Slade WHO?
Aug. 20th, 2003 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenygalOkay, so I have a theory. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kerithwyn--yes, once again I can blame this on her--thinks I should post it, so if it comes true I'll look brilliant. The more I think about it the less likely either part of that sounds, but hey, even if it's just a deluded conspiracy theory, I like conspiracy theories. So here it is.
Okay, 'Rith and I have both already ranted about the deep, deep stupidity of Slade Wilson killing Wintergreen, his best friend and comrade-in-arms, and then hanging his head on the wall, here and here. Enough said on the subject.
But what if the Deathstroke we see isn't Slade? Or, more precisely, what if it isn't *only* Slade? What if an old nemesis has wandered back out of limbo and planted himself into Slade's mind? (Normally Slade tries to shoot his nemeses before they have a chance to get old, but he missed this one.) Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Steve Dayton.
Steve Dayton, for those of you who don't spend entirely too much time reading old comics, was the husband of Rita Farr of the original Doom Patrol (now deceased), stepfather of Garfield Logan of the Titans, fifth richest man in the world at one point, and, unfortunately for everyone involved, the owner of the Mento helmet, which gave him enormous psychic abilities. (He was trying to impress Rita. Superheroes get all the chicks.) I've always had a soft spot for the character, who I judge to be a basically decent man; unfortunately, he's also got a lousy temper, very little idea how to be a good father (although in his defense Gar would try the patience of a saint), and an inability to handle the stresses of his life (of which there were admittedly a lot), which was exacerbated by his use of the Mento helmet, which it turned out was damaging his brain and driving him slowly insane. This led to not one but two periods of violent insanity and supervillainous activity. The second, under the name "Crimelord" (and you thought "Mento" was a stupid name) was finally put to an end in DEATHSTROKE #50, where he uploaded his brain into his computer system...which was then sealed off before he could manage to get into the 'Net. Nothing more was ever heard of the character.
Well, almost. In the very next issue of DEATHSTROKE, Slade's daughter Rose Wilson had a precognitive vision of a future where her father had been possessed...by someone with the ability to enter and control cyberspace. The implication seemed obvious, but it was never followed up on...until now?
Now, this clearly isn't just Dayton controlling Slade. Dayton would be cackling maniacally, laying plots to take over the world, and probably attempting to get the Titans and their DNA for himself (he was big into genetic manipulation). But his long exile in cyberspace probably left him weak and fragmented, and besides which, let's be blunt, he may have all kinds of mental power but he doesn't have anything approaching Slade's strength of will. (Very few people do.) So I'm thinking that somehow he managed to enter Slade's mind, but then couldn't achieve control: instead he merged with Slade, and now we're looking at an unholy union of the two.
This provides all sorts of motives for the murder of Wintergreen. Revenge, for one; Wintergreen was in that last battle with Dayton, and was directly responsible for ruining part of his plans. (Mind you, it's not a very good story, and trying to figure out what the hell was going on is more than a little tricky. But I think that's how it went.) Simple self-defense, for another; if Wintergreen realized what Dayton had done (and as he works for Vigilance, Inc., which took over where Adeline Kane's information-gathering agency Searchers, Inc. left off, it's not that implausible) he would have certainly tried to do something about it--including killing Slade if necessary. It wouldn't be his first choice, but I'm fairly sure both he and Slade would regard it as a lesser evil than letting someone else run Slade's head. (Although killing Slade is...not completely impossible, maybe, but real damn tricky. Shooting him, or even blowing him up, wouldn't do it. But if anyone could figure something out it's Wintergreen.) Finally, while Slade's dialogue about working alone is ridiculous if that's meant to be Slade--as he and Wintergreen parted company at the end of his series and don't appear to have seen each other since--it makes sense for Dayton, who's attempted to commit murder just to cut the links to a painful past.
It also helps make sense of the timing of Slade's interest in the Titans. While endangering children is, admittedly, a sensitive subject for him, he frankly doesn't care enough to try and do something about it; he has his own business to get on with. If he'd wanted to scare either the Titans or Young Justice out of the superhero business, he had plenty of time to do so, and he never bothered. So why now? Because now Dayton has merged with him, and has added his own passion for "get the Titans"--who have thwarted him in the past, and who currently have his stepson, for whom he may have unresolved feelings, in their ranks--to Slade's own conflicted history with the team. The motivation to take them on is Dayton's, the goal is Slade's, and the brutality of Deathstroke's methods could be either or both.
