David Hine on Deathstroke

Wow, I have to say, I'm very impressed with Hine's resreach and his take on Deathstroke. It sounds like we may get a little of the complicated Deathstroke of the 90s... instead of the super-villain he became in the 00s.

CBR recently spoke to David Hine, writer of the upcoming “Faces of Evil: Deathstroke” one-shot come January.

"When I was researching the character I couldn’t help but notice that calamities of a particularly gruesome nature tend to befall his friends and family, usually involving serious mutilation,” explained Hine. “I wanted to explore the effect that the accumulated guilt would be having on him. His last outing against Geo-Force left him seriously injured but his regenerative powers make him almost completely invulnerable.

“In this story, I’ve confronted him with the real possibility that he could die and that knowledge forces him to re-evaluate his life. He needs to rebuild himself both physically and psychologically. So he starts off in an introspective mood.

“Then he goes on a killing spree.”

Hine revealed his story takes place immediately after Deathstroke’s battle with Geo-Force in “Last Will and Testament.” “Deathstroke is mortally wounded and is being held in the hospital wing of the ultra high-security containment center for meta-humans, Belle Reve prison,” said the writer. “Deathstroke has a healing ability that makes him virtually immortal, but this time it looks like he’s lost the will to live. His daughter Rose, a.k.a. Rosie the Ravager, comes to visit him on his deathbed and it looks like there may be some kind of reconciliation. Or it could all go horribly wrong. I did mention the killing spree, didn’t I?”

Besides Deathstroke and Ravager, formerly of the Teen Titans, Hine said there would no other “name” characters in his one-shot, namely Geo-Force or another common Deathstroke foe, Green Arrow. There is, however, “a fair amount of cannon-fodder for the killing spree, but I don’t get to kill anyone who counts,” laughed Hine. “There is also a teaser appearance for a new character, who will have had one other brief appearance before this comes out. She’ll be playing a key role in Deathstroke’s development later next year.”"

Read the whole article here.