Friday, July 25, 2008

Deadshot


Floyd Lawton, way back in the early days of Batman comics, was inspired by stories of Batman to put on a tux, a domino mask, grab two guns, call himself Deadshot, and fight crime. In an effort to become the public's preferred protector of Gotham, he launched a campaign to paint Batman as a bad guy. The lesson, as always: don't piss off Batman. With Jim Gordon's help, Batman uncovers the plot to run the Dark Knight out of town so that Deadshot can take over organized crime in the city.

After spending some time in jail, and I think being mostly forgotten by comics writers, Deadshot re-brands himself as an assassin for hire, and equips himself with two pistols mounted on his wrists and a scope built into his mask. Since he's one of the best marksmen in DC comics, his services are in high demand.

The most unique and interesting aspect to the character is his lack of a self-preservation instinct. He's not suicidal, but the idea of going out in a blaze of glory is appealing to him. He's also been shown to have an odd code of ethics, where once he's been paid for a job, he feels responsible to carry it out. So in a pinch, he has no problem putting his own life in jeopardy if it might mean getting the job done.

Pros: His borderline death wish creates a lot of possibilities for dramatic action sequences, and he's certainly a different kind of antagonist than we had in The Dark Knight.

Cons: The scope mask and guns is the sort of comic book idea designed for your inner adolescent (or actual adolescents), which is the sort of thing these films seem to shy away from, preferring to try to pry adult drama out of the Batman mythos. Also, if you had a scope mounted to your eye, would that actually work? You mount the scope on the gun, because that lets you see where the gun is pointed. With the scope on your eye, it tells you where your eye's pointed. Which you should already know. Maybe that's been explained somewhere, I was never a big Suicide Squad reader, which is where Deadshot has made the bulk of his appearances.

How I'd do it: The death wish angle would have to be the focal point. Without killing him, how does Batman stop a killer who would much rather die than be stopped? Unless someone can explain the scope thing to me, that might have to be dropped, or at least changed to plain old night vision. And I'm not sure two guns would play well either. John Woo action would seem out of place in this world.

Casting Guesses: I honestly don't recall what Deadshot looks like under his mask. So he could be played by literally anyone. I'll throw out Karl Urban's name. He's pretty good at playing assassin types.

Verdict: Another guy who will certainly not be the main villain, but he could be a secondary one, or even just make a cameo.

6 comments:

J Ray said...

you can add this to the list of pros: Deadshot has already appeared in the Gotham Knight DVD that takes place in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, so he's already established as a villain that "works" in the movies.

TidalSpiral said...

The scope thing could be explained as it (at user discretion) connects to the wrist mounted gun and actually displays what the gun sees. For instance there is a small high powered zoom camera attached to the gun and if Deadshot presses a switch or something his eye scope displays what the camera shows; that way he can hold his arm up and get extremely pinpoint shots but at the cost of seeing what's right next to him. That may even be what it actually does I'm not sure but it would be a good explanation.

Bill said...

He has two guns though, so that might not work all that well. Still, it's a much better explanation than I could think of.

Unknown said...

For how Deadshot looks, he's got black hair and a thin moustache, which, depending on the artist, can be anything from handlebars to a swashbuckler's moustache.

Novak said...

As for who should play him I'd like to see Jason Mewes get the part. He's a massive Deadshot fan so would likely do the character justice.

Anonymous said...

They're planning on making a Suicide Squad movie so I don't know about Deadshot's chances as a Batman villain. If he did appear, he'd be minor. I'd prefer that he stays in the suicide squad movie. if they're going to use an assassin, might as well just use a random, no-name one.