So. There's the theory. Yeah, probably not at all what's going on...but wouldn't it be cool?
kerithwyn--yes, once again I can blame this on her--thinks I should post it, so if it comes true I'll look brilliant. The more I think about it the less likely either part of that sounds, but hey, even if it's just a deluded conspiracy theory, I like conspiracy theories. So here it is.Okay, 'Rith and I have both already ranted about the deep, deep stupidity of Slade Wilson killing Wintergreen, his best friend and comrade-in-arms, and then hanging his head on the wall, here and here. Enough said on the subject.
But what if the Deathstroke we see isn't Slade? Or, more precisely, what if it isn't *only* Slade? What if an old nemesis has wandered back out of limbo and planted himself into Slade's mind? (Normally Slade tries to shoot his nemeses before they have a chance to get old, but he missed this one.) Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Steve Dayton.
Steve Dayton, for those of you who don't spend entirely too much time reading old comics, was the husband of Rita Farr of the original Doom Patrol (now deceased), stepfather of Garfield Logan of the Titans, fifth richest man in the world at one point, and, unfortunately for everyone involved, the owner of the Mento helmet, which gave him enormous psychic abilities. (He was trying to impress Rita. Superheroes get all the chicks.) I've always had a soft spot for the character, who I judge to be a basically decent man; unfortunately, he's also got a lousy temper, very little idea how to be a good father (although in his defense Gar would try the patience of a saint), and an inability to handle the stresses of his life (of which there were admittedly a lot), which was exacerbated by his use of the Mento helmet, which it turned out was damaging his brain and driving him slowly insane. This led to not one but two periods of violent insanity and supervillainous activity. The second, under the name "Crimelord" (and you thought "Mento" was a stupid name) was finally put to an end in DEATHSTROKE #50, where he uploaded his brain into his computer system...which was then sealed off before he could manage to get into the 'Net. Nothing more was ever heard of the character.
Well, almost. In the very next issue of DEATHSTROKE, Slade's daughter Rose Wilson had a precognitive vision of a future where her father had been possessed...by someone with the ability to enter and control cyberspace. The implication seemed obvious, but it was never followed up on...until now?
Now, this clearly isn't just Dayton controlling Slade. Dayton would be cackling maniacally, laying plots to take over the world, and probably attempting to get the Titans and their DNA for himself (he was big into genetic manipulation). But his long exile in cyberspace probably left him weak and fragmented, and besides which, let's be blunt, he may have all kinds of mental power but he doesn't have anything approaching Slade's strength of will. (Very few people do.) So I'm thinking that somehow he managed to enter Slade's mind, but then couldn't achieve control: instead he merged with Slade, and now we're looking at an unholy union of the two.
This provides all sorts of motives for the murder of Wintergreen. Revenge, for one; Wintergreen was in that last battle with Dayton, and was directly responsible for ruining part of his plans. (Mind you, it's not a very good story, and trying to figure out what the hell was going on is more than a little tricky. But I think that's how it went.) Simple self-defense, for another; if Wintergreen realized what Dayton had done (and as he works for Vigilance, Inc., which took over where Adeline Kane's information-gathering agency Searchers, Inc. left off, it's not that implausible) he would have certainly tried to do something about it--including killing Slade if necessary. It wouldn't be his first choice, but I'm fairly sure both he and Slade would regard it as a lesser evil than letting someone else run Slade's head. (Although killing Slade is...not completely impossible, maybe, but real damn tricky. Shooting him, or even blowing him up, wouldn't do it. But if anyone could figure something out it's Wintergreen.) Finally, while Slade's dialogue about working alone is ridiculous if that's meant to be Slade--as he and Wintergreen parted company at the end of his series and don't appear to have seen each other since--it makes sense for Dayton, who's attempted to commit murder just to cut the links to a painful past.
It also helps make sense of the timing of Slade's interest in the Titans. While endangering children is, admittedly, a sensitive subject for him, he frankly doesn't care enough to try and do something about it; he has his own business to get on with. If he'd wanted to scare either the Titans or Young Justice out of the superhero business, he had plenty of time to do so, and he never bothered. So why now? Because now Dayton has merged with him, and has added his own passion for "get the Titans"--who have thwarted him in the past, and who currently have his stepson, for whom he may have unresolved feelings, in their ranks--to Slade's own conflicted history with the team. The motivation to take them on is Dayton's, the goal is Slade's, and the brutality of Deathstroke's methods could be either or both.
So. There's the theory. Yeah, probably not at all what's going on...but wouldn't it be cool?
