8 Smartest Decisions In DC Villain History

2. Having A Double Agent On The Team - Judas Contract

Teen Titans Judas Contract
DC Comics

The Judas Contract is a seminal comics storyline that put the Teen Titans - and Deathstroke - on the map. It was well executed in terms of just how devastating at was, and its centre lied the conceit that the Titans newest member, Terra, was actually a double-agent working for Deathstroke, their arch nemesis.

If any comic were to cement Slade as a relentless operator, then it would be Marv Wolfman and George Perez's. Terra was introduced as a new member for the team but the intention was always to have her revealed as a villain, and for her to die shortly thereafter, but it wasn't her scheme. In many ways, she was just like the rest of the Titans - a victim of Deathstroke's machinations.

Make no mistake, Deathstroke abused this girl to get what he wanted - and it nearly paid off. Using intel gathered by Terra, Slade struck at each of the Titans when they were most vulnerable, using their secret identities against them to gain the upper-hand. One by one, he catches all of them, bringing them to H.I.V.E., the Terminator's employers.

Introducing a double agent into the equation isn't exactly the most inventive idea, but it was deployed to great effect in the Titans' seminal outing. Deathstroke only fails due to the intervention of his wife and son, while Terra suffers a full-blown breakdown and kills herself with her own powers.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.