10 Comic Book Characters Who Were Better On TV Than In Movies
6. Deathstroke
The CW's Arrow certainly had its highs and lows over the course of its eight-season run. But easily one of its most consistent highs was Manu Bennett's portrayal of the villain Deathstroke.
Bennett's Deathstroke made his debut in Arrow's first season, later achieving big bad status in Season 2. To this day, Slade Wilson remains arguably the single-best villain Arrow ever had (as well as one of the best villains in the Arrowverse in general) serving as an incredibly intimidating, competent and tragic adversary to Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen.
In contrast, Slade has only appeared on the big screen for less than two minutes, with Joe Manganiello making a cameo as the character in the post-credits scene of Justice League. Manganiello's Deathstroke showed up, spoke a single line of dialogue, took off his mask and that's about it. This was obviously a tease of things to come, but one that has still yet to be paid off, with the character's cinematic future still uncertain.
There have been other depictions of the character on the small screen, from Smallville to Titans. For now, however, Bennett's Slade Wilson from Arrow remains the definitive live-action Deathstroke.