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Who is Deathstroke? A Look in to the Mercenary & Assassin

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Dangerous, lethal, strategic, cunning and filled with Mirakuru.

These are just some of the words used to describe Slade Wison, or better known as the mercenary/assassin, Deathstroke.

Originally meant to be a villain for solely the Teen Titans, Deathstroke became so popular, DC Comics writers began to develop him and integrate him as a villain for more known heroes such as the Green Arrow and even the likes of Batman, with the two fighters being shown as almost equally matched.

A 16-year-old enlisted in the United States Army, Slade Wilson was assigned to Camp Washington after his service in Korea, where he would be promoted to the rank of Major.

Captain Adeline Kane would take Wilson under her wing after noticing his fighting skills and privately trained him in guerrilla warfare. After a year, Wilson had mastered every fighting form he was trained in and was awarded the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Six months after his promotion, Kane and Wilson were married and gave birth to their first child, Joseph Wilson.

Taking place in the 1960’s, the Vietnam War was at large and didn’t seem to be dying down anytime soon. Wilson was shipped overseas and, unfortunately, had his unit annihilated in battle, sickening Wilson. This led to Wilson being chosen for a secret science experiment. An experiment to create the perfect metahuman supersoldier for the U.S. military by giving Wilson enhanced physical powers.

After gaining his powers and an even greater mind for battle, Wilson became the mercenary known as Deathstroke and was sent on suicide missions by his commanding officers. Deathstroke soon began defying orders and saved one of his comrades, Wintergreen, during one of those suicide missions he was sent on.

Knowing of him being a danger on his own, Wilson kept his career as a mercenary a secret from his family. This would work against his favor, however.

A criminal by the name of the Jackal had kidnapped Deathstroke’s son, Joseph, in an attempt to force Wilson to reveal the name of a client who had hired him as an assassin. Refusing to comply, claiming it was for his own personal reasons, Deathstroke attacked and killed the kidnappers at the rendezvous. However, Deathstroke wasn’t quick enough to save his son’s throat from being slashed by one of the criminals before Wilson could stop it, resulting in Joseph’s vocal cords to be destroyed and rendering him mute.

After trying to help his son by taking him to the hospital, Wilson’s wife, Adeline, became enraged at the risk that was put on to their son by Deathstroke’s work and tried to kill Wilson by shooting him, only managing to shoot him in his right eye.

Deathstroke didn’t take this as a negative outcome. This only enhanced his abilities as a mercenary/assassin and gave him even more confidence in his physical powers. He marked his mask to show that he made no secret of his impaired vision, making it split in two with a black, featureless half covering his lost eye.

As for his role in Arrow, Slade Wilson is still locked up in confinement back on the hellish island he and Oliver were trapped on.

However, this doesn’t mean entirely that he is forever trapped there. For an assassin’s work is never truly finished, now, is it?

Keep your “eye” peeled! Deathstroke could return at any moment. Only time will tell!

Arrow returns this October for an exciting fourth season on SFL-TV, the CW!