Firefly (Arkhamverse)

Firefly
General Information
Real name:	Garfield Lynns
First Appearance:	Batman: Arkham Origins (Detective Comics #184)
Affiliations:	The Joker Black Mask Raymond Underhill
Abilities:	Pyrotechnics, explosives, various incendiary devices
Portrayed by:	Crispin Freeman (voice)

"How do you want to die? The quick, incinerating flash of an explosion? Or a nice...slow...BURN?!"

―Firefly to Batman on the Gotham Pioneers Bridge

A pyromaniac, Garfield Lynns, also known as Firefly, began as a FX Artist at Panessa Studios, until he ended up laid off by Tomaso Panessa, the owner, largely due to the financial failure of the film The Inferno, despite critical acclaim. In response, Lynns committed his first murder against his former employer by burning him with nitroglycerine from his flask with a match. He then became a petty criminal, but soon graduated to major crimes as a terrorist that centered around arson, and torched huge parts of Gotham City in the process. But Lynn's fires soon raged out of his control, and left him horribly scarred by one of his own blazes.

Lynn's body was almost fully covered with burns, and he wore a full-body flame-retardant suit when he was out pursuing his criminal interests between bouts of incarceration at Blackgate Prison.

By the time of Batman's second year, Firefly managed to earn 178 counts of arson, 52 of which resulted in various deaths, 4 counts of murder of the first degree, and 10 counts of robbery.

Biography

Batman: Arkham Origins

Firefly was one of the eight assassins that was hired by Black Mask, who was later revealed to be the Joker, to kill Batman for fifty million dollars on Christmas Eve. He was first seen at the assassins' meeting in the Penthouse at the Royal Hotel along with Bane and the Electrocutioner, where Black Mask revealed himself to be the Joker. After the meeting, Firefly flew off to the Gotham Pioneers Bridge, where he set up four bombs and took hostages.

Later, after Batman discovered that Bane knew his secret identity, he intercepted a broadcast from the GCPD about Firefly saying that he would activate the bombs if anyone but Batman approached the Pioneers Bridge. According to one of Firefly's Henchmen in a conversation with SWAT Division Leader Howard Branden when he was held hostage, Firefly had packed the bridge with enough explosives to have the resulting explosion be heard throughout at least Gotham, if not the entire Eastern Seaboard region of the United States.

After he knew that Firefly's bombs would put innocent people in danger, Batman went to the bridge. He disabled three of the bombs, the Boiler Room, the Train Station, and the South Pillar. Afterwards, Batman confronted Firefly, informed him that Joker was arrested, and that he no longer had a reason to even pursue the bounty. However, Firefly admitted that he didn't actually care about whether he succeeded in getting the bounty, as he only participated in the hit as an excuse to cause arson-related destruction to anything that he could get his hands on, including Batman. Batman then used the Batclaw and took the detonator out of Firefly's hands.

Batman latching onto Firefly to bring him down with the Grapple Gun.

During the fight, Firefly found the detonator when his flamethrower knocked over one of the destroyed cars and taunted Batman with the latter being "a bat that can't fly," but found out that the last bomb did not go off, as the GCPD Bomb Squad had managed to get to the bomb before Batman could and had disarmed it. Enraged, Firefly chased Batman to the other side of the bridge as they continued the fight. As Firefly tried to retreat after he unleashed a salvo of explosions near Batman, Batman latched on him with the Grapple Gun, and caused them both to crash-land on a support of the bridge, where he destroyed his jet-pack, subdued him, and left him for the GCPD.

Batman: Assault on Arkham

While the Suicide Squad rummaged through the Evidence Locker shortly before Batman ambushed them, they managed to find apparel that belonged to Firefly. King Shark never heard of him prior to discovering the apparel.

Firefly's newspaper clipping in the Patient Observation Room at the Medical Center.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

While Firefly did not appear in the game, a bathroom cabinet in the Patient Observation Room at the Medical Center was covered with newspaper clippings about him, including his first arson. Also stored in the cabinet of drawers was Firefly's flame-throwing backpack and nozzle. Scanning the clippings unlocked his biography. Dr. Young also indicated that she considered him to be a viable test subject to experimental forms of treatment she was working on due to his excessive burns and his extreme pain tolerance as a result.

Batman: Arkham Knight

Firefly's return over a decade later.

Ten years later, Firefly returned to challenge Batman once again, this time under the orders of Scarecrow, who had united all of Gotham's worst villains and criminals to finally destroy Batman and conquer Gotham. Firefly in particular had a score to settle with Batman, and wanted revenge for his defeat on the Pioneer's Bridge during their previous encounter. Weeks before, Firefly was in an alliance with Station 17 Fire Chief Raymond Underhill to cause fires at abandoned and under construction buildings out of desperation to allow the Gotham City Fire Department to still be in use, due to plans to lay off the entire fire-fighting force by the Gotham City government due to the decreased rate of fires.

