10 Things You Need To Know About Deadshot Before You See Suicide Squad

Despite being arguably the biggest star in the movie (apologies to Jared Leto, Viola Davis and Margot Robbie), Will Smith hasn’t featured all that prominently in the trailers for Suicide Squad. This is probably due to the fact that more overtly screen-grabbing characters like the Joker and Harley Quinn naturally produce more ‘trailer moments.' However, it does mean that audiences are probably going to go into the film not knowing a whole lot about Smith's character. In case you aren't aware, Smith is playing Deadshot, AKA Floyd Lawton. As his name suggests, the character has an unblemished record when it comes to meeting his target. He’s more than just a gimmick, though, and Smith will hopefully get to show off all the complexities of the character once the movie arrives next week. But, before the David Ayer-directed flick lands in theatres, we've put together a list of 10 things you should really know about Deadshot. It's time to start getting familiar with Task Force X, folks. 10) He Began As A Very Different Character In Deadshot’s first appearance in the comics, he was literally an entirely different character. Yes, he was still an expert marksman, but he did not wear his signature mask and he was not a villain. From an idea by Bob Kane and ghost-written by David Vern Reed and Lew Scwartz, Floyd Lawton first appeared in The Man Who Replaced Batman comic in 1950. He was initially portrayed as a vigilante, aiming to usurp Batman’s position as Gotham’s greatest crime-fighter. He also wore a tuxedo, complete with top hat and tails. Deadshot as we know him today didn’t truly arrive until his self-titled mini series in 1988, written by Suicide Squad creator John Ostrander. It was this series that introduced Lawton’s tragic family history. Speaking of which… 9) He Killed His Brother And Was Abused By His Father If you’re going to go about murdering people, you’ve probably had a violent life to start with. This is true of Floyd Lawton, who had a far from ideal childhood. Young Deadshot, his mother and his beloved brother Eddie were all abused by Floyd’s father. The boy’s mother eventually coaxed Eddie into murdering his dad. To stop him, Floyd attempted to shoot the gun from his brother’s hand. However, the branch he was perching on snapped and he instead killed his brother, leaving his abusive father still alive. Later on in life, his mother went insane and threatened the life of Floyd's son. He was left with no choice but to shoot her in the spine, which left her paralyzed. No wonder he turned out how he did. 8) He Has A Serious Death Wish As a consequence of so much death in his life, and the overwhelming guilt of killing his brother, Lawton believes that life is pretty much meaningless - he has such a dangerous occupation because he has a serious death wish. His reckless daredevil nature, of course, makes him a perfect member for a team called the Suicide Squad. His devil-may-care attitude for life and death has been put to the test on two occasions, where he did actually bite the bullet - one was a self-sacrifice and the other time he was murdered. Both times, however, he was resurrected shortly afterwards. After his second death during the New 52, Task Force X boss Amanda Waller brought him back to life – and was immediately lambasted by an angry Lawton. I guess he really does want to die. 7) He’s Not A Metahuman (Just Really, Really Well-Trained) Known as the most accurate marksman in the DC universe, Deadshot rarely ever misses. In fact, the only recorded time that he has ever failed to kill his target when meaning to is due to Batman disrupting his shot at the last minute – even then, he still achieved a flesh wound. Interestingly, in a similar way to his mortal enemy Batman, this is not due to some superpower but simply through hard work and dedication. This makes him one of the rare Suicide Squad members to not be a meta-human. Again like the Dark Knight, Lawton’s prowess on the field is through keeping himself in peak physical condition and using the latest technology and gadgets, like his wrist-mounted machine guns and highly durable armour. 6) The Suicide Squad Isn’t His Only Team Deadshot is almost synonymous with the Suicide Squad, featuring on nearly all versions of the team and serving as its leader for more times than any other character. However, that doesn’t mean that he can’t be part of another group of supervillains in between Task Force X operations. The Secret Six differ from that other SS group as they are hired villains doing nasty things, rather than bad guys forced to be heroes. With a roster including Bane, King Shark, Harley Quinn and Vandal Savage’s daughter Scandal (no, really), the team takes orders from the unknown master manipulator Mockingbird. This codename has been used by various character through the years, including the Riddler, Amanda Waller even and, most prominently, Lex Luthor. 5) He’s Appeared In Live-Action Before Though Deadshot isn’t a terribly well-known character outside of fans of the comics, and Will Smith is certainly the first actor to bring him to cinema screens, the villain has been adapted for live-action before. He first appeared in Smallville’s tenth and final season, where he was for some reason portrayed as more of a cowboy (though he still had his familiar eye piece). He later appeared in a recurring capacity on Arrow, in a much more comics-accurate interpretation. Michael Rowe’s take on the character earned many fans - fans who were outraged when Lawton was killed off in an episode of the show’s third season. The reason for his death wasn't exactly because of Arrow, however… 4) He Was Forcibly Removed From Arrow Despite setting him up early in the show’s first season and having big plans for him and the rest of the Suicide Squad in future, Arrow’s showrunners were unfortunately ordered to remove Deadshot completely. At first, the reason for this was unclear, with co-creator Marc Guggenheim merely tweeting that the character was now “off the table.” Actress Willa Holland later elaborated that the motion came from DC’s movie division, who did not want an alternative version of the Suicide Squad and its characters running alongside the movie version. Though he couldn’t remain on Arrow, a parallel Deadshot did later guest star on The Flash. In an episode set on Earth-2, the character was here presented as a police officer who was ridiculed for his poor aim. 3) He Hates Captain Boomerang As you would expect for a team comprised of supervillains, rivalries abound in the Suicide Squad. But none is stronger than that between Deadshot and Captain Boomerang. Apart from both being naturals with their very different choice of weapons, Lawton and Digger Harkness are completely different in terms of personality. As we now know, Deadshot is the serious type and likes to get the job done with maximum efficiency. Boomerang, on the other hand, likes to kid around and thoroughly enjoys being a villain. While Deadshot is a bad guy because of past trauma, Harkness is a bad guy because, well, he’s a bad guy. Presumably this will be at least alluded to in Suicide Squad, as Jai Courtney’s comedic take on the character does seem to be very different to Smith’s more sombre Deadshot. 2) Will Smith Did A Lot of Research To Play Him There was a lot of surprise on the internet when Will Smith was cast as the master marksman – had the movie star ever actually played a villain before? Clearly, Smith was keen to prove to people that he could eschew his usual good guy image to play a killer, as he undertook a lot of extensive research in order to properly portray Deadshot. His first port of call was, obviously, to turn to the comics. He didn’t just flick through a couple, though. Oh no. In his own words, Smith took a “deep dive over a six or seven month period” and worked his way through all of the character’s decades-long comic book history. In addition to that, Smith read books on the criminal mind in an effort to get into the head of “someone who could take money to kill people" and work out "how he justifies that for himself.” 1) He Sends His Profits To His Daughter As Will Smith understands, Deadshot is in a weird psychological place, what with shooting folks for cash and killing his brother when he was younger. However, there is an important part of his character that goes a long way to humanizing him. As revealed in a miniseries in 2005, Lawton actually has a daughter, Zoe, who unaware to him was growing up in a dangerous area in Star City. In a bid to protect her, he took on the gangs who ruled the neighbourhood. However, when Zoe is put in danger due to his actions, he severs all ties with her and now sends nearly all of his paychecks from his hits to his daughter. This incarnation of the character as a killer with a code really struck with fans and this element of Deadshot will definitely be present in Suicide Squad. No doubt Smith will be a natural at that side of the character.