ANI-MOVIES, *Deathstroke: Knights And Dragons

Similar to Constantine: City Of Angels, DC Comics original "Deadpool" got his own internet animation mini-series that was eventually re-released in this compilation film. Deathstroke was a dark shadow of Captain America originally introduced in the mid-80s as a repeating foil for the Teen Titans, who eventually spun off to his own title as an anti-hero. The character has been seen on the Teen Titans animated series, Arrow, and a cameo in the Justice League movie, but this is the first time that the one-eyed gun for hire has been the star of his own feature. The animation seems more similar to that used on The Venture Bros., which is largely due to a good portion of the production being handled by Titmouse, Inc. The story is also separate from any existing DC Universe titles, as there doesn't seem to be any other superheroes in this reality. J. M. DeMatteis wrote the script, and gives it the lethal seriousness that he showed in Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt.

Slade Wilson is a injured American soldier who volunteers to be part of testing the army's own super-soldier formula. It doesn't seem to work at first, and Slade then separates himself from his lover, Gen. Addie Kane. While he takes his leave from the armed forces, Slade has a brief affair, as well as realizing the experiments had a delayed reaction, where he now has enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes, as well as a powerful healing factor. Thus, Slade adopts the identity of "Deathstroke" as a hired mercenary, while keeping his career secret from Addie, who he marries and has a son named Joseph. Deathstroke is eventually tagged by a terrorist group known as HIVE that send their main agent Jackal to kidnap Joseph and add Slade to their ranks. Joseph gets rescued, but at the cost of his vocal chords, as Deathstroke seemingly kills Jackal. Time jump a decade later where Slade is divorced from Addie, and became a full-time merc. HIVE however is reforming under the leadership of a mysterious new queen, and has Joseph kidnapped again as the mute teen has psychic powers which the terrorists' plan to exploit in their plans for world domination. Slade teams up with Addie and his ex-partner Wintergreen to stop the HIVE, and their commander which turns out to be Deathstroke's daughter Rose he never knew existed who has all of her father's abilities. Rose is really working for the revived Jackal, who was an original character made up specifically for this movie.

Deathstroke: Knights And Dragons functions better as a mini-series as you can see there are breaks in the flow of the plot where they would timeskip several years at a time, and go from one big bad to an even higher big bad waiting in the wings. This was one of the faults with the Constantine mini-series, plus the two Arroverse animated spinoffs, Vixen and The Ray. The production quality seems to lack a little of the more cinematic style of the regular DC Animated Universe titles, but at least as good as the Harley Quinn series. The main drawback in the movie is the motivations of the Jackal as we never learn his true intentions, and spends the entire film under battle armor, so we don't find out his real identity. It was suggested that Jackal is supposed to be a stand in for Deathstroke's original son(aka: Ravager), but his appearance seems more like he's with the DC Comics' criminal organization Kobra. If you've been waiting as long as most fans have for Deathstroke to finally get his own movie, then this will tide you over until they give him the eventual live-action film. Although, fans of hard-R splatterhouse action should also be satisfied.