Following a mass evacuation of the city on Halloween after Scarecrow revealed that he had hidden a massive chemical weapon, filled with his new Fear Toxin, the villains and their gangs began to take over the streets, while the GCPD attempted to contain the chaos. During the carnage, Firefly attacked the Station 17 firefighters, as they made their way back into the city to help rescue civilians, and set fire to their truck. The villain's hired gang, comprised of rioters, and members of Two-Face's and the Penguin's army alike, abducted all of the firefighters and held them hostage at strategic locations throughout the city to simply torture and kill them, as Firefly took offense to their profession.

Firefly then began to set fire to the Gotham fire stations throughout the city, and previously cut the emergency sprinkler systems, in order to draw Batman to him and exact his revenge for leaving him on Pioneers Bridge to be arrested over a decade ago. As Batman used the Batmobile's unique cable and operating systems to start the sprinkler systems again and put out the blazes, Firefly explosively exited the burning structures each time, forced Batman to chase him throughout the city, and used a newer flamethrower in an attempt to kill him.

Batman taking down Firefly once again.

Despite his preparations, Firefly was once again defeated by Batman and escorted to the GCPD Lockup, with the use of his own jet-pack no less, which was immediately dismantled by Batman upon their arrival. Firefly was subsequently arrested and placed within the lockup, while his equipment was stored as evidence. Adding insult to injury, Batman also rescued every single member of the Fire Station 17 crew, apprehended all of the gang members who partook in Firefly's plans, and uncovered the alliance between the pyromaniac and Chief Underhill, who expressed remorse for the partnership and was willing to accept the consequences of his actions.

Personality

As a professional arsonist, assassin and criminal, Firefly was often called upon by various crime lords, including the Joker for his unique skill set and expertise. However, Firefly's pyromania, psychotic obsession with fire and sadism made him unstable to such a degree that he was likely to burn anything in his path, and simply watched it burn to ashes rather than complete his goals, even at the risk of his own safety which also resulted in bodily third-degree burns. Although Firefly was intelligent and displayed impressive planning and strategic skills, he was again hampered by his obsessions. Viewing fire as a force of nature, Firefly stated to be absolved of all faults due to having been purified by the flames. Firefly's scars also enforced that viewpoint and insanity to the point where he only wished to "purify" everyone else by fire and his Arkham Asylum Files claimed that he denied any form of medication or skin grafts whenever he received more scars, which displayed some form masochism. Firefly was also obsessively vengeful and had a deep hatred of anything that underwhelmed fire, and made it not a coincidence that he had 16 firefighters kidnapped. Firefly had a habit of gloating and mocking his opponents which was specifically seen as he fought Batman at Pioneers Bridge.

Attributes

• Thorough knowledge of flammable agents
• Extensive arsenal of fire-producing weapons
• Jetpack with high-speed and high maneuverability
• Scarred over 90% of his body
• Sociopath with intense pyromania

Psychological Profile (Dr. Young)

Firefly's Biography Picture Arkham Asylum.

Firefly

Real Name: Garfield Lynns

Psychological Profile: A dedicated pyromaniac, Lynns has embraced his disorder and, for much of his life, managed to positively reinforce his fire-starting tendencies and related euphoria through profits from various acts of arson. Horribly scarred by one of his own blazes (perhaps due to a euphoric fugue that left him incapable of escaping the flames?) Lynns's extreme pathology definitely borders on the suicidal. Extreme treatment would be necessary to break the cycle of rewards he has set up for himself.

Additional Notes

Firefly's Biography Picture Arkham Knight.

He is extraordinarily adept at maintaining a cache of flammable items in his cell, despite his tendency to burn through them, pun intended.

It is rare for a pyromaniac to graduate to psychopathic behavior equal to Lynns's extreme acts of arson. And the extensive burns on his body seem to have barely affected him. He might be a good candidate for some of the more experimental forms of treatment I'm developing...

Quotes

Game Over Lines

Batman Arkham Origins - Game Over Firefly

Firefly's Game Over Screens.

• "Gotham's gonna BURN! And with you out of the way, there's no one left to stop me!"
• "Aww, look at that. Poor little bat got his wings clipped!"
• "Well, it looks like this is goodbye!"

Trivia

• In Arkham Origins, Firefly's Profile stated that he didn't seek medical attention for his burns, and instead felt pleasure from them; which suggested that he was a masochistic.
• In Batman: Arkham Unhinged, it was revealed that Firefly was the right-hand man for Black Mask.
• The second half of his battle music was later reused for the final boss fight against Catwoman in Arkham Origins: Blackgate.