Today, I’m happy to have my son, Connor, return to the blog for yet another of his graphic novel reviews.  Thankfully, this is becoming something of a regular occasion, and I personally will be enjoying it for as long as it lasts.

Deathstroke: The Professional by Christopher Priest

Genre: Superhero Comics

Series: Deathstroke (Rebirth) #1

Publisher: DC Comics (March 14, 2017)

Length: 144 pages

Connor’s Rating:   

It took me a long time to write this review.  Probably that is because I hate saying bad things about comics.  Even when I don’t like a character, or story, or whatever, I know others love them.  So, anyway, it took me a while to decide how to say I didn’t like this new Deathstroke comic at all.

When I started this book, I didn’t know very much about Deathstroke.  (Well, other than what has been in The Arrow tv show, which isn’t anywhere close to the comics I’ve been told.)  But I didn’t worry about it, because this was Rebirth, so I thought we’d have a new origin story, get to see how Deathstroke became who he is, what happened to his family, why his daughter is Ravager, and everything else.  But, boy, was I wrong!

Instead of telling a reader anything about this new Deathstroke, we are given a pretty boring story about him in Africa doing something, then he is reunited with his long-lost daughter Rose, who just happens to be a target of an assassin, and so DS decides to find whose trying to murder his daughter and take care of them himself.  We even have Batman making a guest appearance just to make things better.

There are a lot of things I didn’t like about The Professional.  Since I’m not the greatest writer out there, I’m just gonna make a list for you.

1.   The story was confusing, boring, jumped backward and forwards in time too much, told me nothing much about Slade Wilson, his family, or how he became this feared assassin.  It was just bad every way you look at it.

2.  I hated Deathstroke.  There was nothing to like about him.  He is a cold, uncaring jerk.

3. Very little fighting.  I mean, DS is a deadly assassin, but we hardly get to see him do anything except try to trick everyone.  Great, I guess, but I didn’t want to read about an assassin trying to outsmart everyone.

4 .  The art was okay, but nothing awesome.  So it didn’t make me want to read the bad story just to look at the really cool fight scenes and stuff.  Oh, I forgot, there weren’t any cool fight scenes.

Like I said at the beginning of this, I don’t like writing bad things about comics.  I love comics and want every single one of them to be great.  But Deathstroke: The Professional just wasn’t for me.  Maybe, fans of the character, who already know everything about him, might love this book.  I hope they do.  But me . . . all I’m gonna say is that this Deathstroke isn’t for, at all.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

Well, I hope you liked this review, and if you are on Goodreads, friend me any time to talk about my reviews or comic books.

About Connor (In his dad’s words):

Connor is a teenager who enjoys graphic novels (DC Comics are preferred.), superhero movies (X-Men:Days of Future Past is his current favorite.), watching episodes of The Flash, Arrow, and The Walking Dead, as well as the NFL, NCAA football, and the NBA on t.v., will happily accept any and all caps (because you just can’t have too many caps), and whose favorite music right now revolves around anything by Bruno Mars.  And, no, Connor did not have any input into my paragraph about him.  Being a dad does have it’s privileges.

Purchase the book at Amazon.