Panel Vision - History of Deathstroke: A Plea Against Modern Deathstroke

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Edited by Robert Beach 

It’s starting to look like the DC villain Deathstroke will appear in next year’s Justice League and will more than likely be the villain of Ben Affleck’s solo Batman film.  I’ve been hesitant to address this news because, frankly, I’ve been holding out the hope that it was all some elaborate misdirection meant to obfuscate the real villain being Clock King, Dr. Destiny, or someone else, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. If that bit of misplaced optimism wasn’t an obvious enough giveaway, I’m not terribly excited over this Deathstroke news. I get the sense I’m an outsider in this particular arena. 

Most Bat fans are salivating at the notion of Deathstroke making his second live-action debut while a good number of more moderate comic fans are happy to see their favorite Teen Titans villain make it to the big time. Even some older fans out there are happy to see Deathstroke’s return to culture prominence. To understand this along with the character’s future, we need to look at his past, so let’s dive into the history of Deathstroke to see why I’m the only one not thrilled about his adaptation. 

Is Deathstroke coming to Justice League & Batman?

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Earlier today Ben Affleck posted a cryptic video on his twitter that seems more or less like a major DCEU confirmation.  The video was a brief clip of the DC Comics super villain and deadly mercenary Deathstroke slowly walking inside some kind of carrier jet and eyeing the camera menacingly.  Many, myself unfortunately included, have taken this to mean that Deathstroke will be included as a villain in 2017’s Justice League movie, the project Affleck is currently involved with. 

What’s more, given that Affleck will also be directing DC’s upcoming Batman solo feature there’s the strong chance Deathstroke will be going head-to-head with the dark knight in his next stand alone film.  While all of this is still steeped in speculation and rumor it’s certainly gotten people talking and raised a number of major questions about what this could mean for the still uncertain DCEU. 

Week of Review - Beware The Batman

And so we come to the end of the first ever Week of Review and the final time Batman was on TV prior to Gotham.  If you’re interested in my thoughts on Gotham I already reviewed the entire first season and will be reviewing the premiere as well all for Front Towards Gamer so just follow the link right here.  For now, however, we’ll be focusing on the shockingly short-lived CGI Batman show from 2013 Beware the Batman.  In 2013 Batman: The Brave and the Bold had been off the air for about 2 years after the disastrous year of 2011.  While 2008 had redefined the superhero landscape 2011 showed that this wasn’t going to be a static game as DC saw its dominate market share slip with the awful Green Lantern and realized that there was legitimate competition thanks to smash hits like Thor and X-Men: First Class. 

More than anything, 2011 was the year that sent DC/WB scurrying back to the safety of the Batman umbrella and confirmed to them the importance of sticking with dark, brooding, quasi-realistic heroes.  By 2013, they’d more or less expended that particular capital in films with Dark Knight Rises concluding the Nolan Batman trilogy the year before so the decision was to pull the lighter and more accessible Green Lantern: The Animated Series and replace it with a dark, brooding new Batman show; Beware the Batman.