Review: Deathstroke Vol. 1- Legacy

Quick Summary

Pros: The fighting is great and Deathstroke is characterized well. The last few chapters introduce an interesting storyline.

Cons: Most of the book feels incredibly lacking in terms of plot. The fighting gets a bit repetitive after a while.

Overall: This is a volume about an assassin doing what he wants and taking down anyone or anything that stands in his way. The collection contains a number of great fight scenes all focused on proving that Deathstroke is the world’s greatest assassin. However, outside the fighting, the story is a bit lackluster and never really does enough to fully grab one’s interest. This gets better toward the volume’s end but, at that point, it feels like too little, too late. This is a book for those who want to see Deathstroke beat up people, not those looking for a deep and interesting story.

Story

Deathstroke Vol. 1: Legacy immediately establishes and celebrates Deathstroke’s role as an assassin whose brutality meets and exceeds his reputation. Kyle Higgins tells multiple stories that show off Deathstroke’s ability to approach a target and quickly overwhelm them. However, the overwhelming focus on fighting gets stale after a while and negatively impacts the collection’s storytelling ability. The end of the volume sees an uptick in storytelling quality but the volume as a whole still feels lackluster in this regard. Overall, this is a book for readers who really enjoy action and fighting and don’t mind having a thin story to accompany it.

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The highlight of this book is the over-the-top action coming from Deathstroke. He is incredibly violent and incredibly skilled. These traits allow him to take out just about any enemy he faces in bloody and deadly battles. Seeing him take down an entire room of assassins is awesome and very fun to watch. These fights are the book’s biggest draw and are well-executed in a way that fans of action will really appreciate them.

However, outside the battles and the fighting, the book’s positives are less numerous. The first half of Legacy barely has a story and relies solely on the vague tease of a mystery to encourage fans to read more. This lack of story isn’t as important at first, since Deathstroke’s assassination jobs are pretty entertaining, but once these start to become repetitive the lack of a compelling narrative becomes a more serious problem.

The lack of a story is especially noticeable when potential storylines are teased, yet never fully developed. Plotlines involving the parents of one of Deathstroke’s victims and Deathstroke’s aging are brought up as the volume progresses. Both of these have a solid level of potential, yet neither is explored in a way that feels sufficient. Instead, they simply remind readers that the book is a bit hollow outside of the fighting.

The very end of Legacy begins to amend this situation by introducing the volume’s most interesting plot point. The final few chapters introduce Deathstroke’s son, Ravager, as the collection’s main villain. The battle between father and son is well-written and revived my interest in the series as a whole. It still doesn’t quite make up for some of the volume’s earlier mistakes but it does prevent the volume from having no story at all.

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Art

The artwork throughout Legacy isn’t stellar but is a solid accompaniment to the story being told. Joe Bennett’s pencils present Deathstroke and the environment with plenty of detail. This allows Deathstroke to look great in combat, as he is able to fully interact with the world around him, allowing his combat to be more dynamic and interesting. With combat being the volume’s chief focus, this particular approach to art works out well. It still isn’t going to win any accolades in terms of quality but it gets the job done and gets it done well.

Continuity

Deathstroke Vol. 1: Legacy starts the Deathstroke New 52 series. This series uses elements from previous Deathstroke comics but does not reference specific stories. A cursory knowledge of Deathstroke’s past will be helpful in reading this volume but is not necessary.

The story here continues in Deathstroke Vol. 2: Lobo Hunt (Review).