Damian has made a massive mistake. After coming to the decision to kill Deathstroke, Damian was attacked on the way to his secret prison by all of his inmates. With his prisoners loose and nearly inside the Titan’s base, Damian’s secret since the beginning of the series is about to come to light.
(Spoilers Incoming)
We get a quick flashback right at the beginning of Damian training with his mother, Talia, as a child. However, this training quickly becomes Talia belittling Damian for failing. In the present, Robin is surrounded by all the villains he captured. As they close in on him, he activates the building’s emergency protocol and electrifies the floor to buy himself some time. He escapes, but unfortunately took shrapnel to his left eye, leaving him unable to see out of it. He is immediately grabbed by Deathstroke. The two begin fighting, and Slade reveals that he activated Robin’s Terminus Protocol as the prison break began. Slade pins Robin down and holds a knife to his head, when Robin yells at him to kill hm. Slade stops and asks, “Why is this so personal with you? So personal you’re willing to get five other kids killed?” Damian responds with, “Go to hell.” Deathstroke drops Robin and leaves.
As the villains scramble to find an exit, they run into Roundhouse, Red Arrow and Crush. The Titans hold their own for a minute but are eventually beaten back. At the same time, Kid Flash finds Robin, who tells him that he’s going after Slade no matter what. When Kid Flash asks what exactly Deathstroke did to Damian to make him hate him so much, Damian replies, “Nothing. Everything. His arrogance…his impunity. Just…rubbing our faces in his evil…” Kid Flash quickly realizes that all of this rage towards Slade stems from the moment he ruffled Damian’s hair and patted him on the head. As the two go their separate ways, Djinn helps the other Titans stop the villains. Crush immediately confronts Red Arrow and demands to know what the team isn’t being told.
In the hangar bay, Robin finds the final inmate, Swerve, a former soldier who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so she was locked up by Robin. As she points her guns at him, he begins digging around in the Titan’s ship as Djinn arrives. She asks Robin what is going on when he turns to her with injectors. He tells her to get them to the inmates quickly and that if any of the prisoners leave, they will die. Swerve immediately realizes that Robin injected all of them with a toxin that would activate if there was ever a prison break. She then compares his actions to something that a terrorist might do. He immediately leaves and comes face to face with Deathstroke. Slade reveals that he knew about Damian’s toxin, but he wasn’t the one who let them go, and that it had to be one of the Titans. Slade tells him that he’s been trying to figure out why Damian hates him so much, and that initially, he thought it was because of Batman, but he quickly realized that it had more to do with Talia than anything. Damian tells him that he has no idea what he’s talking about, to which Slade hands him a pistol. Damian points the gun at Slade but doesn’t pull the trigger. As Slade begins to tell him that Batman has ruined him, an arrow flies into Slade’s eyes and out the back of his skull, seemingly killing the legendary assassin.
Well that was unexpected. And with that issue, one of DC’s most popular characters is seemingly dead. With the next issue of Deathstroke promoting a funeral, it seems that, at least for now, Slade Wilson is actually dead. Honestly, I’m not sure how to feel about it. It’s definitely a risky move killing him off, but maybe it’s what needs to happen right now. Deathstroke’s solo series and been hit or miss for me, so maybe his death will allow another writer to come in and change the course of the series. As for the Titans, I don’t imagine the team will be too happy with Damian’s actions and secrets. This may be the one thing the team can’t overlook and move on from. I would hope that through this, Damian can begin a redemption story of sorts in which he gets back all the character development he’s lost in this series, but I doubt that. It seems that as far as Teen Titans is concerned, Damian is still a spoiled brat who put his entire team in danger to settle his score with Deathstroke. If you want to see Damian move forward in a positive direction, read Super Sons.