Floyd Lawton

"This aint no task-force, just call it like it is. Welcome to the Suicide Squad."

- Deadshot to John Diggle

Floyd Lawton, known to Interpol under the codename Deadshot, is an expert marksman with a sniper rifle. He is an assassin who uses long-ranged weaponry and uses the signature neuro-toxin curare to poison his bullets. He has murdered countless targets in his time, including John Diggle's brother, Andy Diggle. After each job, he tattoos the name of his victims on his body.

Season 1
In "Lone Gunmen", Lawton was first seen as he killed James Holder and injured Oliver Queen in the process. Finding out the bullet was poisoned, Oliver tracked down Deadshot with aid from the Bratva to an apartment he had used before under the name Floyd Lawton. Where they confronted each other, only for Floyd to flee the scene. At the Unidac auction, Deadshot prepared to take out Walter Steele, who was saved by Sergeant Quentin. Oliver and Deadshot later had another confrontation where Oliver shot an arrow through his right eye, knocking him to the ground, unconscious.

When he regained consciousness, a elderly hobo 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 Harbor 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.

Season 2
In "Keep Your Enemies Closer", he is revealed to have been captured in Russia, and held where John Diggle is. He kills Johns contact inside the prison and says he would help find Lyla if John gets him out too. John helps him out of Gulag prison, along with Lyla, in a van with Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, and Anatoli Knazev. John allows him to walk free instead of just shooting him, for killing his brother. Deadshot reveals that he was contracted to kill Andy, by H.I.V.E.

Personality
Lawton's motivation as a sniper is money. He is motivated by money so much so, that he didn't kill John Diggle only because he sees him as potential to make money later as no one has yet paid him to fulfill the task. 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), possibly he enjoys killing, which makes him a sociopath. 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 honour, suggesting that he wasn't always borderline-sociopathic, this was merely a personality adjustment that eventually consumed him, shown in the episode Suicide Squad when he says that it was the way he wanted to die, doing something honourable. The only thing he truly cares for is his daughter, Zoey, whom he leaves money in a blind trust and tries to keep her life safe and easy by staying away from her. He keeps several pictures of her in cell at A.R.G.U.S.

Abilities

 * Master marksman: Floyd is a master 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.
 * Physical conditioning: Floyd is strong enough to go toe-to-toe with John Diggle and come out on top.
 * 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. This eye-patch augments his amazing marksman skills, and when combined with his sniper rifle's scope, makes it almost impossible for him to miss his target. This eye-patch also resembles the eye patch Cyborg wore from the DC comics.
 * 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. agent's can remotely access the eye-patch to use it as a camera, seeing what Lawton does.
 * Wrist Turrets: Floyd possessed two wrist turrets, one on each wrist which can emit continuous gun shots in rapid fire.
 * Floyd Lawton's 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 bullet proof glass.
 * Deadshot Costume: Floyd wears a costume as his villain alter-ego, Deadshot, when he is out on an assignment. The first incarnation of the suit was little more then 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 ammunition clips.

Appearances
{{Scroll|

Arrow
}}
 * Chapter 1: "Time's Arrow"
 * Chapter 22: "Back from the Deadshot"

Trivia

 * Deadshot is one of the more popular DC supervillains, 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.
 * 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 a 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.