Top 100 Batman VILLAINS

18 - Deathstroke

#18 - Deathstroke
First Appearance: New Teen Titans #2 (Dec 1980)

"This is how fires begin. Little men with big dreams. Long memories. Short imaginations and shorter fuses. And too much time and opportunity. Fires start in the funniest places." ~Deathstroke

Deathstroke has been around the block with nearly every superhero and superteam, but aside from the Titans, Deathstroke comes back to Batman the most. Time after time after time, he finds himself duking it out with the Dark Knight, and for readers, these fights can be some of the best in the business. After all, Batman and Deathstroke are pretty much evenly matches in terms of skill, and Deathstroke actually has the upper hand when you factor in his superpowers and his lack of a compunction not to kill. Some of the best of all Batman fights involve Deathstroke, most recently the one in Arkham Origins which I found to be the best boss fight in any superhero video game.

Of course, it's not all about Deathstroke's fights with Batman; Slade goes after everyone in the Batman world. He dropped Chemo on Bludhaven and completely destroyed it, after all. In Nightwing's book, Deathstroke is one of his biggest enemies (although it helps that Nightwing's Titans Era went toe-to-toe with Deathstroke almost weekly). Deathstroke even took over Damian Wayne's body and fought Nightwing in the most bizarre, unique fisticuffs match I've ever seen, and frankly it was brilliant. Then there was his psychological manipulation of Cass Cain. His battles with the Birds of Prey. His climactic confrontation with Batman in Infinite Crisis' Battle of Metropolis. His play for Gotham alongside Black Mask against the Red Hood. The year Nightwing spent undercover, training with Deathstroke in order to try taking him down, only to result in Deathstroke's daughter carving out her eye with a hunk of kryptonite.

I mean, Deathstroke is as Gotham as you can get without actually being a "true" Batman villain, and that's what makes him such a great opponent with the Bat-family. There's so much history both within the Batman franchise and in the greater DCU that every time Deathstroke shows up, you know exactly what you're getting into. There's going to be an epic battle, there's going to be a really intelligent, thought-out plan, there's going to be pain and suffering, and most importantly, there's going to be some great Batman storytelling.

Greatest Deathstroke Story Ever Told: New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract - Anyone who's ever read Marv Wolfman's New Teen Titans run knows that The Judas Contract is one of the most surprising and shocking stories ever in comics; full of emotional manipulation and betrayal, it shook the Titans to their very core and impacted them in ways that lingered all the way until the beginning of the New 52. Deathstroke's role is truly one of his darkest and greatest.