Comics Explained: Shazam (Captain Marvel)

San Diego Comic Con has given us many things to talk about ranging from the new Godzilla movie to the new edgier version of the Teen Titans. However, one thing that has got people talking is the trailer for Shazam! Shazam, or Captain Marvel as he's been known as for most of his publication history, is a very interesting part of comic book history. Although a DC character he did not originate in DC and he was even more popular than Superman at one point! Captain Marvel got a radio drama before Superman did and in 1941 he was the first superhero from comics to get their own movie. Today we'll look at Shazam a.k.a Captain Marvel.

Origins - Real World and Fictional

Whiz Comics #2, his debut

Captain Marvel originated in one of the many new comic book publishers which emerged in the late-1930s and early-1940s thanks to the success of Batman and Superman, especially Superman. One such was founded in 1939 called Fawcett Comics who hired writer Bill Parker to make superhero stories for them. Parker planned to create a superhero group years before Justice League and the Avengers came along, (although the League's precursor the Justice Society made its debut the same year Captain Marvel did), where each member had a superpower granted by a mythical being. Fawcett's executive director intervened suggesting that one character should have all the powers, mostly to compete with Superman. Parker then made 'Captain Thunder' and got C.C. Beck to draw the new hero. Beck later said: "When Bill Parker and I went to work on Fawcett’s first comic book in late 1939, we both saw how poorly written and illustrated the superhero comic books were. We decided to give our reader a real comic book, drawn in comic-strip style and telling an imaginative story, based not on the hackneyed formulas of the pulp magazine, but going back to the old folk-tales and myths of classic times." Beck's cartoony style of drawing would greatly influence how comics were drawn for a long time afterwards. In 1939 their comic was first published to low sales and they hit an issue: they couldn't copyright their original title. A year later the comic itself was renamed Whiz Comics instead of Flash or Thrill Comics and their hero renamed 'Captain Marvelous' which became shortened to 'Captain Marvel'. This reprint, in 1940, became very popular and propelled Fawcett Comics to national fame.

Now to get into Captain Marvel's fictional origin. Unlike Batman and Superman Captain Marvel is a literal child which explains his popularity. With a young audience Parker decided to make him a child for the primary audience to empathise with. A homeless orphan (despite being seemingly well fed and dressed) called Billy Batson is living in the subway of New York, later retconned to be Fawcett City, ends up meeting a strange old man on a subway with strange runes on it. He is then transported to an underground throne room where the old man explains that he is the Wizard Shazam who gets his power from the six gods - Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. Shazam wanted to give Billy his powers as he is soon to die but the reason why changed. Originally it was because he had a hard life being orphaned at an early age and turfed out by his uncle who stole his inheritance but in later retellings in Shazam! #1 it was due to him being 'pure of heart'. Now whenever Billy utters the words 'Shazam!' he can turn into the hero Captain Marvel who has the the Wisdom of Solomon, Strength of Hercules, Stamina of Atlas, Power of Zeus, Courage of Achilles, and Speed of Mercury. He also gets an adult body and in the alternate future story Kingdom Come we find out that this body is what Billy would look like when he gets older. Now Billy can become a hero seeking advice from Shazam who resides as a spirit in the Rock of Eternity. In a similar sense to Superman Billy in Whiz Comics #3 becomes a journalist, despite being about 12, which allows him to investigate crime which he later fights as Captain Marvel. 

Marvel Family #1 

Captain Marvel soon became an immensely popular character dwarfing Superman. For one, Captain Marvel could fly which Superman couldn't do at the time and after a year of being published he got his own movie. By 1944 Captain Marvel comics were selling over 1.3 million an issue and two comics were issued a week. He quickly gained a recurring villain, set to be the antagonist in the new movie, called Doctor Sivana he also made his debut in Whiz Comics #2. A bald headed mad scientist as a villain may sound awfully familiar... Doctor Sivana, not Black Adam, would for a long time be Captain Marvel's main opponent with him even taking over Venus at one time. Meanwhile, the popularity of the comics brought in new characters forming the Marvel Family. The first was 1941's Whiz Comics #25 introducing Captain Marvel Jr. in a truly eccentric comic which typifies everything cheesy and fantastic about Golden Age comics. When Captain Marvel was fighting a superpowered agent of Hitler literally called Captain Nazi the Nazi attacked an old man and his grandson, Freddy Freeman. The old man died but the grandson was rendered unconscious so Billy took the boy to see if Shazam could heal him. Shazam couldn't but revealed that Billy as Captain Marvel could by granting Freddy some of his power. He did and turned Freddy into Captain Marvel Jr. A year later in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 a new character, designed to look like Judy Garland, was introduced who turned out to be Billy's long lost twin sister, (of course!), called Mary. Mary Marvel soon became extremely popular immediately getting her own comic title years before Supergirl was even introduced! Soon enough in Marvel Family #1 the three appeared together smashing the comic book scene.

