Review: Deathstroke Vol. 5- The Fall of Slade

Quick Summary

Pros: Deathstroke’s journey is exciting and places him in several interesting positions. Several individual moments from individual characters are written wonderfully and stand well on their own. The volume’s artwork is mostly positive.

Cons: The volume’s main narrative is a bit too chaotic. Conclusions to several story arcs are disappointing.

Overall: After multiple highly enjoyable and impressive volumes, this is the first one that ends up being just alright. This collection still contains plenty of incredible moments and significant pieces of character development, especially for Deathstroke. However, the main narrative feels overly chaotic and some story conclusions end up being disappointing. The volume will likely still be worthwhile for fans of the whole series but is not a place for new readers to jump in.

Story

Deathstroke Vol. 5: The Fall of Slade, by Christopher Priest, is a more mixed bag of positives and negatives than any other volume in this series. On the negative side of things, the larger storyline is generally lackluster. The chaotic nature of its many, overlapping plotlines takes away from its appeal and damages its ability to provide satisfying conclusions. On the positive side of things, Slade’s journey is generally still compelling and there are a ton of fantastic moments found throughout the read. In the end, this collection disappoints in some places but still has enough going for it to make this collection worthwhile.

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The main narrative in The Fall of Slade follows several separate storylines: Slade’s conflict with Isherwood, Slade’s conflict with Adeline, Slade’s conflict with the New Super-Man, the progression of Defiance, the breakup of Defiance, the mystery behind Willow, and the development of multiple individual relationships. All of this takes place within four regular comic chapters and one annual. In the past, the narrative has been able to juggle a few plotlines at once but, in this volume, it is simply too much in too short of a time. The way this volume jumps from one plotline to another, often interrupting whatever was currently going on, damages the reading experience.

In addition, the multitude of plotlines all coming to a conclusion at once takes away from their individual impact. It is hard to care about the fact that Defiance just came crashing down when plenty of the volume’s conflict is still open and its main mystery is unresolved. Some of these conclusions even end up feeling underdeveloped and underexplained, with Deathstroke’s transition from hero back to villain being the most disappointing of all.

Luckily, these problems do not take all of the positives out of the storytelling. Slade’s individual crusade, whether it takes him against Isherwood, Adeline, or anyone else, is engaging and exciting all the way through. This is particularly true given how vulnerable Slade becomes after his nearly-indestructible armor is severely depowered. His crusade also raises questions about his mental health, which could make for an interesting topic of exploration in subsequent collections.

The Fall of Slade also has a ton of fantastically written individual moments. Deathstroke’s confrontation in the desert, the showdown between Slade and Terra, Kid Flash’s disgust with everyone around him, Rose’s near self-sacrifice, and Tanya’s initial disillusion with Defiance are all excellent moments from this book’s wide range of characters. Even when the overarching storyline is suffering, these moments inject humanity and emotion into the read and help give it the qualities which have made this series great.

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Art

The artwork in The Fall of Slade is mostly positive but does contain a few key exceptions. The majority of the volume’s artwork comes from Diogenes Neves. These visuals are just as bold and well-defined as they were in the previous volume. They have a level of energy and detail to them that allows both action and emotion to come through, which is extremely important to a few of the key moments taking place in this volume’s storyline. The exceptions to this level of quality come from the annual chapter and the chapter preceding it, which feature a general decrease in the level of detail, an uncomfortable changeup in visual styles, and a few pages that look downright strange. Overall though, this volume mostly collects good-looking chapters and, thus, ends up being a pretty good-looking book.

Continuity

Deathstroke Vol. 5: The Fall of Slade continues the story from Deathstroke Vol. 4: Defiance (Review).

The story here continues in Batman vs. Deathstroke.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Kid Flash’s father’s history as a villain is detailed across The Flash Vol. 4: Reverse (Review). His father died in New Suicide Squad Annual #1, collected in New Suicide Squad Vol. 2: Monsters (Review). 
• Tanya received her fortune and powers from Power Girl (Reading Order) after Power Girl left in Worlds’ Finest #26, collected in Worlds’ Finest Vol. 5: Homeward Bound (Review).
• The references to Terra’s past with Deathstroke are a reference to “The Judas Contract” story arc from Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3, collected in New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract or in New Teen Titans Vol. 7.
• The New Super-Man became a hero across New Super-Man Vol. 1: Made in China (Review).