Deadshot is one of the more original villains of the DC lore. While not as big as Joker or Harley Quinn, the supervillain is still one of the more notable names in the DC canon. Floyd Lawton made his debut in Detective Comics #474 by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin. Like the villains mentioned above, Deadshot doesn’t have any powers, he’s just a master marksman/assassin that made his name famous within Gotham City. He is also the founding member of the Suicide Squad. For the first time ever, Deadshot made his appearance in live-action form in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, and well…he didn’t particularly match the character of the comics. Ayer’s Suicide Squad felt scared to truly make these villains, well, villains. Mostly in the comics, Deadshot is murderous and a bit unhinged, though there’s been hints of good in the DC character, especially when it pertains to his daughter.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with Ayer changing up the characteristics of Deadshot. The problem is that the entire film felt afraid to truly push the boundaries of Deadshot and went out of the way to tell audiences that he’s a decent guy. But as proven with Peacemaker, Deadpool, or even Breaking Bad and dozens of other television shows or movies that have the villain (or ant-hero) in the forefront, audiences love a good and entertaining bad guy. One of the core problems of Suicide Squad is that we don’t know the core cast. Since we don’t know who Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Boomerang, Diablo, and Killer Croc are, we have to spend the time getting to know them first before really digging into the meat of the story. There should’ve been a film documenting Deadshot’s adventures as the ultimate killer. The best comic book hero stories are the ones that are personal to one’s journey or character.
At the very least, Deadshot could’ve been a great villain for Ben Affleck’s Batman. Both men have the methods of killing, and it would’ve been a nice juxtaposition to compare why both men have this ideology about murder. This would’ve helped establish Deadshot’s character firmly and then his entire arc of trying to become a decent human being could’ve come off as better. Telling us about the heinous crimes that he’s done is less effective than showing the work of the lethal assassin. Now, a solo feature should’ve been done. However, considering that he’s primarily a Batman villain, the likely hood that Deadshot murdering the dark knight would’ve been slim to none. However, a feature when the assassin has been hired to kill all the heroes in Gotham could’ve really been something unique in the superhero genre. Heroes like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are essentially plot proof at this point, which can in turn make their films predictable because there’s no way those major heroes are dying. Shaking up the formula could’ve really boosted the DCEU and causes a necessary boldness that superhero films often avoid taking. With DC no longer focusing on a universe, it’s not particularly too late to make a Deadshot solo feature.
What’s great is that it doesn’t have to work about the rules of a shared universe. The Flash will see the return of Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck as Batman. Robert Pattinson is currently dawning the caped crusader in Matt Reeves separate entity. It wouldn’t be out of pocket if the filmmakers brought in a new Batman for this world. Batman doesn’t have to die, but it’s important just to see how good Deadshot really is, thus a major name in the DC universe should he killed off. That’s not the only direction that the solo feature needs to take, though skipping the origin story and just diving into Deadshot’s assassin world would be ideal. We don’t particularly need to see who he was before deciding that putting bullets into people was an ideal job, unless the story is unique from other origin comic book films. However, a Deadshot film would’ve been better served as launching point for the Suicide Squad. The end result would see him ultimately caught and sent to prison for an extremely long time. Either way, money is being left on the table by not expanding on Deadshot. With the success and popularity of Peacemaker, the possibility of Deadshot getting a solo feature or series is more likely. There’s plenty of intimate stories you can tell with the deadly assassin as he’s a very layered character, and though the world of Suicide Squad seems dead somewhat because of the failure of the James Gunn reboot, that doesn’t mean that Warner Brothers should forget the names of the popular characters.
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