Deathstroke Gets "Flash Powers" in May's The Lazarus Contract
04/21/2017 11:44 am EDT
In this week's DC Comics, fans will likely notice a double-page ad for "The Lazarus Contract," an upcoming story arc in which Deathstroke will square off against current and former Titans in the pages of Teen Titans, Titans, and Deathstroke.
The covers, solicited months ago, appeared to have shown Deathstroke with The Flash's powers -- and while it's difficult to say based on a cover solicitation whether that's a literal or figurative image, and how much significance it would ultimately have even if "real," follow-up solicits have seemingly verified its meaning and exactly what to expect from it.
In July's issue of Deathstroke, the character is still reeling from the experience of having traveled into the Speed Force. That's what drives him to take on a more positive, proactive role and to lead a team of teen superheroes.
Here's the solicitation for that issue: "A new day has dawned for Deathstroke. Having emerged from the Speed Force a changed man, Slade Wilson takes aim at living a better life—a life in service of justice. But when the world refuses to accept the new Deathstroke, Slade recruits a group of young heroes to join him including including former Teen Titans, Kid Flash and Power Girl, his children, Rose and Jericho, and the bombastic Terra! But has Slade truly shed his villainous past? And what other shadowy forces are working against him?"
One of the members of that team is the post-Flashpoint Wally West, pictured at the mercy of Deathstroke on the cover of Teen Titans Annual #1, the story's final installment, indicating that the events of July's Deathstroke will spin directly out of the Teen Titans Annual.
The solicitation for that issue teases a new direction for Titans, Teen Titans, and Deathstroke that will have ramifications "for years to come," and given the long-term planning DC has been doing since Rebirth, that seems like a plausible reality.
Certainly the soliciation for June's Deathstroke #20, in which "a threat years in the making boils to the surface," feels like the end of the first year-and-change of Deathstroke and a new beginning that will build off of "The Lazarus Contract" rather than the first year or so of Deathstroke.
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