[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Priest
Pencils: Denys Cowan
Summary
Defiance is finding itself being attacked by a terrifying new enemy–themselves! At long last tensions and secrets amongst the team have reached a boiling point! Without Deathstroke around to truly keep his team in check everything has fallen apart! What happens to Slade Wilson now?
Positives
As I stated in my summary above, at long last the tensions within this team finally explode! Defiance was a team that wasn’t built on trust and virtues like the Justice League or Titans for example. Rather this team was put together with every member having having their own secret reasons for joining the team. Some examples are Kid Flash joining to spy on Deathstroke, Adeline put the team together ultimately to betray Slade, and his own son Joseph joined in hopes of finding his fiancé’s killer. I truly think only Tanya had good intentions of ever joining the team in the first place and that’s because she actually believed Slade had changed. The ironic thing about it is that Slade really has changed–it’s the rest of the world, especially the villains that have a hard time believing it’s true and that is what’s really holding Slade from becoming a real hero. It’s hard to become a better man when the whole world is convinced you’re nothing but the worst, and Slade has done nothing but still try to remain a hero–it’s truly saddening sometimes and also frustrating as well and Priest does a great job of pulling at those emotions.
Negatives
I have no negatives about this issue at all. The lies and secrets finally come out and Tanya’s religion comes in as well as she finds out about Joseph’s lover Terrance. Tanya’s disapproval of this infuriates Adeline, who’s Joseph’s mother. It’s this incident that causes a whole cadre of secrets to come pouring out, ultimately forcing Adeline and Joseph to leave. Kid Flash leaves because he actually finds himself starting to like Deathstroke as a mentor–and that thought scares him. After taking a moment to himself, he returns to get the rest of his things, finding one of his teammates dead on the floor of an apparent suicide. It’s this very incident that pushes the team to it’s limit and it seems that Defiance is no more. Everyone feels guilty for the words exchanged and the lies told, but it’s too late now.
Verdict
This issue was a great read and Priest leaves us with an amazing cliffhanger at the end. Not to give too much away but I hope that the return of this character will be enough to bring the team back together. Although Defiance is apart, we can still take some solace that Slade is still trying to be a hero, however even by the end of the book that seems uncertain as he accidentally kills a man with a ricochet bullet. His “no killing” rule in effect now gone, I hope Slade doesn’t go back to being a mercenary, especially when he was doing so well helping others even though it came with a fee. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Slade and this team–if there’s even a team left at all.
