Following on from this weekend’s big piece of comic-book related news, in which Ben Affleck himself teased the presence of legendary DC Comics villain Deathstroke in the Justice League movie, it would seem that there’s more to his presence than just one film, with The Wrap also confirming that the mercenary will take on main villain duties in the Batman solo movie.
Deathstroke, aka Slade Wilson, was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez back in 1980, with his first appearance being in New Teen Titans issue #2. Since then it feels like he has battled pretty much every member of the DC universe, and while this has included the Dark Knight on a number of occasions, they have never exactly been traditional adversaries of each other, making their pairing here something of a surprise.
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) August 29, 2016
Still, it’s all in line with DC’s tendency to introduce characters in one movie first before spreading them out later on. We can’t see Deathstroke’s role in Justice League being anything more than a prominent supporting one (as formidable as he is, he can’t take the whole team), what with Steppenwolf taking centre stage, so it looks like the new Batman will mark his real time to shine.
It does beg a couple of questions though: firstly, where will the Joker be? We had just assumed that he’d also be in the new Batman – which he could be, but we always envisioned him as the new villain rather than Deathstroke. Secondly, what does this mean for Manu Bennett’s Slade in Arrow? Will he get written out like Deadshot, Amanda Waller and Captain Boomerang before him? Hope not.
Justice League will be released in cinemas on 17 November 2017. You can download The 25 Greatest DC Comics Ever digital edition from GreatDigitalMags.com now. For all the latest movie news, pick up the new issue of SciFiNow.
