Eight Is Enough

Deathstroke #8 concludes “The Professional,” our first story arc, which was meant to not only re-establish Slade and his ersatz The Sopranos meets Married With Children supporting cast but to also explain, in a credible way, why a guy like Deathstroke continues to walk around the DC Universe. In other words, why isn’t every DCU hero working night and day to capture or kill this man? In my view, until we find a credible answer to that question, we have no book; we’re just kind of winging it and being untrue to either Deathstroke or the DCU heroes or both.

In issue #8 (on sale, I think, next week) we attempt to answer that question or at least get the conversation started. Larry, Carlo, Jason and Jeromy deliver a powerful arc finale pitting our guy against the virtual embodiment of all things DC heroic.

41 Comments

  1. DeathSkeleton says:

    Nice, can’t wait.
    Deathstroke Vs Superman!! The first person to ever really catch Deathstroke.

    As for the DCU never being able to take him down is interesting, its never been fully explained why The Justice League isn’t hunting him down 24/7, The only time they have hunted him down was when he was framed for killing a senator in his first series, so I think the next book #8 will hopefully be an eye opener and Establish Deathstroke as a Global Threat.

    • Priest Priest says:

      This is the general problem with giving a villain his own book: you have to rationalize why he’s walking around or, more to the point, why all the heroes aren’t hunting him down day and night. If you can’t do that, the party’s over. It’s possible that I am over-rationalizing, and that perhaps I’ve just outgrown (wow, that’s condescending) this superhero stuff. But I prefer the logic to work and for the world to be as real as we can possibly make it. That way, when Superman takes flight, it’s just awesome because the fantastic elements “pop” against the “reality.”

      The looming problem: DC now has a new character named Vigilante (not sure if this is out yet). Wondering if, sooner or later, he’ll come after DS. As a vigilante, he’s not bound to the kinds of ethics that hold the heroes in check. I hope he doesn’t come after Slade, I’d hate to have to whack out DC’s shiny new character. You’ve been warned, Viggy.

      • DeathSkeleton says:

        Nice, lol the New Vigilante sounds interesting but Slade’s the top dog in DC. I was wondering would it be possible to hear about Any Crossovers like him appearing in another characters comic that’s coming up? Btw I saw the Preview for #8… Holy crap that Ikon suit is awesome and its AI is kinda funny

    • Captain Fuggin America says:

      Would you consider it accurate that the sword only absorbs certain kinds of energy? Given that it has color it can be said that it doesn’t absorb light in a traditional sense, so on.

      Also how would you say it would behave if given a concussive blast from say, Cyclops’ optic blasts. Would it absorb the attack and no sell it or be launched back

  2. Dave Van Domelen says:

    Eight is enough to fill this house with corpses….

  3. DeathSkeleton says:

    I just read #8, and it was amazing, the art, the Story, just amazing. The ending was surprising and i can’t wait for #9.

    But the whole lawyers thing peaked my interest, how Rich is Deathstroke? Are his Contacts Worldwide?

    • Priest Priest says:

      Oh, man, they’d have to be. My guess is Slade is probably not nearly as rich as Bruce Wayne, but it’s like comparing Mitt Romney to Donald Trump. I’m sure a huge chunk of Deathstroke’s commissions go into preparation, which includes legal representation.

      • DeathSkeleton says:

        Thank you for answering my questions.
        My friend was wondering does the Ikon suit grant Deathstroke any other abilities such as Flight or Strength? And can it be cut by something like a sword or be overwhelmed by enough brute force?

        • Priest Priest says:

          The Ikon Suit prototype is merely a point defense system. That’s it. However, even powered down, the IS protects against small arms and sharps. Jericho wears the Ikon Suit Mark VII (hence the number 7 on the badge) which is the perfected version of Dr. Ikon’s invention and includes an “overclocking” feature of the gravity sheath that simulates super strength and flight.

        • DeathSkeleton says:

          When Deathstroke is shown and all those Photographs of his past are around him, if you look in the back BP and DP are shown in small pics lol

  4. MZ says:

    Awesome.
    I’ve already bought and read #8. The story and art are amazing. I’m not a DC hardcore fan, almost new to DC (comic) universe, but still enjoy the story. Slade is my favourite villain from Teen Titans.

    Since English is not my mother language, I have quite a problem in understanding some contents but it’s still enjoyable. It always surprises me that everytime I get back to read the former issue after finish reading the recent one, I always get different feeling toward the story. Like, get to understand more of Slade’s intention.

    By the way, my girlfriend is really into this book. She’s DS fan, and always says that Slade is so hot and looking forward to see more crossover with other heroes (Nightwing, for example)

    Thank you for doing an amazing work! I’m looking forward to read next issue!

