Well, well, well. Seems the fourth time’s the charm.

I originally picked up Deathstroke because – let’s be honest – bad guys are interesting. They aren’t heroes so they don’t have to play by the rules. And with Deathstroke, you can multiply that by a factor of ten.

BUT the first three issues just seemed like a bit of wheel-spinning, re-affirming Slade’s the baddest of the bad. The thing is, if that’s all there is to the character, then it gets dull pretty quick. We get it; he’s deadly.

Enter issue four where Higgins finally reveals what’s up with the mysterious suitcase that’s been haunting the pages of this book. And it’s kind of a cool reveal that once again reminds us this is a different DCU. Throw in some ties to the Blackhawks and another DC character, and suddenly, this title has some flavour. Because I love conspiracies and deadly organizations (What can I say? I grew up on Bond movies.)

The art is pretty decent here as well. It suffers really from not being as pretty as many other DC books, but Bennett does a nice job of giving things weight and heft, making objects and people feel real and dangerous. Especially Slade.

It’s not the best book of the new 52, but it’s a solid read. And with this issue’s setup, it looks like it’s going to stay on my reading list for a while yet.