History ComicBook / Deathstroke

Deathstroke was introduced in the first issue of 1980's ''ComicBook/TheNewTeenTitans'', initially as a villainous superhuman mercenary and recurring adversary of the teenage superheroes.

[[redirect:ComicBook/DeathstrokeRebirth]]

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->''"Guns don’t kill people. Deathstroke kills people."''

''Deathstroke'' is a 2016 comic book series from Creator/DCComics launched as part of its ComicBook/DCRebirth branding initiative. The series, initially shipping semi-monthly, is written by Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}}, and stars the titular character along with his family.

The series has a crossover with ''ComicBook/TitansRebirth'' and ''ComicBook/TeenTitansRebirth'' in ''ComicBook/TheLazarusContract'', a BatFamilyCrossover that features Deathstroke trying to use the Speed Force to revive his dead son, Grant. It is also intended to clear up the ContinuitySnarl regarding the Titans' Post-Flashpoint history, along with Deathstroke's relationship with the team, which was similarly RetGone'd in the New 52.

The series was later central to another crossover with ''Teen Titans'', this time called ''ComicBook/TheTerminusAgenda'', taking place from March to May of 2019. This crossover focused on a newer incarnation of the Teen Titans as they went on the hunt for Slade Wilson.

The series ended with issue 50.
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!!''Deathstroke'' contains examples of:
* AbusiveParents: Slade Wilson is a ''terrible'' father. Adeline Kane is marginally better, taking care of Grant and Joey as children and encouraging Joey's choice to be a superhero in a healthy way, as opposed to Slade who manipulates his children into doing what he wants.
** A flashback to Slade's past shows his father treated him almost exactly the same as he treated Grant.
** [[spoiler: The alternate universe Slade who appears in Deathstroke R.I.P. is even worse, having personally killed Joey and Rose in his universe.]]
* AgeLift: Joey is in his twenties, having been aged down from his mid-late twenties along with the rest of his "generation" of Titans.
* AsYouKnow: Characters rather often describe events, abilities, and technological capabilities to others who should already know that info.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther:
** Despite marrying Hosun ''entirely'' to piss off Slade (and maybe protect him), Rose actually did love him and [[spoiler: is heartbroken when he is killed]].
** Adeline in the end does love Slade, despite her protests to the contrary.
* BatfamilyCrossover:
** ''ComicBook/TheLazarusContract'', with ''Comicbook/TitansRebirth'' and ''Comicbook/TeenTitansRebirth''.
** ''ComicBook/TheTerminusAgenda'', with just the ''Teen Titans'' book.
* BaldnessMeansSickness: A dark variation. Joseph suckerpunched Rose in issue #18, and issue #20 reveals he hit her hard enough that her head had to be stitched closed. Since her hair needed to be shaved for that, Rose now wears a wig to cover her stitches. Later issues reveal that her hair is growing back.
* BeingEvilSucks: Slade ''knows full well'' how being a supervillain impacts his family, and admits as much. After ''ComicBook/TheLazarusContract'' he's decided to go straight and outright invokes this trope in conversation with Dr. Light.
-->'''Deathstroke:''' And what have I got, Arthur? A dead son. My other boy got his throat cut and can't speak. My ex-wife hates me. My daughter's half a nutjob. This is the treasure my lifestyle has earned me -- millions in the bank but an empty soul.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: When not just plain EvilVersusEvil. Slade may be a supervillain but plenty of the people he clashes with are just as bad, if not worse than him. Even his kids have moments of darkness.
* TheBusCameBack: Pat Trayce, the woman who briefly took up the Vigilante moniker in Slade's first ongoing, makes a reappearance. Their history even seems to be intact, actually.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: There aren't many characters who don't have this disorder:
** Slade, with nearly every character he interacts with, save for Wintergreen.
** Bland, who employs Slade while also attempting to arrange his death.
** [[Comicbook/NightwingRebirth Raptor]], who works for Bland, but intends to [[WellIntentionedExtremist undermine his dictatorship.]]
** Terra, but given [[ComicBook/TheJudasContract what she is most known for]], this isn't a surprise.
* ClueFromEd: Editor's notes are used extensively, sometimes to the point that a single page will have three or more. Sometimes these will even reference events that happened in the ''previous issue.''
* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Red Lion is ComicBook/BlackPanther as a racist, theocratic dictator. Marvel's Panther acknowledges and even uses the existence of gods to his advantage when he ''has'' to but otherwise practices and promotes a secular life style. Black Panther's time is also taken up dealing with ethnic disputes by people who otherwise think of themselves as the ''same race'' and would be much happier if divisions like full blown racism were things that didn't exist.
* CurbStompBattle: The Legion of Doom manage to effortlessly defeat an assembly of supervillains at Slade's funeral, almost entirely through Sinestro, who clearly wasn't trying very hard.
* DestructoNookie: Slade and Adeline having sex in Issue 1 is comparable to a session of close quarters combat.
* DiscriminateAndSwitch: David accuses Slade of disapproving of his and Joey's relationship because they're both men. Slade denies this outright, stating instead that his issue is that since David was an HonoraryUncle to his kids, as far as Slade's concerned their relationship is [[NotBloodSiblings basically incest]].
* DownerEnding: The run as a whole cops one, as after everything goes down, the Wilsons [[spoiler: come together as a family, at least for a little bit, and live a peaceful suburban life. However, Slade's restlessness kicks in and he abandons his family and returns to acting as Deathstroke, something that has been repeatedly made clear throughout the run to be what ruined his life and the lives of everyone he loves]].
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Underneath all the abuse and manipulations, Slade does love his children. He just has an extremely warped way of showing it. For instance, he posted a contract on his own daughter that he was unable to take down. When someone actually ''took it up'', he used the experience as an excuse to spend time with Rose.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Slade mentions a few:
** He thinks it's cruel to leave children without a mother, which is why he kills some bear cubs. He may be a deadbeat dad, but at least his kids have Adeline!
** He seems to have a distaste for using children in superheroics.
** He blackmails a corrupt politician to suicide, resulting in the end of Bland's genocide and his exile. Later on, he turns a blind eye to Raptor possibly sabotaging Bland's newly captured ship.
* EvilCounterpart: The final arc features a a Deathstroke from the Dark Multiverse, who is essentially Slade with what little humanity he has stripped away -- he killed Rose when he found her, slit Joey's throat himself and has killed some of the Teen Titans. Slade doesn't like what he sees and this guy is essentially used to show Slade what kind of person he could become if he abandoned his family and friends.
* {{Expy}}:
** Matthew Bland, aka Red Lion, is an evil expy of Comicbook/BlackPanther, whom Priest has also written for.
** Death Masque,[[note]]Originally a completely different character created as a villain by Priest in his run of ''ComicBook/TheRay''[[/note]] as introduced in the ''Deathstroke: Arkham'' story arc, is a wisecracking, [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall-breaking]], sword-wielding, costumed fighter with a design based on Deathstroke's. [[ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} Sound familiar?]]
* FunetikAksent: Matthew Bland sometimes uses this, notably frequently using the term "wheelon" for "villain".
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Slade's more outrightly evil Dark Multiverse counterpart, due to not having his healing factor, is covered with scars, including one big one over his blinded eye.
