2 stars
And it's all for the artwork.

I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to this title. And that makes the resulting mess all the more hard to stomach. It's my own fault really, I should have paid closer attention to the name on the front cover. Not the artist; Carlo Pagulayan's art is the sort I like. Clear and concise. Reader friendly with plenty to look at but not so busy that things get lost in the detail. Some really great panels.

No, my issue was with the writer, Christopher Priest, and he's a writer I've had issues with before. I dnf'd his collection of Black Panther stories for being incomprehensible, boring, and written from a random pov.

In Deathstroke I found myself at a total loss. The story, such as it is, jumps about in timeframe with no indication where the reader is in the timeline. There is no attempt to explain to the reader who any of the characters are or their connection to Slade Wilson. For a first book in a new line I would expect some attempt to fill in backstory for the new readers in manner that doesn't have them scrabbling for wiki at the first opportunity. (I held out until the appearance of Wintergreen, and then found myself reaching for my phone.) There is no attempt to explain who Deathstroke is, what happened to Slade to make him become DS, what his enhancements are, where they came from, who any of the side characters are. With no prior knowledge of DS and his origins, the reader is completely lost in this comic.

For a character with no moral compass to work the reader needs to have some empathy for them. With little to no explanation for his actions, and such a fractured telling of his backstory it is impossible to have any empathy or understanding for Slade.

Also, almost every character in the story seems to have their own agenda so you literally have no reliable narrator to hang the 'story' on.

For something I'd been so looking forward to, I finished this book frustrated as hell.

While Christopher Priest continues to write this line I think I'd be better served going back in time and checking out some of the earlier Deathstroke titles.

Christopher Priest's down-to-earth Deathstroke Vol. 1: The Professional is a wonderful return to form for the anti-hero assassin. Priest restores much of these characters' past histories, both Slade Wilson and also his son Joey "Jericho" and daughter Rose "Ravager" Wilson. Art here is done well by Carlo Pagulayan, among others, who gives Deathstroke the grittiness it needs without making the violence absurd or outlandish; long-time Deathstroke artist Joe Bennett gives the whole thing an added sense of authenticity.

This is the best comic being published by DC Comics at the moment. This first trade sets the tone and style for the entire series and it's one that any superhero fan can enjoy. Hell, any comic fan would be delighted by the fantastic work Priest is doing here.

Slade Wilson
Deathstroke
is one of the older villains
in the DC Universe
This series is an attempt
to bring him to
the front
as more of an
anti hero
Deathstroke is an interesting character
but perhaps
not heavy enough to carry his
own series
plus he remains
a bastard
Perhaps a more interesting
character when he has a hero
to play off of....

Deathstroke, Volume 1: The Professional by Christopher Priest is a start reboot for this comic in the new DC era of Rebirth. Deathstroke, gaining popularity with the Suicide Squad series and movie, returns with all the brutality and coldness that this character is known for. This time, Slade Wilson, finds out that his family is on a hit list and with his angst of having let them down before, he steps into action to protect what little family he has left. Only though, is he really looking to protect them or use them as bait to lure the killer out into the open. Much of the volume takes place in and around Gotham which brings everyones favorite Caped Crusader into the fray.

Christopher J Priest began his comic book career with Marvel, working on such titles as Falcon and Luke Cage. He moved to DC and took over the Green Lantern books but seems to have really hit his stride here with Deathstroke. The family dynamics and Wilson's complete failure at being a husband and a father lead him to this place where having the opportunity to save his daughter may be his only salvation. But Wilson being Wilson, cannot seem to do it by the book.

In Priest's hands we may find ourselves facing a completely new character, far more rounded and far more disturbed by his past then we have ever seen before. But above it all, we are also seeing a man who has a job and does it better than anyone else.

A really good read.

This is the first incarnation of Deathstroke in which I’ve thought Deathstroke is interesting. I like the fact that he tells lame people how lame they are in very specific terms. And there are a lot of lame people in the world, one of them being Rose Wilson, his Cambodian daughter who uses the suggestive name Ravager in a lame way. Rose has issues with her father, sort of like how Cyborg has issues with his father, but while the Cyborg storyline is flat and trite, Deathstroke’s troubled relationship with Rose has the feel of something genuine. Or, if not genuine, at least something interesting.

