Deathstroke's Son Confirms His Shocking Link To Batman's Family
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Deathstroke Inc. #7
In the latest issue of DC Comics' Deathstroke Inc., Slade Wilson finally learns about his secret son Respawn and his connection to Batman's family. Recently, Deathstroke has named himself King of the Supervillains, building an army and preparing for the imminent darkness that's ahead with DC's next Crisis. However, it seems as though he won't be doing it alone now that he's met Respawn (thanks to his daughter Ravager who's less than enthused by her father's recent actions).
While Deathstroke tried being a hero with Black Canary working for the organization known as TRUST, it turned out to be a front for the Secret Society of Supervillains. Learning about their plan to remain unified and even help the DC Universe's heroes in the face of any reality-ending dangers to maintain their power, Slade decides to kill their leaders and take over. As such, Deathstroke Inc. has begun in earnest with Wilson's new army of supervillains.
However, Deathstroke's daughter Ravager and the new assassin known as Respawn have come to Zandia to infiltrate Slade's new base of operations in the new Deathstroke Inc. #7 from Joshua Williamson and Stephen Segovia. However, they're soon caught by Slade himself. Unmasking Respawn, Slade's extremely surprised by what he finds having assumed that Damian Wayne's Robin was wearing one of his late son Grant's old suits to torment him. Instead, it's revealed that Respawn is a clone of Batman and Talia al Ghul's son, injected with Slade's blood and subsequent super-soldier serum in secret by Ra's al Ghul.
Revealing the whole story to Slade, not even Talia knew what her father did to Respawn. Trained and tortured by Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins, Respawn was often used as an organ donor when Damian was wounded due to his enhanced healing factor inherited from Slade. While he eventually escaped and entered the Lazarus Tournament to get revenge on Robin, he soon realized that Damian had been just as much a pawn of Ra's al Ghul as Respawn himself. As such, Respawn confessed his true identity to Ravager which is when they went to go find Slade.
Remarkably, Respawn now serves as an unexpected bridge between the Wilson and Wayne families. Seeing as how Ra's injected Slade's blood into a clone of Damian, does this mean Respawn's fathers are simultaneously Batman and Deathstroke? Furthermore, is Respawn technically Robin's half-brother? Regardless, Slade claims Respawn as his own son in this new issue due to his grief over the recent loss of Grant despite Ravager's objections. Now, Respawn has taken his place by Deathstroke's side just ahead of the upcoming Shadow War, an epic crossover between DC's Deathstroke, Batman, and Robin titles. As such, it's going to be really interesting to see how Batman and Robin will react to Respawn's true identity in the issues to come.