* HeroAntagonist: Batman and later Superman clash with Slade on separate occasions, both conducting themselves much the same as in their own comics.
* HonorAmongThieves: At [[spoiler: Slade's funeral]], the assembled villains are there on the condition that nobody try anything. The presence of Superman (except not really) helps. Of course, the Legion of Doom do not care and just do whatever they want.
* ItRunsInTheFamily: Elements of Slade's SuperSoldier serum were passed onto his children Joey and Rose (Grant was born before he got the serum). Joey can possess people via eyesight, and Rose can ''sort of'' see the future because her brain works overtime to analyse all info available to her and give her a mental picture of what will go down.
* {{Jerkass}}: Slade and Terra are both thoroughly despicable people, although Slade proves to be [[EvilerThanThou the worse of the two by far.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Slade in a nutshell.
* KickTheDog: Slade kills Tanya's dog. Just to prove to her that he is that terrible of a person.
* LegacyCharacter:
** The Ravager identity is re-established as having belonged to Grant Wilson, with Rose picking it up long after his death.
** After ''ComicBook/TheTerminusAgenda'', the question of who will be the next Deathstroke is raised. [[spoiler: Rose decides to pull off Slade's last job as Deathstroke]].
* MySuitIsAlsoSuper: Slade's armor is outfitted with a "gravity sheath", which rebounds a great deal of force or energy he would have taken back at his opponents. This is tough enough to take blows from ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' on multiple occasions and even withstand the incredible power of the Speed Force.
* NoSympathy: Batman voices this towards Rose because unlike [[ThouShaltNotKill him]], she kills people.
* OutGambitted: Whoo, boy.
** The first issue of ''Deathstroke'': A dictator hires Deathstroke to get a Congressman re-elected to get the US to stay out of his genocide campaign, but asks a favor by getting him to kill the Clock King, who was under his (the dictator's) protection. The plan was that Deathstroke would kill the Clock King and the dictator would kill Deathstroke. However, Deathstroke outwitted him back doubling the pay then blackmailing the senator into killing himself, thus putting the dictator in trouble with the Clock King. [[spoiler:Then, it's ultimately revealed that the dictator did all that just to get Deathstroke to ''change costumes'', leading to him taking his old costume.]] This, in turn, was much later revealed to be orchestrated by [[spoiler: Adeline]].
** Batman successfully out-gambits Slade and manages to tell Rose that ''he'' [[spoiler:put out the hit on her]], which causes her to rethink her life and distance herself from Deathstroke. Considering Deathstroke's goal was to [[spoiler: make her spend more time with him]], Batman thoroughly won there.
* ParentalAbuse: Slade, in spades. He's at the very least always emotionally abusive and neglectful, constantly insulting his children in almost all scenes we see him with them -- Grant and Rose get the worst of it, with Joey not getting as berated as them, although Wintergreen states Slade does this to try and steer them on a better course, and he's probably okay with Joey's life choices. He also manipulates his children and stalks them. In terms of physical abuse, Slade was at the very least physically abusive in the past, as revealed in an interaction between him, Grant and Joey.
* PetTheDog: Slade leaves Luis alive as a favour to his mother, Pat, who was briefly Slade's partner.
* PronouncingMyNameForYou: Dr. Villain, a genius scientist who serves as Slade's personal physician, insists his name is pronounced "Will-hane".
* RetiredBadass: [[spoiler: In ''Deathstroke R.I.P'', Slade recovers from his death and attempts to use a fake identity to just work as a small-town E.R. nurse. He's unable to last long--he euthanizes a patient who was likely never going to recover, then murders the bikers who shot said patient. And then he learns someone dressed like him apparently has been gunning for Rose...]]
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: This title flies right off the cynical side of the scale and keeps on going.
* StealthInsult: After Wintergreen tells Rose that Slade saying "you're an idiot" can be translated into "I'm concerned about your choices", she tells Slade she's concerned about his choices.
* SuckSessor:
** In "Deathstroke RIP", Jericho says this about Damian Wayne as Robin. He says that while his psychopathic side comes from Slade and his manipulative side comes from Adeline, the good parts of him come from Dick Grayson, who is superior to Damian as Robin.
** In the same arc, Slade's replacement as Deathstroke, [[spoiler: Rose Wilson]] is notably worse than him because [[spoiler: she won't actually kill people who aren't targets]], which Shado points out.
* TakeThat: There's a dig at the second New 52 series, when Bland says he's glad that Slade doesn't have black hair anymore, even though it's pretty clear that this series is a reboot of the character and his supporting cast.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Billy Wintergreen is the closest that Slade has to a moral conscience. Even then, he doesn't exactly discourage Slade from doing terrible things.
** Later played straight when Wintergreen calls out Slade on his manipulations, and pulls a ScrewThisImOuttaHere.
** [[spoiler: The evil Deathstroke's version of Wintergreen died very early on--and the resulting Deathstroke is devoid of any of the ''hints'' of a conscience the main universe version has]].
* TheUnapologetic: Priest even mentions this in regards to Slade's revealed manipulation of [[MoralityPet Tanya Spears]].
-->'''Christopher Priest:''' But he realizes his screw up, and the noble thing for Slade to do (since “I’m sorry” is not in his vocabulary) is [[ZeroApprovalGambit to make Tanya hate him]], which he accomplishes with ruthless efficiency.
* UndyingLoyalty: Wintergreen may be the only person that Slade is completely honest to, and isn't trying to manipulate.
* UnexplainedRecovery: Eobard Thawne was killed by Iris West in the future, and the ramifications of that are a big part of ''ComicBook/FlashWar''... and yet Eobard shows up alive and well right after he died in this series, with no explanation as to how he's back, though his appearances in the past have employed time-travel, so that's a possibility.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Terra started out as an innocent child, but she had a rough time growing up that caused her to lose that innocence and become jaded. It only got worse when Slade came along and groomed her to be an assassin.
* VillainProtagonist: Slade is a massive bastard.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: The Legion of Doom take an interest in Jericho after [[spoiler: Slade's death]].
* VillainousFriendship: Subverted with Slade and Matthew Bland. They have a professional relationship, but only out of convenience, and are constantly plotting to stab the other in the back.
* VillainousLegacy: The opening issue of "Deathstroke RIP" asks [[spoiler:"who will become the new Deathstroke?"]], and the issue itself presents an angry and unhinged Jericho being offered membership within the Legion of Doom and Rose Wilson replying to one of Deathstroke's contracts. It's [[spoiler: actually Rose]].
* VitriolicBestBuds: Terra and Rose are ''high'' on the vitriolic side, but have each other's backs when it counts. Rose even calls Terra "her friend" at one point, and Terra shows concern for Rose when things get rough for her.
* WhamShot: In issue #13, the panel of [[spoiler:Slade getting into bed with Etienne.]]
* WorthyOpponent: Slade makes it pretty clear that he respects the hell out of Batman.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Slade's clash with Batman is predictably this from their meeting right on through, with gambits flying around and hitting and missing constantly. It would feel well-nigh impossible if it weren't Deathstroke and Batman we were talking about.
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* BatfamilyCrossover: With ''Comicbook/TitansRebirth'' and ''Comicbook/TeenTitansRebirth'' for ''ComicBook/TheLazarusContract''.

