seems to have lost all memory of her past or superpowers. Slade confronts Beast Boy, denying anything to do with Terra's sudden return and stating that if Terra doesn't remember her past, it's because she doesn't want to remember and that he should leave her in peace. Infuriated by his speech, Beast Boy attacks Slade, only to find out that it's just another robot duplicate.

Although the connection is never stated in the course of the series, Slade's son Jericho is also introduced into the Teen Titans series during the series finale. His daughter Rose is also introduced in the animated series based comic book Teen Titans Go!; a painting of Slade, without his mask, is briefly seen in the comic book.

His face is not directly seen in the series, but at the end of the "Apprentice" two part episode, Robin destroyed half of Slade's mask, revealing greenish-black hair. After Slade and Robin tag-team to fight Trigon, one of Trigon's servants knocked off Slade's mask, revealing a skull was all that was left of Slade's face.

The Judas Contract
Slade will appear in the upcoming straight-to-DVD Teen Titans adaptation, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, an adaptation of the Terra storyline from the comics. However due to the targeted PG-13 rating and the subject matter, he will be called Deathstroke in the film. This is unrelated to the more youth-oriented anime-like Teen Titans.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
On August 20th 2008, Ed Boon announced Deathstroke as one of the DC villains who would appear in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and is voiced by Patrick Seitz in the game. In the story, he attacks Sub-Zero, who is trying to hunt down Scorpion, seeing this new assassin as an enemy. Sub-Zero wins the battle, but doesn't bother finishing off Deathstroke, fearing the essence of the Netherrealm that leads to Scorpion would become too weak to follow if he wasted any more time. Later he teams up with Lex Luthor and the Joker and helps Joker take on Sonya Blade and Kano. Joker fights Sonya while Deathstroke battles Kano. During the middle of his fight, Deathstroke is pushed aside by Joker and the Joker defeats Kano, then turns on Deathstroke himself. Deathstroke's game ending has him realizing that other-worldy assassins are seen as unwelcome competition. As a caution, he creates an army of assassins in his image, becoming the leader of the Deathstrike Clan.

DC Universe Online
Deathstroke is set to appear in the upcoming video game DC Universe Online.

Other Related Media
An action figure of Deathstroke has been released as part of the toy line for The Dark Knight. There are some differances in the appearance of the figure from how the character usually appears including a dark blue jacket-like top instead of promethium chain mail and black pants instead of blue. His gloves, belt and boots have also been changed to black and he has a slashing right arm attack. Note: Deathstroke did not actually appear in The Dark Knight despite the action figure release.

Similarities to other comics characters
A similarity between Deathstroke and the Marvel Comics mercenary Taskmaster was also noted in Wizard Magazine #177: "Both Tasky and Slade are amoral profiteers, and thanks to mutual designer George Pérez, even their original costumes are similar." They share an orange/blue color scheme and many design elements (such as buccaneer boots, flared gloves, and a near-identical collection of weapon belts). The largest differences were their masks, Taskmaster's cloak, and the white in Taskmaster's costume. Both characters were designed by George Pérez in 1980, within a few months of each other.

Another Marvel Comics character having many similarities to Deathstroke is Deadpool. Both have similar costumes, professions, and rhyming names (Deathstroke is Slade Wilson while Deadpool is Wade Wilson). However, the two have completely different personalities with Deathstroke being a brilliant cutthroat mercenary whereas Deadpool is a sarcastic, "merc with a mouth".

The Hanna-Barbera cartoons Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and the more recent Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law both feature a character named "X, the Eliminator", who is similar to Deathstroke in both outfit and character - X is a mercenary hired by the agents of F.E.A.R to retrieve the crest on Birdman's helmet.

Collected editions
Part of the eponymous series has been collected into a trade paperback:


 * Deathstroke, The Terminator: Full Cycle (collects Deathstroke the Terminator #1-5 and New Titans #70, ISBN 093028982X)