More Like Gods of Mooooorrrre!
Milo here, adorning my bestest eye patch.
Over the past two-three years, DC have been putting out a select few Book and Mask sets for some of their New 52 titles. Me, being the sucka for collectables I am, have been lapping them up since Christmas, when I got Death Of The Family. Since then, I’ve gotten my hands on this lil’ beaut.
As I’ve only been reading them for about 3/4 years, I’m a relatively recent comic book fan, compared to some. This means I’m still catching up with the classics and I don’t really have time for new ones. Nevertheless, when you bundle a mask with anything, chances are I’m gonna buy it.
When I purchased this tingaling, I won’t lie, it was mainly for the mask, so I wasn’t expecting much from the book. However, though it wasn’t anything revolutionary, it was chockablock with enough action to substantially fill a baguette.
The story was a lot more than I bargained for, actually. Where I was expecting a straightforward “Oi! Deathstroke! Kill them buggers!”, instead, I was treated by a pretty original story of revenge, with clear motivations and a few little twists and surprises on the way. Slade “My own parody’s better than me” Wilson, the one-eyed assassin you know and love, is on one of his standard missions when he is damaged beyond even what his accelerated healing can repair. Stumbling into the care of a man indebted to him, he passes out. He awakens a brand new man, literally. Slade is now in a new body with some jacked up memories, a guy with a red “F” on his face, some children being poorly protected and some mentalist with a robot mask.
OOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
Overall, I was impressed, maybe even a little overwhelmed, by the complexity of the story. Writer Tony S. Daniel included an asstonne of characters which did lead to me having to backtrack a couple of pages every now and then. Moreover, some of the dialogue was a bit, how shall I say? Kill me now. The one and only offender of this was Harley Quinn, who makes an appearance in the final act. Like her iteration in Suicide Squad (the movie), Harley Quinn is never without anything to say, which gets grating when Daniel ran out of ideas for things for her to say, leading to her saying “cray”, kill. Me. Now. Apart from that, though, it was your standard mix of inner monologue and super spy talk that almost no-one can understand.
This is a book about a sword/gun wielding death delivery boy, however, not a stand-up comedian. “So how was the action?” I hear you cry, unleashing your anger and suspense on your grandmother’s Chia Pet, launching it at the nearby wall. Now there’s soil on the floor and she’s gotta sweep it up, you know your grandmother’s riddled with arthritis and it can’t be good for her back, either. But that’s not my problem, telling you about the action, however, is. No fear for anyone looking to be knee deep in blood n’ balls, because this book’s got ya covered. The action was explosive and more graphic than I expected, so that’s a plus, obviously.
OOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOSH!!!
Finally, the artwork, also by Daniel, though somewhat generic, can’t really be faulted too much, as it’s pretty good on the whole. As I said, there isn’t anything newfangled or crazay going on, but everything that is happening is good n’ nice. However, what really got me into the book was the level of violence going on. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not Kick-Ass in terms of the red stuff, but I was expecting a little bit of blood here and there, not straight up beheadings. Perhaps it’s the relatively clean art style which neatens up the violence, making the effect not as raw as John Romita Jr.’s work in Kick-Ass. The inks aren’t any different. The lines are bold, as are the colours, so no complaints there either. Lettering is standard as well. It’s all just standard, good, non-offensive. Nothing standing out as sickening or triumphant.
Overall, Deathstroke: Gods Of War was a fine read. We had a good ol’ tale of vengeance, some great artwork, y’know, the works. However, there was nothing special about this story, or it’s artwork. It was perfectly enjoyable and I’d probably read it again, but I won’t be revering it any time soon, despite what the tagline at the top says, but, y’know, it was a pun.
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70/100
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Lots of hugs, kisses and lacerations
Milo.
Stuff and That. 