I’m not sure I can make much sense out of the plot, but I enjoyed reading the Deathstroke rebirth volume anyway. The writing is strong. The volume gives us a bit of an origin story involving a mission gone bad in Cambodia, in which someone sold out Slade’s buddy Wintergreen, and that ties into the present, which has also gone bad. The list of suspects who sold out Wintergreen is narrowing by virtue of serial death.

There’s also the question of who is out to get the Ravager. Could it be a member of the Bat-family? That inquiry takes Deathstroke and his daughter to Gotham toward the end of the volume, when the story begins to make more sense. And that leads to a very cool sequence, the best in the book, involving Deathstroke’s surveillance of Batman, who is very difficult to surveil.

And the stunner is, I actually like Robin in this volume. That’s something no writer has managed to achieve in a very long time.

The art is way above average for DC. In short, a nice job all around. I would give the first reborn Deathstroke volume 4 1/2 stars if I could.

'Deathstroke, Volume 1: The Professional' by Christopher Priest collects Deathstroke 1-8 and the Rebirth issue, but if you aren't familiar with the character, you will likely be confused.

The volume starts with Deathstroke finishing a job in Africa and then faking his death. He then rescues his friend Wintergreen, and they have a reunion of sorts. Deathstroke then finds out there is a hit out on his daughter Rose, so he is out to find out who it is. This leads him to Gotham City and a confrontation with Batman.

Deathstroke had a family before, but all you get here are some flashbacks and a couple throwaway dialogue bits. Anything with Wintergreen is kind of also told in jokey flashbacks as the two of them reminisce. The Batman issues at the end were pretty good, especially with Robin pretty much owning Deathstroke. I like this character, but this book was mostly confusing in it's approach to a plot.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

It took me a long time to write this review. Probably that is because I hate saying bad things about comics. Even when I don’t like a character, or story, or whatever, I know others love them. So, anyway, it took me a while to decide how to say I didn’t like this new Deathstroke comic at all.

When I started this book, I didn’t know very much about Deathstroke. (Well, other than what has been in The Arrow tv show, which isn’t anywhere close to the comics I’ve been told.) But I didn’t worry about it, because this was Rebirth, so I thought we’d have a new origin story, get to see how Deathstroke became who he is, what happened to his family, why his daughter is Ravager, and everything else. But, boy, was I wrong!

Instead of telling a reader anything about this new Deathstroke, we are given a pretty boring story about him in Africa doing something, then he is reunited with his long-lost daughter Rose, who just happens to be a target of an assassin, and so DS decides to find whose trying to murder his daughter and take care of them himself. We even have Batman making a guest appearance just to make things better.

There are a lot of things I didn’t like about The Professional. Since I’m not the greatest writer out there, I’m just gonna make a list for you.

1. The story was confusing, boring, jumped backward and forwards in time too much, told me nothing much about Slade Wilson, his family, or how he became this feared assassin. It was just bad every way you look at it.

2. I hated Deathstroke. There was nothing to like about him. He is a cold, uncaring jerk.

3. Very little fighting. I mean, DS is a deadly assassin, but we hardly get to see him do anything except try to trick everyone. Great, I guess, but I didn’t want to read about an assassin trying to outsmart everyone.

4 . The art was okay, but nothing awesome. So it didn’t make me want to read the bad story just to look at the really cool fight scenes and stuff. Oh, I forgot, there weren’t any cool fight scenes.

Like I said at the beginning of this, I don’t like writing bad things about comics. I love comics and want every single one of them to be great. But Deathstroke: The Professional just wasn’t for me. Maybe, fans of the character, who already know everything about him, might love this book. I hope they do. But me . . . all I’m gonna say is that this Deathstroke isn’t for me, at all.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

Deathstroke has issues with his kids. One son joined a enemy organization and died. A second was killed when an enemy came calling. And now someone has put out a contract on his daughter. Of course he is going to get to the source of this threat. Using Batman and kidnapping Damian is a novel approach that allows Deathstroke to sneak up on the threat. But the cliffhanger leaves dangling who is offered the contract? Nice brain games on Damian!

