Priest: Only Nixon could go to China. If you're going to do an anti-violence Chicago story, what better place than in DC's most violent comic? As a person of faith, I have a great deal of issues with how popular media says we can solve our problems through violence. The soldier or cop or whomever comes to the rescue with a gun and the Ewoks dance and the Death Star explodes and millions are dead but we all have a party anyway. It's bad writing if the only thing you can think of is conflict resolution through violence. When DC asked about Deathstroke, I said yeah, but my way. My book is not about glorifying violence, but the effects that living this lifestyle has on the individual. Slade Wilson, who is Deathstroke, pays a heavy price psychologically and emotionally for that. It's about consequences. I was listening to these reports of weekends of violence in Chicago and thought it would make a good platform. I called Reginald Hudlin, the director, who was a partner at Milestone, and we had a long conversation. He said, "Go watch 'A Fistful of Dollars.'" He was too busy shooting a movie to write with me. I wanted this to be a kind of Milestone comic. My first choice to draw was Denys.