* OffModel: The suit that Batman wears in the final fight of "Deathstroke vs. Batman" is clearly meant to be the "Year One" outfit, with its large pouches, short ears, lack of detail and Slade describing it as "vintage". However, it noticeably lacks the black briefs, which were also retained when it appeared in ''ComicBook/BatmanTomKing'', where it was described as the original.

[[caption-width-right:350:A true "wheelon"]]

!!Contains examples of:

* XanatosSpeedChess: Slade's clash with Batman is predictably this from their meeting right on through, with gambits flying around and hitting and missing constantly. It would feel well-nigh impossible if it weren't Deathstroke and Batman we were talking about.

[[redirect:Characters/BatmanDeathstroke]]

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[[caption-width-right:328:Now would be a good time to start running.]]

Slade Wilson, better known by his professional ''nom de guerre'' of Deathstroke the Terminator ([[RenamedToAvoidAssociation later shortened to]] Deathstroke [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} after a certain movie came out]]), is a fictional mercenary, freelance assassin and supervillain in Creator/DCComics who first appeared in ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans The New Teen Titans]]'' (vol. 1) #2 (December, 1980). He was created by Marv Wolfman and Creator/GeorgePerez.

Originally, Deathstroke was intended to be a minor, one-shot villain but fan-reaction saw him become a regular, recurring character in not only the ''Teen Titans'' but in other series as well. He later starred, four times, in his own comic series. The first series ran from June 1991-April 1996, the second from September 2011-May 2013, the third from October 2014-July 2016, and the fourth began in August 2016.

Slade Wilson was just sixteen years old when he lied about his age and enlisted in the United States Army where he eventually reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. It was also in the Army that he met his future wife, and combat trainer, Adeline Kane. Slade was eventually shipped to Vietnam, where he would end up being rescued by his future right-hand man, an SAS commando named Wintergreen. After his tour in Vietnam, Slade was selected to be a test subject for an experiment designed to create metahuman supersoldiers. This left him with enhanced physical and mental abilities as well as a healing factor. Slade deserted soon afterwards to rescue Wintergreen after a vindictive superior officer sent him on a suicide mission. Deciding to put his skills and abilities to a profitable use, Slade became a mercenary.

Slade would eventually cross paths with the Teen Titans when his son Grant, following in his father's mercenary footsteps, took a contract from the Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination (H.I.V.E) to kill or capture the Teen Titans. Grant died in the attempt and Slade agreed to finish his son's job. This would be the start of a ''long'' history of conflict between Deathstroke and the Titans. Because of his skills as a mercenary, Slade would eventually wind up duking it out with several DC heroes over the next three decades.

He has also appeared in:
* Deathstroke was featured as the main antagonist in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' animated series, simply using his [[NeverSayDie more kid-friendly]] first name "[[Characters/TeenTitansSlade Slade]]" (voiced by Creator/RonPerlman), and appeared in the movie of [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo the second series]], ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' (voiced by Creator/WillArnett).
* A more comic-accurate version of Deathstroke (voiced by Creator/WentworthMiller, [[TheOtherDarrin then]] Creator/FredTatasciore) appeared in the second season of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', working as an enforcer for the Light.
* He appeared as a GeneralRipper antagonist in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', played by Creator/MichaelHogan.
* He was a main character in the first two seasons of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', where he's played by [[RaceLift mixed-race]] actor Creator/ManuBennett.
* ''WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse''
** He appeared in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueTheFlashpointParadox'' (reprised by Perlman)
** He was the main antagonist in ''WesternAnimation/SonOfBatman'' (voiced by Thomas Gibson)
** He plays the secondary antagonist in ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTheJudasContract The Judas Contract]]'' (voiced by the late Creator/MiguelFerrer).
** He had a silent cameo in ''WesternAnimation/SuicideSquadHellToPay'', where he played a role in Bronze Tiger's backstory.
* He was one of the major villains in ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman'' (voiced by Creator/RobinAtkinDownes)
* He made his first appearance in a live action movie with a cameo in the 2017 Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse film ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'', played by Creator/JoeManganiello. He was originally to be the villain in the solo Batman movie when Creator/BenAffleck was still directing then was set to headline his own movie, and both projects were seemingly scrapped. He has an expanded role in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', the Director's Cut of ''Justice League'', which features footage scrapped from the 2017 film and new scenes involving Deathstroke that were filmed in 2020.
* Another live-action television version of him appears in the second season of ''Series/{{Titans 2018}}'', played by Creator/EsaiMorales.
* A web series, ''WesternAnimation/DeathstrokeKnightsAndDragons'', was released on DC Universe, where he is voiced by Creator/MichaelChiklis.

He's also appeared as a playable fighter in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'' (voiced by Creator/PatrickSeitz), ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' (voiced by J.G. Hertzler), and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' (voiced by Creator/MarkRolston) as a villain and DLC character.

Not to be confused with [[ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} another comic book mercenary with the last name Wilson.]]

