Slade Wilson

Deathstroke

Slade Wilson

## Biography

### Early Life

Much of Slade Wilson’s childhood remains unknown, but it was bad enough that at age fifteen, he lied on enlistment forms in order to join the United States Army and fight in the Korean War. His real birthdate is known to be December 2nd, 1935. He served in the forces for the entirety of the war, and was promoted to Major. He then served in the Vietnam War. After proving himself as a leader unafraid to make hard choices, he was enrolled in officer training, where he met Captain Adeline Kane.

He and Adeline fell deeply in love, as Adeline was impressed at his physical prowess, and he proved himself perhaps the greatest combatant she had ever seen. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While serving in the military, he made the acquaintance of William Wintergreen and David Isherwood. Slade remained in the military through the Vietnam War until it reached its end under Operation Wrath of God. The stress of two wars had prematurely turned his hair gray.

After the end of the war, the three men remained close friends, and Wintergreen was best man at Adeline and Slade’s wedding. Slade, however, was restless. All he had known in his life was violence, and as such, he constantly volunteered himself for overseas missions. On one of them, Adeline wrote to him to tell him that she was pregnant with their first son.

While on this mission, Isherwood recruited Slade to a medical experiment testing steroids on soldiers. While undergoing the experiment, Slade fell into a coma that lasted for six months. When he awoke, he felt stronger and more tactical. After being kept in a medical quarantine for two months, he was released, where he returned home just in time for the birth of his son, Grant.

Adeline grounded Slade on his return, threatening to walk out with their son if he continued to volunteer for overseas missions. Slade conceded, and although painful, he tendered his resignation. The family moved to Gotham to be closer to Adeline’s family.

Trapped in his restlessness, Slade discovered a side effect of the experiment; aggression. Slade grew violent against Adeline, and began hitting the bottle pretty hard. They also had a second son, Joey, who Slade grew to dislike. In order to get out his aggression, Slade began going on safari expeditions with Isherwood and Wintergreen. His hunting brought the family great wealth and was a point of pride for Slade.

Adeline wanted the family to remain intact, so she encouraged the boys to accompany Slade and Wintergreen on a hunting trip. During this expedition, Grant discovered he hated camping, and slept in the Jeep, accidentally wearing out the car battery and stranding them in the wilderness. To avoid his father’s abuse, he ran off into the forest, where he was attacked by a tiger that Slade killed for his son, scolding him for his lack of preparation, and then backhanded the boy.

His aggression wore off on Grant, who took great pleasure in messing with his little brother, including an incident that left the child’s vocal cords severed. To whip Grant into shape, he was sent to military school, and Adeline held an intervention with Slade’s army buddies to convince him to get sober and get help.

Slade was outraged by this betrayal, so his friends helped him pack his things as Adeline filed for divorce. Slade disappeared for years, vacationing in the safari, where he hunted, poached, and sold furs. During this time, he gained a reputation for soliciting underage prostitutes, and going on drug-fueled benders.

Wintergreen tracked his friend down and tried to get him help, informing him that his son was graduating military school. Slade attended the graduation, and afterward tried to return to the family home. Adeline tried to shut him out, but Slade persisted, growing in aggression. When he refused to back away, Adeline shot him in the eye.

Rather than go to the hospital, Slade left, where he discovered the power of the steroid; an intense healing factor. While his eye never grew back, the wound simply closed itself. Wintergreen decided enough was enough, and wanted to offer his friend a new lease on life, so he introduced him to a man named Henri Ducard.

### The Terminator

Slade’s early years in the League of Assassins remain mostly a mystery. He took up the ops moniker of “the Terminator” and was one of their most efficient assassins. In record time, he became one of the Seven Men of Death. While laying low in Southwest China after a job, he solicited a prostitute named Lilian Worth. Their one night grew into many, and eventually she revealed she was pregnant.

