Shoot em Dead

 

There is a long list of assassins in Batman's villains gallery. I have a post devoted to a gang of them.  Deadshot is another assassin, another character with excellent training, no superpowers, and impeccable aim, who "never misses" his intended target. The most recognizable iteration of this character was resurrected in 1979 for Detective Comics #474 by Terry Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin. They gave him his signature iron clad, robot eye, arm mounted guns look. Technically, the character was created by David Vern Reed and Lew Schwartz in 1950 for Batman #59. However, as the image below shows, there doesn't appear to be anything similar. They could be considered 2 separate characters. However, they do share a name and origin.

Floyd Lawton debuted in 1950 as a child of rich parents, like many other characters on this blog, including Bruce Wayne, Tommy Eliot, Jaina Hudson, Roman Sionis, Charise Carnes, and Oswald Cobblepot. Like these other characters, his family comes apart when he's young. His father's infidelity causes his mother to convince his older brother to murder their father. Lawton foils the assassination attempt, which kills his brother and paralyses his father. The rest of his youth is unkown, he spends some time in the army in sniper school, and eventually ends up with the League of Assassins, training with David Cain. He arrives in Gotham and attempts to set up as a crimelord, posing as a vigilante to take out his competition. Batman stops him. Then he decides to be a killer for hire. He initially looks like this: 

Most of his adventures after 1984 revolve around his membership in the Suicide Squad or as an assassin for other villains like Lex Luthor, the Mad Hatter, and the Joker. Recently, he's become popular after being portrayed in the Suicide Squad movie, played by Will Smith. The character has also appeared in Smallville, Arrow, and the Flash television shows, as well as multiple DC animated shows and movies. In video games, he appears in the Arkham games, and Injustice 2. 

I am not a huge fan of this character, as there are so many similar characters. Deadshot doesn't feel unique or interesting. He looks like Deathstroke the Terminator and Zeiss, and has a similar MO to Bloodsport, and Lady Vic. His origin story is also very similar to a bunch of already mentioned Batman villains. In fact, I think any story involving Deadshot could very easily subsitute him for any of the characters mentioned above, and no one would notice. The Suicide Squad (2021) film did exactly that, using Bloodsport instead. 

Maybe if they brought back his 1950s look.... that would make him interesting.