Floyd Lawton

"I don't miss."

- Deadshot to John Diggle

Floyd Lawton, known under the codename Deadshot, was the world's deadliest marksman. He was an assassin who used long-ranged weaponry and the neuro-toxin curare to poison his bullets. He murdered countless targets in his time, including John Diggle's brother, Andy Diggle. He had a daughter named Zoe, and most of the money he earned he sent to her. After each job, he tattooed the name of his latest victim on his body.

History
Floyd spent years away from his family in service of his country, even missing his daughter Zoe being born. When finally coming home from war, while given a warm welcome from his wife, Zoe was scared of her father and kept her distance from him. Over time, Floyd's post-traumatic stress disorder from killing so many people combined with Zoe's rejection of him made Floyd turn to drinking and troubled around his family. This drinking was to the point that he couldn't hold a job or even socialize with people. When he finally lost his nerve and waved a gun around while saying she could not understand about what he had done, while quickly pulling back ashamed, his actions destroyed the last bit of trust his family had, to which his wife had him arrested and a restraining order put in place. Shortly after this, Lawton was contacted by an unnamed woman who was part of H.I.V.E.. She told him even though he had left the battlefield he would never be able to get a normal life. She offered him money to kill Andy Diggle, effectively starting his long career as an assassin. Throughout the years Lawton sent all profits beyond expenses to his daughter, Zoe.

Gun for hire
Deadshot was first seen in "Lone Gunmen" where he killed James Holder while he was being threatened by The Arrow. He managed to hit The Arrow as well. Upon finding out the bullet was poisoned with curare, Oliver used the knowledge to find an assassin familiar with the poison: Deadshot. Oliver then tracked down Deadshot with aid from the Bratva to an apartment he had used before under his true name Floyd Lawton. There they confronted each other, only for Lawton to flee the scene. Later at the Unidac auction, Deadshot shot a bullet to kill Walter Steele, who was pushed out of the bullet's path by Sergeant Quentin. Oliver and Deadshot later had another confrontation ending in Oliver shooting an arrow through Deadshot's right eye, knocking him unconsciously to the ground.

When he regained consciousness, an elderly homeless man approached him. Deadshot wrenched the arrow from his eye and stabbed the old man with it. As he staggered out of the building, he was kidnapped by a group of men in a van after losing consciousness again, before he could be taken by the police. In a hospital room, Floyd woke to find his eye having been operated on. Before his brain could be examined, under the instructions of an unidentified man, broke out of his restraints and walked out.

Two months later, Deadshot appeared in Blüdhaven and approached a man who apparently had a job for him, but was rejected due to having only one fully working eye.

In "Dead to Rights", three months following, Floyd had retired to "drink and smoke his life away". However, when China White approached him with a eye scope to replace his eye, asking him to kill Malcolm Merlyn, Floyd agreed to come out of retirement. The two formed a plan to kill Malcolm by forcing him outside his office building, so Deadshot could kill him. However, Malcolm and his son, Tommy, headed to a safe room in Malcolm's office. Deadshot managed to destroy the bullet-proof windows by firing a grenade from a launcher at them and was able to shoot Malcolm several times. Malcolm became poisoned by the curare toxin in the bullets and Deadshot and China were able to escape. Malcolm survived, however, after Tommy gave his father a blood transfusion.

In "Home Invasion", Sometime later Deadshot returned to Starling city for a potential contract which in reality was a trap A.R.G.U.S was setting to capture him with. When he was going to meet with potential contractor (Lyla Michaels), he had somehow learned what their plans were and he plan to kill the A.R.G.U.S agent setting the trap while sitting sniper. He killed three of the agents and when he moved to kill Lyla, John showed up and saved Lyla's life. When Deadshot (now sporting an eyepatch in stead of his scope). was On his way out John tried to stop him but Floyd easily disarmed him and held two guns on John, who said he was going kill him for what he did to Andy. Floyd replied "I would kill you right now, but there's no one paying me". Whilst showing him his tattoo of Andy's name and told him that it was best that he remembered that he had a place just next to his brother's name and then he punched John in the head with a gun and left the building.

Russia and working for A.R.G.U.S
In "Keep Your Enemies Closer", he is found to have been captured in Russia and taken to the gulag. It is revealed that Lyla Michaels was tracking Deadshot for John Diggle but was taken captive there. Lawton meets Diggle again while in solitary. He kills John's contact inside the prison with an icicle and says he would help find Lyla if John gets him out too. After they find Lyla, Diggle helps Lawton out of the prison. They escape in a van with Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, and Anatoly Knyazev. Out of honor, John allows him to walk free instead of just shooting him. Before leaving Lawton told Diggle that he was contracted to kill Andy by H.I.V.E.

