Deadshot (Earth-1)

Similar 🠚 Deadshot, from the Batman: Arkham Series

Deadshot
Biographical Information
Full Name	Floyd Lawton
Aliases	The World's Greatest Marksman The World's Deadliest Assassin
Occupation	Soldier (formerly) Assassin Mercenary
Base of Operations	Gotham City
Affiliations	Edward Lawton (brother, deceased) United States Military (formerly) Susan Lawton (ex-wife) Zoe Lawton (daughter) Suicide Squad Evan “The Fisher” Williams (accountant)
Physical Description
Hair	Black
Eyes	Brown (left eye) Blue (right eye)
Height	6 ft 1 in
Game Information
Appeared in	Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Voice Actor	Bumper Robinson
First Appearance	Batman #59 (June 1950)

Floyd Lawton, more commonly known as Deadshot, is a mercenary and deadly assassin who retired after the birth of his daughter Zoe. However, years later he came out of retirement after discovering another person claiming to be Floyd Lawton, even going so far as to steal his identity and background. After fighting and supposedly killing the impostor, Floyd was taken into custody by Green Lantern and sent to the re-opened Arkham Asylum. After an unknown amount of time, he was forcibly recruited into Amanda Waller's Task Force X.

Incident Reports

Before Kill the Justice League Incident

Growing up, Floyd Lawton had a complicated relationship with his father. This clash with authority figures continued as he had an insufferable coach in high school who yelled at him constantly. He went through a phase where he threw loud house parties while his brother, Edward Lawton, became a wealthy real-estate developer.

This chaos seemed to end when he served in the United States Armed Forces. He transitioned soon after to the life of a mercenary, whereupon he took the name Deadshot, his signature mask completely obscuring his identity. He gained a reputation for taking any underworld job, regardless of how ethical they were, including political figures and kings. At some point he married a woman named Susan, who bore him a daughter, Zoe.

At some point, prior to the Joker’s takeover of Arkham Asylum, a low-level reporter at the Daily Planet had obtained information on him that Lawton did not want publicly known, in hopes of publicly exposing and humiliating him, therefore he sent a lawyer to suppress this information so that he would not be identified. Following the Asylum takeover, despite the aforementioned lawyer’s best efforts, Lawton’s identity was outed anyway, the story reaching the attention of Lois Lane, who was considerate with her choice of words when reporting this. She publicly revealed Deadshot’s real name, but chose to keep any and all information on Susan and Zoe to herself, much to Lawton’s relief. As he had always used a mask to hide his face, no one knew his true ethnicity, save for himself. As a result of Zoe’s birth, and quite possibly his identity being outed, he retired from being a mercenary for the time being.

As Zoe grew older, there were clear signs of dysfunction between Floyd and Susan, which resulted in her leaving him to raise Zoe alone. He did try to be the best father he could; he took Zoe to Loomis Land in Metropolis on Memorial Day weekend in the past. She had wanted a cartoon dog prize from a shooting range, and seemingly failed. He got too immersed in granting her wish to such a point that he used his wrist cannons to gain an edge over the shooting gallery—which would be a blatant rule violation—destroying all of the targets as the children watching cheered him on. It is safe to assume that Zoe got her wish. He also remembered buying soft serve ice cream on that same occasion (though he preferred his ice cream with sprinkles). He had also gotten a Wonder Woman t-shirt for her as a gift on one occasion. Sometime after, he and Susan seemingly reconciled, though their custodial situation over Zoe seemingly still stood.

Unbeknownst to him, an Earth-2 variant of himself had travelled through the multiverse and landed on Earth-1. The Earth-2 Deadshot continued to work as a mercenary under the Deadshot name, thus bringing a lot of heat down on the Earth-1 Floyd. Floyd had eventually decided to track down and kill what he believed was an imposter using his name, fearing for his now teenage daughter's safety because of the actions of his alternate counterpart. He had spent months tracking the alternate Deadshot, piecing him together, by following the jobs that his alternate counterpart pulled, before surmising that they had the same modus operandi. It was then that he realized that he had an advantage: he knew what he was going to do at the same time his alternate counterpart did.

