“Pick up every single card. This guy wasn’t playing with a full deck to begin with — no point making it worse.” – Floyd Lawton
This history of Deadshot leads up to January 2012.
Since Deadshot has appeared in popular Arrow series and will be in the upcoming episode, it’s probably time to learn a little more about Floyd Lawton. Floyd is a hired assassin who regularly boasts that he never misses, capable of using a large variety of weapons but prefers using a pair of silenced, wrist mounted guns. He is mostly commonly associated with the Suicide Squad as well as a regular member of the Secret Six. He initially appeared in Gotham City as a new crime-fighter, but was revealed to be an enemy of Batman when he attempted to replace the Dark Knight. When his plan failed, Floyd attempted to become king of Gotham’s underworld, but Batman and Commissioner Gordon publicly exposed his plot and sent him to jail. After serving his term, Deadshot began hiring himself out as an assassin, becoming a major figure in the Suicide Squad where his skills as a marksman and his absence of care for human life served to greatly further the group’s objectives. During a hiatus from the Squad, his son was abducted, raped and killed by a pedophile in which Deadshot later took revenge. Floyd’s most peculiar trait is probably his great desire to die in a spectacular fashion which is his primary motivation for joining the Squad because he feels he has no reason to continue living but won’t commit suicide. There are various reasons for his infatuation for death; his most common reason is his parents’ hatred for one another when his mother went as far as to hire Floyd and his brother to kill their father.
Deadshot almost got his wish to die when he confronted a Senator who was threatening to expose the Suicide Squad to the world and he killed the man, but gunned down by the police on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, surviving his wounds. Later, Floyd’s uniform was stolen by an airport employee who used it to commit crimes and murders so he was forced to kill the man, but shooting his own “image” affected him greatly. For awhile, he didn’t even fix the hole in his uniform and also threatened to kill Captain Boomerang, feeling he had been responsible. During his last mission for the Squad, Count Vertigo asked him if he would kills him and Deadshot agreed until Vertigo later declined. When Floyd was affected by the Neron, Deadshot decided to kill a kindergarten class but the Justice League stopped him. At one point, Deadshot learned he had a daughter who was being raised in a crime-filled area of Star City so he decided to do right by Zoe and embarks on a lethal war against local gangs. Deadshot then faked his death, but mostly cleared the area up and convinced Green Arrow to patrol it on more of a regular basis. Deadshot was then on the Secret Six banded together by Lex Luthor, offering a major reward for committing to the team and severe punishment for not accepting membership.
He remains part of the Secret Six and reached a friendship with Catman with his share of his payment going entirely to his Zoe and her mother, but after the Six disbanded, Knockout commented he had returned to the Suicide Squad. After rejoining the Suicide Squad, Deadshot was assigned to rounding up super-villains for removal from Earth to Cygnus 4019 as part of Project Salvation. The group encountered Pied Piper and Trickster but failed to capture them so Floyd made a solo effort but failed again. Much later, Deadshot traced and attacked the duo, apparently killing Trickster. In Salvation Run #2, Deadshot and Bane were tricked and sent Cygnus 4019, but after helping fight off a Parademon invasion, Floyd managed to escape in the teleportation machine. After Flashpoint, Deadshot was captured by Amanda Waller, being forced to join Suicide Squad. After being hired to assassinate a Senator in Gotham, Batman attacked him and Floyd ended up on death row at Belle Reve. While incarcerated, Floyd’s cell fills with gas and is implanted with a micro-bomb to insure his obedience. Deadshot takes charge of the team and on their first mission to purge a stadium full of civilians infected by a techno-organic zombie plague; the Squad finds the source of the infection and kills the woman. After ordering Voltaic to use his powers in order to kill everyone in the stadium, Deadshot kills him in order to frame him for the events there, but before the team is evacuated, the authorities arrive and the Squad is ordered to lay low.
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