- "Not so fast, Deathstroke, he's my kill."
- —Deadshot stopping Deathstroke from killing Batman.[src]
Floyd Lawton is the deadliest gun-for-hire in the world and an enemy of Batman. He is considered to be the world's greatest assassin and never misses a shot, especially with his pair of silenced, wrist-mounted 9mm cannons for his long list of assassinations. Deadshot disdains himself almost as much as his targets; several prison psychologists have diagnosed him with "suicidal tendencies." Deadshot was hired by Black Mask to kill Batman to collect the bounty.
Batman is the only person who has made Deadshot miss... a distinction that puts the Dark Knight at the top of Deadshot's hit list.
Biography
Incident Reports
Before Arkham Origins Incident
Floyd Lawton was a military sniper, great assassin and a master marksman. Because of his excellent sharpshooting he became known as Deadshot. But he would take unnecessary high risks and therefore was discharged from the army. Somewhere in all of this, he accidentally killed his own brother, something he never got over and this incident was what really drove him to insanity.
Arkham Origins Incident
Deadshot is one of the eight assassins hired by the criminal Joker (disguised as mob boss Black Mask) to kill Batman for fifty million dollars on a Christmas Eve night. In the video feed Batman takes from Penguin's drone, he is seen being interrupted in an assassination by four cops, all of whom he murders with one shot by ricocheting his bullet.
At Old Gotham, Deadshot appears, stopping the police from apprehending Batman in an attempt to murder him personally. He ricochets a shot through the back of a SWAT cop who is aiming at Batman and into the tail rotor of a police chopper, making it spin out of control and crash. Batman initially thinks the SWAT sniper was the one who shot down the helicopter, but after scanning the crime scene discovers that the cop was killed by a ricochet from the same round that took down the helicopter, leading him to conclude only Deadshot could have done it. He traces the shot back to a nearby radio tower and discovers numbers on the shellcasing left behind, which he quickly decodes to find a message from Deadshot saying he's waiting for him at the bank and he has a hostage and a "very itchy trigger finger".
Deadshot about to have his arms broken by Batman
Batman then goes to his destination, where he finds Deadshot and several of his men along with the hostage. After taking out Deadshot's goons while avoiding the laser sights on his guns, Batman saves the hostage, defeats the assassin, and breaks his arms in the process. Deadshot seems to accept his fate and tells Batman to kill him quickly, but Batman refuses, instead opting to leave him for the police.
Arkham Origins Blackgate Incident
After having his broken arms healed, Deadshot was hired by three different mob bosses to guard them, so he gets triple pay for the same job. Told to secure all hostiles in Blackgate Prison, Deadshot stumbled upon The Dark Knight himself and went into a duel with him. Batman eventually rushed close enough to Deadshot to make him resort to his wrist mounted firearms instead of his sniper rifle, ultimately ending with Batman line launching into Deadshot, knocking him out, breaking his wrist guns and leaving his body on the cold, snow covered roof of the outside of the facility. Deadshot is recruited along with Bronze Tiger by Amanda Waller to join her Suicide Squad.
Assault on Arkham Incident
Now part of the Suicide Squad, Deadshot works on a secret mission for Amanda Waller which is killing The Riddler as he stole valuable information from her and leads the squad covertly into Arkham Asylum to take him out and retrieve it. While attempting to locate the information Riddler stole. As the Suicide Squad is looking for Riddler's cane, where he hid the information. Batman, who learned of the trouble on the island and engages the Suicide Squad and has the upper hand. After the room explodes, Black Spider emerges, appearing to have killed Batman and emerges with his utility belt calling it a trophy and they continue there mission. Eventually, Killer Frost breaks away from the group and Deadshot realises that she is going after Riddler, noting that she was eyeing his camera when they were in the security room earlier. Arriving at the Riddler's cell he is gone along with Frost. Waller then tries to contact them and informs them that the SCU was called to the Arkham Medical Center. Knowing Harley knows where it is, he demands she takes them there where they find Riddler and Frost pinned down by the SCU.