  5. DeathSkeleton says:

    Hello this may be an old question but was Clock Kings abile to exist 7 seconds in the Timestream real or an illusion? And his could Deathstroke kill him if this was true?

    • DeathSkeleton says:

      *Clock kings ability
      *and how could

      • Dave Van Domelen says:

        This is one of those cases where real/illusion may be a distinction without meaning.

        The whole “X seconds out of phase” trick is a common enough sci fi trope, but it’s actually sort of useless if you poke it too hard. It’s usually used as an excuse to be ghostly, but ACTUALLY being always in the future would just mean popping ahead X seconds and staying there. You’d vanish for X seconds, then reappear and nothing would be any different. Useful for getting out of the way of things, but not the perfect defense it’s usually presented as.

        Alternately, his perceptions could be X seconds ahead, a la Naltorian martial arts styles of a trick Chronos pulls in the current Justice League Action cartoon. That requires a certain degree of fatalism, because if you step out of the way too soon what’s to keep the future from changing?

        How it happened in DS is more of “where I appear to be is an echo of myself 7 seconds in the past” so as long as he doesn’t stay in one place longer than 7 seconds he’s never going to be where the attack is. But it also means an explosion or some poison gas would nail him just fine. It’s more plausible that this was gimmickry to put his victims brains on a 7 second “tape delay”, be it a drug or some sort of time-sense-wobbler.

        • DeathSkeleton says:

          Interesting, I was just wondering if he was similar to the pre flashpoint Clock king who claims his mind existed 4.6692 something Seconds in the future. Thank you for your answer.

  6. DeathSkeleton says:

    Hey priest I have a Question is Deathstroke’s mind Eidetic or Photographic?

    • Priest Priest says:

      Those terms mean the same thing 🙂 I believe that Deathstroke has near-total recall due to his enhanced brain’s resources. I don;t always write him that way because I’m an idiot and forget, but, for example, we (the creative team) knew, on page 1 of issue #3, that Deathstroke instantly recognized that young man sleeping nextg to Rose, and thatg his name wasn’t “Richard.” Which is why, later, when Rose mentions “Richard,” DS replies, “Who’s Richard?” He doesn’t know to whom Rose is referring because he already knows the name of the boy he saw her with. Which was why Adeline chose Luis Trayce to pretend to be “Richard,” it was her message to Deathstroke.

  7. DeathSkeleton says:

    Hey I have a Question about the Promethium Sword, if it can Absorb unlimited Amounts of Energy how can it move if its absorbing all the kinetic Energy?

    • Dave Van Domelen says:

      Ah, the Captain America’s Shield problem…if it absorbs all energy, how does he move it? Promethium in DC tends to be more about non-kinetic energy absorption, but that’s a weird distinction if you poke at the science. Energy is energy, that’s sort of the point.

      The simplest way around it is to say that absorption is non-linear: the more rapidly the energy is delivered, the more percentage gets absorbed. If you want a real life example, consider “non-Newtonian fluids” that are just gooey if you touch them gently, but turn nearly solid if you try to slap the surface hard.

      Thus, the energy needed to swing the sword around is barely blunted, although it’d make the sword feel a little more awkward than the weight alone would imply. But a MegaJoule or GigaJoule delivered quickly enough would be mostly snaffled up by the sword. Additionally, it’s not constantly freezing everything around it by absorbing all the thermal energy, but maybe it feels unnaturally cool to the touch when it’s not near overload. (Aside: a MegaJoule is roughly the energy a normal human being uses in a day. A bullet only carries a kiloJoule, but it’s delivered very very quickly, in the range of MegaWatts.)

  8. Trev says:

    Hi CJP, when’s issue 9 due?

  9. VersasoVantare says:

    I bought issue 9 last week, and I liked it.
    While I’ve really liked Pagulayan’s artwork for the book, I think #9’s Cary Nord is a really good fit for the gritty Serbian warzone’s this issue’s set in.
    Plus, it’s interesting to see the backstory on Slade’s sword and how it figures in with his professional name.

    • Priest Priest says:

      Hey, thanks Veraso! I was really impressed with Cary’s stuff, which actually looks even better in black and white (with no offense intended to our wonderful colorist Jeromy). Cary’s use of solid blacks vs open line work is just amazing, and his Slade–while markedly different from Carlo’s–is extra-creepy.

  10. BigShadow says:

    Love Deathstroke alot but going to have collect in trades but got the entire Professional story line. It was Fun confusing an great, but just wondering do you have plans to Bring in Vandal Savage in Deathstroke also do u have any offers to write other Rebirth titles?

    • Priest Priest says:

      Wow, Vandal Savage–had forgotten all about him. Well, NOW I’m thinking about it. As for other Rebirth titles, no, not so far. Maybe they’re afraid of Slade 🙂

  11. Trev says:

    I’d love to see you have a crack at Batman. Superman, too.

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