Legal Troubles

Now time to discuss the tricky part of Captain Marvel - the court battles. The immediate success of Captain Marvel and the many similarities to Superman enraged DC, or as it was then called National Comics. In 1941 National took Fawcett to court and years of litigation meant that it didn't go into court until 1948 in National Comics Publications vs. Fawcett Publications with National arguing that Captain Marvel was infringing on Superman whereas Fawcett argued that although similar it was not infringing. The judge argued that although Captain Marvel was infringing Superman as National had not properly copyrighted several Superman strips it was decided in 1951 that National had abandoned the Superman copyright. National appealed and it seemed to in favour of them this time so Fawcett decided to settle out of court for a reason not to do with the trial. After the end of the war sales of superhero comics plummeted and would not pick up until the start of the 1960s with a new wave of DC heroes and Marvel's rise under Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Despite being extremely popular during the War after their sales were cut in half. Fawcett decided that comics were done for so decided to offer National $400,000 and that they would stop printing Captain Marvel. By 1954 all Captain Marvel titles had ceased printing. The decline of Captain Marvel caused ripples. A British company, L. Miller and Son, had made their money reprinting black-and-white comics of American comics and Captain Marvel was just as popular among the British as he was in America. With Captain Marvel's end they were worried so they decided to make their own comic a bit too heavily influenced by Captain Marvel called Marvelman which ended up ceasing printing in 1963. Marvelman was one of the many comics who inspired a young man called Alan Moore who in 1982 would revive Marvelman in a violent, pessimistic and graphic comic which I highly recommend people read. Containing ideas of superpowered heroes to be feared, and exploration of mythology which would set the stage up for Watchmen. In the 1960s a company called M.F. Enterprises were publishing their own hero called Captain Marvel which upset Marvel who ended up copyrighting 'Marvel' and 'Captain Marvel' so Marvelman had to be renamed Miracleman when it was published in the US. As a twist of fate Marvel bought Miracleman and republished it as Marvelman.

Shazam!

Shazam #1 when he returned after twenty years

During the 1960s superheroes were back and Fawcett wanted to reintroduce Captain Marvel but couldn't due to the earlier agreement with National. Meanwhile, DC's sales were dipping as they went into the 1970s so the two previous enemies made an agreement: DC would license Captain Marvel splitting the profits. In 1973 Shazam #1 brought back Billy Batson in a series of stories being written by Dennis O'Neil with C.C. Beck returning for ten issues before leaving thanks to creative differences. They also had to name the comic Shazam! to avoid copyright infringement with Marvel who at the time was publishing their own comic by the same title. On the front cover they used to have 'The Original Captain Marvel' until this royally infuriated Marvel had issued a cease-and-desist resulting them changing it to say 'The World's Mightiest Mortal' from Shazam! #15. In this comic they revised his origin with a prime example being the reason why Billy was chosen to be Captain Marvel was because he was pure of heart instead of living a hard life. Unfortunately Shazam! never sold well despite it reinvigorating interest in the Marvel Family so DC regularly featured crossovers with Superman and the Justice League. However, it did properly reintroduce one villain who has replaced Doctor Sivana as Captain Marvel's main antagonist: Black Adam.

Black Adam is easily Captain Marvel's most infamous villain with him being a staple in the comics and he is set to be played by Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson in his own movie, and possibly Shazam! as well. Strangely he only appeared in one comic under Fawcett, 1945's The Marvel Family #1. In this it is revealed that Billy is not the first to hold the moniker of Captain Marvel; in Ancient Egypt a man named Teth-Adam had the power until he overthrew the pharaoh to install himself in power. I personally love what he says to the pharaoh as he's overthrowing him: For resisting me, you get a broken neck! Shazam then branded him Black Adam and banished him to the edges of the universe as Adam vowed to return. 5,000 years later he arrives on Earth to kill Shazam where he fights the Marvel Family until being tricked into saying 'Shazam' reverting him to his human form. Doing so causes 5,000 years of ageing to catch up with him reducing him to ash. In the Shazam! comics Black Adam was resurrected by Doctor Sivana and soon he went on to fight the Marvel Family.

