In his comic book appearances, Slade Wilson is a former U.S. Army operative who gains enhanced physical and mental abilities from an experimental super-soldier serum and becomes the mercenary Deathstroke.

Widely considered the greatest and deadliest assassin in the DC Universe, he serves as the archenemy of Dick Grayson and the Teen Titans, and is also an adversary of other superheroes such as Batman, Green Arrow, and the Justice League.

Deathstroke has been adapted in various media incarnations, having been portrayed in television by Manu Bennett in Arrow and Esai Morales in Titans, and by Joe Manganiello in the DC Extended Universe film Justice League and its director's cut.

[3] Despite predating James Cameron's film The Terminator by four years, the character is now simply called Deathstroke, though the full title has not completely fallen out of use, having been referenced as recently as Justice League Elite.

In the early 1960s, he met Captain Adeline Kane, who was tasked with training young soldiers in new fighting techniques in anticipation of brewing troubles taking place in Vietnam.

Chosen for a secret experiment, the Army imbued him with a drug that allowed him to utilize and use up to 90% of his brain's capacity granting him enhanced physical powers and near-mastery control of his body (accelerated healing-factor and heightened senses) in an attempt to create metahuman super-soldiers for the U.S. military.

Afterwards, his confidence in his physical abilities was such that he made no secret of his impaired vision, marked by his mask which has a black, featureless half covering his lost right eye.

Donna Troy was gassed at her photo studio, Changeling was anesthetized with tainted envelopes while responding to fan mail, Victor Stone was electrically shocked by a chair in his own apartment, Starfire was ambushed with a device that affected her powers, and Raven was taken down by Terra herself.

Eventually, with the help of the Titans and Sarge Steel, Slade was able to prove his innocence and the true culprit was revealed to be Steve Dayton, under the alias of the Crime Lord, who had again succumbed to mental instability caused by his Mento helmet.

Deathstroke has since manipulated his one remaining child Rose Wilson into the mercenary business as the new Ravager, to find and kill Jericho, using a specially designed serum to heighten her hostility and push her over the edge.

In the Identity Crisis miniseries, Deathstroke was enlisted as a bodyguard for Doctor Light, who was being pursued by the Justice League of America as a suspect in the murder of Sue Dibny.

Slade went ballistic, which derailed his pre-planned strategy and began to beat Green Arrow, but was stopped when the majority of the team tackled Deathstroke to the ground.

The deal held for 34 hours until Infinite Crisis #4, when Slade, under the orders of Alexander Luthor Jr., the real leader of the Society, went with several villains (including old Titans and Doom Patrol foes and Brotherhood of Evil members Monsieur Mallah and Brain) to drop Chemo on Blüdhaven, killing over 100,000 people.

His team, however, slowly fell apart over the course of the attack, as Robin managed to free Batgirl of his mind control serum and Raven convinced Duela Dent to switch sides.

After realizing that her mother was not reborn as a member of the Black Lantern Corps, Rose comes to the conclusion that she must somehow still be alive, and leaves after threatening to kill Slade if he tries to stop her.

[20] After the Titans capture Facade and turn him over to the scientists at LexCorp, Luthor rewards Slade by examining technology that he had earlier ordered Tattooed Man and Cheshire to steal.

After discovering that Elijah is using the bodies of kidnapped children to create an addictive drug called Bliss, the Titans promptly kill the gangster and shut down his operation.

Deathstroke then begins to take on increasingly dangerous missions in an effort to prove his worth, but is also spurred on by the contents of the suitcase he retrieved from Bode – namely the mask and knife belonging to his son Grant, both of which were stained with fresh blood, indicating that he may be still alive.

It turns out the parents of one of the Alpha Dog members have hired multiple mercenaries to kill Deathstroke, all donning the green and purple color, to get revenge on him.

Recovering from his injuries, Grant takes another contract, Slade is happy that his son has become a better warrior than him, and then visits his father's hospital bed to mention that he has grown up to be a greater man than him.

It is later explained by Lynch that another purpose of Team 7 was to activate potential metagenes in the agents to create powerful human weapons, which would make America invincible to other nations.

Hearing the precogs say the Kaizen had to be stopped to prevent this fate, Majestic flies up into space, and impacts the coast of Gamorra with the force of a comet, creating a massive tidal wave, annihilating five million residents.

[35] He also stars in an ongoing series about his exploits as a mercenary and his tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife and children as well introducing Hosun Park, Slade's son-in-law and hacker.

[37] Later, Slade attempts to save his son Grant from dying in battle with the Teen Titans by using Speed Force energy drained from Kid Flash to time travel.

The experience moves him to give up being Deathstroke, so he builds a team of heroes called Defiance, with both his children, Wintergreen, Adeline Kane, and Wallace as his teammates.

He wasn't some misunderstood anarchist; he deliberately did skeevy things – most notably sleeping with Terra, a presumably underage girl – in his quest to exact revenge against his enemies.

He broke every rule by making Deathstroke three-dimensional and giving him internal conflicts while maintaining a level of skeeve we weren't used to seeing from a typical 2-dimensional bad guy.

[53] Slade Wilson was given an experimental super-soldier serum that increased his physical and mental abilities to superhuman levels, granting him enhanced strength, speed, stamina, agility, durability, reflexes, and senses.

[58][59] Even prior to acquiring his powers, Deathstroke mastered numerous hand-to-hand combat and martial art forms as well as swordsmanship and marksmanship as part of his elite training in the military.

[86] In the director's cut of the film, Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), Deathstroke learns of Batman's secret identity from Luthor, and a possible future version of the character also appears in an apocalyptic dream.