Slade Wilson (New Earth)



Real Name: Slade Wilson Nicknames: Deathstroke the Terminator Former Aliases: Batman Other Current Aliases: No other known current aliases

Status
Occupation: Mercenary Legal Status: Legal status unknown Identity: Secret Marital Status: Widower Group Affiliation: Society of Villains; Formerly Tartarus Base of Operations: Mobile

Origin
Slade Wilson underwent military experiments and became the mercenary Deathstroke.

Place of Birth: Place of birth unknown Known Relatives: Ravager (Wade LaFarge) (half-brother, deceased), Adeline Wilson (ex-wife, deceased), Ravager (Grant Wilson) (son, deceased), Joseph Wilson (Jericho, son), Ravager (Rose Wilson), (daughter) First Appearance: THE NEW TEEN TITANS Vol. 1 #2 (December, 1980)

History
While Slade Wilson was in the military he fell in love with a superior officer named Adelyne.

He was later sent on a suicide mission and barely managed to survive. He volunteered for an experiment to supposedly unlock the brain's full potential. He was an invalid for a period of time, but eventually recovered. With his increased powers, he became a mercenary, calling himself Deathstroke the Terminator.

He eventually married Adelyne and they had two sons. One of them was expiramented on by the H.I.V.E. and became known as the Ravager. The expirament had unfortunate side effects and resulted in his death. The other son was taken hostage and made mute by a throat wound due to his father's disregard for his safety and utter devotion to his contract. This made his wife hate him so much she shot his eye out.

Accompanied by his assistant Wintergreen, whose life he had saved in the army, Slade has attempted to kill the New Teen Titans numerous times. He blames the Titans for his son Jericho's death. In the past he has also used both Terra and H.I.V.E. against the Titans.

In Depth
Imbued with amazing physical prowess by secret army experiments, Deathstroke the Terminator (called "Terminator" for most of his published existence) also has an amazing healing factor which can regenerate his body, even from death. He is also a crack marksman and skilled hand-to-hand combatant, and is willing to fight dirty when necessary.

However, he kept this career secret from his family, even though his wife was an expert military combat instructor, until a criminal kidnapped his younger son, Joseph, as a hostage to force Slade to divulge some secret information. Slade refused to do so, and attacked and killed the kidnappers at the rendezvous. Unfortunately, Joseph's throat was slashed by one of the criminals before Slade could prevent it, destroying his vocal cords and rendering him mute. After taking Joseph to the hospital, Slade's wife, enraged at his endangerment of her son, tried to kill Slade by shooting him, but only managed to destroy his right eye. Afterward, his confidence in his physical abilities was such that he made no secret of his impaired vision, marked by his mask which has a black featureless half covering his lost eye.

Slade has a long history as an enemy of the Teen Titans, beginning when his other son, Grant, became an early Titans foe called the Ravager who was physically enhanced to fulfill a contract to kill or capture the Teen Titans. However, those enhancements proved fatal and Slade agreed to complete the contract. As a result, he attacked the Titans continually and finally succeeded in capturing them by introducing Terra into the team as a spy. At the end of this plot, Slade was defeated and captured with the help of Joseph, who joined the team as Jericho. Despite their enmity, he has grudgingly worked alongside the Titans on occasion, usually to battle a greater evil. He also teamed up with the Justice League to foil an invasion of Earth by Warworld.

After the deaths of Joseph and Grant, Slade went on multiple suicide missions, trying to expatiate his guilt.

In Titans issue twelve, his wife was killed by Koriand'r, aka Starfire of the Teen Titans. Adeline had previously been given Slade's blood, giving her his regenerative abilities, but after Adeline's throat was slit by Vandal Savage, Starfire blasted her with a starbolt, disintegrating her completely.

Deathstroke was eventually forced to kill Jericho after his possession by the tainted souls of Azarath. Recently it was revealed that Jericho managed to transfer his consciousness into Deathstroke in the instant before his death. Taking control of his father, Jericho launched a series of attacks against the current Teen Titans, most notably shattering Impulse's knee with a shotgun blast, before leaving his father's body. Deathstroke has since manipulated his one remaining child, Rose Wilson, into the mercenary business as the new Ravager, in order to find and kill Jericho.

In Identity Crisis, Deathstroke was enlisted as a bodyguard for Doctor Light, who was being chased by the Justice League. In the ensuing battle, Deathstroke nearly beat the team of Elongated Man, the Flash (Wally West), Zatanna, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Atom, and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner). He systematically took out every member except for Rayner (due to an attempt to use Rayner's power ring) and lost his edge in the battle when Green Arrow stuck an arrow in Deathstroke's missing eye. He still escaped with Dr. Light and has sworn revenge against Green Arrow and the League.

