YMMV / The Lazarus Contract

• Ass Pull:
  • "Gravity sheath" has basically become the new "because Speed Force": it can do whatever the crap the writers want now. When introduced, it basically gave the user flight, a barrier and enhanced strength. Here, it can somehow allow Slade to run at the speed of light, effortlessly mind you, as well as allow him to time-travel without a Cosmic Treadmill, while also leaving behind residual energy that speeds up speedsters in its path... because of course it does.
  • The Speed Force, of course, is one in itself, though that's hardly new. Though in this crossover in particular, the only rule the writers seem to know is "going too fast pulls you into it", and nothing else, even the abilities that could have stopped the event before it even began.
• Base-Breaking Character: Deathstroke, rather unsurprisingly it's the usual things about the character that are dividing fans. Some think he's a formidable badass, who can easily fight two Titan teams, while others think he's a Creator's Pet, who needs his opponents to fully grasp the Idiot Ball, so he keep up with them.
• Creator's Pet: Deathstroke. He somehow captures speedsters (Wally West and NuWally), one of whom was in broad daylight and surrounded by people (and the other Titans), then steals the speed from NuWally and scares off Wally West while they're in Bullet Time despite Wally having years of experience controlling the Speed Force and being able drain speed from others on top of being faster than ever. The justification amounts to, "Because he's Deathstroke."
• Narm:
  • The line "where's Wally?!" is awkward for non-American audiences, since Waldo is called Wally in those regions. So an otherwise dramatic line is just a random hilarious Shout-Out to a children's book series.
  • The deal that led to the titular "Lazarus contract" between Nightwing and Deathstroke. Throughout the story, Dick treats it like a dark secret, and when it's revealed it's played like a big betrayal but it actually turns out to be not as bad as they make it to be. The deal turns out to be an agreement that Deathstroke will stop going after the Titans provided Dick trains Rose and teaches her morals. That's it. Many fans couldn't take it as serious as the story tried to make it seem, since it implies that teaching a killer's daughter to be a good person and preventing a man from killing a bunch of teenagers is a bad thing. It doesn't help it seems to exist just to give the story a cool title as it had very little weight on the actual plot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Rose Wilson has a sort of important role in things, given Dick training her was his dark secret. Does she get any role in the actual story? Does she get to explain her feelings on things? Does she get to interact with any of the Titans? Nope, she spends the entire story in a coma.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: NuWally guilt tripping the Titans and Teen Titans for not trying to save Slade. Given what he's done, especially to Kid Flash himself, and how much of an amoral dick he is, it's not hard to celebrate his death a little. While NuWally rescuing him was probably supposed to come off as him being heroic when the others weren't being so, to a lot of people, it came off more like NuWally is REALLY holding onto that one afternoon he spent with Slade.

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