In "Suicide Squad", Lawton and a few members of the Suicide Squad are temporarily released from imprisonment by A.R.G.U.S. to participate in a mission in Markovia. He would attempt a fake assassination in order for Diggle to gain trust from Gholem Qadir. During a Humanitarian Benefit which Diggle was invited to, Lawton would pose as Diggle after Diggle bypassed the security with Qadir. Lawton would look for the nerve agent only to discover that it was much larger than expected. After Lawton learns that it was planned for him to be killed along with the destruction of the nerve agent, he decides to stay before being reminded of his daughter, Zoe by John Diggle. Lawton would later realize the drone that was set to destroy the nerve agent was locked onto a chip inside him. Lyla would cut the chip out with Ben Turner's claws. After they return to A.R.G.U.S., Amanda Waller decides to place the chip back in the spine of the Suicide Squad members.

In, Lawton is broken out of imprisonment by John Diggle and Lyla Michaels to stop Amanda Waller. After being instructed to take no kill shots, Lawton is armed and holds up the control room of A.R.G.U.S. with other members of the Suicide Squad in order to stop Waller from leveling Starling City with a drone attack.

Further work with the Suicide Squad
In late 2014, Deadshot was working as part of the Suicide Squad, killing members of the extremist sect Onslaught in the Republic of Kasnia along with Bronze Tiger. The two were later training in the A.R.G.U.S. headquarters, taking out ten men in 7 seconds.

Soon afterwards, he, Tiger, Diggle, and Ravan Nassar were deployed to Kahndaq to take down Onslaught. When they arrived at an Onslaught camp, Deadshot took up his trademark sniper position, killing an Onslaught member as he was about to execute hostages, providing a distraction for Bronze Tiger and Diggle to begin killing other members. After Nassar blew up an Onslaught truck, Deadshot and the rest of the group found a survivor to take them to Khem-Adam.

Lawton and Turner tortured the survivor, but Diggle managed to convince the survivor to tell the Squad the location of Khem-Adam's lair. They arrived there and freed the kidnapped girls, killing several Onslaught agents along the way. Lawton picked up Turner's body after Khem-Adam killed him and carried him out to the waiting A.R.G.U.S. helicopter, insisting that he be buried in his home country.

After they were back in America, Lawton teamed up with Digger Harkness and Carrie Cutter as part of the Squad. They watched The Flash take on the meta-human King Shark. Waller told him and the rest of the Squad to suit up, as they were going in to stop the shark. They arrived outside of the man's former apartment and Deadshot helped to knock him down, before Cupid trapped him with a net. Joe West approached, asking who they were, before Lawton introduced them as the Suicide Squad.

He later met up with Lyla and John who were just getting married and informed them they had another mission and the suicide squad will ride again. The team will go to the Republic of Kasnia to rescue United States Senator Joseph Cray who got taken hostage while opening a hospital. John decided to tag allong to help Lyla. Cupid, John, Lyla and Lawton parachute in Kasnia. Cupid asked Lyla about the wedding and tells her how she will spare on flowers to save more money for the dress. She told John she and the Arrow will get married and get children, after which Loyd told her a a lovelife and family is not possible for people who do what they do. John told him he thinks it is possible and that he is not like Floyd. Floyd said he was not always like he was now.

Cupid, John and Lyla entered the hospital while Floyd took down the guards with his sniper rifle. The Sqaud bursted in and killed the terrorists in a firefight and prepared to free the hostages. The senator suddenly pulled a gun and said they should not have come here. He shoots at Cupid but Floyd tackles her and takes the bullet for her. Cupid is visibly touched as the Squad gets away and John helps the shot Floyd. A touched Cupid seemed to be in love with Floyd after he saved her. John stitched Floyd up while getting distracted for a second by the tattoo with the name of his brother. Over the radio senator Cray explained to them the hostage situation was just theater to make him a hero and allow him to run for president. John and Lyla noticed that the hospital got rigged with explosives and more mercenaries arrived. John and Lyla got desperate as they realized they will die and their child will become an orphan. Floyd encouraged them and told them they will free the hostages and both Lyla and John will survive to get back to their child. His speech seemed to arouse Cupid who made some flirting remarks at him.

Cupid, John and Lyla take down most of the mercenaries but Senator Cray threatened to activate the bombs while holding the switch. Floyd positioned himself on the rooftop and shot the switch from his hand and killed the mercenaries. Cupid and John told him to get down but he said he lied and that he will cover their escape from the rooftop so they can make it out alive. Covering them from the roof he killed the mercenaries untill everyone was safe. After they were safe he looked at the picture of his daughter and wife and looked at it one more time before the building exploded and he presumably died.

Legacy
Amanda Waller made it look like he had been the leader of the hostage situation in Kasnia and had been killed by his own explosives. While being framed by the media as a ruthless killer. Lyla and John were disgusted by this and his heroic act made John reconsider his life with Team Arrow and resulted in Lyla resigning from her work with A.R.G.U.S as she realized the work made her do these horrible things and she wanted to be a good example for her daughter.

Personality
Lawton's motivation as a sniper is money. He is driven by money - so much so that he didn't kill John Diggle only because he sees him as a potential source of income later, since no one has yet paid him to fulfill the task. It was later revealed his obsession with money was because it's his only way to provide money for his daughter Zoey, who he sends most of the money via a blind trust. He has several pictures of her in his cell at A.R.G.U.S. He will kill anyone who gets between him and his target(s); when Floyd found out that A.R.G.U.S. set a trap for him, he killed three A.R.G.U.S. agents, despite the fact that they were not getting in his way between him and his target(s). However he does show remarkable bravery and character by remaining underground when Waller orders him to do so, despite his knowledge of an impending drone strike. It is possible that he envies John Diggle's code of ethics and honor, suggesting that he wasn't always borderline sociopathic, this was merely a personality adjustment that eventually consumed him. This is shown in when he says that it was the way he wanted to die, doing something honorable.

