Deathstroke #4 - "The Professional, Part Four: American Gothic"

[laughing_tree]

"I had this line in Captain America and the Falcon where Captain America was on the verge of having an affair with the Scarlet Witch, and he was not sure if he should proceed, and Falcon turns to him and says, I just realized something, you stink at problems you can’t solve with your fists.

"And I wanted to demonstrate that Deathstroke does not need to solve every problem with his fists. That he is an incredibly intelligent guy, and his intellect hasn’t always been the highlight of his adventures. In my book, his intellect is his deadliest weapon and his greatest superpower. A lot of times, he doesn’t have to whack you out, he just has to give you enough rope to hang yourself." -- Christopher J. Priest

Comments

[burkeonthesly]

"I had this line in Captain America and the Falcon where Captain America was on the verge of having an affair with the Scarlet Witch, and he was not sure if he should proceed, and Falcon turns to him and says, I just realized something, I don't think this writer quite gets Captain America."

This is using the "Batman can beat anyone if he has three days to plan" rule to out-Batman Batman. On the one hand, I enjoy the dance of move and counter-move, but on the other I'm a little annoyed that it went so smoothly.

[icon_uk]

Slade and Batman are both consumate world-class professionals in their chosen fields, dealings between them SHOULD be painfully smooth because they don't know how to do things any other way.

[nyadnar17]

This is why Cap sticks to punching. You'll have an anserism fighting at this "I know he knew that I think she didn't know" level of thinking for long.

[stolisomancer]

What kind of made this for me was that Slade's power set is specifically based around higher brain capacity. We all know the "uses 80% more of his brain" thing is based on a myth, but if you assume that Slade still has augmented multitasking, processing, and memory retention, this is exactly the kind of eight-dimensional chess he'd be able to pull off.

I actually found it pretty satisfying, in its way, even if it's pure fridge brilliance on my behalf.

[mastermahan]

Priest has written about genius chessmasters before when he was on Black Panther, and that series was fantastic. So yeah, I'm not surprised this works.

[zapbiffpow]

Man, that pre-fight setup is fantastic use of subtlety. Most unique Batman versus Deathstroke fight since ever! The art's great, too: well-inked, well-colored.

I'd say put Priest on Red Hood, if not for that decision bogarting another good writer away from the books that need fresh exposure and into the already solid Bat-Books.

[doctornone]

Priest should not be put on Red Hood.

I know he would kill on it, but he deserves better....Give him his own Batman title.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I dig this. Makes me more interested in Deathstroke, who I've been up and down about in the past, to be sure.