Christopher Priest on Deathstroke: World’s Greatest Assassin, World’s Worst Dad

But in an interview last month at San Diego Comic-Con, Priest said the enthusiasm “terrified” him.
Why? Because he hadn’t expected such an overwhelming response and, even at this stage of his long and productive career, he is concerned about not meeting reader expectations. Foremost in his mind when he took on Deathstroke, he said, was a fascination with the character and the stories that could be told about him.
“It’s not like I’ve been gone from DC; we were having discussions all the time,” Priest said. “They’d offer something like [an] All-Negro Comics reboot and I’d say ‘no, thanks,’ then they’d call again 18 months later with something else. This time, I found something to work with.”
Priest has been blunt about not wanting to be a black writer relegated to writing only black characters. Along with Black Panther, he’s also written Deadpool, Spider-Man, and Captain America and the Falcon for Marvel Comics and several Batman stories for DC, and co-created Quantum and Woody, now running under a different creative team at Valiant.

Many cite Priest’s Black Panther run as their favorite of his work, but mine is a little-known series for DC, The Ray, in which a young hero is imbued with strange light powers that he can’t control. (You can’t find it in collected form, though single issues are available digitally for Nook.)
So why choose Deathstroke as his first comic in ages?
Priest said he sees writing Slade Wilson as chance to do something new.
“A villain is a different challenge,” he said. “When you’re talking about villainy, then you’re automatically circling around to talk about justice.”
He called his vision for the series, “The Sopranos with supervillains. He’s the World’s Greatest Assassin and the World’s Worst Dad.”
Traditionally, Deathstroke has had three grown children: Grant, killed trying to imitate his father’s murderous career; Joseph, a member of the Teen Titans; and Rose, an off-again, on-again follower in her father’s footsteps.

For long-time DC readers familiar with all the changes to the character since his introduction, Priest is basically ignoring the recent versions and going with the one originally created in by Marv Wolfman and George Perez in the New Teen Titans in 1980.
Gone is Slade’s recent younger look (an echo of the TV Slade on Arrow.) Back are the silver hair and the goatee, along with long-time supporting character Wintergreen, who was unceremoniously killed off in a Teen Titans reboot over a decade ago. Priest said Slade’s friend is integral to this series, as “Wintergreen is Slade’s moral compass.”
That guarantees tension between the two men, because if people pay Slade enough, he’ll kill for them—but Wintergreen doesn’t necessarily approve of that indiscriminate killing.

Also gone is Slade’s bulked-up look; he appear leaner, “more like an assassin and less like a soldier.” Priest said he’s been thrilled with the art he’s seen thus far, and happy DC has been able to incorporate the revised look. Mostly, however, he’s pleased that he’s able to write the type of comics that he enjoyed reading for so many years.
“When I read comics, they were dense stories. When you put them down, there was a sense of having gotten a great deal from them,” he said. He wants to make sure readers of Deathstroke get as much value as possible out of each single issue. He’s hoping to more than satisfies those who were so thrilled with the announcement he is taking over the book—especially as it will come out twice each month, with the first floppy landing next week.
You can already preorder the first trade of Priest’s Deathstroke, available in March, 2017.