Why was this? Ostrander cast him as the only member of the Suicide Squad with an active death wish.Īfter an establishing chapter displays just what Deadshot is capable of, you might wonder who’d be stupid enough to abduct his previously unrevealed son. Here was a supposedly infallible assassin with state of the art technology, yet for some reason he always missed Batman. Psychological analysis was a frequent feature of that title, and in Deadshot Ostrander had a prime candidate. The meat of this book is four chapters of Deadshot solo dating from the 1980s, when he was an integral component of the Suicide Squad as written by John Ostrander. Doug Moench’s preceding story focusses more on Deadshot, but isn’t as well crafted. His second story is a specially odd choice of padding as it’s intricately tied into ongoing continuity, although the drama is well provided by writers Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz. It’s a shame the material he was given didn’t match his talent. Here was a man with fabulous storytelling skills and a natural instinct for layouts. It’s also available within Strange Apparitions.ĭeadshot became a regular skulker about Gotham, and two later appearances also feature, drawn by the sadly long-forgotten Don Newton.

That story’s reprinted here, and still stands up well, with any anatomical deficiencies of Rogers’ art more than balanced by an incredible sense of style. Long forgotten, he was revived by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers in the 1970s, this time as a high-tech costumed assassin different in all but name. He began as a one-shot tuxedoed assassin in the 1940s, Floyd Lawton, a spoiled rich kid looking for thrills and stopped by Batman. Deadshot’s character progression is odd, to say the least.

Deadshot by John Ostrander