Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueexplains why the Deadshot that we can play as part of the Squad is a completely different character than the one using the name inBatman: Arkham City.
When Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was revealed all the way back in 2020, it opened up a lot of questions for fans, some of which are still causing ripples to this day. While some of those questions, like whether it takes place in the Arkhamverse, have easily been answered, some of them have remained a little bit more mysterious - until now.
By far one of the biggest questions that fans have had about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is regarding Deadshot, one of the four playable characters at launch. Only, this isn’t the first Deadshot that he’s been in the Arkhamverse, as a completely different character under the same name appeared in Arkham City and Arkham Origins, only as a white man with a completely different costume and personality to Suicide Squad’s Deadshot.
Despite how confusing this whole thing has been from the start, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League faces the situation head on and makes it a plot point. While Task Force X is tied up next to each other after first meeting Amanda Waller,Captain Boomerang says, “Isn’t Deadshot supposed to be white?”. This is then referenced and teased by the Suicide Squad throughout the game,including in the Batman museum where Floyd Lawton calls him “phoney” and implies he’s a fake.
The answer to such a strange mystery can be found in the game’s collectible A.R.G.U.S. tapes, which are similar to the patient interviews from Arkham Asylum. The Deadshot-focused ones, called Double Tap, tell the story of the current Deadshot finding the one we knew from Arkham City and killing him, which lands him in Arkham Asylum.
Aaron Cash confirms in the tapes that this current Deadshot is also the real deal and has the same DNA and fingerprints as the one from Arkham City, and that the current one retired when his daughter was born but resurfaced when the “imposter” appeared and started using his name.
The tapes then reveal through a conversation with Lex Luthor that the Deadshot that we met in Arkham City is somehow from another universe altogether, although Luthor doesn’t know how that happened as it means that someone had access to interdimensional travel long before the mess with Brainiac started. It’s not revealed how he got there or who put him there, but that confirms that both Deadshots are legitimate, but that the one we’ve known all this time is from another Earth.