Absolutely dreadful nonsense that, to a newbie at least, makes less than zero sense. There's no way of picking anything up, there's little in the way of drama as it's inherently bitty, and whoever invented the white-on-black chapter subtitle panels needs a new job. DNF, and that even with a promise of Batman.

I received an eARC copy of this graphic novel from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I loved the artwork. The characters were drawn vividly and the color really jumps out and is pleasing to the eye.

But. The story? Eh. There were good moments, but overall it was pretty disjointed. Even within each issue, the storyline jumps from past to present to not as past but more past than present to kinda present to huh?

And, where I though this was a reboot of sorts, it did not help a new reader (me) to understand who was who or who was in relation to each other and whatnot. I'd recently read another Rebirth title, Suicide Squad, Volume 1: The Black Vault, and very much got the feeling that it was meant as an introduction to the team and characters. This one seemed to require a good bit of prior knowledge of who Slade Wilson is and how he relates to the side characters.

I do find Slade interesting, but would like a more linear way of learning about him. All I knew going in was what I'd seen on Arrow and a brief appearance with The New Suicide Squad during the New 52.

I have always liked Deathstroke. He was the villainous equal to Batman in a sense of being super calculating and meticulous. That being said he does have this lighter side to him that makes him sort of an anti-hero. It makes this character very deep and interesting. I have read a few of the books Deathstroke is in but I have never really dug into the character like this book has. Since I am a fan and DC Comics and Netgalley were so kind to allow me to read this for a review I anxiously read through this.

I usually save the art work for the end of the review but I have to share this cover. This type of detail runs through most of the book and I was really impressed. For being so evil and cold these pictures are really vibrant. There may not be a lot of colors but this cover alone is both bright and dark and gives off so much emotion.

Now, on to the story. I will admit that I was a little lost through this book and will need a re-read in the future to get everything going on in this book. I felt that this book even though it was a Rebirth story would have been better if I had read the previous books. So here is the long and the short of the plot. Slade Wilson, like every other character in the DC Universe he is reinventing who he is and what he stands for. We get to see glimpses into Slade's past and his family life. We also find out that someone has a contract out on Slade's daughter. Now Slade has to figure out who is out to destroy every part of his life.

Here is where I got excited. Who better for Slade to turn to for help by Batman. He doesn't really ask nicely but instead kidnaps Robin to make Batman sort of babysit Slade's teenage daughter. This part was the best part of the book, but don't get your hopes up. We don't find anything out in this volume. We get exactly the story we should have at this point because this is going to be big. I enjoyed this book. I am so glad I got to read it and I do plan on moving on to Vol 2 when it comes out. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Deathstroke started promisingly, its episodic flashback-style narrative revealing just enough origin story details to whet your appetite as Slade navigates an international political hit in the present. Halfway through the arc, though, the focus shifts from Deathstroke to his protege, Rose, and then they face off with Batman and Robin. I guess there's nothing inherently wrong with that, as I really like Batman and Robin, but it smacks of desperation when you can't get through a six-issue origin tale without calling in the big-gun guest stars. I was ultimately disappointed that Priest et al. dropped their more intriguing structure from the first few issues in favor of the straightforward superhero story in the conclusion. This could be a good book to follow if the tone and style settle into a groove.

A hodgepodge, jumpy endeavor that refuses, and I think to its detriment, to explain things to the reader - there's refusing to include info-dumps and then there's just not caring if your reader even understands what's happening. On the other hand, some of the one page panels are very striking. A reluctant non-recommend.

Did you know Rebirth is a massive hit for DC? They’re selling a buttload of these comics! But is anyone reading them? Because if they are, how are DC still managing to sell so many comics when they’re this bad?? I’m honestly at a loss to explain it.

Despite his horrendous Black Panther comics at Marvel, I was willing to give Christopher Priest another shot but after Deathstroke Rebirth, that’s it. I’m never reading another Christopher Priest comic again!