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!!Tropes pertaining to Deathstroke:

* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: Slade had this as one of his powers (though it's not stated outright in the series, only the comics). Later retconned in saying that his grey matter got re-routed and reprogrammed, allowing him to use his brain in various ways that regular humans do not.
* [[AbusiveParents Abusive Parent]]: Slade is not the most loving father, Even putting aside how [[spoiler:he was heavily involved in the deaths of both of his sons]], you could make a case for this solely for Slade's daughter and the emotional manipulation and abuse he puts her through.
* ActionDad: While his fatherly instincts leave something to be desired there is no denying that Slade is a badass.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Apparently, Rob Liefeld once mis-drew Slade "Deathstroke" Wilson by letting him have both of his eyes, and when Fabian Nicieza saw it, he jokingly referred to the "new" character as Wade "Deadpool" Wilson. (Y'all know ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}, yes?)
** Slade's original write-up -- a veteran who took a supersoldier serum -- made him a particularly cynical take on ComicBook/CaptainAmerica.
* AntiHero: He has drifted into this category on a couple of occasions. It was most notable during the ''Total Chaos'' storyline.
* AntiVillain: Slade is a mercenary but he does have something of a fairly strong moral code. [[DependingOnTheWriter Of course, this has been subject]] [[CharacterizationMarchesOn to change from time to time]] and DependingOnTheWriter. Notably, the 2016 series by Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}} goes to great lengths to shoot down the notion that someone like Slade could be considered anything other than a bad guy.
-->'''Wintergreen''': Much as you or I, or say, the ''Justice League'' would like to pretend otherwise..."mercenary," "anti-hero," and such...the "villain" label is the best fit, I'm afraid.
* ArchEnemy: To the Teen Titans as a whole. Now the Titans have gone through tons of Big Bads, and let's face it, Slade isn't the biggest or baddest. But he is the most persistent and most personal enemy the team has ever faced.
** Naturally, he shares a special rivalry with ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}.
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: He is very good, he knows it, and he lets everyone else know it too. See how his mask is half black and doesn't have an eyehole on that side? He does that to emphasize how he only has one eye, and he will ''still'' kick your ass.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: His actual name is Slade Wilson. Deathstroke the Terminator is his ''nom de guerre''.
* BadassBack: Deathstroke manages to skewer the Flash on his sword with a blind strike behind him, despite the fact that the Flash at that point is moving so much faster than Deathstroke that the villain must have looked like an inanimate statue to the hero.
%%%%* BadassBandolier:
* BadBoss: In one late-2010's comic, he's assigned a team of [[KidSidekick much younger subordinates]]. Despite them proving both competent and loyal (if a bit [[AscendedFanboy overeager]]), he's killed them all by the end of the issue.
* BallsOfSteel: Black Canary once managed to land a kick on Deathstroke right in the crotch, but this trope is used as he angrily replied that he was wearing over 50 pounds of body armor, ''so of course he was wearing a cup.''
* BeardOfEvil: He has one underneath that mask.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't endanger Jericho.
** ComicBook/GreenArrow pressed a major one in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' when he stabbed him in his eye socket with one of his arrows. Though Slade had been blind in that eye for years, it was implied that [[EyeScream the eye itself was still there]] until that point.
* BigBad: Of the ''Judas Contract'', ''Titans Hunt'', and the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans.'' While in scale he doesn't quite match Trigon, Deathstroke is still the most frequent of the Titans' Big Bads, also serving as this in some of Dick's solo series.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Oh boy, where to start? You know, it's saying something when Slade may actually be the only ''sane'' one left in his immediate family. His wife, Addie, was ostensibly on the side of angels, but her methods weren't. They only seemed to get worse with time. Eldest son Grant was a PsychoForHire who ended up killing himself when going up against the ComicBook/TeenTitans. Middle child Joseph "Jericho" Wilson was the WhiteSheep; a genuinely nice, artistic sort and a Titan in good standing...until he made contact with Raven's demonic side and the corrupted remnants of Azarath and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went nuts as a result]]. Rose, the youngest, and the product of Slade's affair with a brothel keeper/mercenary, gouged her own eye out in an attempt to be just like daddy (that, before her HeelFaceTurn). So yeah.
* BloodKnight: Some of his statements show that he really enjoys his line of work.
--> (in response to Lagoon Boy requesting backup) "See, calling for help like that just pushes up the timetable. Now I can't savor the battle."
* BoomStick: One of his signature weapons is a power staff that fires lethal and non-lethal energy blasts from both ends.
* BreakThemByTalking: He is a master at this trope.
* BreakoutVillain: He was intended to be a minor, practically one-shot villain. He then got his role expanded to the BigBad of a major story arc. Soon winded up getting his own comic book series and has become a fan favorite villain of the DC Universe.
** While rarely the BigBad outside of Titans comics, Slade is regularly TheDragon to one. This is particularly visible in the first ComicBook/SecretSix miniseries and ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis, where he's the strongest of the Secret Society of Supervillains.
* CannotSpitItOut: In the Comicbook/DCRebirth volume of the series, Wintergreen says that Slade genuinely loves his children, but is too fundamentally broken as a human being to show them the affection they deserve.
* CharacterDevelopment: He started the CycleOfRevenge against the Titans when his son got killed capturing them for a contract. The arc ends with his surviving son and wife turned against him, and a bunch of teen heroes that hate his guts. Slade gets a HeelRealization about this and eventually tells a vengeful Beast Boy that avenging the dead isn't worth it because everyone loses in the end. This goes away in the 2003 reboot, where he vows to kill Jericho again for making him kill Wintergreen.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Slade was far more of a dirtbag in his earliest appearances, in sharp contrast to his eventual AntiVillain status. One of his earliest appearances had him kidnapping Cyborg's love interest in order to lure the Teen Titans into a trap, something that would seem at odds with his NeverHurtAnInnocent guidelines that would be established in later issues, and recreate the Doom Patrol's way of dying — a traumatic event for Changeling -- ForTheEvulz. This can be explained by the creative differences between George Perez, who saw Slade as a ruthless villain whose "code" was only a personal justification, and Marv Wolfman, who did not see him as villain but as an honorable victim of circumstance. Thus when Perez left the title, Deathstroke's more noble characterization took hold.
* ColonelBadass: Slade was a Lieutenant Colonel back when he was still serving in the US Army.
* CombatPragmatist: Slade's the type of guy who ''would'' stab you in the back or shoot you in the head before you even knew what was happening.
* ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames: Lately, he's seldom referred to as Deathstroke, much less "the Terminator". He tends to be identified as Slade or Slade Wilson these days.
* ConsummateProfessional: He'll kill anyone he's paid to, and at times even is paid in advance simply to be sure he is willing to follow through on a job to uphold his professional reputation.
