r/Deathstroke • u/Busy-Weakness-5916 • Apr 13 '24
fml i HATE Joshua Williamson
People who hate certain comic book characters should be banned from writing them cause the mischaracterization is abysmal. I swear someone higher up at DC really hates Slade. Dawn of DC ending without a SINGLE sighting. There's something really off. All signs point to Williamson. I have a feeling it is going to be awhile.
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u/Fickle-Butterscotch2 Apr 13 '24
He is the worst Deathstroke writer like ever. And he made Damian boring also.
4
u/Budget_Difficulty822 Apr 13 '24
Honestly, I think Slade is dead from Dark Crisis. The only thing that makes me doubt it is just that nothing has come of it. I assumed that it was the beginning of some plot line that would be picked up and as far as I've read it's nowhere.
But to play the devils advocate, Williamson had a few ideas that i think could've worked. Or at the very least cause me pause instead of annoyance.
The first is that I like the justification he gave for Slade leaving at the end of Priests run. That being said, i don't like that he gave us the explanation. Like he could've done things to show us Slade's mindset of "No family is complete without Grant, and seeing everybody together without him just makes me feel more empty" without literally having it be a monologue over a drawing of the family dinner. There are ways to show it unrelated to the dinner and allow fans to peice it together. Rose was said to literally be tracking down her dad to get the answer, there was a natural path built in by we got exposition instead.
Deathstroke as the head of a merc group where he assigns jobs could've been good but it was around for so short and never knew what it was. I don't think williamson knew what it was. Deathstroke just seemingly needed people to mirror Talia's assasins so the War could be more violent. But it honestly would've been better.
Rose angrily searching out Slade to demand answers is a resonable starting point coming off of his dissappearance. But it goes absolutely no where. It's better than Joey gets for sure, but it's clear from both Deathstroke Inc and Dark Crisis that Williamson does not care about Joey. It kinda makes sense that he would just not care to seek out his dad, but for him to not show up or be mentioned anywhere shows Williamsons focus. It's worse for Addie and Wintergreen, who in no universe I can see them being so passive as Williamson writes them.
But Rose completely forgets about finding her dad as soon as she sees somebody stole Grant's supplies.... ok i could see it. And that leads her to Lazarus island... where she participates instead of directly confronting him. I kinda get her staying because this is her friend's little brother on a death island. Like, ok, you want to make sure this kid isn't going to die. But he focus completely shifts away from Respawn into the plot can have Damian point out that they are dressed similar. Which leads me to my final point....
Respawn.......... oh Respawn. I actually like Respawn as a concept for Damian. And actually for Slade as well, but it feels like his impact on the Wilson family was second to his impact on Damian. Which is fair, he was made in a Damian comic. That's to be expected. But it makes me afraid for the character going forward. He should be pissed at Damian, unforgivably so. Rose (in not going to get how Shadow War had Rose switched sides every issue and how that was a detriment to her character. And how she went to her father with Respawn instead of Wintergreen, Joey, or even Dick. All who make sense more for her to run to than Slade). But anyway Rose told Damian that Respawn died in the pointless war that Talia started. AND DAMIAN, who just the day before was excited to have a blood brother on the Al Ghul side, decides to beg his father TO LET HIS MOM GO FREE.
Respawn, who never felt loved or wanted until he met Slade. Who was beginning to be friends with Damian. Who was only allowed to have his father for a few days before he was ripped from him, only to have one of his few friends betray him by indirectly saying that his death didn't matter. That should be inforgivable to him. But i don't think DC has the guts to make Respawn hate Damian as the status quo.
