Sorry, DC fans, but so far, the villains of the new “extended universe” have been a complete car crash. First, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, we had Jesse Eisenberg’s garrulous, unhinged Lex Luthor chasing after the man of steel like a rabid dog . Then there was an out-of-her-depth Cara Delevingne – carrying all the threat of a drunken teenager at a bad costume party – as the paper-thin Enchantress in Suicide Squad. What a pity the best bad guy we’ve yet seen in these movies, Michael Shannon’s machine-honed megavillain General Zod, was killed off at the end of Man of Steel. Not only did the Kryptonian baddie’s motivations actually make sense, but Shannon played the part with furious verve and relentless conviction.

Steppenwolf and his army of parademons look likely to be the enemy in next year’s Justice League, and they should at least present a genuine threat. We don’t yet know who Wonder Woman will be taking on in her debut solo outing – also in 2017 – though the first world war setting will hopefully allow director Patty Jenkins to dial down the scale of the threat to the Amazon princess.

But according to The Wrap, we do now have an idea who Ben Affleck’s Batman will be taking on in his first solo outing: fans’ favourite Deathstroke, otherwise known as Slade Wilson. If that alter ego sounds familiar, it’s because Marvel antihero Deadpool, real name Wade Wilson, was initially conceived as a riff on the DC icon. Is the popularity of 20th Century Fox’s recent movie the driving force behind Batman’s latest nemesis? That seems unlikely, especially as Deathstroke has a storied history of his own as one of DC’s greatest antiheroes, as well as one with a pretty muddled moral compass.

A super-soldier with remarkable healing abilities who broke free of his life in the military to pursue a career as an assassin, Slade Wilson has, at various times in DC’s comics, been an opponent and aide to adolescent superhero team the Teen Titans, and has also battled Batman and other members of the Justice League. His apparently devious schemes are occasionally revealed to be the result of twisted altruism, usually related to offspring such as the unhinged Titans Joseph (Jericho) and Rose (Ravager) Wilson.

Quite how Deathstroke fits into the new DC universe remains to be seen, but his arrival does hint at yet another orgy of pixel-powered mega-violence. Where the Christopher Nolan films and TV show Batman: The Animated Series gave us a caped crusader who often outwitted his enemies, and favoured hand-to-hand over firearms, Dawn of Justice introduced a dark knight who blasts Gotham’s bad guys with giant Batguns and has no obvious moral code.

I’d been hoping the solo film might be set up as a prequel, taking place in a time before the superhumans began invading the DC universe. Not precisely a return to the grittily realistic Gotham of Nolan’s movies, nor the noir-inspired visions of either the current TV series Gotham or its animated predecessors, but something with just a little less video game style of beat-em-up intensity. But this looks unlikely.

Despite being blind in one eye, Deathstroke is said to have the strength of nine men and the traditional Batman would surely have a hard time taking him down. It looks like Batfleck might be in need of his mechanical suit and Bat-cannons once again. More’s the pity.

Let’s hope not, because the short history of comic book movies has taught us that relentlessly upping the ante in the combat stakes isn’t the best way forward. Where Man of Steel and Dawn of Justice buried their heroes’ distinct personalities beneath the rubble of burning CGI mega-cities, other superhero films have prospered by using all those screen minutes to build more detailed comic book visions and undercut audience expectations. Fox’s Deadpool threw everything into meta-fuelled nuttiness, while Iron Man 3 reimagined famous Marvel supervillain Mandarin as a Wizard of Oz-style imposter. It threw the audience a curveball and allowed Ben Kingsley to deliver one of his finest performances of recent times. Less can mean more.

But if Affleck does plan to dial down the epic scale of Batman’s battles in his debut solo outing, Deathstroke seems an odd pick for head villain. Presumably Warner Bros doesn’t feel the time is right to pitch the caped crusader against Jared Leto’s Joker. Or maybe the clown prince of Gotham has hired Deathstroke to take down his nemesis.



That’s probably a good idea, because a Batman v the Joker fight featuring the pair’s current iterations would be a short one indeed. The Joker plays on Batman’s morality. When the caped crusader is capable of murdering his enemies without a moment’s hesitation, one of the greatest rivalries in comic book history is rendered utterly redundant.