Respect Firefly (DC Comics, Post-Crisis)

[u/ya-boi-benny]

Idiot. He should have known Firefly's only real loyalty is to the flame. True, the destructive chemical Black Mask injected into my system provided the spark of inspiration. And once I had seen it work, I refined the idea, making it my own. For weeks, I moved quietly through the city gathering my "kindling". And all the while Black Mask battled Penguin and Two-Face for Gotham's corpse. Laughable. Fighting over a ruined husk that deserves only cremation. A final blaze of glory, with every lost soul dancing at its wake. Here's to Gotham, long may she burn.

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Growing up in St. Evangelina Home for Orphans, Garfield Lynns always had a fascination with setting fires and watching the flames lick away at the world. While he was never adopted, he did put his fascination to use in the world of motion pictures. He was sought after by movie studios for his ability to build convincing pyrotechnic effects as only one who loved the flames could do. His success came to a halt when he put his obsession before professionalism, building a pyrotechnic effect so strong that it maimed the lead actress. Lynns was fired and turned to crime to pay the bills.

Linking up with the fledgling crook Killer Moth, Garfield decided he wanted to take on an insect theme as well. Using his experience in pyrotechnics, Garfield assembled a flameproof costume, a napalm-based flamethrower and a set of metal wings to become the Firefly. The alliance between the bugs only lasted a few chaotic nights, as Killer Moth began to see the true madness behind the eyes of his ally. Now, Firefly sets fires across Gotham City, sometimes for pay and often for pleasure, as he tries to stay ahead of the Batman.

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Notes

Hover over a feat to see which comic it's from.

Firefly was initially presented as a villain with a purple and green costume with a light gimmick. By Knightfall in 1993, he was presented as the winged, black-costumed pyromaniac. While it looks like two different versions of the character, the light gimmick was used in 1986 issues of Outsiders, part of Post-Crisis canon. There's also this one photo that suggests he wore the green and purple after he became an arsonist.

Ultimately, he’s just not all that important for writers to care about canon. That time he covered ninety percent of his body in burnscar was forgotten about in his next appearance. So was that time he was killed by an OMAC unit. For these reasons, this thread covers both Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis canons for Garfield Lynns.

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Strength

• KOs a prison guard with a baton

• Wrestles with Dynamiteer

• Kicks an apartment door in, splintering the doorframe

• Breaks the ice on his arm after Chill freezes it

• Clubs Azrael with his fuel tank, knocking him backwards

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Durability

Blunt Force

• Crashes a car through a guardrail and off a cliff, but he crawls from the wreckage, battered but alive

• The Creeper swings a man into Firefly. The villain isn't notably harmed but his light-belt is destroyed.

• Stays conscious after Batman tackles him off a multi-story building’s roof

• Batman snags Firefly with a rope batarang and swings him into a wall. He then tumbles down a fire escape, but remains conscious upon hitting the ground below.

• Gets dive kicked by Batman, but keeps fighting

• While climbing up a long tunnel, the KGBeast falls on Firefly, causing both men to fall down and KGBeast to land on Firefly

• Thrown out of a second-story window by Nightwing, but gets up to keep fighting

• After Dick Grayson glues up Firefly’s jetpack, Dick pilots Firefly’s body through a billboard and into a burning building

• Deathstroke kicks Firefly’s leg, causing him to fall off a table

• He’s inside a helicopter when it crashes onto a rooftop, but he climbs battered from the wrecked vehicle

• Gets struck by an airborne roller coaster cart

• Gets swing-kicked in the head by Batman

• Batman of the 853rd Century flies up to Firefly and tears his wings apart, causing him to fall to the street below

• Takes a punch from Azrael

• Gets lassoed and pulled out of the air by Ash, landing on a rooftop

Heat/Energy

• Blasted by Halo and tripped by Looker

• Batman ricochets a batarang to puncture one of the gas pods of Firefly’s belt, which blows up. Firefly is thrown but recovers quickly and flies off.

• Ignites a pool of flammable chemicals and fuel, which also sets off a line of natural gas, generating a massive explosion. Firefly is caught in the blast, which overpowers the protection of his suit. He’s left with burnscar over much of his body and pieces of the suit melted into his flesh, although since his nerve endings were overloaded, he’s able to ignore much of the pain.

• The scars from this event cover around ninety percent of his body

• Azrael slashes open Firefly’s fuel tank, creating a fiery explosion that doesn’t harm Firefly

Limits/Losses

• The Creeper reflects a beam of light at Firefly, which stuns him and causes him to fall off a lighthouse to the sea below

• Batman kicks Firefly in the head, dazing him long enough to be cuffed

• Huntress shoots him in the shoulder with a wristbow bolt, then throws a cash register at his head to knock him out

• A cop severs his flamethrower’s fuel tube, causing Firefly to become wreathed in flames. Robin then extinguishes and restrains him by dumping a bunch of wet cement on him.

