Deadshot: Bio, Origin & History

Real Name: Floyd Lawton

First Appearance: Batman #59 (June, 1950)

Powers: No True Powers.  Possesses Superhuman Accuracy.  Is a Master In All Weapons

Affiliation: Checkmate, Killer Elite, Secret Six and Suicide Squad

Enemies: Batman, Anybody That Needs To Be Killed

Love Interests: Susan Lawton (Ex-Wife)

Did You Know: Once thought of as merely a villain, Deadshot is now considered an Anti-Hero

A Little History

Floyd Lawton grew up in a family with an abusive father, a mother who was unable to stand up for herself and a brother whom he idolized.

Fed up with her husband’s antics, Floyd’s mother asked her two sons to kill him. As an attempt to prevent Floyd from warning his father, Edward (his brother) locked him in the boathouse and proceeded to fulfill his mother’s wishes.  Eventually, Floyd would escape.

Edward, already one shot in and with his dad paralyzed, was thwarted when Floyd climbed into a tree and took aim. Floyd did not want to kill Edward but rather merely disarm him. Sadly, the tree branch broke, and Floyd fell, not before accidentally letting a bullet out of the gun. The now launched bullet found its way to Edward not only disarming him but tragically, killing him.

Floyd would forever live with the fact that he killed his brother whom he loved, to save his father, whom he hated.

Training:

Shortly thereafter, Floyd sought out the training of a professional assassin named David Cain, who taught him how to be a professional marksman. At this point, Floyd moved to Gotham and took up crime fighting alongside Commissioner Gordon. He would sport a very flashy top hat, tuxedo, domino mask and take up the name Deadshot

Commissioner Gordon was so impressed by his work that while Batman and Robin are on vacation, he had a Deadshot Signal made up to resemble the Bat-Signal.

Being a true detective, Batman discovers that Deadshot is actually helping the Commissioner so that he can keep him distracted while more serious crimes are being committed. With this information in hand, Batman exposes Commissioner Gordon to the truth and ends Deadshot’s crime-fighting days.

Because he is willing to work for anybody as long as the money is there, he can be found killing both good and bad people.  This makes Deadshot an anti-hero.