After discovering that Slade Wilson had a connection to the Other, Robin made him the Teen Titan’s next target. Whether this is smart or not is up for debate. The last time Damian had a team take on Deathstroke, things went more wrong than anyone could have imagined (and for some reason, Slade wanted to become a hero after it was over). However now, Damian has made it clear that this time, he wants to eliminate Deathstroke completely. Can he pull it off?
(Spoilers Incoming)
As Slade stands over the fallen bodies of the Teen Titans, he grabs Damian by the hair and tells him that this was his doing. Damian then wakes up screaming from his nightmare. He walks to his bathroom and stares into the mirror before smashing it with his fist, slicing his hand open. As he drops to the floor, Djinn walks in to find him and asks if he’s sure they need to face off with Deathstroke now. Damian responds with only one word: “Absolutely.” The next day, Damian calls a meeting to tell the Titans that Slade is their next target. He tells them that they will be facing off against the deadliest assassin on the planet. When Red Arrow tells Robin that the team isn’t ready for Deathstroke, Robin informs her that they don’t have anymore time to waste. He reminds everyone there that Deathstroke has beaten everyone that’s ever tried to put him away, and that Damian has come closer than anyone else. He then shows them a picture of an eight-year-old girl who had just lost her mother because of Slade. This is enough to sway the team into wanting to hunt down Deathstroke. Robin is then confronted by two of his teammates: Kid Flash and Red Arrow. Kid Flash tells him that when he was learning from Slade, he tried to save the mercenary from himself, and all it got Wallace was his friend killing herself. The two of them then agree that there is no saving Deathstroke. Red Arrow however, is not so keen to agree with the team’s course of action. She tells him that she has had his back from the beginning, but his mission has quickly become nothing more than an obsession, and that she won’t hesitate to stop him if necessary.
In Georgia, Slade walks into a barber shop he frequents. Unfortunately, for the “barbers” inside, Slade sees the deception straight away. He attacks them, revealing them all to be the Titans in a magical disguise. Despite the Titan’s best efforts, Deathstroke easily defeats most of the team. Unfortunately for the assassin, he inadvertently shorts out Roundhouse’s suit, causing it to release a massive electric charge that shorts out Slade’s A.I. armor. As he pulls himself back up, Robin attacks him from behind with a blade, dropping Deathstroke. When Slade wakes up, he finds himself chained to the wall inside one of Robin’s cells. As Robin gloats that he did what Batman never could, Slade tells him that he’s only there because he wants to be, and before this is over, he’s going to “fix” Damian. As Damian tries to respond, someone else enters the prison. Unfortunately for Robin, this someone isn’t Red Arrow, it’s Kid Flash demanding to know what is going on.
Now that Kid Flash knows about Damian’s secret prison, it’s only a matter of time before he tells the rest of the Titans. Despite Damian’s victory in the barber shop, I don’t see him being able to contain Deathstroke for long before Titans start dropping. If they really want this story to have a lasting impact on Damian and get his character development back again, I think Slade needs to kill at least one of the Titans. Having Damian wake up and release that he’s not the all-knowing god of heroes would be a massive help. His character has suffered so much damage since this new team began that I believe something like that is the only way to shake Damian out of being a little brat again. Even if all of the Titans survive, I don’t think that the team can hold together with the threat of Damian’s secrets coming to light. Something needs to shake Damian back to reality, and I think that the perfect thing to do that is Deathstroke.