| “ | I am thing that keeps you up at night, the evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never rest- and neither will you. | „ |
| ~ Slade to Robin |
Slade is the most prominent archenemy of the Titans in the Teen Titans animated series. He is the Earth-Teen Titans version of Deathstroke the Terminator. This article specifically covers the animated version of the character. He appeared in 17 episodes of Teen Titans (and makes numerous cameos in Teen Titans Go!), which makes him the most frequently appearing villain on the show.
Role
Slade plays a main role as one of the biggest villains in the animated series. His first appearance is Divide And Conquer and/or Final Exam where he first appears as a silhouetted figure hidden in shadow. In Divide And Conquer, Slade sends Cinderblock to free Plasmus from jail, as well as other criminals. After Cinderblock and Plasmus were defeated and sent back to jail, Slade then hired Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth to defeat the Teen Titans.
In Forces of Nature, Slade disguised himself as an old man and convinced Thunder and Lightning to work for him until the two brothers realized that their "fun" was harmful and wrong (thanks to Beast Boy teaching them a lesson). Robin fought the disguised Slade while the other Titans took out the flame monster. After Robin kicked Slade's face, his real face was revealed. Slade then vanished into thin air.
In the episode Masks, Robin searches obsessively for Slade's identity, going so far as to create a new villain persona known as "Red X" to propose a partnership with Slade. Slade, however, was aware that Robin was Red X all along and the two do battle, with Slade escaping yet again. In the episodes Apprentice Part 1 & 2, he tricks and forces Robin into being his apprentice. When Robin refuses to work for him, Slade threatens to destroy Robin's friends with nanobots of his own design hidden within their bodies. Robin defeated Slade by placing the same nanobots into his system, telling Slade that if he killed his friends he would also lose his current apprentice, Robin. Rather than wipe out the Titans in one blow and have nothing left standing in his way, Slade chose to shut down the nanobots and in doing so allowed Robin to attack him and break half his mask off. Slade brought his entire lair down and escaped once again.
Slade returned in the 2nd season, where he discovered a girl named Terra, blessed and cursed with tremendous power. Despite the Titans' initial warnings to Terra about Slade's evil, Slade helped Terra learn to control her powers and convinced her to be his apprentice. In the end, after helping Slade conquer Jump City and 'destroy' the Titans, Slade's abuse allowed her conscience to win out, and Terra betrayed Slade, sending him to his doom in a pit of lava. His body was never recovered, and it was assumed he died.
Sometime after the final battle with Slade, Robin, still obsessed with Slade, inhaled dust released from Slade's cracked mask. After Robin was knocked out by Cinderblock, he saw that Slade had returned, but every time Robin attacked him, Slade didn't have a scratch on him, and Robin couldn't even touch him. Robin's friends couldn't see Slade, because only Robin could; Slade was a hallucination. Slade easily beaten Robin up, and Robin became even more angry, unable to land a decent blow on the apparition. Robin was so intent on destroying Slade once and for all he wouldn't stop to consider his friend's theory that Slade wasn't really there. Back at the tower, Slade was still haunting Robin's mind, and Robin continued to fight a losing battle. There was only one weakness: the flickering lights made Slade disappear. Just as Slade was about to kill Robin, Robin believed in his friends and switched on the lights, and Slade disappeared completely.
In the 4th season of the Teen Titans animated series, Slade surprisingly returned for real, after Raven instead of Robin. Slade had gained new, demonic pyrokinetic powers, flight, invincibility, and the S-shaped Mark of Scath on his head. after Terra took him down after he was revived, thanks to Trigon, Raven's demonic father.
After Raven sacrificed herself to release Trigon, Robin had no choice but to join Slade to look for Raven. The two traveled into Trigon's underworld, where it was revealed that Slade was existing only as a reanimated corpse. After Terra killed him, he was revived, thanks to Trigon, but Trigon reneged on their deal and refused to return Slade's life. After parting ways with Robin, Slade then came face to face with a demonic guard and stole his weapon after destroying him and regaining his life and strength. Slade then aided the Titans in their final battle against Trigon, only for the demon to blast Slade away. He was never seen again after this, though Robin vowed that if he ever showed up again, they would be ready.
Slade appears again in the last episode of the series, taunting Beast Boy about how the seemingly revived Terra no longer wants anything to do with him. But after an intense battle, this Slade is revealed to be a robot duplicate, though its existence suggests that the real Slade is still alive and active. The series was canceled before it could be renewed for a 6th season.
