With a single goal in mind, Deathstroke will go to the ends of the earth to achieve it.
What They Say:
FLASH FACT! He will stop at nothing to find his lost treasure!
The Review:
There’s something poetic about Deathstroke taking to the seas in the Flashpoint universe to become a new breed of pirate. While it may not be the high money assassinations that we’re used to him being involved in, it puts him in a team mode that we usually don’t see him in. This series has him mainly going after one goal, but since he’s a pretty smart guy, he knows he needs money and resources to do it, both to keep the ship running as well as to pay off the crew so it can handle the threats that are out there on the seas. With the changes to the world, there’s a lot of ocean out there now and a lot of secrets under the sea in Western Europe that he can go after as well as the usual valuable items. He’s not the only one out there though as the other big fish is a man named Warlord that fights with a bit more honor but has quite a reputation all of his own that has him feared by many.
The opening issue here shows us a fight between the two men and their ships and it has the classic pirate feel to while mixing it with some superhuman powers. While Deathstroke has his skills to be sure, he knows to bring along some extra power as well, which includes characters like Icicle and Clayface. Clayface in particular is rather fun to watch in this with his seaman’s cap on his head and the way he comes across as perfectly suited for both dock work and a life at sea. While we do have Deathstroke scoping out a score under the sea, it’s the other item that is his real focus here and it’s definitely a good reason for him to be so dedicated to finding it. That his daughter Rose has been taken from him and is captured somewhere has him going from ship to ship to try and find the container that she’s in. What we do learn from this though is that Rose is not the only one that’s been captured and put into stasis like this as he ends up finding Jenny Blitz instead of her on his current mission. The reason for their being put like this is still a mystery though, but it certainly opens the imagination to many ideas.
While we do get a good fight at the start, the book has some fun when Deathstroke has to deal with some of the consequences as he is starting to lose his crew some and needs to add a bit more to the population. His raid on the Saint Helena facility is pretty straightforward, but it has him bringing on board some new players that leads into what we saw in the main Flashpoint series where he has Sonar and Electric Eel on his boat. He’s not quite there yet here, but watching the formation of the crew that eventually gets him there, and will take him up against Aquaman, definitely has its moments. There’s a coldness and brutality to what he does, but there’s also some good manly moments, such as how he treats the dead to a proper burial at see and keeps in mind what’s necessary for the morale of his crew.
Digital Notes:
This digital edition of Deathstroke from Comixology features just the first printing cover of the issue with no additional extras included in the book.
In Summary:
This part of the Flashpoint spinoff mini’s lets Deathstroke and his quest to save his daughter lead things, but it also shows us a bit of what life on the seas is like and the dangers they face when they slide into the territorial waters of Atlantis. The crew that he has is amusing to watch as they have a good pirate feel with the addition of metahuman powers and seeing how they come together for the next mission to save Rose works well. But as interesting as it is, and it does flesh things out just a bit more about a world in which Aquaman reigns supreme, it doesn’t feel as strongly connected to things until the end when it ties back into the main Flashpoint series. It has some good ideas in it and Deathstroke plays the part of an almost salty sea captain well, but it needs something extra to make it click better, which may come in the following issues. Still, any book that puts Clayface as a pirate earns some praise in my mind.
Grade: C+
