The New Teen Titans #2
The New Teen Titans #2 is one of the most consequential single issues of the Bronze Age because it introduces Deathstroke the Terminator — Slade Wilson — who would grow into DC's defining mercenary villain and the archenemy of Dick Grayson and the entire Titans franchise. The plot engine that drives him is also set in motion here: his son Grant Wilson dies as the Ravager, and Deathstroke inherits the contract to destroy the team, a vendetta that would fuel stories for decades, culminating in 'The Judas Contract.' Beyond Deathstroke himself, the issue establishes two other enduring elements of the Wolfman-Pérez mythology — Starfire's unique ability to absorb languages through physical contact, and the organization H.I.V.E. — while also introducing Deathstroke's loyal confidant Wintergreen, whose presence would later inspire direct comparisons between Slade and Batman. The character's cultural reach extended even to Marvel, where Rob Liefeld patterned Deadpool's name, powers, and costume directly on Deathstroke.
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The New Teen Titans launched only one issue earlier, in November 1980, with Marv Wolfman writing and George Pérez pencilling — a pairing that quickly evolved into a genuine co-plotting partnership, with the two creators reportedly working out stories together over lunch after Pérez moved to the same town as Wolfman. Both creators initially expected the series to last only six issues given DC's overall sales struggles at the time, so the ambitious introduction of a villain as fully engineered as Deathstroke in just the second issue reflects the creative confidence the team had almost immediately. The issue was inked by Romeo Tanghal and colored by Adrienne Roy, and it shipped with both a Direct Edition and a Newsstand Edition; it was also issued in a UK edition with a 15p cover price. The issue includes a bonus prose article by Wolfman on the revival of the Teen Titans, an unusual editorial feature that underscores how invested the creative team was in contextualizing their relaunch for readers.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Deathstroke the Terminator (Slade Wilson), created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez; he is introduced here under the name 'the Terminator' — a title later quietly retired after the 1984 James Cameron film made the word culturally synonymous with something else.
- First appearance and death of the Ravager (Grant Wilson), Deathstroke's eldest son, who is enhanced by H.I.V.E. scientists with a procedure granting him hyper-reflexes and peak mental capacity — but the unstable process fatally burns out his body during the battle with the Titans.
- First appearance of W.R. Wintergreen, Deathstroke's loyal manservant and confidant, who becomes a long-running supporting figure in Slade's solo stories.
- First full appearance of H.I.V.E. (Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Eliminations), the terrorist organization that contracts Deathstroke and will recur throughout the Wolfman-Pérez run.
- First demonstration of Starfire's (Koriand'r's) ability to absorb languages through physical contact — a distinctive character trait that becomes a defining quirk of the Tamaranean physiology across all subsequent adaptations.
- Starfire's true name, Koriand'r, is revealed to readers in this issue.
- The story is titled 'Today… the Terminator!' Script by Marv Wolfman; pencils by George Pérez; inks by Romeo Tanghal; colors by Adrienne Roy; cover by George Pérez. Cover date: December 1980; on-sale date: September 11, 1980.
- The issue was reprinted in New Teen Titans Archives, Volume 1, and is indexed in The Official Teen Titans Index #3. A Spanish-language reprint appeared in 1984 from Ediciones Zinco.
Cast · 21 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
The H.I.V.E. tries to hire the Terminator to kill the Teen Titans. When the Terminator turns them down, they give Grant Wilson powers similar to the Terminator and he becomes Ravager and takes the contract on the Teen Titans. Terminator tries to warn Ravager to not use his powers but he does not listen and is killed during the battle with the Teen Titans.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).