The squad fights through and Riddler reveals how to disarm the nanobombs in there necks which is why Waller wants him dead. After Riddler defuses the bombs Waller realizes what they are doing and tries to blow them up, sparing them all except King Shark, who Riddler believed his skin was to thick for his defusal to work. The group then notices Black Spider was still alive, which they thought was odd as he said he would be on look out and didn't have his bomb defused before waller pushed the button. Riddler then realizes that Black Spider is actually Batman and tries to kill him but fails. Batman then interrogates Deadshot and asks what is he doing here and Deadshot tells him everything. Before he could finish Joker; whom has escaped, attacks and blows up the room. Deadshot leaves with Killer Frost and Captain Boomerang and Harley only to be confronted by Joker, whom is upset at him for being "Harley's new man" and wants to kill him. Harley appears to talk Joker out it and says the only reason she is here is to break him out and was using them. Joker then appears to change his mind and points his gun at Deadshot.
Deadshot now steps foward and tells Joker his gun is empty and after he pulls the trigger he is going to beat his brains out. This distracts Joker who then points the gun to the ceiling and pulls the trigger, at this moment Deadshot attacks and manages to reclaim his arm cannon but Joker gets away with Harley before he can use it. Deadshot and whats left of the squad attempt to escape but are cut off by a wounded Batman whom has been shot several times by Joker due to Black Spider's costume having little to no ballistic protection. Instead of a fight Batman asks him if he knows where Joker went, which Deadshot tells him he left with Harley and her Hammer. Now realizing that the hammer is where Joker hid the dirty bomb Batman leaves to go after him. The Suicide Squad now breaks apart in a desprate attempt to escape, but before they can escape, Joker has released most of the prisoners, including Bane, Poison Ivy and Two-Face. In the Chaos, Killer Frost is supposedly killed by Bane and Deadshot and Captain Boomerang get into a fight over the SCU Helicopter that landed moments ago, with Deadshot getting the better of. After taking off, Deadshot is shocked when he learns Joker and Harley also made it onto the chopper.
Joker notices a picture of Deadshot's kid and comments on how cute she is and too bad she is going to be an orphan. Enraged, Deadshot attacks Joker and during the fight Deadshot appears to easily gain the upperhand until Batman now boards the helicopter and attacks. The group then realizes that Harley has acccidently sterred them towards a building under construction and doesn't know how to fly. Batman escapes with Harley and the bomb, leaving Deadshot and Joker in the chopper. After the crash, Deadshot comes to and notices blood leading into the building and follows it only to be ambushed by Joker. Another fight breaks out between the two and eventually they lose sight of each other when Deadshot tries to ambush him, Joker notices him and pulls him out of the air with a hook, in turn tossing him threw a window. Deadshot is in bad shape and seriously wounded with numerous glass shards impladed in him and having been stabbed multiple times by Joker with hooks and knives with Joker now dominating the fight.
Throughout the struggle, Deadshot is stabbed several more times but despite being heavily wounded now Deadshot powers through and manages to beat Joker and pins him in the chopper with his own knives. This causes the chopper to become unstable and fall off the building. Before the chopper falls, Deadshot makes a fingergun and says bang and jumps off before the chopper falls, apparently killing the Joker while Batman dealt with Harley and successfully defused the bomb. Sometime later, it is revealed that Joker somehow survived the crash after Amanda Waller is confronted in her office by Batman. After Batman leaves, Waller notices she has a laser sight between her eyes, only to realize that Deadshot is with his kid on vacation and Deadshot appears to kill Waller while his kid is playing with some toys in the background.
Between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City Incident
Years later, Hugo Strange hired Deadshot to assassinate the political prisoners inside the walls of Arkham City who had worked on the prison facility (mostly the communications system), who were seen as a threat to Strange's plans.
Arkham City Incident
Deadshot is first seen in plain Arkham City Inmate attire, in the Processing Center, where he tells Bruce Wayne that he's on his 'list'. He is later found and confronted in the sidemission 'Shot in the Dark'. He is eventually tracked down by Batman due to the three assasinations of political prisoners he committied.
The first assassination was easily tracked down by Batman, where Deadshot had left behind a customised casing for his bullets, with his name engraved on it, accidently letting Batman know that he is in Arkham City. The next assassination led Batman to a tripod where Deadshot was to hold his gun steady, which contained elements of a specific lead compound used in paints long ago. This narrowed down the possible areas where Deadshot would have been storing his weapons, but the amount of areas was too great for Batman to search in time.