Slade begged Ra’s al Ghul to let Lillian stay with the League on Infinity Island. After much persistence, Ra’s agreed, and Lili moved to the island where Rose Wilson was born. When Lilian saw the true horrors of the man she loved, she attempted to flee the island. Slade caught her and drowned her instead.

Unable to look at his daughter, he ordered Wintergreen to take her to America. Wintergreen left her with Adeline. Upon leaving the States, he discovered that Grant had stowed away in his car. He refused to leave Wintergreen’s side, even accompanying him back to Infinity Island. When he discovered his father’s secret life as an assassin, he wanted to join up.

Grant joined the League of Assassins under the alias of “the Jackal”. Slade and Grant were an unstoppable duo, successfully completing many missions together. Slade wanted his son to succeed him as one of the men of death, but a medical screening showed Slade that genetically, he hadn’t aged in years - possibly making him immortal, and his healing factor would repel most ailments.

When Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne escaped the League, they sabotaged some of the League’s HQ, severely injuring Grant - who lacked his father’s healing factor. After David Cain and Malcolm Merlyn failed to retrieve the trainees, Slade decided to do it himself.

### Deathstroke

Under the alias of Dane Lisslow, he joined the GCPD and was assigned as part of a special new anti-vigilante task force. Being closely in conflict with the new Batman, it allowed him to stalk him - deducing the location of one of the Batcaves beneath Wayne Tower, where he staged an attack (injuring a young Luke Fox in the process) and stealing a Batsuit. Impersonating Batman, he attempted an assassination of new District Attorney Janice Porter, but failed thanks to the intervention of Batgirl and Robin, briefly souring Batman's name.

Dane then offered himself to the GCPD under the codename of Deathstroke - and a brand new suit of armor - to take on the Batman as his darker mirror. With some help from his sidekicks and Jim Gordon, they managed to clear Batman's name and reveal Deathstroke to be the true culprit. He would strike again however, this time going after Green Arrow and Speedy - only to be foiled at that turn too. He returned to the League of Assassins, defeated, and demanded that in his shame, his son take his place on the Seven Men of Death.

Slade entered self-imposed exile. He discovered that three of the proteges who had defeated him had formed their own team - and set his sights on ripping them apart - from the inside. He returned to Gotham and abducted his daughter in the middle of the night, leaving Adeline completely distraught.

He asked Wintergreen for use of his manor, and he agreed, and Slade kept Rose locked in the sprawling basement of the mansion, where he relentlessly trained her, specifically wanting to make her target the Titans. For nearly five years, she trained her body to a physical peak, while also mastering her abilities of disguise.

Under the codename of Ravager, he released her, in disguise, into the Titans. However, unexpectedly, she found a home with them, and turned them on her father. Unbeknownst to her, Slade had hidden a camera in her eye. When she discovered this, she cut out her own eye to prevent her father from spying on them any longer.

He decided to exact his revenge - but the League of Assassins turned him away - so he turned to their mutual partner, HIVE. HIVE offered a deal, in exchange for him bringing them his son, Joey, to use as an experiment, they would allow him use of their teenaged metahumans. He agreed, kidnapping Joey, and then breaking into Titans Tower with the team.

While they would be unsuccessful in this plight, his actions won him favor with the League of Assassins once again - returning him to his spot on the Seven Men of Death, and relegating his son to be a member of the Black Glove. With his newfound enemy in the Titans - he became a target for the Justice League, which won him favor with the Light. Following Sportsmaster’s arrest, he took over as their enforcer. He helped coordinate the massive prison break during the Undertaking of Gotham City.

In continued work with the Light, they began indoctrinating the Titan Terra into their fold to act as a mole within the Titans. She has spent years feeding Slade information on the Titans and Justice League, as well as having some type of sexual relationship with him. With the help of Damien Dahrk, Slade has also been assembling his own team of young metahumans from the HIVE Academy, codenamed Defiance, which he plans to eventually use against the Titans.