* ContinuitySnarl: The entire Wilson family was more inconsistent than ''Hawkman'' in the New 52. As a result, the ''Rebirth'' series just rebooted them all.
* ContractOnTheHitman: Slade, going after an employer who betrayed him, is targeted by a second assassin, Jannissary. When Slade has Jannissary at his mercy and explains his motives, Jannissary gives him the money he had paid; Slade returns it before killing the employer.
* CoolSword: In ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' he has a large (but not quite {{BFS}}-level) longsword that's serrated near the hilt.
* TheCorrupter:
** He's tried to turn Nightwing evil, along with telling Arsenal he was gonna take his daughter after he killed him and raise her to be a mercenary assassin.
** Slade also has a tendency to do this with mind altering drugs. He's done it on Rose and was later revealed to be doing it to [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]] in order to explain her FaceHeelTurn.
* CrazyPrepared: He's often depicted as an evil version of Batman (which makes him a good foil for Robin).
* CulturedBadass: Slade is often seen sipping champagne and enjoying the finer things in life.
* DarkAgeOfSupernames: A prime example of a character managing to stay top-tier despite a name that seems hilariously over the top today.
* DeadpanSnarker: A noteworthy aspect of his personality since the beginning.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Does he care for his children or are they his pawns? Is he really evil or just in it for the money? About the only thing that doesn't change depending on who writes him is that he's a badass.
* DirtyOldMan: Shows this aspect on occasion. It became especially apparent during ComicBook/TheJudasContract arc.
* DisposableSuperheroMaker: Back in the 1950's, when Slade volunteered for the experiments that gave him his superhuman abilities, the serum eventually plunged him into a coma. The scientists decided to destroy the serum formula. Months later, Slade woke up with superhuman powers.
* TheDragon: He's ended up serving in this position more than once in his mercenary career.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Slade was already one of the best soldiers in the US Army when he was selected to be a test subject in an experiment to create metahuman super-soldiers. This left him with physical abilities just above the human norm and a healing factor of indeterminate strength. Couple that with his training and combat experience and you got yourself one hell of a mercenary. [[spoiler:He's also scheduled to gain access to the Speed Force, meaning that he'll also be as fast as the [[ComicBook/TheFlash Flashes]].]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: While Slade is not likely to win any sort of father of the year award anytime soon, he does genuinely love his three kids. He also does genuinely love his butler, Billy Wintergreen.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** He was shocked that Beast Boy was willing to become a murderer and besmirch his hero reputation to avenge Terra, perpetuating the CycleOfRevenge that Deathstroke started. It gets so bad that Slade tells Beast Boy, after getting him to show he can't kill an unarmed man who deserves death, that he's a hero and it's not worth avenging the dead.
** In ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' he sides with Alexander Luthor's team but openly questions why they're doing so much to protect rapist and sexual harasser Doctor Light.
** In ''Villains United'', even he was disgusted by how Cheshire had sold out her own team and rewarded her for it by shooting her in the gut.
** He was sickened by a village massacre his unit participated in during the Vietnam War.
** He does not seem in agreement with the Red Lion's racist beliefs, since he himself is an indiscriminate killer. However, he works with him on his "ethnic cleansing" anyway because he's getting paid well for it.
* EvilCounterpart:
** He's a mercenary [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Batman]]. To get more detailed both are a quintessential BadassNormal (well, Slade's an EmpoweredBadassNormal), are typically CrazyPrepared, and Deathstroke even has his own BattleButler in Wintergreen, a sort of EvilCounterpart to Alfred. Finally there's the fact that Batman will never use a gun whereas Deathstroke is a WalkingArmory.
** Considering his origin story and power-set he could be considered an amoral ComicBook/CaptainAmerica who's willing to sell his services to the highest bidder.
* EvilMentor: He does this as a ''hobby.'' He once acted as an Evil Mentor to Terra, before he realized too late that she was even more evil than him. He also tried to turn Nightwing evil in the "Renegade" storyline, but Nightwing turned that around by acting as a Good Mentor to Slade's daughter Rose which led to her HeelFaceTurn. He also founded an EvilCounterpart to the Teen Titans ''twice.'' In ''Outsiders,'' while fighting Arsenal, he once mentioned that after he killed Roy he would take Lian and raise her to be an assassin. Slade in general has a disturbing interest in corrupting the next generation of superbeings.
* EvilSoundsDeep: He's been voiced by Creator/RonPerlman and Creator/FredTatasciore. And played by Manu Bennett, which made him sound very much like a BadassBaritone.
* {{Expy}}:
** Deathstroke bears some resemblance to the Marvel character ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}}, who debuted several months beforehand. Both have some similar design elements (such as the buccaneer-style boots and color scheme), their powersets are roughly similar (Deathstroke's brain enhancements compared to Taskmaster's "photographic reflexes"), and have similar roles; however given the short period of time between their respective debuts it's likely coincidence (the visual similarity may be because [[SelfPlagiarism they both were first drawn by the same artist]], George Perez). But Deathstroke also inspired a rather memorable Expy. A lot of people forget that ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} was originally a blatant copy-cat of Deathstroke.
** Another Marvel character who has some similarities with him is the D-list anti-hero Solo. Both met their wife while serving in the military, both gained their powers as part of a military experiment, and both use a sword in tandem with firearms.
* EyeScream: He lost an eye when his wife shot him for endangering their son Jericho (which led to Jericho getting his throat cut and losing his voice).
* EyepatchOfPower: He wears one over where used to be the right eye when he's unmasked.
* FashionableAsymmetry: His mask is split between black and orange. Underneath, one eye is cybernetic.
* {{Foil}}: He's everything Batman hates or stands against: immoral, homicidal, gun-toting, and remorseless. Also contrast the way they treat their children: Batman is quite stern with his sidekicks, he does instil to them moral lines they should not cross and tries to prevent them from being like him but Slade, although he loves his children, is horrible to his kids and essentially has them follow in his footsteps.
* FriendlyEnemy: Deathstroke and Beast Boy developed a relationship like this in the later '80s and early '90s. [[spoiler:Beast Boy was about to fight him to the death when Deathstroke appealed to his humanity by showing up without his mask, stating that it was the faceless mask that he wanted to kill, not the person behind it. They later talked things over in a diner.]] Of course, this got reversed once Deathstroke [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumped back off the slippery slope]] into cold-blooded villainy.
* FromCamouflageToCriminal: After his experiences in the military SuperSoldier program, Deathstroke became a merc/assassin for hire.
* GeniusBruiser: He's a very good planner and manipulator as well as a SuperSoldier.
* GetItOverWith: Once a young assassin named Janissary came after Deathstroke. The fight ended with Janissary's hanging by one hand from a bridge with Deathstroke standing over him and telling Deathstroke to end it. Deathstroke retorted that if J wanted him to kill him, J would have to hire him.
