I remember the instantaneous backlash on the internet over it. I told my friend (who was new to DC at the time) about it, and he was like "Really? I thought that fight was REALLY COOL." It's effective in making him look tough, at least .Ken wrote: ↑Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:09 pmAhh, the moment he went from being a cool character to being Deathstroke the Villain Sue. "Clumsily-written" is overly generous. That fight is pure fan-wank.Jabroniville wrote: ↑Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:12 pmIn Identity Crisis, he was given this bad-ass moment where he hands a series of high-tier heroes their asses (the fight is a bit clumsily-written and makes the heroes into a bunch of dunces who just stand around and job one at a time, like the ninjas in a Martial Arts flick, but still) until Green Arrow manages to piss him off and get him to lose focus
I mean, I can but Deathstroke being trouble for a lot of experienced heroes, especially when he's prepared. Flash fights dumber guys than Slade all the time (CAPTAIN COLD is a recurring nemesis; Slade is way beyond that). But guys like GREEN LANTERN are a bit "above" that kind of pay grade.
And like I said, it's funny how the very early '80s featured a Slade that was repeatedly called out as being past his prime, aged, and careless- Adeline frequently talked about how "there was a time we'd never have been able to observe him like this" and was staggered at Deathstroke CHASING DICK GRAYSON THROUGH THE STREETS as if this was the most horrendous job he'd ever done of something. And of course because he had great characterization and just plain LOOKED AWESOME, by the 1990s Slade was a supreme bad-ass, and only got more hardcore from there.
By the Grayson/Faerber Titans series, they were all "OMG you can't fight Deathstroke- he used to fight ALL of us!" even though back in the day, I don't think he stood a chance in a straight-up brawl with the team. Hell, at his trial in the Wolfman/Perez era, CHANGELING was able to nearly squash him- all his martial arts don't mean squat against an ELEPHANT, you know?
I think he just got Boba-Fetted until he was nearly unstoppable.