Powers and Abilities
Slade has no superhuman powers, but is still extremely dangerous. He is a ruthless martial artist of the highest caliber and knows a wide range of martial art forms; combined with his heightened speed, strength, reflexes and agility, he is even able to put all five Titans united in combat to shame. He seems to possess some knowledge of ceremonial magic (as seen in the episode Forces of Nature) which could possibly imply that he was working with/for Trigon all along, or he merely has extensive knowledge of the occult. He appears to have access to extremely advanced technology and various secret hideouts, nearly unlimited resources, and a vast army of robot minions. However, his most dangerous attribute is his genius-level intelligence; rather than get his own hands dirty, Slade is adept at laying traps, utilizing high technology, orchestrating numerous schemes and attacks, and even manipulating others to do his bidding. He is a master of manipulation and psychology, allowing him to get his foes to do almost anything he wants through threats, bribes, or simple fear. Like Robin and his mentor Batman, Slade also uses many gadgets during his fights, including explosives. He was said to have a healing factor.
Following his demise and resurrection as Trigon's herald, he commands a wide range of psychokinetic abilities used to rival those of Raven, particularly his pyromancing (i.e., fire-controlling powers). When serving as Trigon's agent, he is empowered with vast pyrokinetic abilities, superhuman strength and durability, flight, regeneration, phasing, electricity generation, teleportation, and other supernatural powers making him far stronger than the Teen Titans (except for Raven). Moreover, as he was only a skeleton without a body at the time, he was able to sustain heavy damage and was near immortal.
Physical Appearance
Slade is an adult male of an unknown age. He wears a partly armored, full-body black outfit with monochromatic color scheme, and steel-toed boots. Attached to the suit are a number of plated silver compartments along with a utility belt in which he keeps any number of items such as communication devices, weapons, and detonators. However, his most notable feature is his mask, which is an orange copper on the side with his eye and black on the other. In the episode The End Part II, the glimpse of Slade's skull shows that he has only one eye, and the empty right socket has a scar, indicating a wound deep enough to cut the bone. His eyes are dark gray, often appearing black from a distance. He is tall and extremely well-built, with broad shoulders and muscular limbs. A brief glimpse of Slade's silhouetted head without the mask, shown in The Apprentice Part II, shows he has short, spiky hair either gray, dirty blonde or brown. He is caucasian, as various times his clothes have been ripped (usually by Beast Boy) to reveal the skin underneath. In the episode The End Part III, however, his outfit is ripped to reveal only bare bones. He has a notably smooth and velvet deep voice, which can easily be quite frightening, and a calm and casual demeanor. He rarely raises his voice during the entire series.
Personality
Slade is an extremely calm and composed individual, remaining an enigma to both enemies and allies alike throughout the series. As a result, not much is known of his true personality by anyone, although the comparison has been made on multiple occasions by multiple people that he and Robin share similar traits, such as an intense dislike to lose and are fiercely dedicated and, borderline obsessive in accomplishing their goals. Slade is a cruel, calculating and ruthless man and master manipulator. He prefers operating from the shadows but is quite capable of holding his own in any kind of battle, and is exceedingly dangerous. He is very hard to startle or faze, and his emotions are nearly impossible to read. He maintains a calm demeanor throughout most situations, and only loses his temper very rarely.
Despite his animosity with Robin and status as the Teen Titans' main arch nemesis, it is worth noting that Slade never truly treats Robin like an enemy. Slade has saved Robin's life more than twice throughout the series for unknown reasons, even when Robin's death would have been beneficial to him. His attitude towards the Titans resembles in many ways a toxic, twisted father figure; while he might not be looking out for them the way a father would, his actions against them push them to mature and do their best, and grow as individuals and as a team.
Episodes and Appearances
Teen Titans
- Divide and Conquer
- Final Exam
- Forces of Nature
- Masks
- Apprentice - Part 1
- Apprentice - Part 2
- Terra
- Titan Rising
- Betrayal
- Aftershock - Part 1
- Aftershock - Part 2
- Haunted
- Birthmark
- The Prophecy
- The End - Part 1
- The End - Part 2
- The End - Part 3 (last real appearance)
- Hide and Seek (Non-Speaking Cameo and in Flashback)
- Things Change (as a robot)
Video Game
Gallery
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Trivia
- He was voiced by Ron Perlman.
- Ron Perlman later voices Deathstroke again in the movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
- Due to censorship reasons, Slade wasn't permitted to be referred to by his comics book name Deathstroke.
- In "Forces of Nature" Slade is disguised as an elderly mystic who bears resemblance to Slade's maskless comic book appearance. Somehow Slade was able to disguise his muscular frame to look like a small old man.
- He is actually the only villain from the original comic to not use his original supervillain name.
- Although Robin and Slade vowed in Season 4 that if they were to encounter each other again a fight would not be reconsidered, Slade (at least as a villain) never fought with the Titans afterward even when encountering Beast Boy.
- During his solo fight with the doorkeeper in The End - Part 2 (with a small glimpse in part 3) you see his scarred skull. However he regained his flesh after the fight was finished and his face was never revealed.
- Height: 6`4.
- Slade was also planned to appear in Teen Titans Go! where Ron Perlman possibly will reprise his role. However, the spin-off series' creators at this moment not sure about how will they portray him in that series due to his dark, serious nature in original series.