Before he became a notorious assassin, Slade was just a fragile boy who grew up in a rocky household. He often became a subject of abuse by his father who worked as a small-time felon in Gotham City. His mother had never been present, having been beaten up by his father to death when he was only a year old. Even though he’d always wanted to escape from his father, he’d never gotten the chance to. Instead, he continued to endure the torture from his father until he was considered ripe enough to enlist for the US Army at the age of 17. Once a fragile kid, Slade transformed into a gifted soldier, rewarded for his bravery and services in the conflicting areas of the Middle East. During his tenure in the military, he fell in love with a fellow soldier named Adeline Kane—whom he eventually married and had two sons with named Grant and Joseph—as well as befriending a Canadian soldier named David Isherwood and a British soldier named William Randolph Wintergreen.

Shortly after he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, Slade was appointed by the US Army for a classified experiment. He became a recipient of an enhancement serum that granted him peak physical capabilities and an accelerated healing factor. Though, the serum didn’t come without unexpected side effects, as the moment Slade received the serum, he went feral and mindlessly attacked nearby soldiers and scientists before being neutralized. He ended up passing out for a couple of weeks, but once his consciousness was recovered, he was barely the same man, ever since. He became more aggressive and violent than ever before, often involving himself in numerous physical altercations.

Slade’s life took a much darker twist after the untimely death of his older son Grant and the suicide mission that costed him his right eye. From that moment on, he began questioning the government and—to some degree—humanity as a whole. Taking an early pension, Slade decided to secretly work against the system by becoming a mercenary for hire. He assumed the codename “Deathstroke” after an ancient Scottish sword gifted to him by one of his steadfast comrades during one of their missions. He kept his new profession a secret to his family, managing to hide all traces and reassuring them that he’d worked as a private bodyguard for several wealthy clients across Gotham. As Slade continued to rise through the ranks as a mercenary, he began accepting rescue missions from some of his loyal clients, showing that he still had a fraction of kindness in him.

Now, to be frank, I’ve always been into gritty characters. Deathstroke is one of them, and since I’ve been writing Marvel characters for years, I thought to myself, “why not just write a DC character for once?” After all, I’ve always been a fan of both the red brand and the blue brand that I can’t really decide which one of them is generally better than the other. I’ve personally always been into characters with personal struggles like Deathstroke. While he isn’t always in the right, I can often sympathize with the fact that he’s never born a psychopath—unfortunate circumstances forced him to become one. In this case, Slade the man has been through a lot of ordeals that’s really pushed him to the edge, including getting abused by his father when he was a kid and, most importantly, losing his son. He didn’t become Deathstroke the Terminator overnight, and that’s what I’d like to emphasize in my future writings—that underneath that cold, seemingly heartless exterior lies a wounded soul that’s been through too many wars and conflicts since the second he was born.

When it comes to playing Deathstroke, I have three goals in particular that I’d like to achieve as the storyline progresses. First is to establish Deathstroke as a world class killing machine, second is to flesh out his human side a bit, and lastly, to put some attention to his life outside of becoming a mercenary, most notably in regards to his relationship with his family. If possible, I’m looking forward to loosely adapt a number of comic book storylines that involve Deathstroke, most notably “The War of Jokes and Riddles” and any storyline involving Teen Titans if they ever become a thing in the future. I also have a list of characters I’d like Deathstroke to interact with. Obviously, Batman and his Robin connections are some of them. As for the Marvel side of things, Punisher is totally that guy, considering their similarities and Punisher’s tendency to hunt down felons—and I’d like to believe somebody like Deathstroke still falls into that category, seeing that mercenary is his profession. I can even imagine somebody from Marvel hiring Deathstroke to assassinate the Punisher where it culminates into an intense war of assassins, but hey, it’s better to take things one step at a time, won’t you agree?

In all honesty, while this won’t be the first time that I ever write Deathstroke, this will be the first where I really go in-depth with his character and lore, so feedback will be appreciated. This is an independent take, meaning that there’d be slight deviations or reinterpretations made to both Deathstroke and his origin story. However, both the Prime Earth and the Pre-Crisis counterparts will be the main inspirations for my portrayal. I wish to depict Deathstroke as accurately as possible, and that said, I hope my portrayal can bring justice to the infamous Terminator.