After some meandering drivel in Africa, Deathstroke is reunited with his long-lost daughter Rose who’s being targeted by someone and he decides to save her by killing her assassin. Also Batman makes a cameo.

Are you familiar with Deathstroke? Because if you’re not, you’re gonna be really lost as Priest doesn’t give you any help on the character’s background. We’re just meant to know who Wintergreen is, what happened to Slade’s first family, and how his daughter Rose came to be. Not just who her mother was and how that came about, but WHY did she become Ravager, following in her dad’s footsteps – does she even like her estranged father? She had a relationship with Nightwing - was she training to be a good guy and then got sidetracked? I know Rebirth is about returning to classic continuity but a little bit on his history would’ve gone a long way, particularly for the new readers jumping on for the first time.

Priest is a shockingly incapable writer on every level. I mean, he doesn’t attempt establish who Deathstroke is. HOW did Slade Wilson go from being a loving father and husband to a cold-hearted tosspot assassin? WHY did he become an assassin and where did “Deathstroke” come from? If you didn’t know he had a healing factor, you’d wonder how in the fuck he could survive a bullet to the back of the head (his healing factor is mentioned dozens of pages after that panel)!

Besides the lack of information on the characters and the barely coherent, uninteresting and instantly forgettable story, Priest ineptly jumps back and forth in time. It’s so jarring and needlessly complicated - a caption to tell us we’re in the past would’ve been useful considering Slade looks the same in the past as he does in the present!

It’d have been good too if Deathstroke was even remotely likeable. Some writers with much more talent than Priest can make readers like completely degenerate scumbags but I hated Deathstroke from the beginning to the end. He’s a stoic, miserable cunt who I wished nothing but pain and suffering on every page. Rooting for him? HA! The only positive about this guy is that Marvel ripped him off to create the vastly better character Deadpool (Slade Wilson/Wade Wilson, both are assassins, both have swords and guns, both have healing factors, both have full face masks).

Priest is also completely detached from contemporary culture and modern kids which wouldn’t matter if he didn’t have to write a kid character. He writes the most horrible Damian Wayne I’ve read yet who makes ‘70s sitcom references to “Maude” in his dialogue. Kids these days have NEVER heard the theme song to Maude (unless they remember that one scene from Family Guy) and wouldn’t quote “And then there’s Maude”! Priest is 55 years old and would’ve been a kid when he saw those shows growing up in the ‘70s so HE would make those references but he’s so crappy and lazy a writer that he can’t even attempt to make plausible references to 21st century shows.

This was horrible! I guess Carlo Pagulayan’s art was competent but I loathed Priest’s bad writing and hopeless storytelling so much I couldn’t enjoy it in the least. Maybe established Deathstroke fans might get more out of this but I’ve gotta warn you that Christopher Priest’s writing is utterly abhorrent and might ruin it for you too. Deathstroke, Volume 1: The Professional SUCKED.

I haven't read a ton of Deathstroke, but what I've read has had nothing like this in it. This was a cool reintroduction for me to the super super complex character of Deathstroke.

We meet Wintergreen, one of Slade's 'Buddies'. Adelaide, Slade's wife I guess, and their two boys, Grant and Joey. Those aren't great happy stories. It's all a bunch of puzzle pieces that mostly come together by the end of the book. Except the big big cliffhanger ending. Yikes.

It jumped around a bit, but I really liked most of the TPB. Especially all the stuff with the Ravager, aka Rose, Slade's daughter. And even the issue with Batman and Robin in it was very interesting.

I got this ARC through Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment.

I feel like Deathstroke is a character that you feel both sorry and not sorry for. You feel sorry for how he became what he is currently, but you don’t because he enjoys what he does and he chose this life. This is touched on in Volume 1, which does not bother me. They tried to humanise someone who really does not deserve it; but the way that they tried to humanise him just got me confused. We jump between the past and the present, but I did not find that out until the second to last issue collected in this volume. Once I had figured out that certain scenes were in the past, it made a lot more sense though.

