After Blackest Night, DC Comics launched a series of new titles under the Brightest Day banner. The then recent Titans series was retooled to feature their nemesis Deathstroke the Terminator as the leader of a squad of villains and anti-heroes (Tattooed Man, Cheshire, Osiris, Arsenal and new character Cinder), each with a personal stake.
The story begins with one-shot Titans: Villains for Hire: lesser villain Dwarfstar hires Deathstroke and his team to kill Ryan Choi (The Atom, at the time), and deliver him his body. Their next missions involve ratting out a secret assassin hidden among Lex Luthor's personal security and an invasion to Arkham Asylum to release a specific prisoner. Unbeknownst to his underlings, Deathstroke has a long term secret plan of his own...
Helmed by writer Eric Wallace and artist Fabrizio Fiorentino, with Philip Tan, Cliff Richards, and Travis Moore as fill-in artists, the series lasted from issues 24 to 38, being cancelled with DC's 2011 reboot, New 52.
This series contains examples of the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Due to the cancellation of the title and the New 52 reboot, some plot threads were never finished. Some of them include:
- In issue 38, after his team destroys the Methuselah experiment, Osiris takes Dr. Sivana with him. Sivana promises to resurrect Black Adam, provided the boy helps him against his enemies.
- In the same issue, Arsenal suggests that he and the revived Jericho form a new group of Titans.
- Pulling threads from Brightest Day, Osiris's sister, Adrianna Tomaz (Isis), is released from her petrified state and eventually becomes the queen of Kahndaq, but this plot point isn't explored further.
- At the very last pages of the last issue, Deathstroke ponders about needing to rely on others, and decides to work alone again, to show the world he means business this time.
- All for Nothing: Tattooed Man's quest to avenge his son's death ultimately amounts to nothing. He kills Slipknot, but doesn't feel better afterwards. Then he returns to Liberty Hill and discovers the neighborhood's scared for their lives thanks to the "order" Mark's goons have instigated. And with him being one of Ryan Choi's killers, all it did was leave Mark with innocent blood on his hands.
- Arc Welding: The series serves as a continuation of Wallace and Fiorentino's previous joint work, Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink. It also unites plot threads from The Rise of Arsenal and from Brightest Day itself.
- Asshole Victim: The team goes up against these types of villains on most of their missions, including a crime syndicate that manufactured a highly addictive drug literally made from children, a serial child molester with an hypnotic voice, the man who remorselessly murdered Tattooed Man's son, and the leader of an organization of underground human death matches where the fighters are experimented on and mutilated before they fight. This was on part of writer Eric Wallace's attempt to make the team of self-admitted villains seem better in comparison and thus earn sympathy from the readers. For a variety of reasons, it didn't work and fans hated the Titans just as much as their enemies.
- At Least I Admit It: Cinder acts as though admitting she's a horrible person still somehow absolves her of the innocent people she's hurt in her quest to hunt down child rapists.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The series features villains and anti-heroes with dubious morality, plus several instances of on-panel gory deaths.
- The Chosen Many: Inverted. In their first issue together (the one-shot Villains for Hire), Deathstroke kills Ryan Choi (who is Asian-American and assumed the mantle of The Atom). Ray Palmer, his predecessor (a white American man), returns to the mantle in the larger DC Universe.
- Darker and Edgier: The series features villains and anti-heroes with dubious morality, plus several instances of on-panel gory deaths.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Arsenal (Roy Harper) joins his ex Cheshire in a rescue mission to find a kidnapped child. They invade the villains' compound and discover they are manufacturing a drug called Bliss from children. After trying - and failing - to save one of the child victims, Roy Harper wonders what this drug Bliss tastes like.
- Face–Heel Turn: Despite his addiction to drugs, Arsenal was always on the heroes' side, being a long term member of incarnations of the Titans since its foundation. However, during this period in comics, he lost his daughter Lian and began to act more and more like an anti-hero, until he was finally recruited by Deathstroke, his team's mortal nemesis.
- Human Resources:
- The drug Bliss is manufactured by extracting hormones from children.
- The Metushelah experiment's main source of energy is DJ Molecule.
- I Have a Family: In issue 31, one of Osiris' victims pleads to be spared because he has a family. Osiris kills him anyway due to refusing to yield from his belief that he'll resurrect his sister Isis by killing enough people.
- In Name Only: Invoked. In the last issue, Arsenal confronts Deathstroke about choosing to name their team "Titans". Deathstroke answers that, since the Titans destroyed his son (Jericho)'s life, he chose the name to destroy the team's legacy and every good action they did over the years.
- Irony: Cinder, a serial killer of child molesters and rapists, joins a team being controlled by Deathstroke, a man who groomed and raped a mentally ill teenage girl. She never found out about Slade raping Terra.
- Karma Houdini: Infuriatingly all over the place in the finale.