Lawton is also shown to be a man of habit. This was demonstrated when he checked into the same hotel and the same room he stayed the other times he was in Starling City, enabling Oliver to track him down with just the information of the information provided to him from the Bratva the last time he was in Starling City from that encounter.

Lawton is shown to have developed attachment to his comrades. When Ben Turner was killed, he took the liberty of burying him in his home country to honor his fallen comrade. His loyalty to his comrades was so high that he took a bullet for Carrie Cutter and even sacrificed himself for the team by choosing to stay on the rooftop to cover their escape after which he got killed when the building blew up.

Lawton is combination of both pessimist and a realist. When Diggle told him he might even get a pardon after a few years of serving the Suicide Squad, Lawton told him he won't last that long. He does respect Diggle enough not kill anyone when he demanded Lawton not to do so.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: As a highly skilled assassin, Floyd is shown to be in top physical condition. He is strong enough to go toe-to-toe with John Diggle and come out on top.
 * Master marksman: Floyd is considered to be the world's deadliest marksman and highly skilled with many ranged weapons. This is partially supported by his proficiency with his eye scope. Floyd's marksman skills are so great, he is said to never miss his mark, earning him the nickname Deadshot from Interpol.
 * Expert hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Floyd has shown himself to be a capable hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist. He was able to take on John with relative ease and even overpowered him in their confrontation.

Equipment

 * Laser Eye Patch: One of Floyd's signature trademarks was the high-tech laser sighted eye-patch that he wears over his right eye to make up for the damage done to it. This eye-patch augments his already amazing marksman skills, and when combined with his sniper rifle's scope, makes it almost impossible for him to miss his target.
 * Cybernetic Eye Patch: This cybernetic eye-patch was given to Floyd by China White to replace his damaged eye, after it was seriously injured by The Arrow. It was later upgraded to act as a sniper rifle scope and also possesses thermal imaging. A.R.G.U.S. agents can remotely access the eye-patch to use it as a camera, seeing what Floyd does.
 * Wrist turrets: Floyd possessed two wrist turrets, one on each wrist which can emit continuous gun shots in rapid fire.
 * Sniper Rifle: One of Floyd's weapons of choice include a long-ranged sniper rifle with curare-laced bullets.
 * Grenade Launcher: Floyd used this weapon in order to penetrate Malcolm Merlyn's bulletproof glass.
 * Deadshot Suit: Floyd wears a suit as his villain alter-ego, Deadshot, when he is out on an assignment. The first incarnation of the suit was little more than a dark suit and jacket. The second and current incarnation of the suit is far better equipped, including an armored chest piece, fully loaded Bandoleer and various magazines of ammunition.
 * Curare: Floyd laces all his bullets with curare to exponentially increase the chance his victims die as long as the bullet has made contact with the victim's blood stream, even if the bullets barely graze the victim or if the victim is wearing body armor.

Arrow
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Season 3
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Arrow

 * "Time's Arrow"
 * "Back from the Deadshot"

Arrow: Season 2.5

 * "Ascension" (Suicide Squad: Crisis in Kahndaq)
 * "Awakenings" (Suicide Squad: Crisis in Kahndaq)
 * "Gone"
 * Blood part 11
 * Blood part 12

The Flash: Season Zero

 * "Fish Fry"
 * "Blood Loss"

Trivia

 * Deadshot is one of the more popular DC comics super villains, having featured in several animated adaptations, and video games, and is a prominent member of the Suicide Squad, a team of convicted felons that frequently perform missions on behalf of the government. This incarnation, however, does not appear to have the "silver spoon" background of his comics counterpart. In the comics, he is originally and primarily a Batman villain, although, like the Joker, he has proven incapable of taking the killshot on Bruce Wayne when he has it.
 * In, Floyd Lawton appears in Blüdhaven, the city he has chosen for his "retirement". In the comics, Blüdhaven is Nightwing's city, and during the episode, Guillermo Barrera appears. He's a criminal mainly operating in Blüdhaven, with Nightwing as his nemesis.
 * In, John Diggle is reading an article about Deadshot suspectedly killing the Bialyan president. Bialya happens to be a prominent country in the DC mythos.
 * Deadshot getting tattoos with the names of his victims is similar to Victor Zsasz, a villain from the Batman series who carves a tally mark into his body every time he kills someone.
 * Many of Deadshot's tattoos are references to in-series characters, extended DCU characters, and Behind-the-Scenes crew members. They include "Glen Winter" (series director), "Andrew Diggle" (Diggle's brother and also the writer of "Green Arrow: Year One" for DC Comics), and "Joseph Cray" (a reference to Adam Cray, who takes up the mantle of The Atom after Ray Palmer and joins the Suicide Squad in the comics).