Deathstroke 4: Family Business

This last volume of Slade's second New 52 series closes off the story arc that had been building up since volume one.Story: Bonny doesn't seem to be as good as a writer as Tony S. Daniel was on this title. The story picks up where the previous volume left off. We get an interesting enough character in Lawman, a person who Slade knew in his past, who teams up with Snakebite and Mystasia to kill Slade. Slade is just trying to find his daughter, who is under the mental control of Lawman. The first part of the book dealing with Slade fighting Lawman is kind of predictable. It seems like Lawman always gets away. I thought it was super weird that Batman shows up and totally convinces Red Hood to leave Slade in the middle of a fight so RH can help Bats find the Joker. So...Red Hood just leaves....mid fight. WTF?! The story gets better once Ra's Al Ghul comes into the picture, offering to save a life if Slade will swear allegiance to Ra's. Seeing Deathstroke and Ra's together is pretty neat, especially as they team up to take down the man who betrayed Slade. It ends with a pretty good battle between Ra's and Slade! Plus, at the end of it all we get to see a very human, very dad side of Deathstroke, not something I'd imagine is present in most of his stories. This first story in the book was mostly action, just enough story to have some substance to keep it going, but not that deep. It was only really exciting for me once Ra's got in the picture. We then get two last issues to finish this collected edition; an annual, and Deathstroke: Rebirth #1. The annual was awesome! Written by Phil Hester, it was a brilliant assassin/spy action thriller that certainly surprised me with the big reveal toward the end. I loved Phil Hester's analogy comparing religion to a city and its people. Really excellent stuff in that issue! Then, we move on to the Rebirth one shot. This was the first work written by Christopher Priest that I have read. I understand that he had a pretty profound run on Black Panther over at Marvel. The issue sort of played out like that spy thriller with different segments of the issue being given different titles. Overall, the issue was great, very interesting, but somewhat confusing at times. I'm still piecing it together. But, it leaves me pretty excited for the Deathstroke Rebirth title.Art: Paolo Pantalena does most of the artwork for the New 52 issues. I believe Tyler Kirkham only does the art for the first issue in this book, then goes to covers only while Pantalena does most of the interior art. I really like Kirkham's art style; I just wish he would have drawn all the issues. Pantalena isn't a bad artist, and certainly surprised me with his splash pages being pretty good, but I definitely think Kirkham is the better artist, or rather, his style appeals to me more. Pantalena does draw a great Ra's Al Ghul though. Kirkham also has designed Lawman to look really badass and cool! I liked the artist on the annual. His style came across to me as a sort of grittier Francis Manapul. His style suited the story and the tone of the annual well. Carlo Pagulayan (that's how I'm spelling his name), probably most famous for his work on Planet Hulk, did the art for Deathstroke: Rebirth #1, and it's petty good! He draws Slade well.Overall: The main story was somewhat predictable, but had some sweet spots, and the book as a whole greatly benefited from that annual and the Rebirth one shot. It's because of those that I give this 4 stars. Not a bad ending to the New 52 Deathstroke title, and I'm definitely interested in the Rebirth title.

Bonny finishes up the New 52 series kicked off by Tony S. Daniel which left off on a cliffhanger in the previous volume. Deathstroke is after his missing daughter Rose only to find he's walked into a trap set by new villain Lawman along with his allies who seem to include Rose herself. The book wraps up Slade's conflict with Lawman and actually serves as a solid, cathartic ending to his familial issues with Rose and his son Jericho. The book also is aided by the arrival of classic villain Ra's al Ghul who attempts to draft Slade and his children into his service in exchange for aid against Lawman. The book is good, but not great due to Bonny's often on-the-nose dialogue and exposition. He sadly just doesn't have the same knack for the character and his family drama as Daniel did (we'll see if the Rebirth series writer does better with the material). All in all though this is a good end for the character arc started in Gods of Wars, especially since I enjoy Slade the most when he's dealing with his complex familial drama. It is also nice to see that Lawman and some of his engaging allies are not going to be one off characters and may return in the future (though it does provide a slight sense of anti-climax to everything). Still, I'd prefer to see more out of this group than just one book's worth of constant battling so I'll take the hit on the story for now in exchange for the hope of a stronger arc later.After the main arc concludes we get the Deathstroke annual which is actually surprisingly good. In it, Slade travels to a war torn country caught between two warring criminal families. Slade is paid to start picking off the members of one family only for it turn out that a second assassin is being paid by the other family to do the same. Slade and the other assassin tiptoe around one another and slowly lead the city to devolve into chaos as the two families go to outright war. The story ends on a dark end when it turns out the Slade was posing as the second killer the whole time to play both sides. Furthermore he was being paid by a third party to wreck havoc on the crime families. It is fittingly dark story for the gun-for-hire and one of the better annuals I've read recently.Finally, since this is the end of the New 52 series, this book does include the first issue of the Deathstroke Rebirth story which finds Slade in two separate time periods. In the main story, Slade is tracking down a target in a foreign country. In the second, we see a young Slade with his sons Jericho and Grant. Both story arcs feature a darker Slade than the main arc. Especially compared to the Slade we just saw in the main story, this version is downright abusive to his young kids. It certainly looks like the writers aren't willing to give Deathstroke the father of the year award and while this could make for some fascinating material (again with the family drama) it is a bit jarring in this book when we just saw the father give his kids a tearful loving goodbye. The return of Wintergreen is certainly intriguing and sets the Rebirth series up for a cool starter arc.

Awesome.

love it!

The book came extremely beat up. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Deathstroke Saves Rose, gets into a pickle with Ra's al Ghul and has to stop Lawman and Nova Council. Really all you need to know is that the story really is terrible.The Good: Phil Hester actually writes an interesting annual included about two crime families at war with one another in some made up version of Afghanistan.The Bad: These Nova Council guys who "stop metahuman criminal activity, and target those who use metahumans for their powers and currency". What the hell does that even mean? They even repeat that nonsense in multiple issues. And the council appears to be one woman who has hired two criminals (Lawman and Snakebite) to go around and murder people for her. The plot seems to be an afterthought with James Bonny.The Ugly: This guy calling himself Lawman goes around murdering tons of people. It makes no sense for him to have this name.

Son enjoys these comics. Can’t comment on the story myself but the comic arrived in great condition and was a great price

Very good delivery no scratches no bendings

Great