The fabulous Golden Age Black Adam

Post-Crisis

In 1985 DC decided to reboot its universe and within a year in Legends #1 Captain Marvel was brought back leading into a revamped origin in 1987 with a four-part series entitled Shazam: The New Beginning. However, DC soon ignored this in 1994's Power of Shazam which updated the comics and really made Black Adam his main villain. In this new origin Billy's parents were archaeologists, his father was called C.C. to homage C.C. Beck, sent to Egypt with Theo Adam for the Sivana Foundation. Theo Adam finds out he is the resurrected but depowered Black Adam so he sacrifices Billy's parents to restore his power and has Mary kidnapped. Meanwhile, like in the original comic Shazam had Billy, now in Fawcett City, taken to him where he is given the power of Captain Marvel. In the pre-Crisis stories Billy had a different personality when he was Captain Marvel but now it was changed so Captain Marvel and Billy had the same personality. Captain Marvel's clashes with Black Adam and them being teammates in the new Justice Society meant that Adam's popularity soon grew. By 1991 DC had stopped leasing Fawcett's characters with them being outright bought by DC which explains the amount of appearances and titles which the Marvel Family had. They would frequently appear in comics including 1996's Kingdom Come. A brief summary of Kingdom Come is that in the future Superman retired as a new breed of violent heroes came about and he returned to put them in their place. I would highly recommend reading it as I cannot do it justice with it dealing with questions of justice, responsibility, gods, men and idol worship. Captain Marvel appears as a foil to Superman near the end and they fight - quite ironic considering their history. Superman is weak against magic so the fight is actually in Marvel's favour.

Marvel vs. Superman in Kingdom Come

In 2005's Infinite Crisis Shazam was killed by the Spectre (the embodiment of God's vengeance) so Billy is chosen to be the new protector of the Rock of Eternity starting from The Trials of Shazam! where he got a new look as well as being known as Marvel. Captain Marvel Jr. formally took over the Captain Marvel moniker becoming Billy's replacement as Mary lost her powers. She would later be turned to evil when Black Adam gave her some of his powers. The Trials of Shazam! was never really popular saw only lasted until 2008 when Billy returned as Captain Marvel where Black Adam even became the guardian of the Rock of Eternity briefly. 

New 52

The New 52 Shazam

In 2011 DC rebooted its universe once again in the New 52. After a brief reboot Geoff Johns and Gary Frank properly brought back the character in Justice League and their story seems to have been almost recreated in the trailer for the new movie at certain parts. Here Captain Marvel had been formally renamed as for years he had marketed as Shazam to avoid copyright with Marvel, so it was simple just to have the character be called Shazam. In this update Billy is a bit of a knucklehead who is a cynic after going from foster house to foster house until adopted by the Vasquez family. Here Mary and Freddy have already been adopted and are now his adopted siblings alongside three other children. Angry one day Billy runs away and when catching a subway is transported to the Rock of Eternity where he encounters the Wizard. The Wizard is disappointed that Billy is not entirely good and Billy retorted that 'perfect good' can't exist which convinces the Wizard; he can see that Billy has done good and has the ability to do good so grants him the power of Shazam. As this was happening Doctor Sivana, who now has an eye that can see magic, freed Black Adam who now wanted to strip Billy of his powers in order for him to absorb the powers for himself. As Billy was abusing his powers for self gain, like getting money to buy beer, he was attacked by Adam. Eventually Black Adam kidnapped Billy's adopted family resulting in Billy granting them some power. Black Adam is only defeated when Billy in his mortal form goaded Adam into transforming himself which caused him to rapidly age. Since then Shazam has had some appearances with John Constantine even stealing his powers to defeat a demon at one point. Geoff Johns has announced that he will be writing a new Shazam comic title to be debuted in November 2018.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby 

Comics Explained: Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf

The new edition to the DCEU, Justice League, has recently been released and with it we have a new villain not yet seen outside of comics or animation: Steppenwolf. He was originally going to be in the theatrical release of Batman v. Superman but his cameo was cut making Justice League his first actual appearance. However, when he was announced to be the primary antagonist of Justice League many people, including comic fans, responded with, Who is Steppenwolf? Steppenwolf has made very few appearances in comics, Rob of the YouTube channel Comics Explained estimates that he was in only 70 comics, so many wondered why he was chosen as the antagonist over Brainiac or Darkseid. Today we're going to look at just exactly who Steppenwolf is.