* TheGhost: Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'': Right at the beginning of the infamous episode "The Return Of Slade", the Titans set off to fight him, however, [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome he is defeated off screen, in the span of three episodes and one Tv Movie]] where many plot threads were resolved. Slade is never mentioned again after that, and the rest of the episode is about clowns.
* GoKartingWithBowser: He and Beast Boy meet in a coffeeshop to discuss [[spoiler:the death of Terra]]. This happens AFTER Beast Boy tried to kill him (and was unable to go through with it).
* GunNut: He always carries multiple firearms and he knows how to use them.
* GunsAkimbo: He has been known to dual-wield pistols and [=SMGs=].
* TheGunslinger: Mainly of the Type C variety but occasionally drifting into Type A and B territory.
* HandicappedBadass: You see how his mask only has one eyehole? That's because his wife shot out the other eye. Doesn't slow him down.
* HarmfulToMinors: He pumped his daughter full of mind control steroids and let her carry around a chunk of cancerous meteorite in her eye socket, the eye which she gouged out herself so as to make her "just like him." Slade still claims he had Rose's situation "under control." It's also implied he ordered the hit on her foster parents.
* HeroKiller: He's killed a couple of heroes, including Phantom Lady and Ryan Choi's [[ComicBook/TheAtom Atom]]. Then in the trailer for ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline'', he ''almost'' kills Franchise/{{Batman}}.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Is he a good(-ish) guy? A bad guy? Somewhere in between? The answer tends to change. For his part, Wintergreen has decided that Slade's just a violent man who has only ever been on his own side.
* HeelRealization: After witnessing Terra die because she let her hatred consume her, and seeing Jericho use his powers to possess his own father, Slade realized what a similar situation he was in with his hatred for the Titans and stopped going after them, opting to retire. He even lets Beast Boy have a free shot to gun him down while unarmed, and has to admit he never saw himself as a bad guy. Later the man would come out of retirement as an anti-hero and frequent ally to the Titans. It didn't stick, however; the 2003 reboot undid that.
* [[HiredGuns Hired Gun]]: The guy will fight for whoever pays him.
* HumanHeadOnTheWall: Deathstroke was possessed by his son Jericho, who murdered Slade's loyal butler Wintergreen and mounted his head on a wall.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: He's a damn good shot with just about any type of firearm. To give one example, in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' he's introduced by shooting a shuriken thrown by Sportsmaster with a handgun. Pretty impressive for a guy who only has one eye.
* InvincibleVillain: In the hands of clumsy writing he can be this. His most infamous showing was in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', in which he single-handledly beat Franchise/GreenLantern, Franchise/TheFlash, Comicbook/BlackCanary, Comicbook/GreenArrow, Comicbook/{{Hawkman}}, Comicbook/{{Zatanna}}, and Comicbook/TheAtom with minimal effort. In this fight, he demonstrated ''faster reflexes than [[Franchise/TheFlash Wally West]]'' and ''enough willpower to convince a Franchise/GreenLantern ring to not attack him''. The encounter ends with the entire Justice League on the floor spitting up blood, and Slade quipping that this League, made up mostly of new faces (in ComicBookTime terms, anyway) to superheroing, is so much weaker than the old one... despite the fact that many of them (Wally in particular) are ''far'' more powerful than their predecessors. You'd also think that an [[EyeScream arrow to the eye]] would have done something more than force him to retreat, but he was just fine afterwards.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Something that seems to carry through his incarnations. It's always applied when he gets into a feud, however, especially if it concerns the Titans. Grant took a contract on the team from H.I.V.E., the organisation that also later gave Grant powers similar to his father. When fighting the Titans, Grant's body fails him as a result of the serum that gave him his powers. Does Slade blame H.I.V.E., the organisation that used the unstable formula on Grant? No. Does he blame himself for his awful parenting that led to Grant running away from home to be a mercenary? No. Does he accept that Grant made his own choices? No. He blames ''the Titans'' because... reasons?
* ItsPersonal: He originally went after the Titans because his son got killed going after them and he views them as having taken his family away from him. Slade realizes he went too far when Adeline and Jericho help Nightwing fight him, and Jericho possesses him.
* KarmaHoudini:
** While below it's mentioned he eventually dealt with ''some'' karma for ''The Judas Contract'', in the long run Slade got away with raping a mentally unstable teenage girl he trafficked and groomed while said teenage girl was forever remembered as an insane sociopath. Even when Beast Boy asked about Slade's "relationship" with Terra, the fact that Slade was old enough to be Terra's father was never really commented on.
** The second ''Titans'' volume may have ended with Slade's overall goals failing, but he still gets away with the brutal murder of Ryan Choi. This is later addressed in ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'', when Slade gets his ass kicked by both Ray Palmer ''and'' a newly BackFromTheDead Ryan.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: He received ''no'' long-lasting consequences after ''The Judas Contract'', the arc in which he was the BigBad, with it all being brushed under the rug or [[TheScapegoat pinned on Terra]], and for a while was even ''friends'' with the heroes he'd attempted to have killed. On the other hand, the Titans for a while made it clear they wouldn't hold back if he ever fought them again, and Beast Boy was prepared to murder him; they make good on that threat when he seemingly shoots Impulse; even when they learn it was Jericho in Slade's body, the Titans reestablish their hostility and kill him in a BadFuture. Jericho also joins the Titans after helping fight HIVE, establishing his side.
* {{Kneecapping}}: He once shot Impulse in the kneecap while brainwashed by Jericho. To add insult to injury, thanks to the accelerated healing abilities of the Flash Family, the doctors in the ER had to re-break it repeatedly because it kept healing automatically but incorrectly.
%%* KnifeNut
* KnightOfCerebus: Things are ''never'' LighterAndSofter when Slade's around. ''Never''.
** ...except in ComicBook/TinyTitans, where he's the school principal.
* ManipulativeBastard: He's not quite as good at this as some other DC characters. Most of his targets tend to be damaged teenagers a generation or two younger than him, hardly the most challenging targets. When his powers of persuasion aren't enough to get them to work for him, he's not above using blackmail, death threats, mind controlling drugs, and PsychoSerum to force them to join him. However, he can sometimes get the better of grown adults in his scheming, such as in his second appearance in NTT #10 where he plays the HIVE for chumps.
* MayDecemberRomance: Shortly after his introduction it was revealed that both Slade and Terra had shared an intimate relationship, despite Terra being fifteen years old and Slade having joined the Army in the late 1950s, early 1960s. ''Rebirth'' retcons this, so that he never slept with her and only kissed her in order to manipulate her into helping him.
%%* McNinja
* [[MilitarySuperhero Military Supervillain]]: An ex-military that has attended at Korea and Vietnam wars. Here, Slade mastered every fighting form of guerrilla warfare presented to him and was soon promoted becoming a legend in the Army. Indeed, was chosen for a secret experiment in an attempt to create a meta human SuperSoldier.