Deathstroke is currently a founding member of Lex Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains in the Infinite Crisis storyline. He was seen in Infinite Crisis #1, hiding in a warehouse south of Metropolis waiting to ambush the Freedom Fighters with several other members. The battle didn't last long, and by the end Deathstroke had impaled Phantom Lady through the chest, calling his action "Just business."

He is also currently the employer of a supposedly undercover Nightwing, whom he's hired to train his daughter Rose.

Animated Series


Deathstroke also appears in the Teen Titans animated series, where he is referred to only as Slade (and voiced very menacingly by actor Ron Perlman). He is one of the Titans' primary foes. His main goal is to "destroy" the Titans and conquer the city and quite possibly the world, for unknown reasons - though it is possible he is simply a criminal with ambitions of power and has no ulterior motives.

In many episodes in Season One and Season Two, he tries to recruit others to his side. He initially hires Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth from the H.I.V.E. Academy, but the Titans succeed in beating the three graduates. Slade then tries to trick Thunder and Lightning, two teenage storm elementals, into destroying Jump City, but that too failed when Beast Boy helped the brothers to see the error of their ways. In the "Apprentice" story arc, Slade forced Robin to join him, with the threat that if he did not, Slade would use nanobots he planted in the Titans to destroy them from the inside out, therefore killing them. Robin eventually overcame Slade with his friends' help.

In Season Two, Slade recruited the superheroine Terra, who in the animated series is portrayed as more of a lost soul than an irredeemable psychopath. In "Aftershock" Parts One and Two, Terra betrayed the Titans to Slade, who took over the city with her help. The Titans returned however, and with Beast Boy's help, Terra overcame the link her new suit had to Slade, and she sent him to his doom in a lava pit while she turned to stone.

Being apparently dead (as he seemingly does not have his comic book counterpart's recovery abilities), Slade was absent for the most part in the third season. He did appear in the season 3 episode, "Haunted". But in this episode, he is a figment of Robin's imagination, due to a dust released from his mask onto Robin, which made him see, hear, and feel Slade. This almost killed Robin, but Robin saved his own life by turning on the lights (thus banishing the Slade hallucination). He then unexplainably returned in full for Season Four, as the servant of Raven's demonic father Trigon. Slade now had fire powers and a red mark on his forehead, called the Mark of Scath. He delivered Trigon's message to Raven, that she would cause the end of the world on her birthday. In the episode "The End Part 2", it is explained that Slade's defeat at Terra's hands had indeed killed him, and that Trigon had promised to give him back his flesh in exchange for his services. However, Trigon went back on the deal, and Slade decided to join forces with the Teen Titans. While Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy tried to distract Trigon, Robin and Slade went to find Raven (who had been transformed into a child version of herself) in the underworld. Upon returning to the surface with Raven, the Titans assaulted Trigon in a somewhat vain effort to defeat him. Nevertheless, they managed to hurt him, as did Slade, who recovered his flesh and stole the demonic weapon of one of Trigon's minions. Raven finally defeated her "father" and restored the world to normal, but Slade escaped the Titans shortly thereafter, with a solemn promise from Robin that nothing has changed, and he will make that clear if he sees him again.

Jericho (Deathstroke's son from the comics) has made a recent cameo appearance appeared in the final episodes. But no reference has been made to Slade's and Jericho's connection in the show. "Slade" did make his final appearance in the final episode of Teen Titans when Beast Boy attempted to reconcile with Terra. Slade ordered Beast Boy to leave her alone and that she chooses not to remember her past. Beast Boy, enraged, attacked Slade and seemingly killed him but like previous times, this was one of Slade's robot duplicates.

Characteristics
Height: 6'4". Weight: 225 lbs. Eyes: Blue. Hair: White. Unusual Features: Right eye lost to gunshot wound.

Powers
Known Powers: Enhanced strength, endurance, agility, reflexes, and senses; instantaneous healing factor. Known Abilities: Masterful tactician, expertly trained in hand-to-hand combat. Strength Level: Superhuman. He has likened to having the 'strength of ten men.'

Miscellaneous
Equipment: No known equipment. Transportation: No known transportation. Weapons: Machine gun, prometheum sword, power staff, explosives.

Recommended Readings

 * The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract

Related Articles

 * Deathstroke appearances list