New Gods #7

New Gods #7

Steppenwolf first appeared in Jack Kirby's New Gods #7 in 1972. Kirby was half of the dreamteam which made Marvel the success that it was, but he felt he wasn't getting the recognition that he rightly deserved (people mostly credited Stan Lee over Kirby) so amicably left to work for DC. There he made the New Gods which are a very inventive series of comics. Originally, the New Gods lived on two worlds existing outside the Multiverse in what has been named Kirby's 'Fourth World': the idyllic New Genesis ruled by Highfather, and the dystopian Apokolips ruled by Darkseid. As they existed out of the Multiverse the only way they could be reached, or come to the DC Universe, by portals named Boom Tubes. When Crisis on Infinite Earths destroyed the Multiverse the Fourth World was moved to existing inside the DC Universe, but they existed in a galaxy cut off from the rest of the universe only accessible via Boom Tube. The one last thing we need to discuss is the Source Wall. This 'Wall' exists at the edge of the Multiverse and separates the Multiverse from the Source: a collection of all knowledge and power in the Multiverse. If someone fails to get across the Source Wall they become part of the Wall itself.

Now we turn to Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf was the commander of Apokolips' military while Apokolips was under the rule of his sister Heggra, someone who had been ruling Apokolips since her husband, Yuga Khan, was claimed by the Source Wall. Later, when Heggra's son Uxas, (Darkseid), killed her he began serving his nephew. Steppenwolf was the enforcer for Apokolips; when Heggra or Darkseid wanted something done he would do it. This brings us to his first appearance in New Gods #7. Darkseid wanted his mother dead, (after all she had his wife, the only person he ever loved, executed), and wanted war with Apokolips' eternal enemy, New Genesis. So he sent Steppenwolf to assassinate Avia, the wife of New Genesis' ruler Izaya. This resulted in a bloody war which devastated both worlds. During the war Darkseid poisoned Heggra and Izaya smashes Steppenwolf killing him yelling: You'll never kill anyone again, Steppenwolf!

Steppenwolf's Death

During the war Izaya learned of the Source and devoted himself to peace renaming himself Highfather. He made a peace agreement with Darkseid where his son would be raised by Darkseid, while he would raise Darkseid's son Orion. While the sons were on their new worlds the peace would stand, so Darkseid had a torturer daily abuse Highfather's son so he would be compelled to escape the planet and end the non-aggression pact. Darkseid then showed his power and resurrected Steppenwolf putting him back in charge of Apokolips' military. Until the DC Universe was rebooted in the New 52 he was a background character with the only noteworthy thing that he did was dying at the hands of the Terror Titans; an inverse group of the Teen Titans.

New 52

Steppenwolf was reintroduced following the New 52 in Justice League Vol.2 #6. Again, he is in charge of Darkseid's army, however, he plays a minor role with Darkseid being the main villain. As the New 52 brought back the Multiverse the Fourth World was moved again to being outside the Multiverse. One of the 52 new universes was Earth-2 and Darkseid declared war on this reality. He sent Steppenwolf with an army of Parademons to wipe out the main threats of this reality before he invaded, clearly learning from his failed attempt at invading the mainstream universe. Steppenwolf destroyed entire countries and even destroyed Amazon Island causing the Olympian Gods to pray for humanity to fight through this. Batman infiltrated towers controlling the Parademons while Superman and Wonder Woman directly fought them. However, Steppenwolf impales Wonder Woman on his sword killing her and Superman is killed when Parademons overrun him. 

Steppenwolf kills Wonder Woman

Finally, Batman sacrifices himself destroying the towers, and with it the Parademons. Steppenwolf then is trapped on Earth where for five years with the remnants of his army he tried to establish his own kingdom in order to later conquer the rest of the planet. Steppenwolf had been using a clone of Superman, called Brutaal, to fight for him and had been indoctrinating him to worship Darkseid. However, this worked too well so when Steppenwolf decided to conquer the Earth for himself, and not Darkseid, Brutaal killed him. Sometime later Steppenwolf was resurrected again by Darkseid appearing in Justice League Vol. 2 #42.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. For future blog posts please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Deathstroke

Deathstroke

Earlier this week, as of writing, Ben Affleck tweeted a photo of the newest villain in the DCEU: Deathstroke. It is a strong possibility that Deathstroke will be appearing in Ben Affleck's solo Batman movie, entitled The Batman, and he is a clear fan favorite. Not only is he my favorite DC villain but he is a much loved villain, and at times anti-hero, among the comic book community. Many comic book fans fell in love with the character thanks to him being the main villain in the excellent animated TV series Teen Titans, voiced by the excellent Ron Perlman. I actually watched an episode of the terrible Teen Titans Go! because it hinted that Deathstroke would appear in it, (turns out he didn't). He's appeared in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and the far better Injustice: Gods Among Us. He's also been featured in Arrow as a villain. Today we'll look at the character's history.