The two Deadshots engaged in a massive shootout in Downtown Gotham, which resulted in several civilian casualties, which was initiated by a shot fired by the Earth-2 Deadshot, who was perched atop the Clock Tower with copious amounts of ammunition, at the Earth-1 Deadshot which scraped his mask, just missing his scope. After a long fight, both Deadshots had a clear shot on the other; Deadshot could see through the crosshairs of his sniper rifle the alternate Deadshot looking back, as they both pulled the trigger. The Earth-2 Deadshot was able to graze the head of the Earth-1 Deadshot but was ultimately off by a couple millimeters, though he did barely miss. The Earth-1 Deadshot was more successful.

Shortly after the fight had ended, Green Lantern arrived to arrest the instigators of the firefight. When confronted by Green Lantern, Floyd attempted to justify his actions, but Lantern only cared about the damage he caused. Deadshot then told him he was trying to protect Zoe, but Green Lantern did not believe him, and reminded him that he supposedly killed the Earth-2 Deadshot, to which Deadshot pointed out that he was the real Deadshot, but once again, Green Lantern did not seem to believe him, citing the rap sheets on who he believed to be the real Deadshot, and so he arrested him, though not before telling him off. It was never stated if the body of the Earth-2 Deadshot was ever found.

While incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, Floyd was informed by Aaron Cash that according to forensic scans, both he and the Earth-2 Floyd Lawton had identical fingerprints and the DNA test was a perfect match. This made Floyd ponder how that would be possible, but because of a lack of a logical explanation for the sudden appearance of two Deadshots, and with many not even knowing the appearance of the previous Floyd Lawton behind his mask, in spite of his real name being outed years earlier, many people came to the conclusion that the Lawton claiming to be the real Deadshot was actually the impersonator, while the Earth-2 Lawton was the original. Floyd then inquired about when he could see Zoe, to which Aaron replied that due to his behavior, he was going into solitary confinement, though he did exercise his right to a phone call. He used his phone call to contact Zoe to apologize for dragging her into his situation and admit that it was his own fault. He then explained that there are some jobs he could not come back from and this was one of them. He then explained his reasoning for doing what he did. He then reassured her that when she was born, Deadshot was retired, until the Earth-2 Deadshot came along, using his name, bringing heat down on both Floyd and Zoe. Before he could explain further, a silent Zoe, who had not said a word since Floyd began his explanation, hung up.

While Lawton was imprisoned, he was allowed updates on his daughter’s life for good behavior. He had learned that she had made it to Gotham Academy, achieved good grades, made some friends, and dabbled in “wholesome” video games and live-streaming, though he was unaware of Zoe’s becoming an influencer.

Kill the Justice League Incident

Lawton is soon forced to join Amanda Waller's Task Force X, along with Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and King Shark, and all four are implanted with nano-bombs to secure their (unwilling) loyalty to Waller. The team are sent to Metropolis by Waller, only to find it under invasion by the alien Brainiac, who is being aided initially by Green Lantern, Batman and Superman after brainwashing them. The only members of the Justice League still with their minds intact are the Flash, who stops Green Lantern from taking Task Force X to Brainiac, and Wonder Woman, who becomes the sole member of the League not brainwashed after an encounter with Batman causes the Flash to get captured and cloned like his teammates.

With how dire the situation is in Metropolis, Amanda Waller gives Deadshot and his teammates a new assignment: to kill the Justice League. After fighting against and managing to kill the Flash, Deadshot and the rest of Task Force X find themselves teleported into a different universe where Brainiac's invasion had long since passed. It's in this universe, soon referred to as Earth-2, that the team meet and bring back to their universe's Lex Luthor who, unknown to the public, quickly and quietly takes the place of the team's original Lex Luthor after his death at the Flash's hands.