The final assassination led Batman to an area where Deadshot would have had to have been lying down to shoot, and where the body heat had melted the snow. The trace particles in the imprint Deadshot left from his uniform also narrowed down the possible locations of Deadshot's storage space even further, narrowing it down to three possible locations. Batman searched these locations until he found a PDA with a list of Deadshot's targets on it. With three targets remaining (Jack Ryder, Bruce Wayne, and Batman), Batman finds he is working on a schedule, and Deadshot is to assassinate Jack Ryder in a short amount of time. With little time to spare, Batman foils his assassination of Jack Ryder, and proceeds to fight Deadshot. In this fight, Batman must remain out of sight of Deadshot's laser, or he will be shot and killed on sight.
Batman then takes down Deadshot by using the grill he is standing on as an advantage, and traps him in one of the carriages in the Bowery, with Batman leaving coordinates of his location for Commissioner Jim Gordon to arrest him later.
After Arkham City Incident
It is presumed he was arrested and put into custody when the GCPD invaded the mega prison. He was then probably sent to Blackgate, as Arkham Island was still destroyed.
Arkham Knight Incident
It is possible that Deadshot may appear in Arkham Knight, however this has not been confirmed. If he is in, he will most likely be hired by Scarecrow to hunt down the Bat.
Psychological Profile
Deadshot
Real Name: Floyd Lawton
GCPD Profile
Prior to his dishonorable discharge, Lawton received “Expert” level Army Marksmanship Qualification Badges in all AR670-1 weapon categories. Academy instructors remarked that he didn't find directly hitting targets a challenge and has a tendency to insert his own additional requirements in order to “make things interesting”.
Little is known about Lawton since his discharge, though he is a suspect in connection with several murders and assassinations, all of which involved uniquely complex ballistic scenarios at long range.
Federal and Interpol warrants have been issued but never served, and Federal warrants alternate between valid and rescinded. Lawton should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Known for high-risk tactics to decrease his survivability and increase difficulty of any task at hand. It is highly likely that Lawton harbors a death wish – consider this when engaging the suspect.
Batman's Database Profile
Lawton was a lethal military sniper with a long list of assassinations, but according to his records, he often takes unnecessary risks or makes his plans unnecessarily complex. Perhaps this is why he was discharged from service and took up mercenary work. Though his military record is mostly redacted, his psychological profile suggests he harbors deep feelings of guilt regarding his accidental murder of his own brother.
Dr. Hugo Strange
Floyd Lawton A.K.A. Deadshot
Attributes
- Expert with all firearms and projectile weapons; guns and targeting scope integrated into costume
- Capable at hand-to-hand combat and in excellent physical condition
Notes
- Master marksman.
- Former military, specific background redacted.
- Reckless attitude suggests mental instability.
- Among the best sharpshooters in the world.
- Master of Arms
- Expert Tracker
Equipment
Weapons
Quotes
Batman: Arkham Origins
- "Not so fast, Deathstroke, he's my kill." - to Deathstroke in trailer
- "Hello Batman. I see you decoded my message. Well done. But I'm afraid playtime's over. Come meet me at the bank so I can put a bullet in you and collect my prize. Oh-and in case you're thinking of backing out-I've got a hostage and a very itchy trigger finger."
- "What are you doing?! Bring me the Bat!"
- "Get back to work!"
- "No more excuses!"
- "Hey, idiot! Get off your ass!"
- "Quit screwing around!"
- "You think I don't see you slacking off over there?!"
- "That's right! Run away!"
- "Huh....Bat's got moves."
- "So he decides to show afterall."
- "Clever, clever!"
- "Is he there?"
- "You won't get lucky twice, if that's what you're thinking."
- "Ha! Gotcha on the run."
- "See? I also find my mark."
- "He's disappeared! Find him!"
- "Ha! There's the sunova bitch!"
- "That's right! Run away!"
- "Who's left out there?"
- "Hey! Come in! Anyone?
- "You're all a waste! A WASTE!"
- "Help me with this!"
- "Alright, Batman- let's see how you deal with this!"
- "Get off me!"
- "No chance, Batman."
- "It's over, Batman! You hear me! Over!"
- "You know, Batman-I don't know what I'm more excited about-killing you or telling people how I did it."
- "Did you find him?!"
- "Easy money."
- "I'm getting closer..."
- "Sunova bitch! Where'd you go?!"
- "Face to face at last. Though I've gotta say-I was expecting someone a little more intimidating."
- "If fate's decided today's the day, so be it. Just finish me quickly, will ya?"
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
- "Y'know, Bats, I've always known you use your cape to disguise exactly where your body is." [after shooting Batman in the cape twice]
- "But I think this is the first time I've actually seen how it works! Nice!" *"All of 'em. Not that they know that. Triple pay for a single job."