First Appearance

The New Teen Titans #2

Deathstroke first appeared in 1980, and was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez in The New Teen Titans #2. However, in his initial appearance he was not called Deathstroke; instead he was called The Terminator, (four years before James Cameron's hit movie). In the comic the Teen Titans have a hit put on them by the criminal organization the H.I.V.E, and they wanted Deathstroke to do it. Deathstroke refused to take the contract as there was no advance. Instead his son who he had trained, called Ravager, took up the contract. As the Ravager fought the Teen Titans the H.I.V.E's experiment to make his brainpower greater caused him to age at an accelerated rate leading to his death. When Deathstroke arrived to claim his son's body he vowed vengeance against the Titans, (which the H.I.V.E wanted), and since he has become the Teen Titans' greatest foe.

Origin (pre-52)

Part of his origin

The New 52 changed his origin slightly, (which we shall get to), but it has remained somewhat the same as his initial appearance. Slade Wilson managed to lie about his age and managed to join the army aged sixteen. After briefly serving in Korea he got sent to Camp Washington, was promoted to major, and trained new recruits alongside Captain Adeline Kane. They fell in love and Adeline started to secretly train Slade in guerrilla warfare so by the time the Vietnam War broke out he was a master in countless martial arts and styles of warfare, (earning him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel). He and Adeline married a few months later, and Adeline became pregnant with their first child. His actions during the Vietnam War, including being horrified about his unit massacring a village and meeting a SAS solider called Wintergreen who would later become his right-hand man, led the army to choose him to take part in a program to create superpowered soldiers. The experiments led him to fall into a brief coma, but when he awakened he found he could use more of his brain capacity, was extremely agile, and his strength and durability had drastically increased. He left the army to take up the life of a mercenary, (just as Adeline became pregnant with his second son, Joseph), which attracted the attention of unsavory people. A rival mercenary named the Jackal had his younger son Joseph kidnapped and threatened to kill him unless Slade released important information about a client. Slade gambled on trying to rescue his son before the mercenaries acted but he was too late. Before he could prevent it one of the criminals slashed Joseph's throat. He survived but was rendered mute as his vocal cords were cut. Adeline was so furious that his lifestyle had almost ended their son's life that she tried to shoot Slade. Due to his agility the bullet only managed to destroy his right eye. Despite only having one eye Slade remained the best mercenary around and started to train his elder son, Grant, to become the Ravager.

The Judas Contract

Tales of the Teen Titans #42

The Judas Contract, a story starting in Tales of the Teen Titans #42, best shows the skill and strategic planning of Deathstroke, and another villain called Terra. Deathstroke had periodically fought the Titans since his initial appearance and, he was defeated by the Titan Beast Boy and the newest Titan Tara Markov, Terra. However, Terra turned out to be working with Deathstroke and had staged the battle so Terra could earn the trust of the Titans. Terra remained among the Titans and managed to learn their identities. With the identities of the Titans known the two villains started to take down the heroes one by one. Donna Troy, (Wonder Girl), was gassed in her photo studio, Beast Boy, (then going by the name Changeling), was poisoned using envelopes when responding to mail, Raven was taken down by Terra herself, Cyborg was electrocuted by a chair in his apartment, and Starfire was taken down by a device which affected her powers. Only Dick Grayson, the first Robin who had adopted the moniker of Nightwing, managed to escape. Grayson went to rescue his friends with the help of Deathstroke's son Joseph who had become Jericho. Jericho was born a metahuman, (the DC Universe's version of Marvel's mutants), who could possess people. Jericho managed to possess his father's body, and with Nightwing's martial arts managed to destroy the H.I.V.E facility that the Titans were held with. Terra was killed in the battle and Slade was taken into custody. However, the Titans chose to honor Terra's passing showing the optimistic nature of the team.