* MindScrew: BreakThemByTalking, MindRape, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulation]], yeah, conversations with Slade tend not to be so good for people's sanity.
* MirrorUniverse: In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'', Slade is the President of the United States.
* MoralityChain: Wintergreen is this for the entire Wilson family. His Undying Loyalty makes him complicit in Slade's shadier dealings, but he always tries to bring out the best in him and his children. Wintergeen's death at the hands of the Jericho-possessed Deathstroke pre-''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' destroyed any chance that Slade could ever go through a true HeelFaceTurn. Rose at least managed to eventually turn good.
* MotiveDecay: He started out as a ruthless, though not wholly unscrupulous, an assassin who only came into conflict with the Titans as part of fulfilling a contract that his son died trying to complete, having blamed them for his death, and seemed to value his reputation above all. When he dropped the contract and finally made peace with his son's death, he actually became rather amiable towards his former targets. Then he became a CardCarryingVillain and doing things like injecting his only surviving child with a PsychoSerum and implanting a chunk of radioactive kryptonite in her eye socket and nuking Bludhaven to spite Nightwing (a character he had previously had a lot of respect for).
** Following the reboot, Deathstroke is back to being a ConsummateProfessional who's concerned with maintaining his reputation as he gets older. No connection to the Titans, though he still can't maintain a decent relationship with his family.
* MovieSuperheroesWearBlack: In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', Deathstroke's trademark blue and orange costume is replaced with black body armor.
* MultiRangedMaster: It's not unusual for Deathstroke to be carrying pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns, sniper rifles, etc... all at the same time.
* TheMusketeer: He is skilled in the use of both melee weapons and guns and regularly carries examples of both types at once.
* MySuitIsAlsoSuper: His suit in the New 52 runs is (DependingOnTheWriter) made of Nth metal (the stuff that comprises Comicbook/{{Hawkman}}'s mace and flight harness) or Promethium (the metal that comprises Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}'s body). The Comicbook/DCRebirth run has him upgrading to a "gravity sheath" suit from Dr. Ikon, which allows him to take blows from ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' of all people.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: ''Death''stroke the ''Terminator''.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Another one of those things that depends on the writer. During the controversial ''Titans'' issue where he murdered Ryan Choi, Deathstroke notably spared the life of Choi's girlfriend Amanda, stating that she had nothing to do with the battle.
* NeverMyFault:
** His entire motivation for hating the ComicBook/TeenTitans and trying to kill them was that he blamed them for the loss of his family. In reality, Deathstroke himself was the one who drove them away with his life as an amoral mercenary. He got a HeelRealization about this when Jericho and Adeline defied him. Averted in one storyline when he eventually realized he was a terrible father. He enacted a scheme to endear his remaining two children to the Teen Titans so they could have the family he couldn't give them.
** This has also been averted in his 2014 series, where he acknowledges that he's been a terrible father and desperately tries to protect both of his children, ultimately ripping out his newly restored eye with his bare hands when the Olympian gods demand he provide a sacrifice in the form of one of his two living children.
* NeverSayDie: In the animated version of Teen Titans, he was never called "Deathstroke" or "the Terminator", merely "Slade". Since without the "Wilson", "Slade" just sounds like another codename, it didn't feel too out of place. In the French dub of the show, however, he ''is'' called Deathstroke.
* NothingPersonal: When he spears Phantom Lady through her torso, she asks him why. He responds with this:
--> "Sorry, darlin'. Just business."
* OldSoldier: He joined the Army in the fifties and fought in Vietnam. Just now, though, he is a soldier of fortune. For contrast, he was in the army before most of the ComicBook/TeenTitans were born.
-->'''Deathstroke:''' ''[to Batman]'' You've trained yourself to fight. I've trained myself to kill.
* OlderThanTheyLook: He served in Vietnam, yet his healing factor has slowed his aging.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: No one will ever forget that he worked with a teenager and slept with her, as she infiltrated the Titans. Beast Boy calls him out for it in the 2003 reboot of how he likes hurting kids and blames someone else for his actions.
* OneManArmy: When you take down the ''entire Justice League single-handed'' it is safe to say that you are this.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: This is a motivation he frequently has DependingOnTheWriter. In some stories, the easiest way for Batman and Robin to get Deathstroke to stop hunting his mark is to pay him off.
* PetTheDog: After he's let out of prison, Beast Boy challenges him to a DuelToTheDeath and is on the verge of JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. Slade knows Beast Boy blames him for Terra's death and betrayal...and goes to meet him anyway. Wintergreen begs him not to because he knows it won't end well. Deathstroke ignores Wintergreen and shows up unarmed, challenging Beast Boy to strike him down. Gar ends up being unable to do it because he can't attack a defenseless man and is mad at himself for not being a killer. Slade then treats him to breakfast and talks him through his understandable anger and grief; while it's not cool that Slade scapegoated Terra, he tells Beast Boy that revenge helps no one in the long run and the kid shouldn't throw his life away for a dead girl.
* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: While he is an equal opportunity criminal mercenary, he holds a personal grudge against the Teen Titans (and former Teen Titans) who are all much younger than him -- ''especially'' Dick Grayson. Hell, he supplies the current page image for this trope.
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: He can be portrayed as someone who can hold his own against members of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, and be able to knock out the Flash, but also struggle against someone like ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}.
* PresidentEvil: Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'', where his GoodCounterpart is President Wilson.
* PressurePoint: He knows how to apply them.
* ProfessionalKiller: According to Bart Allen in one Teen Titans comic, Deathstroke is the best assassin in the world and if someone wants someone else dead they call him. If they can't afford Slade they call Deadshot, and if they can't afford him they call Merlyn.
* PsychoForHire: He's an international hitman and one of the DCU's most well-known villains.
* PsychoSerum: The formula used in the military experiment left him a crippled wreck for months or years, with brief periods of increased strength and intelligence. Later, after the military cut him lose, Slade revealed that he'd started faking the bouts of weakness at some point to get out on his own.
* [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Private Military Contractor]]
* RaceLift: White in the comics and animated series. Played by [[AwesomeAussie mixed-race actor Manu Bennett]] in ''Series/{{Arrow}}.''
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: He took advantage of Terra's mental instability and groomed her for a sexual relationship, raping her on multiple occasions and getting away with it because everyone focused on her being "insane." Decades later during ''DC Rebirth'' the relationship was retconned so that Slade only kissed her to make Terra calm down after rejecting ''her'' advances, and yet ''now'' those who were aware of what he did felt Slade crossed a line.
