Deadshot (Suicide Squad)

Floyd Lawton, more commonly known as Deadshot, is a mercenary and deadly assassin who had long ago retired after the birth of his daughter Zoe. However, years later he soon finds himself coming out of retirement after discovering another person claiming to be Floyd Lawton had been encountered numerous times by Batman, all while allegedly stealing Lawton's identity, background and title of Deadshot. After fighting and supposedly killing the impostor, Floyd is taken into custody by Green Lantern and sent to the re-opened Arkham Asylum, where he would spend an unknown amount of time, before forcefully being recruited into Amanda Waller's Task Force X.

Incident Reports

Before Kill the Justice League Incident

Sometime before the Arkham Origins incident, Floyd retired the Deadshot moniker because his daughter Zoe was born. Unbeknownst to him, an Earth-2 variant of himself had traveled 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. To clear his name from what he believed to be an impostor, as well as to keep his daughter safe from the consequences of the actions of the Earth-2 Deadshot, Floyd took up the role of Deadshot again and after months, he eventually tracked down the variant Deadshot.

The two Deadshots engaged in a massive shootout which resulted in several civilian casualties. After a long fight, both Deadshots had a clear shot on the other, and 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. 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 had to explain that he was the real Deadshot, but Lantern only cared about the damage he caused and the lives he took, and so he arrested him regardless. 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, 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.

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 converted 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 traveled 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.

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 skin color 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. This explanation received its own 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.