Every DC fan knows of Deathstroke in some form, whether you’ve followed him in the comics since the ’80s, seen him in live action settings like Titans, or grew to love or hate him in animated media like Young Justice. Personally, I’ll always be fondest of Marv Wolfman’s original comic book Deathstroke and the Teen Titans animated series character, Slade. But this year, we’re getting a new version of the character which is sure to be a hit.
At Emerald City Comic Con, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tony Fleecs, the writer of the 2026 comic run of Deathstroke the Terminator. Fleecs writes alongside his illustrator, Carmine Di Giandomenico, and colorist Ivan Plascencia.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your previous works?
I guess I’m most known for My Little Pony is you’re, uh, a certain demographic. Or Stray Dogs if you’re of a different demographic. Stray Dogs from Image Comics is sort of, like, my biggest hit comic. It came out in 2021…it’s a murder mystery told from the point of view of these adorable little dogs. And it’s the book that came before our current series, Feral, also from Image Comics. That’s like a zombie story about cats. Cats lost in the woods during a huge rabies apocalypse.
It sounds like you’ve had a background in more adorable kinds of cute characters and everything, but I know you have an upcoming Deathstroke the Terminator series coming out in a couple of weeks, right?
He’s cute, too!
He’s cute in his own way, but he’s kind of a bad person!
Well, yeah, sure. I guess, if you look at it from that perspective. I’d say he thinks he’s a bad person, too. Everyone thinks he’s a bad person. He’s not really that cute. Uh, I think his eye patch is kinda cute, and he has a nice beard. We gave him a new full beard; we’re not doing a goatee anymore. It’s not 1994. We’re wearing a full beard nowadays in the new Deathstroke.
But, yeah, it’s part of DC’s Next Level initiative and comes out on March 18th. It’s me, Carmine de Daminaco, who is an incredible illustrator. He draws incredible action, and great character moments and acting. He really can do it all. He’s just got a very unique and, sort of like, considered style. I’m a big fan of this guy and very excited to be working with him.
And we’re just telling the story of what Slade Wilson is like on the inside. But while we’re telling that story, we’re also showing him blow things up in gigantic ways, and get attacked and stabbed and shot at, and stab and shoot back.
So, it’s sort of, I’d describe it as getting to get my cake and eat it, too. Where I’m telling the story about character and about this dark person’s dark personality, while also having it just be like a rock ‘em sock ‘em action fiesta.
So, is Slade going to get more of an introspective thing going on? Being able to look inside himself and reflect in this series?
Well, I don’t know if he’ll be introspective, but the readers will get a peek inside of him. I don’t think he’ll get too therapized, at least to start with, you know? Uh, but we’re definitely gonna know a lot about what’s going on inside this guy. And if he’s not really in touch with it, necessarily.
So, how do you think that Carmine and your own version of Slade is going to stand out against 90’s Slade or any of the past versions of him?
There have been a lot of great, you know, Marv and George, original recipe, Teen Titans Slade. There have been a lot of great runs of this guy, and I’m just sort of hoping to be the one that, like…I have this theory about killers that the thing that’s interesting about them is not that they kill. It’s what happens to them, you know…I’m not as interested in the mechanics of their murdering, but I do think it messes you up to be a killer.
And so, I know that, like, Priest touched on that a little bit. And obviously, like, from the beginning, from Marv and George, Slade being a mercenary, being an assassin, sort of ripped his whole life apart. But he’s just sort of, like, a workaholic. Like, he’s just steadfast in doing his thing that he’s great at, and so he keeps doing it, even though it keeps making his life worse, and worse, and worse.
I mean, uh, besides doing cute stuff, Tim Sealy and I did this book Local Man, and we got nominated for the Eisner for Image Comics. And it’s sort of another one of those stories about a guy trying to…trying to do his thing while he continues to screw up and fall apart. And so, we’re gonna do some of that with Slade. But, like I said, cake and eating it, too. As all that’s happening, he’s still the world’s greatest assassin. Like, the one thing he can always do is kill expeditiously.
Yeah, absolutely! And I know that there are some other villains who are going to make appearances in this series. Can you tell me a little bit about those?
Yeah, we’re gonna see a lot of, uh, characters that you associate with Slade. And you’re gonna see a lot of characters you might not necessarily associate with Slade. I can’t really say too many of the villains, but they were revealed on the DC panel yesterday.
Like, Deadshot and Deathblow are gonna show up in issue #3. And that’s a big deal for me because I’m a huge Wildstorm guy, I’m a huge Image Comics guy. I mean, I like Deadshot, too, but getting to do Deathblow stompin’ around and blowing things up with my guy, Slade, is pretty exciting.
And in addition to any villains that are gonna show up, a burning question that fans have been asking me is, “Are any of Slade’s family members or any allies going to show up as well?”
…Yes.
Can’t go into it! But yes?
Yeah, no, I mean, part of telling the story about this guy, having ruined his own life by being this dedicated to being a great murderer, is that, uh, you want to show the life that got ruined, right? You want to show all these people and what their relationships are. So, definitely we’re going to get into all that.
He’s got a great cast all around him; he’s got a great set of characters. He’s got awesome kids with awesome costumes. Like, uh, he’s even got newer kids. He’s got Respawn, who’s like sort of his kid, sort of a clone. But, yeah, we want to get into all of that stuff. This book is a lot about, um, disappointing dads. And so, we’re going to get into a lot of that from their perspective as well.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about this series?
Well, it comes out March 18th. You should buy it. It’s beautiful. Uh, the first six issues are going to be just a race to the finish. We’re gonna reveal sort of new status quos, new characters. All kinds of stuff. I’m very excited about it.
Don’t forget to stop by your local comic shop and pick up your issues of Deathstroke the Terminator! The series, in addition to being written by Fleecs, is The issue schedule so far is as follows:
Issue #1: March 18, 2026
Issue #2: April 15, 2026
Issue #3: May 20, 2026
Issue #4: June 17, 2026
