Batman has a serious procession of enemies that are worth mentioning and some that aren’t so much. Deathstroke is one worth mentioning simply because he’s that awesome. The guy is immensely strong, skilled, and unlike a lot of super villains has actually taken down a good portion of the Justice League until lazy writing allowed Green Arrow to sneak up on him and essentially end the fight by making Slade lose his temper. Seriously, an arrow into his EMPTY eye socket made him throw the fight by throwing a tantrum? Sorry DC writers, but that’s a little bit cheap considering this guy can possibly take one of the Justice League’s heaviest hitters out on his own.
So that brings up the reason for this article and why it makes more sense to really delve into who Slade is and why he deserves his own film versus allowing the Batman franchise to downplay yet another villain. So really, why should we see Deathstroke in his own feature film?
The Batman has been overplayed since The Dark Knight Rises.
We were all excited to see Bane, and in all honesty Tom Hardy did an awesome job. But once again poor writing and development issues kind of made the movie flop. Batman’s greatest super villain was and always has been the clown prince, the Joker. And to be quite honest Heath Ledger has left behind such a powerful role that any other villain needs to go over the top in order to even compete. Deathstroke has that edge without the craziness that can easily compete if he’s handled correctly.
Sticking to his source material is vital.
We’ve already seen what happens when writers and directors start putting their own spin on the old stories. Sometimes it works and sometimes it just flops. By sticking to Deathstroke’s back story as it’s been written and not fooling around with it too much a movie should be able to give a reasonable account of this deadly assassin came to be.
Pit him against Batman or the Justice League.
Forget Steppenwolf, the Joker, or a slew of other bad guys that the Justice League and Batman could fight. Chances are Slade Wilson will give them more of a run for their money than a host of bad guys combined. He has an edge on the Joker simply because he’s a master tactician, world-class assassin, and uses upwards of 90% of his brain. That means he’s already figured out ten different ways to defeat a person before a single punch is thrown, and that means game over unless he loses his cool. Deathstroke even found a way to put Superman on his butt so it’s easy to assume that he could take down the Justice League again with some advanced planning. And besides, someone that could take Batman down up close or from a distance is a sure bet to beat the Justice League when Batman himself has contingency plans to do the same thing.
If The Batman is going to keep stalling then let’s focus on the villains for once. Run a story that shows how they became this bad and then pit them against the heroes in a film that finally shows the bad guy and how they can in fact win if the writer’s are competent enough.
Follow Us
