9 Reasons Deathstroke Will Make a Great Batman Movie Villain

If you ask people to name villains in the DC Universe, most will immediately list Joker, Lex Luthor, and maybe even Darkseid. There are a lot of great and vicious villains in the DCU, but many remain unknown to the general populace. Deathstroke is one of the most formidable foes a superhero can fight but isn't exactly a household name. Originally known as a villain for the Teen Titans, he soon grew to be one of the most dangerous characters around.

Current Batman actor, Ben Affleck, posted a test video featuring Deathstroke the Terminator. This lead to speculation that Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke will be the main villain in the upcoming solo Batman film. Here's nine reasons why Deathstroke would make a great threat for the Dark Knight.

As a mercenary, Deathstroke doesn't mess around. He conducts business on his own terms. In his first appearance in 1980's Teen Titans #2, he insisted on getting paid up front. When the evil organization known as HIVE refused, Slade was ready to walk. They opened fire on him. Deathstroke easily dodged the bullets and proved he had the skills to get paid immediately. This is the type of character that will make an interesting nemesis for Batman.

Slade Wilson is extremely skilled at everything he does, but he also have an added advantage. In the Army, he volunteered to be part of an experiment to create metahuman soldiers. This gave him enhanced physical powers which include heightened strength, stamina, speed, reflexes, and endurance. He has a healing factor which allows him to recover from injuries quicker than normal. His brainpower has also been increased to have the capacity to use up to 90% of his brain at once. He's a tactical genius and will be more than prepared to take on the Dark Knight.

Besides being able to take a blast to the chest from an alien, Deathstroke knows how to turn the tables on his opponent in a fight. When it appeared he might have been outgunned, he knew placing innocents at risk would divert Starfire's attention. Deathstroke will do whatever it takes to complete his task and isn't afraid to use civilians as leverage against the noble superheroes.

After fighting the Teen Titans on numerous occasions, Deathstroke came up with a way to infiltrate them to discover all their secrets. Sending in a young and diabolical hero as a mole, she soon won the hearts of the team and reported their secret identities to Wilson. With this information, he had another advantage over the Titans and could use it whenever it suited his needs.

In 1991's Deathstroke #7, Wilson and Batman went toe to toe. When the two were both after the same man, it quickly came to blows because, for each, capturing the crook would have different end results. It was an intense fight that last a few pages. Ultimately, Deathstroke won. Obviously Batman will be better prepared next time.

Superman is an extremely powerful guy. He has many different superpowers at his disposal. Even though Deathstroke has some enhanced abilities, one would think he wouldn't necessarily stand a chance against the Man of Steel. This didn't stop Slade from taking the fight to Superman. Having a magical sword made by Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the Greek Gods was a big help. This shows how bold Deathstroke can be plus the fact he's not dumb enough to jump into a fight without the proper equipment.

In 2004's Identity Crisis #3, Deathstroke fought the entire Justice League. Paid to be Doctor Light's bodyguard, the League believed the villain guilty of the murder of someone close to them. Deathstroke immediately took out Elongated Man, set off charges to act as decoys, was able to predict where the Flash would attack him in order to stab him with his sword, poked Zatanna in the liver to cause her to vomit so she couldn't use her backwards magic spells, dodged Hawkman's attack and cut off his flying harness, blocked Green Arrow's...arrow and cut the ends off the rest in his quiver, put a bag over Black Canary's head so she couldn't use her sonic scream (and handcuffed her as well), predicted where Atom was and took him out with a laser pointer, and broke all four of Green Lantern's fingers before he could use his power ring on him.

It took Green Arrow shoving an arrow in his empty eye socket and the rest of the team to subdue him.

Batman has a really great rogues gallery. The problem is, we've seen some of them multiple times on the big screen. There's been three different Jokers, two different Catwomen (three if you count Halle Berry), two different Two-Faces, and two different Banes. Some of the other villains didn't have the best big screen portrayals, and there's still a bad taste in our mouths over some of them. Deathstroke is an opportunity to give audiences a Bat-foe we haven't already seen.

We've seen how Batman treats his opponents. He doesn't hold back and needs a villain he can cut loose on. Deathstroke is just the villain to give Batman a run for his money. With his enhanced abilities, skills, and tactical prowess, Batman v. Deathstroke will be a glorious battle to witness.