%%* RatedMForManly
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: He once assassinated a philanthropist who was reverse engineering super-villain technology for benevolent causes (i.e. using freeze guns to reverse polar ice cap melting). No reason was given as to why Deathstroke was hired to kill the philanthropist.
* RoguesGalleryTransplant: Slade started out as a Teen Titans rogue, turned towards antiheroism, and then became (after ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'') a sort of generic Franchise/DCUniverse villain, being as much of a dick to as many superheroes as he could manage. It should be noted that he's never let go of his grudge against the Titans since he never completed his contract against them (a bit of a blow to his merc cred). He even went so far as to harass Damian Wayne, his Arch-Enemy Nightwing's protege.
* RuthlessModernPirates: He's been involved in piracy once or twice in his career. Notably in ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}: Deathstroke and the Legend of the Ravager.''
* ShouldersOfDoom: In the ComicBook/New52 continuity, DependingOnTheArtist.
* TheSociopath: His earliest characterization painted him as this before his evolution into a NinetiesAntiHero or NobleDemon AntiVillain in later appearances. His Sociopath status is now DependingOnTheWriter (Christopher Priest, for example, has gone on the record saying he thinks Slade Wilson is "ultimately amoral and a sociopath" and that's what he writes him as.)
* TheStoic: In contrast to Marvel's Deadpool wackiness, Deathstroke is often portrayed as cold and calculating and often emotionless. This allows him to be an effective assassin and mercenary.
* TheStrategist: Slade is the greatest strategist and tactician. Always calculating his opponents moves before hand; he has been compared to Batman in terms of tactical methods. Even against metahumans he has proven more than a match for them all at once with time to prepare. Roy Harper once claimed the Slade was, "The worlds greatest tactician."
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: As dangerous of a fighter and as [[PopularityPower popular as he can be]], Deathstroke is still subject to this from time to time. At his best, he'll be written to defeat some of DC's top martial artists like Batman or Bronze Tiger, trip up and take out speedsters like The Flash, stalemate Superman, and out-fight scores of some of the most powerful heroes alive, including members of the Justice League and/or the Teen Titans (and if certain hallucinogenic tests are to be believed, he'd just as easily kill scores of heavy hitter supervillains including Ultra-Humanite, Zoom, Black Manta, and Vandal Savage with only minimal Ikon Suit power). Then other times, a few no-name characters will be able to get the drop on him and/or pose a serious enough threat to him that one has to seriously wonder if the guy having trouble fighting a D-Lister villain is the same Deathstroke who could make defeating Flash or Green Lantern look easy.
* SuperheroTeamUniform: "Deathstroke's Teen Titans" wear black and white suits.
* SuperReflexes: Deathstroke possesses enhanced reflexes, flawless dexterity and coordination. His reaction speed allows him to automatically and casually dodge point blank gunfire from multiple assailants.
* SuperSoldier: When in the army he took part in an experiment designed to create meta-human supersoldiers. He's slightly above maximum human physical ability and has a healing factor with inconsistent strength.
* SwordAndGun: Seems to have a preference for a broadsword and a Colt .45 autoloader.
--> "Do you prefer steel or lead?"
* TeamDad: Evil version. During the Titans East storyline, he even acted more fatherly towards Inertia than he did to his own children [[spoiler:as part of his plan to get the Titans to accept them]]. He gave the little psycho the serum he needed for SuperSpeed while warning him not to abuse it, advised him to dump his even more psychotic girlfriend, and hooked him up with the Rogues in Central City once everything went south for Titans East.
** WordOfGod from Eric Wallace specifically described Slade as this for his mercenary in the most twisted sense possible.
* TheUnapologetic: One of Slade's biggest flaws is his absolute refusal to apologize for his actions. The most glaring case of this would be his manipulation of Rose, where even after she had a psychotic breakdown and gouged out her own eye, Slade continued to insist he "had it under control." As far as he's concerned, everyone ''else'' should be apologizing for not going along with his plans.
* TheVietnamVet: As mentioned, he fought in Vietnam alongside Wintergreen. This also applies to his ''Arkhamverse'' counterpart, who compares Batman to a troublesome Viet Cong member.
* UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar: Slade's a Nam Vet. He also met Wintergreen there and he first met Kane when she was training American soldiers in new fighting techniques for deployment in Indochina.
* VillainProtagonist: Four ongoings, a ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' miniseries, and a ''Faces of Evil'' one-shot.
* WalkingArmory: Slade never has just one or two weapons on him.
* WarriorTherapist: Evil version.
* WhyWontYouDie: He actually asks this to a alternate universe version of himself, [[BlatantLies which doesn't look at all like Deadpool.]]
--> '''Deathstroke:''' Will you please just ''die''!\\
'''Earth-3 Deathstroke:''' Why do you hate yourself so much?
* WritingAroundTrademarks: He was originally ''just'' The Terminator. Unfortunately, the [[Film/TheTerminator movie]] made that problematic, so he was termed "Deathstroke the Terminator". However, these days he's best known as just his first name, Slade, with "Deathstroke the Terminator" usually just the title of the comic.
* WouldHitAGirl: He'll also abuse them to the point that they go insane if he feels that it is necessary.
* WoundThatWillNotHeal: Despite having a HealingFactor his eye never seems to grow back. This may be psychological, as it happened as a result of his son being crippled and he may feel he deserves it.
----

* Deathstroke was featured as the main antagonist in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' animated series, simply using his [[NeverSayDie more kid-friendly first name "Slade"]] (voiced by Creator/RonPerlman), and appeared in the movie of [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo the second series]], ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' (voiced by Creator/WillArnett).

[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathstroke.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:329:Now would be a good time to start running.]]

* KarmaHoudini: The second ''Titans'' volume may have ended with Slade's overall goals failing, but he still gets away with the brutal murder of Ryan Choi. This is later addressed in ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'', when Slade gets his ass kicked by both Ray Palmer ''and'' a newly BackFromTheDead Ryan.

Slade Wilson, better known by his professional ''nom de guerre'' of Deathstroke the Terminator (later shortened to Deathstroke [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} after a certain movie came out]]), is a fictional mercenary, freelance assassin and supervillain in Creator/DCComics who first appeared in ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans The New Teen Titans]]'' (vol. 1) #2 (December, 1980). He was created by Marv Wolfman and Creator/GeorgePerez.

* He made his first appearances in a live action movie with a cameo in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse's ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'', played by Creator/JoeManganiello. He was originally to be the villain in the solo Batman movie when Creator/BenAffleck was still directing then was set to headline his own movie, and both projects were seemingly scrapped.