Zack Snyder’s Justice League has been a dominant conversation topic over the last few weeks (if not years), and now it’s hit critical mass – late-night TV.
In both the theatrical version of Justice League and in Snyder Cut, we were treated to a scene featuring Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor and Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke. They ended up being slightly different from one another, but both do set up a future for these characters. This is the scene that gets the “Colbert Cut” during a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In classic late-night fashion, it ends up being a funny roast on Deathstroke.
I love that Colbert seems to be a fan of comic books, fantasy, and general “nerdy” things, and while names like “Deathstroke”, “Deadpool”, and “Deadshot” are more part of pop-culture now than they were a few years ago, it’s still great to see a majority of this parody be a lot of deep cuts, including where a majority of the roasting actually takes place: Deathstroke’s nemesis, the Teen Titans. That’s right, Slade Wilson, a grown adult, beats up on a group of kids.
While Deathstroke, created in 1980 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, began as a sadistic and ruthless killer adversary for the Teen Titans, his mythos has grown. From a family tragedy to a sometimes anti-hero, Slade Wilson has become a popular character within DC Comics. He found a bit of mainstream success with a breakout performance by Manu Bennett in Arrow.
Originally, Manganiello’s take on Deathstroke was supposed to be expanded upon as the primary antagonist in Ben Affleck’s solo Batman movie, it was then planned to be further explored in a solo Deathstroke film, with Gareth Evans at the helm. Alas, it appears that much of the Snyderverse is coming to a close.
Deathstroke wasn’t the only DC villain to appear on The Late Night with Stephen Colbert
Before explaining the Marvel films to Deathstroke, Colbert had Jared Leto on his show to talk about The Little Things. The conversation just happened to take place on the day that Zack Snyder’s Justice League released, and the conversation turned to Snyder’s version of Leto’s Joker.
Leto was very careful to play it cool about both versions of the character; the other being David Ayer’s in Suicide Squad. Let’s be honest though, we all dug Leto’s most recent portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime… right?
Let us know what you thought of Colbert’s recent conversations, about Zack Snyder’s Justice League, in the comments below! Do you think he roasted Deathstroke too much?
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Sources: ComicBook.com and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