Own Comic

Deathstroke the Terminator #1

In 1991 Marv Wolfman and Steve Erwin got Deathstroke his own series. It was in Deathstroke the Terminator #1 that we found the details of Deathstroke's past and as the comic progressed we saw a wider aspect of Slade. In #15 we saw the first appearance of Rose Wilson, a daughter which he had with Lillian Worth following his divorce. Lillian his the existence of Rose from Deathstroke until his half-brother, the new Ravager, started murdering Deathstroke's family. Slade and Wintergreen managed to rescue Rose from Ravager but he chooses not to train her after what happened with his two sons, (especially Jericho who got possessed by a demon forcing Slade to stab him in The New Titans #83). However, Rose managed to get training and became the new Ravager working with the Teen Titans. 

In his own comic series Deathstroke first came into contact with Batman and since he has become one of the Dark Knight's greatest enemies. Fans have pointed out the similarities between the two characters with their high intelligence; both are martial arts experts; both have a code of honor; both use technology to their advantage; both are expert fighters; and both are expert planners. 

New 52

Deathstroke in Deathstroke vol. 2 #8

In 2011 DC rebooted the universe with the New 52, (called this as it had 52 new series). In Deathstroke #0 he got a slightly altered origin story. Most of his origin has remained intact except that after Camp Washington he was drafted into a special ops group called Team 7. In one of Team 7's missions he was badly injured leading to the operations which gave him superpowers. After the birth of Joseph he received intel that his friend Wintergreen had been captured in Somalia so he went after the kidnappers donning a mask. He slaughtered the kidnappers causing his fame to grow earning many enemies. After an attack by North Korea bombing his house, seemingly killing Adeline and Joseph, he massacred North Korean soldiers resulting in his eye being lost. In Teen Titans: Deathstroke #1 his origin was slightly changed again. This time he left Team 7, resulting in it disbanding, when the army bombed a children's hospital. This infuriated him so became a mercenary with a code of honor, and began training his son Grant. Missions together caused their bond to grow and Slade started seeing Grant as the only person he could trust. Unfortunately, during a mission in North Korea, soldiers found their refuge and started firing at them. Checking on Grant cost Slade his eye and he proceeded to massacre the soldiers when Grant was presumed dead. Now Slade only works to look after his daughter Rose seeing money as the only way to protect her. 

Other Appearances

Deathstroke is one of the most popular DC villains and has made many appearances in non-canon comics and media. In 1982 there was a Marvel/DC crossover called Marvel and DC Present: The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans which featured Deathstroke going after the X-Men. He manages to easily defeat Colossus, (who incidentally appeared in the movie Deadpool, a character who is a partial parody of Deathstroke), and a fight with Wolverine results in a draw. During the Flashpoint story, (where the Flash accidentally changed time and ended up resulting in the New 52 when the timeline was restored), he was a pirate in the Paris after the city was flooded by Aquaman looking for treasure and Rose. He also appears in the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comics, and later the game itself, where he has been forced into retirement by Superman's increasingly authoritarian One World Government. When Batman and Lex Luthor require a device from S.T.A.R Labs to help bring heroes from another reality to help them topple the regime Deathstroke quickly accepts. He breaks into the facility and gets hold of the device, but the hero Metamorpho, (who allied himself with the regime), comes to stop him. Deathstroke kills Metamorpho only to realize he will be unable to get the device to Batman and Luthor, so he instead sends the device's blueprints via the internet. He is then quickly captured by Raven and Cyborg who would interrogate him for a year, which is where the game picks up.

Deathstroke has made several non-comic appearances. As mentioned earlier many people first encountered the character in Cartoon Network's Teen Titans, and has such a big following thanks to the show. Due to censorship he was only called Slade in the show. Later, Teen Titans Go! announced they would have him appear in The Return of Slade in what transpired to be one of the worst episodes of a terrible series. Not only does Slade not appear, it acts as a rating trap for fans of the original series, and proceeds to insult said fans by saying the original was terrible and fans only regard it positively thanks to nostalgia. Not only was this incorrect and a Straw Man fallacy but it also was an insult to fans of Teen Titans Go!, (like my younger cousin), who expected a villain built up in the first half of the episode only to not appear. I digress though. Deathstroke was a playable character in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and appeared in DC Universe Online. He also made an appearance in Batman: Arkham Origins in one of the greatest fights of the Batman: Arkham games and, in Batman: Arkham Knight in one of the most disappointing fights of the series. He's made many movie and TV show appearances including Son of Batman, Smallville, Arrow, Beware the Batman, and the upcoming animated movie Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. Not only that we have the DCEU Deathstroke...

DCEU Deathstroke