- "I told each one I'd be their man, protecting them from cops or whatever else tried to storm the prison."
- "And bad news for you, Bats, you definitely qualify as "whatever else"!"
- "Damn spotlight!" [tries to shoot Batman with sniper rifle, hits spotlight]
- 'All right, let's get serious." [discards sniper rifle, uses his twin-mounted wrist guns]
Batman: Arkham City
- "Bruce Wayne? You're on my list... BANG!" - to Bruce Wayne.
- "You made me miss my target Batman!." - to Batman after saving Jack Ryder.
- "I never miss!"
- "Stop hiding!"
- "Think you can get me? Many have tried. None have managed it!"
- "You'll never get me! No one is better than me, not even the great Batman."
- "Why are you hiding? Is it because you are dead already?"
- "You want to try your luck? Go on then. Stop hiding like a baby and fight me."
- "Come out, little bat.".
- "I can play this game all night, Batman. After I kill you, I'll kill Jack Ryder and Bruce Wayne, and then I can just collect my check!"
- "Where have you gone, Batman? Are you too scared to face me?"
- "You should be. I am going to find you and put a bullet right between your eyes. I will not miss."
- "You've moved right up my list. Ryder is nothing compared to killing the great Batman."
- "I thought you would be difficult."
- "This isn't over, Batman! I swear!" [after Batman defeats and imprisons him]
- "I never fail! I'll hunt you down and kill you! I swear!"
- "This doesn't end here! I'll kill you Batman, then Ryder then Wayne!"
- "Hey! Over here!" [to Catwoman]
- "Get me out of here!" [to Catwoman]
- "I'll hunt you down, Catwoman!"
Batman: Assault on Arkham
- "I aim to please, Mr. Cobblepot. I was told you could get us into Arkham?"
- "Play fair and I'll shoot straight. Jerk me around and I'll kill you."
- "We got about five minutes before Waller figures out what's what."
- ''Have a seat, Puddin'!''
- ''Bang.''
Game Over Lines
Batman: Arkham Origins
Batman Arkham Origins - Game Over Deadshot
Video showing Deadshot's game over lines.
- "A nice, clean kill. Just the way I like 'em."
- "............Bullseye."
Batman: Arkham City
- "The world's greatest detective dies at the hands of the world's greatest assassin."
- "I never fail to kill my target. You better run, Batman. You're next."
- "You're next on my list, Batman. Run if you like. Deadshot always hits his target."
Gallery
Trivia
- When Batman finds the body of Deadshot's third victim, there are henchmen that circle around it. They mention that whoever shot the victim would most likely be on the move to avoid suspicion. This could greatly indicate that Deadshot tries to remain hidden as he carries out his assassinations.
- When you find Deadshot's PDA it shows Bruce Wayne and Batman targets messaged by Professor Hugo Strange, this means either Strange didn't reveal that Batman is Bruce Wayne to Deadshot, or Deadshot unknowingly targeted Hush when he was impersonating Bruce Wayne.
- However, given how dangerous Deadshot is, it is possible Strange deliberately deceived him in order to keep him occupied in Arkham City and thus be present during Protocol 10.
- If Batman throws a Batarang when confronting Deadshot, he will shoot it whilst it is mid-air.
- Deadshot's weapons are custom made to deter the Weapons Disruptor.
- Deadshot is one of the few villains to not have a profile in Batman: Arkham Asylum along with Solomon Grundy, Deathstroke, Copperhead, and Anarky.
- If the player comes back to check on Deadshot after his Most Wanted mission, he disappears, most likely he was taken to Blackgate.
- Whether Deadshot was defeated or not before confronting the Joker at the hotel, Deadshot appears present at the meeting.
- In "Arkham Origins", if the player checks the middle of the bridge, they can find a suitcase containing a sniper rifle, most likely Deadshot's (since he was here when Batman and Deathstroke were fighting at the docks).
- Deadshot has a habit of leaving behind evidences that often lead to him (a tripod, a bullet shell casing, sometimes even the guns he uses). Batman took note of this in Arkham City, remarking Deadshot as getting "sloppy".
- Deadshot has a young daughter, who is his main purpose for trying to escape in Assault on Arkham. It is unknown who the mother is, but she is presumably deceased.
- Deadshot's brief employment by Joker from Arkham Origins is referenced in Assault on Arkham.
Deadshot on the DC Comics Wiki
