Deathstroke: Journey's End
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Deathstroke: Journey's End (also known as Deathstroke Annual #3) is a DC Comics Elseworlds special published in 1994. Written by Marv Wolfman, pencilled by Ed Benes, inked by Rus Sever, Terry Beatty and Bob Smith, Keri Kowalski was the assistant Editor, Rob Simpson the editor, Steve Haynie the letterer and Juliana Ferriter was the colourist.
In a post-apocalyptic world, Deathstroke fights a legion of mutants and desperately tries to help humanity rise from the ashes of its ruined civilization.
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[edit] Characters
- Deathstroke, the Terminator/Slade Wilson: While in the United States Army, Slade Wilson volunteered for the testing of a universal antidote to the truth serum. The antidote changed Slade, after a brief moment of madness; he gained incredible strength and instantaneous reflexes. Slade's powers seemed to eventually fade away and he was given a medical discharge from the armed forces. However his powers returned. He became stronger, faster, more agile and he received incredible regeneration abilities. Becoming Deathstroke the terminator, Slade watched everyone he ever loved eventually die. After 200 years and countless tragedies, Slade wants to die.
- The Genetix: a race of mutants created by humans to be stronger, faster and more powerful than them. They possess regeneration abilities similar to Deathstroke's. Some possess the ability to spit acid, or to fly. All Genetix have poisonous blood
- W.R. Wintergreen: In this story, Slade's butler is a veteran military man that is also Deathstroke's only friend and confidant. At the time at which this story takes place, he is deceased and the cause of his death is still questionable.
[edit] Plot
[edit] Chapter One
The story begins with Deathstroke on the hunt for Genetix. at the end of the last century, man created the Genetix, who in gratitude annihilated most of the human race. The earth is now a desolate place, which was plagued with acid rains early in the century and magnetic storms have erased all data on microchips. Slade finds a pack of Genetix in the now-ruined Library of Congress in Washington, DC. He kills a dozen, but hundreds more take their place and he is eventually overrun. Deathstroke is paraded through the streets and tortured by the Genetix population. They finally bring him to the ruins of the White House where they burn him alive.
The Genetix take Deathstroke's charred body and dump it in what was once the Arlington cemetery, on top of a pile of dead human resisters. Time passes and the pile of corpses grows as Slade starts to heal from his wounds. He gathers his equipment and costume and makes his way to the ruins of the Pentagon. Slade discovers a bio-wafer (the only kind of information storage device that still works) and on it discovers a report from Wintergreen that reveals that the mutants were developed from the same serum that gave Deathstroke his superhuman abilities.
[edit] Chapter Two
Slade visits Wintergreen's grave and makes a promise to him: That he will give a helping hand to the remaining humans before he dies. He is ambushed by a gang of mutants, Slade dispatches them quickly and puts the remains in a bag, which he carries to Georgetown, hoping to discard them in a nuclear power plant under Washington D.C. However Slade finds to his surprise a large colony of humans living in a sophisticated city underground.
The Humans are suspicious of Deathstroke, but he calms them and convinces the humans that he will help them overthrow the mutant empire. He plans to destroy the Genetix Communications Centrex, which is where they create their weaponry. If the humans can destroy the plant, they will cripple their oppressors. The Genetix computers quickly detect the five thousand humans that Slade leads. The mutants amass and prepare to wipe out the humans. AS the humans and the Genetix clash, but despite the odds Slade and his army win the vicious battle.
The remaining army marches towards the only bridge towards the rest of civilization, only to find it destroyed by the mutants. Deathstroke reassures the humans who have lost faith in their new leader and they collectively create a makeshift way to cross the river. Slade tells the humans he will rendezvous with them in Tennessee in a week, but he instead sets the nuclear missiles under Washington to detonate, which would destroy the remaining Genetix and kill him. On his way out, Deathstroke finds a small child who was left behind. Renouncing his wish to die in peace and instead choosing to save the child, Deathstroke runs outside of the blast zone.
With no weaponry left, the remaining Genetix and the humans learned to set aside their differences and worked together to build a new world.
[edit] Trivia
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- Though the year in which the story takes place is never explicitly mentioned, there are clues, which enable the reader to estimate how much time has passed. By the year 2030, Human civilization is still booming. Afterwards, a military group captures Slade and his age is revealed to be over 200. It is then said that the Genetix were created 'at the end of the last century' and that at the beginning of the century in which the story takes place, the earth was plagued with acid rains. Slade also exclaims that he has been alive for over 500 years. Since the character of Slade was introduced in 1980, and that he is about 30 years old, we can estimate that it is well over the year 2450.
- Order in which Slade's loved ones died:
- Grant Wilson and Joseph Wilson (sons)
- W.R. Wintergreen (friend, who's cause of death may be foul play)
- Adeline Kane (ex-wife, natural causes)
- Rose Wilson (daughter, killed in action while serving the Canadian government)
- Janey McCather (second wife, killed on her honeymoon)
- Deathstroke's unnamed third wife. Slade describes her death as: "I shouldn't talk about what they [the governments of Earth] did to her."
