Deathstroke started his new heroic path by targeting the terrorist organization that has caused his family years of pain.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Deathstroke Inc. #1 by Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Hi-Fi, Steve Wands, on sale now.
Deathstroke is starting his new lease on life by gunning for an old enemy of his: the terrorist organization H.I.V.E. Slade Wilson has gone up against them before, and he’s suffered immensely because of them. Despite that familiarity, Deathstroke was shocked by how far in their technological development has come since their last encounter, and H.I.V.E. has reached a truly disgusting degree. And in Deathstroke Inc. #1, by Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Hi-Fi and Steve Wands, H.I.V.E. has started leaning heavily into its insect theme with horrifying technology that mimics the beehives their name inplies.
An investigation into an idyllic town quickly turned into a horror show when Deathstroke opened fire on its citizens. But instead of dying, it was as whatever held up their skin fell away and swarms of nanotech bees popped out of the husks, a horrifying sight that left Deathstroke and Black Canary disoriented. Whatever kind of tech H.I.V.E. was employing it was actually converting the organic matter inside of people into weapons for H.I.V.E. to use. This accelerated the mission to find the H.I.V.E. Queen and capture her.
However, the inside of her home might have been more horrifying than what she did to the town. The substance the H.I.V.E. Queen was using to convert the people was a “honey” that altered the insides of anyone who consumed it. Though she admitted that she only used it on ordinary people, she hinted that the results of exposing metahumans to the honey were still very much unknown. But if her heavily mutated “family” was any indication, those results would not be pleasant.
Aside from the horrifying physical changes wrought by this technology, the mental ones are also highly concerning, completely dominating the mind of anyone exposed to this “honey” The H.I.V.E. Queen’s family, though mutated almost beyond recognition, seemed to be under her complete thrall and even seemed genuinely happy despite being severely disfigured by her experiments. H.I.V.E.’s goal has always been world domination, but it was usually done through coercion or threat of violence. This is something entirely different, reaching new levels of cult-like mentality.
When they first debuted in Superman Family #203 by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, H.I.V.E. was a normal terrorist organization, albeit one with a bee theme. They acquired a lot of power in so short a time through the use of alien technology, discovered by the H.I.V.E. Master, who took on a H.I.V.E. Mistress. Their goal was world conquest, primarily through killing Superman or the Teen Titans. This was where Deathstroke would cross paths with H.I.V.E.
Deathstroke was initially hired to kill the Teen Titans, but he turned his back on them when H.I.V.E. refused to pay upfront. The terrorist organization then proceeded to hire Deathstroke’s son, Grant Wilson, turning him into the Ravager. What they neglected to tell Grant was that the more he used his powers, the more it would eat away at his own body. Grant ended up fighting himself to death, triggering Deathstroke’s longstanding feud against the Teen Titans.
And Grant’s death wasn’t even the end of his involvement with the organization. After the first incarnation ended, his ex-wife started up another. So Deathstroke has a lot of hard feelings towards the group. And now, H.I.V.E. transformed a new group of people in the same way it transformed Deathstroke’s son, albeit on a much fast time-table. And with Deathstroke acting as a hero again, he’s ready to exterminate the pests of H.I.V.E. once and for all.
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