My future's so bright, I gotta blog Slade

The cartoon Teen Titans featured a lot of colorful antagonists for our youthful heroes to do battle with, but Deathstroke was always the team's primary threat. Funny thing though, they couldn't call him Deathstroke on the show. Too violent? Sissies!

The show worked around the issue and Deathstroke ended up going by his real first name: Slade.

Clever? No.

An acceptable alternative to mommy-appeasing alternatives (Hurtslice? Blackeyeslash? Bellyacheswing?)

Yes.

Moving on...

Slade's look in Teen Titans is much more militaristic than his comic book counterpart. His costume does share some of the traits of his original look though, including the bandoleer and the pouch-belt.

Sadly those bitchin' buccaneer boots didn't make the cut! Oh well.

Slade's mask is more like a helmet here, not the cloth mask he wears in the comics. He still only has one good eye.

The only color on Slade's costume is the orange half of his mask. It's very striking in contrast to the gray and black of the rest of his outfit, which taken all together is a really cool character re-design.

The first TT figures were all stuck in very static straight-up poses, and the scale was all over the place; you can see in Red X that as the line continued the poses became more dynamic. Slade also looks like a midget next to the teenaged Red X.

Unfortunately the Teen Titans toys started weak, and as the toys got better, the line faded away. I may not have been a huge fan of the cartoon, but the character designs were neat and the toys had huge potential.

Even Slade has a lot of charm, for all his faults. He's pretty darn puny compared to his compadres, and he's standing stiff-as-a-board, but he's still a neat little Deathstroke.