Batman and Deathstroke first fought in the early ’90s, but an upcoming issue teases that there is a battle coming that readers haven’t seen yet.
Fans of Batman and Deathstroke are about to witness the adversaries’ first fight ever.
Recently, the solicitations for DC Comics’ upcoming April 2022 issues were released, including more information about the new Batman event “Shadow War,” which will have three of writer Joshua Williamson’s current series cross over: Batman, Robin and Deathstroke Inc. For the event’s second part written by Williamson and with art by Howard Porter, Batman #122 will include a backup story that shows “the secret first fight between Batman and Deathstroke.”
BATMAN #122
- “SHADOW WAR PART 2”
- Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
- Art and cover by HOWARD PORTER
- Backup art by TREVOR HAIRSINE
- Variant cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
- Linking 1:25 variant cover by ROGER CRUZ and VICTOR OLAZABA
- 1:50 variant cover by JOCK
- $4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
- ON SALE 4/5/22
- Ra’s al Ghul is dead, and Talia is out for revenge! Batman is on the case to find Deathstroke before Talia’s elite killers do! But Batman starts to piece together that not everything is what it seems in Ra’s’s death…and knows whom he must interrogate to get answers…Talia herself! Can the two former lovers ever work together again? Plus, a backup tale showing the secret first fight between Batman and Deathstroke!
While many think of Deathstroke as a Batman and Teen Titans villain, the mercenary’s first comic book fight with the caped crusader was not in Batman, but his own series. An early ’90s arc from Deathstroke, titled “City of Assassins,” saw Slade Wilson cross paths with Batman while looking into a job he had originally turned down in Gotham City. The four-part arc ran between Deathstroke #6 and #9, featuring the two duking it out for the first time ever in the arc’s second part — a bout which Deathstroke won.
Of course, this was not the only time in comics that the two would trade blows, being that there was even a whole miniseries dedicated to them facing off, Deathstroke vs. Batman (though it took place within the Deathstroke series from DC Rebirth). Beyond comics, the two have also battled in films and video games, notably Batman: Arkham Origins, which was promoted with a cinematic trailer of the two brutally bashing one another. For movies, they fought in the animated film Son of Batman, and were supposed to cross paths in a live-action Batman project with Ben Affleck’s dark knight, which the actor even leaked footage for.
Being that Dark Knights: Death Metal rebooted the DC Universe in comics and led to the launch of the “Infinite Frontier” era of comics, it remains to be seen whether Batman #122 will introduce a fight that happened before “City of Assassins,” or if it will change their first altercation altogether. After all, it would not be the first time that histories have been changed or revived by Williamson, being that Roy Harper’s daughter Lian is alive again following Infinite Frontier, and Green Arrow’s son Connor Hawke has returned to main continuity in Robin.
Batman #122 will hit shelves and digital platforms on April 5. While Porter will provide art for the main issue, the backup story featuring Batman and Deathstroke’s secret first fight will sport art by Trevor Hairsine. “Shadow War” kicks off in Shadow War: Alpha #1, available from DC Comics on March 29.
Source: DC Comics
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