- The series ends with the original team escaping punishment for Ryan Choi's death. Tattooed Man and Cheshire are both allowed to walk off.
- While Slade's overall goal with the Methuselah Device is stopped, he himself is still running around. It wouldn't be until Convergence that he'd finally receive some comeuppance for this series.
- Cinder finally kills herself like she's longed for, while Nursery Cryme is still out there victimizing more children thanks to her.
- Osiris flies off with Dr. Sivana, who promises to help him revive Black Adam in exchange for killing the Marvel Family.
- After being held captive to power the Methuselah Device, DJ Molecule (who worked for the drug syndicate that kidnapped children to manufacture Bliss) disappears in the scuffle.
- Drago is still running his underground death matches since Slade spared his life.
- Meaningful Funeral: In issue #38, Ray Palmer gives an eulogy to Ryan Choi, while other heroes honor their fallen teammate.
- Multinational Team: Deathstroke's team includes a Franco-Vietnamese assassin (Cheshire), an Italian pyrokinectic (Cinder), an African-American ex-con (Tattooed Man), a white American raised in a Native Reserve (Arsenal), and a teenager from a fictional Qurac-like country (Osiris).
- Never My Fault: When Dick Grayson reveals Arsenal has joined Deathstroke's phony Titans, he says they all tried to be there for him after Lian was killed. At no point does Dick ever acknowledge or apologize for the fact that he abandoned Roy to rot in a hospital room, strapped down to a bed to sweat out his addiction, and was ultimately one of the parties culpable in Roy's mental deterioration.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cinder wants to believe she's doing good by hunting down pedophiles and rapists, until it becomes clear she's a miserable woman looking for an excuse to vent her bloodlust out of frustration that she can't kill herself thanks to her powers. The fact that she helped murder Ryan Choi to gain access to famous targets only further undermines whatever good she thinks she's doing.
- Off the Wagon: After he joins the team, Arsenal, who had struggles with drug addiction in the past, admits to his companions he is using again - and during their missions, no less.
- Oh, My Gods!: As a trait of the fictional Kahndaqi characters, Osiris (Amon Tomaz) and Isis (Adrianna Tomaz) often invoke the name of Anubis and other Egyptian deities in their speech.
- Pitiful Worms: In issue 31, Osiris' internal narration has him refer to the people frightened by his rampage as ants.
- Resurrected for a Job: As seen at the end of Blackest Night, Osiris was one of twelve heroes and villains brought back to life by the White Light. During Brightest Day, just like the other revived, he is given a mission by the White Light: resurrect his sister Isis.
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: As part of his mission, Osiris tries to understand how to bring his sister Isis back to life. Deathstroke recruits the boy into his ranks with the promise to do it. Eventually, Osiris goes rogue and, by stealing Billy Batson's SHAZAM's powers, finally restores Isis back from her petrified state.
- Sex for Solace: In one issue, Cheshire brings a syringe to Arsenal, but offers herself and sex for him. Both are still grieving for their daughter at this time.
- Someone to Remember Him By: A redhaired woman named Amanda, who was Ryan Choi's Love Interest before his death, bears a son (implied to be his) named Ichiro.
- Together in Death: Pyrokinectic Cinder (Carla) learns that the Methuselah experiment can revive the dead. Thinking of her dead younger twin brothers, she declines the option to revive them and sides with other teammates who wish to destroy the experiment. The experiment explodes and Carla is thought dead by her companions, who comment that she finally reunited with her brothers.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Osiris starts to act more unstable during his association with Deathstroke, and even to his sister Isis after she is de-petrified.
- Two Girls to a Team: Deathstroke's team includes two women: international mercenary Cheshire and pyrokinectic Cinder.
- Villainous Parental Instinct:
- Deathstroke admits to Roy Harper that his every action (the missions, included) was to gather the resources needed to fuel Sivana's Methuselah experiment and fully restore his son Jericho to life.
- Despite everything, Cheshire keeps Lian in her thoughts, and is even promised to have her daughter revived. Not once does she ever think about her other child, Thomas Blake Jr., though.
- Was It Really Worth It?: Tattooed Man is forced to realize killing Slipknot did nothing to alleviate his guilt over Leon's death, which in turn meant killing the Atom was a pointless slaughter of an innocent man. Then he finds out Liberty Hill has been at the mercy of his gangs since he joined the Titans and now the citizens all live in constant fear of their lives far worse than before he left.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Heroine/Leaguer Vixen goes to Tattooed Man's boxing academy to confront him about his return to villainy, since Vixen once vouched for him as a potential member of the JLA.
- Working with the Ex: Arsenal is recruited to Deathstroke's team, who also employs international killer Cheshire, Arsenal's ex and mother to their child Lian Harper.
- You're Insane!: In issue 31, a man responds to Osiris killing people under the belief that doing so will resurrect his sister Isis by telling Osiris that he is crazy, which unfortunately gets him cut off by Osiris vaporizing him.
