20 Greatest Arrowverse Villains
3. Deathstroke
The TV version of Slade Wilson (or at least, the drug-addled, vengeance-obsessed Wilson from Arrow season two) remains one of the Arrowverse’s most compelling villains, not least because of a career-best performance from Kiwi action veteran Manu Bennett.
Oliver Queen’s former mentor and friend blamed him for the loss of the love of his life, Shado, on the island of Lian Yu five years earlier, and his exposure to an experimental combat drug, mirakuru, had made him stronger, faster and almost impossible to kill.
In every way the Arrow’s physical superior, Deathstroke wanted Queen to suffer as he had suffered, and proceeded to take his life apart before murdering his mother in front of him.
It’s a moment that Arrow, try as it might, could never really match again - and thanks to Deathstroke’s insane, grand guignol schemes and Bennett’s coiled, muscular menace, for a long time season two was the high water mark for Arrow...