After his multiversal visit to Earth-2, Floyd comes to the conclusion that the 'impostor' Deadshot he had encountered in the past was in fact from a different universe that had somehow travelled to this world. He speculates that the other Deadshot was the same one from Earth-2 that Luthor had briefly mentioned when they met. Lex suggests that for this to be true, the other Deadshot would have to have been sent to Earth-1 years before the Earth-2 Luthor had learned of Brainiac's existence and invasion on his Earth and therefore before he had developed the technology for multiversal travel. Floyd suggests that Lex is overlooking the possibility that someone outsmarted him and created the technology before he did, to which Lex scoffs at. In reality, the Earth-2 Deadshot had been sent in both the past and a different Earth at the same time as a result of Luthor's phase technology still being experimental.

Gameplay

Deadshot appears in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as a playable character.

His gameplay specifics are as follows:

• Firearms expertise: Pistols, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles
• Traversal: Gizmo’s Jetpack - Deadshot uses a jetpack that previously belonged to Gizmo to fly in the air using jet propulsion, though he is hampered by the possibility of overheating. Should this happen, he can crudely kick the engine back to allow him to use it a bit longer. He can also use the jetpack strategically to shoot at enemies in midair. He can also use the Jetpack to glide for short distances. His traversal attack, fuel dump, consists of him activating his jetpack’s thrust and then maneuvering to use the thrust to cause an explosive reaction, damaging enemies.
• Melee Weapon: Wrist Cannons - For his melee attack, he shoots at enemies using his wrist mounted machine guns.

Codex

From the Files of Lex Luthor

Floyd Lawton’s constant need to protect and defend his reputation led him out of retirement, away from his daughter, and into direct conflict with a second Floyd Lawton – one of (REDACTED) origin.

Lawton positions himself as the leader of Task Force X, but he seems more comfortable being pointed at a target – and then killing it. A parent with a pressing need to reconnect with his now-teenage daughter, this is currently the leverage A.R.G.U.S. is using to keep Lawton in line.

His history: ex-military, then contracting, then blah, blah, blah. What matters to Waller – and to me – is that he’s a killer, through and through.  

Gallery

Trivia

• During the A.R.G.U.S. audio tapes, Deadshot states his belief that that the other Deadshot had died, but when Harley questioned him, it seemed like he wasn't completely sure. Furthermore, when Deadshot interacts with the Deadshot exhibit in the Batman Museum, he states "I am not done with this phony steampunk-ass looking dude" indicating that he is indeed still out there.
• Rocksteady Studios received criticism with the reveal of this new Deadshot as they seemingly retconned the ethnicity of the already established Deadshot in the series.
  • At first Rocksteady simply claimed this new Deadshot was the real Floyd Lawton, while the one from the Arkham series was an impostor. However, this explanation received further criticism as well as mockery from fans that someone as intelligent and resourceful as Batman didn't realize he'd been fighting an allegedly fake Deadshot for over a decade.
  • Throughout Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League it is further explained that the Deadshot from the previous games is an Earth-2 variant that had somehow travelled through the multiverse, making this Deadshot the original to this Earth.
    • Due to the lack of knowledge about the multiverse, most civilians believe that the Earth-1 Floyd Lawton is actually the one impersonating the Earth-2 Floyd.
  • The prequel comic Kill Arkham Asylum appears to have a continuity error as it shows only two victims of the Deadshots' fight against each other, while audio files in the actual game confirm several casualties from the fight itself.
• Floyd has claustrophobia, being freaked out by places that have no obvious ways out.
• When asked by Boomerang, Floyd explains that if he was hired to simply scare someone by shooting by them, it's not a miss. If it's not a specific target, there is no miss.
• Floyd shows interest in having sessions with Harley, since she is a trained psychologist.
• Floyd initially could not process the reality that Zoe is a legal adult now, still seeing her as the child he was forced to leave behind when Green Lantern got him locked in Arkham. This changed after Harley had advised Floyd to accept Zoe for who she is, after a heated argument between him and Zoe.
• The Earth-1 Deadshot is the first character in the Batman: Arkham Series to be seen with heterochromia iridum, causing his eyes to be two different colors and something shared with his daughter Zoe.