We start out with being how deadly Slade Wilson is, he easily takes down a bunch of what appeared to be mercenaries with ease. I got excited to understand how Deathstroke works; but apart from this small display of Deathstroke at his best, that was the only time that we see Slade Wilson using his power on others. The rest of the time is him using his brain to out-trick others. Whilst this is an important element to how he works, I would have enjoyed it more if they had followed up on the killing and power that they showed that he possessed at the beginning.

After the initial bloodbath that Deathstroke goes on, the main focus of this story is on his daughter (yes, Deathstroke has a daughter, that is something to watch out for in the movies) and on figuring out who has put a contract on her to get her killed. Whilst enjoyable (mainly because their is a passing mention of golf, which is always a bonus for me), it did not grab my attention. I found this quite odd as it is not predictable at all. I was constantly guessing wrong as to people motives, as well as what was going to happen.

The art style was reasonably enjoyable. I never got confused as to how people were acting, or what was the purpose of the panel. I could have easily gotten the plot if no wording was provided. That, for me, mean that the artists did a great job of getting across what was going on in an appropriate manner and not relying upon word to purely tell a story.

Enjoyable read which looks better in my eye for mentioning golf.

Story: This is a good starting point for new readers of Deathstroke. The first half of the volume; Prologue, Among Thieves, Band of Brothers, flip flops between the past and the present giving the reader a nice idea of the origin not an in depth one but it gives all the right information. The first three parts also tells of Deathstroke dealing with an African Warlord, the Red Lion, to save his friend Wintergreen. He also has to deal with the Clock King. The second half of the volume By Any Other Name, American Gothic, Mirrors deals with Deathstroke deals with a death threat on his daughter Rose, aka. Ravager, following the money and it leads them to Gotham. Deathstroke set up Rose with Batman and Robin while he goes off and does his own thing.



Art: I loved this, it was like reading a cartoon. The art is well drawn, colored fantastically. Pagulayan and Bennet do wonderful drawings very detailed; and Morales, Barbo, and Paz can’t forget the inkers. Cox completes the picture bringing it to life with amazing colors and shading. I always enjoy the variant cover art.



Characters:
Deathstroke/Slade Wilson: I have had a fascination with Slade since Teen Titans animated series first aired in ’03 voiced by Ron Perlman. He piqued my curiosity in the cartoon he was so mysterious and as I found out more about his past the more I liked him. A genetically enhanced super villain who switches side as easily as flipping a switch to suit his needs and has no problem being the bad guy just to make sure his kids become better than him.
Rose Wilson/Ravager: I like this Rose she wants so bad her Father’s attention and for him to be proud of her but is constantly getting hurt from his actions. She was initially trained by Nightwing and thinks that she is ready and wants to prove to her father that she’s ready. Wintergreen: Probably the only truly loyal friend Deathstroke has, he has acted like a friend and confidant for Rose as well. He’s kind of the voice of reason, the mediator between father and daughter. Wintergreen staged his own death so he could retire but was forced out of it when kidnapped and now he and Slade are tracking down who snitched on the truth on him being alive. Batman and Robin: Of course it’s Batman and Robin. Robin being Damien, Bruce’s son, and antagonistic and snarky as ever. Batman tries to convince Rose that she needs to not follow in her father’s footsteps and that Slade has his own reasons for leaving Rose in Gotham with Batman.

Review: Have I mentioned I hate cliffhangers. That is why I usually wait until the graphic novels are out so that I don’t have to wait for the next issue to come out. Damns youse! I love this one it is a great story it was engaging and dark, violent with the right amount of humor that has a great balance. I look forward to the upcoming issues.

Read because Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston insisted it felt like Priest's peerless Black Panther run, and I can see his point; the white-on-black typewriter-style captions, the climactic 'but I bribed the architect first' fight scene between two consummate planners. But that book had a (hilarious) narrator to keep everything clear as we jumped between scenes and times; this one doesn't. And Panther is a character who default fascinates me, whereas I've yet to be convinced Deathstroke has more to him than being the unfunny Deadpool, and that old Etrigan line about suspect magazines. Still, the glimmers of Priest at his best definitely elevate it above the last Deathstroke collection I attempted, where my review mainly concerned the bookmark I used.

(Netgalley ARC)