Wave 3 - Deathstroke the Terminator
Deathstroke the Terminator first appeared in DC comics in 1980 as an enigmatic mercenary and assassin, often playing the nemesis of the Teen Titans. His reasons for attempting to kill the Titans, and the compelling backstory that told how Deathstroke came to be the amoral, murderous mercenary that he is today, made him one of DC's most memorable and sympathetic supervillains.
Slade Wilson was a loving husband and father and a proud member of the U.S. military when he underwent experimental conditioning that greatly increased his physical prowess. The military was attempting to create superpowered metahumans, and Slade was something of a success. After the experiments, however, Slade left the military and began working freelance as a mercenary. He kept this double life a secret from his family.
An enemy of Slade's, however, destroyed that secret when he kidnapped Slade's son and slashed his throat. Angry and bereft at her husband for endangering their son's life by lying about his work as a hired killer, Slade's wife shot him, narrowly avoiding killing him and permanently destroying his right eye. The loss of Slade's family sent him further down a path of recklessness and despair, leading to him assuming the name of Deathstroke the Terminator and becoming one of the most feared assassins in the world.
Making no attempt to disguise his disability, Deathstroke designed a costume that completely blacks out the right side of his face. Even with only one eye, Deathstroke still retains powerful visual acuity. The military experiments that augmented his physical prowess 'unlocked' 90% of his brain capacity. This makes Deathstroke a brilliant tactician and extraordinarily quick thinker in a fight. He has the strength of ten men and possesses a certain degree of superhuman speed and reflexes.
REGULAR VERSION (Coming Soon!)
UNMASKED VARIANT
Sculpt: Deathstroke is a unique sculpt and a real standout in this wave. His body armor chain mail is very detailed and similar to the great work done by the 4H on Aquaman in Wave 2. His wrist and boot cuffs are big and exaggerated, an excellent representation of how he is most often drawn on the comic pages. His regular head sculpt has a nice shape to it, and somehow manages to convey his mean and menacing personality through the subtle shape of the covered fabric. The variant unmasked head is a work of art, a beautiful sculpt of an intelligent and insidious villain.
Paint: Deathstroke's paint job is a mixed bag. His boot cuffs and other orange accents are mostly unpainted, leaving them very bright and "plasticky". I would have really liked to see some airbrushing or other shading there. The pearlesque blue finish to his body armor scales is beautiful and applied very nicely. His head and face, however, suffer from a good deal of bleed and slop, with speckles of black marring his unpainted flesh-tone plastic of his face. On his standard head the line between orange and blue blurred and not as crisp as I'd like it to be. Were it not for these few small paint blemishes, this would have been a flawless figure.
Articulation: Deathstroke, like all the other figures in this wave, has the DCUC standard articulation breakdown.
Accessories: This guy is loaded down with accessories! He has a big rifle/machine gun with a shoulders strap, a sword with scabbard, a long fighting stick, a bandolier, and a thick, pocketed belt with a pistol that fits in a holster.
Quality: Deathstroke has a good plastic quality and his joints feel tight and stable. His weapons are somewhat flexible, but rigid enough that his sword retains a nice straight edge. His variant face is marred with paint speckle and a bit of slop, but that seems to be the case with all of these figures. And, you might notice that my variant Deathstroke has two left arms from bicep to wrist. Sigh. The quality control on this wave is pretty bad. But overall, Deathstroke is probably still the best figure from this series just because of all his accessories and playability. If you can find one with good paint apps (and all the right parts) then I think you'll love him.