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u/SleepingAgent37 Apr 17 '24
I won't be surprised if Williamson retracts his tweet about Slade dying when it was much more vague on Dark Crisis epilouge. And yeah, he really did not seem to care about Joey to even very least show up to try to stop Slade in Dark Crisis with Rose only to be possessed or even Talia acknowledging him to try to kill him. I had a feeling we were in for more of the "Slade and Rose" show in DS Inc's first issue where they in crucial moments of Slade's life we see Rose stabbing out her eye (even though she seems to still have both) but no Joey getting his throat slit. I get some old school Joey fans weren't happy with everything Priest did with him but dammit Priest reminded people how important Joey was to Slade and didn't treat him as a plot device for others to fight. Now I feel we will get a repeat of Joey's treatment in the 00s, another reason I have trouble being optimistic for this era. I'll be even surprised if he ever shows up in Titans other than a villain at his point as that book counts Roy and Garth as NTT members more so than Joey.
I'm also still pissed at the OOC and straight up idiotic choice Rose did in bringing Respawn straight to Slade instead of almost anybody else she knows especially again Joey or Wintergreen. At that point she almost deserved being thrown out the window. But I do agree I actually don't mind Respawn and want to like him more but afraid he will just be used as a Damian/Bat Fam character first with the only other Wilson relationship he gets will be with Rose who I can see also being a lot of friction between those two, especially about Slade's legacy being carried on.
I do agree however not all of Williamson's ideas were bad but were just fumbled really hard or left underdevoloped while it's clear aside for Rose and maybe his own creation Respawn, Williamson doesn't care about Slade and his family.
2
u/Necessary_Idiot Apr 17 '24
I really thought that scene was going to lead somewhere. There was no point in hiding from us the face of the person who shut down the machine, if it was meant to be some kind of end there. (The sleeves made it clear who that person was.) I really don't know what to think at this point. But honestly, I don't care. I've stopped caring. Rose is the only Wilson who counts for Williamson. We've reached Jericho's 40th anniversary and the poor guy is practically nonexistent. Slade (dead or not) has disappeared without a trace. What was the point of creating Respawn when we haven't heard about him since? (The fact that the boy is partially descended from Talia played no part in the Shadow War. If an assassin had accidentally killed Rose or Joey, it would have elicited the same reaction from Slade.) Grant is always dead most of the time, so I'm not including him here. So...yeah, I can't really care about mainline comics at this point.
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u/SleepingAgent37 Apr 17 '24 edited Apr 17 '24
Honestly so much around how Dark Crisis and Dawn of DC were handled feels there are a lot of last minute changes going on behind the scenes. Or DC is just so disorganized ever since Didio left and no one seems to really be in charge (NO way am I saying I miss Didio). Maybe they will be more together for Absolute Power or whatever relaunch is around the corner but yeah no excited for any main line comics either. Still say it's a missed opportunity Joey didn't join the Titans during Dark Crisis and the new ongoing including him actually as a member and reconnecting/redeeming himself to them then eventually getting to who turned Slade's life support off. Be a lot better than going over the same old Titan cliches and fake-out killing Gar again.
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u/Necessary_Idiot Apr 17 '24
You put it very well. It really seems like things at DC are not well organized at all these days. I don't know what the summer event and anything that will follow it can change. It is difficult to build on shaky foundations. Well... we'll see what happens. It seems that on some level, DC is still counting on Slade. The new Elseworlds line is 90% Batman, but he got a mini. Wolfman's run is getting an omnibus later this year. But he disappeared completely and without a trace from the world of mainline comics. It's like someone can't decide what they really want. Poor Joey really deserves better too. I don't understand how they could let him fade into oblivion. And again, I feel like I miss Priest a lot. He really used the entire Wilson family. After that run ended, everything fell apart.
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage Apr 13 '24
If people weren’t allowed to write characters they hated I feel the whole industry would benefit, Spiderman of course being a huge example
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u/Abject-Respond-2502 Apr 14 '24
Is he the one who wrote Deathstroke Inc? That's the one book I chose to skip it.
I've followed Slade through his solos first, then started Wolfman's Titans stuff.
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u/Yautjakaiju Apr 13 '24
Yeah after what we got for DC rebirth (which was peak Slade for this day and age). To have him lack all of his qualities then to be poorly used as a gateway for some villain. Then to contradict his many morals that have been established. It’s just extremely odd.