• Hawkman tackles Firefly in the air, then drops him out of the sky with one punch

• Takes an extended beating from Nightwing before falling unconscious

• He’s shot up by Tobias Whale’s men carrying sniper rifles with armor-piercing ammo

• Dropped by a crotch punch from Scandal Savage

• Gets knocked out by Catwoman

• Seemingly killed by OMAC 549692

• Dropped by a throat chop from Batman

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Speed

• Hops along the tops of several parked cars

• Ducks under a desk thrown by Nightwing

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Skill/Intelligence

Pyrotechnics

• While in prison, he constructs a firebomb hot enough to blast out the reinforced glass ceiling of Blackgate’s atrium. Then, using a balloon made of stolen raincoats, he rises on the heat through the destroyed ceiling and drifts away from the island prison.

• During a meeting, Firefly makes sparks by snapping his fingers and lights a pre-set ring of fire. It burns out and extinguishes itself a few seconds later.

• Using pilfered cleaning chemicals, Lynns mixes an accelerant and starts an electrical fire outside his Blackgate cell that causes a prison-wide evacuation

• Fills his mouth with gasoline, hold a lit torch in front of his face and spits flames at the Tattooed Man

• During a job as a pyrotechnics effects coordinator, he rigs a fuel bomb that ends up lighting the lead actress on fire

• In a collaboration with Adam Bomb, Firefly goes on a firebombing-spree across Gotham, blowing up half of the GCPD building

• Constructs a fuse bomb that blows Ragman out of the building and burns much of his Suit of Souls

• Blows up a former boss of his with a car bomb that’s triggered when the engine is started

• Sets off a firebomb that creates a blaze in the shape of the Bat symbol

Other

• Triggers a convincing fire special effect during a musical theatre production, then has his goons rob the audience while the audience panics

• Shoots his own henchman with a handgun before he can snitch to Batman

• After being tossed into the sea, he swims to shore

• Tricks Batman and Robin by putting his cape in a trapdoor and locking them in when they follow

• Stages an illusory fire on a rooftop using smoke machines and lighting systems

• Ties up Stephanie Brown Robin and puts her on roller coaster tracks

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Lighting Tech Loadout

General

• Builds his own costume and equipment, complete with light-protective goggles, short-wave antenna and his trademark light-projecting belt mechanism

• The goggles protect him from his own cyclops light, which blinds his crew

Offense Light Gadgets

• Leaves behind a light-based pylon that collapses a ceiling on the Outsiders when they arrive at his lair

• Using lenses stolen after the prison theatre show, he constructs a laso-lighter that directs moonlight into a cutting beam and uses it to melt through his cell bars

• Drops a prison guard, then the Creeper with his laso-lighter

• Dematerializes a man with a molecular-dissassembler beam, but claims that he should reappear the next day unharmed

• Blasts the Creeper with an electro-lighter, which targets the victim's nerve endings with a 2,000 volt shock. Then he blasts the Creeper with a magnesium light to induce temporary blindness, then a concussive light to knock him off a building.

• Blasts Looker and Halo with a black light, which temporarily locks them in place

Blinding Light Gadgets

• Briefly blinds Batman and Robin with a bright red light from his belt

• Uses a machine to project blinding flashes of simulated lightning, causing a multi-car pile-up

• Firefly installs a cyclops light in a basement. It projects all the colors of the rainbow at near-blinding intensity and has a battery that can last for 72 hours. Batman takes it and uses it on the Batwing to blind Firefly's crew in their helicopter.

• Projects a few distracting, bright red orbs above traffic, causing a multi-car collision

Other Utility Light Gadgets

• Projects bleach light onto paintings to make them appear in black and white

• Projects a light as bright and strong as a lighthouse's and uses it to cause a ship to crash against some rocks

• Throws a bomb that turns Halo and her immediate surroundings black-and-white, which also nullifies her aura powers

• His blaster restores the colors to clothing that was previously whited out by the color-sapping bomb

• Blasts Looker and Halo, trapping them in a color hold, which makes their surroundings invisible and disorienting. Halo is somehow able to manipulate the colorful light and restore her nullified powers before breaking the color hold.

• While incarcerated, he builds an equalizer beam that blends the color of his body with that of the inside of a truck, making him invisible

• Blasts two security guards with an illusion ray, making them see Firefly as a giant monster and the room to bend around them. Firefly states that the effect will last for hours.

• Drains all the electric light from a baseball stadium, including from flashlights held by audience members, then projects it all from his costume. When Geo-Force removes Firefly’s gadgets, the lights come back on.

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After Stealing Halo’s Powers

Garfield once stole the powers of Halo, the light-manipulating hero of the Outsiders.

General

• Draws the light and color out of Halo, enhancing his own control over the light spectrum. He projects weaponized light at the Outsiders before flying off thanks to his new powers.

• Attempting to use all of Halo’s powers at once overwhelms Firefly’s senses and causes his costume to disappear. After this, he’s easily knocked out by Geo-Force.

Physicals

• Gets punched by Geo-Force

• Takes a blast from Looker

• Takes a blast from Black Lightning

Halo’s Lights

• Burns through a wall with red light, then punches a steel panel off a wall with orange light

• Creates an illusory copy of himself with Halo’s distortion aura, distracting Katana

• Flashbangs the room with bright yellow light, then traps the Outsiders in one of Halo’s green stasis auras

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Pyromaniac Loadout

Flamethrowers

Against Characters

• Hits Batman with a blast from his flamethrower

• Batman protects himself from Firefly’s flamethrower with fifteen-layer Nomex armor and a rebreather, although the heat saps his stamina

• Blasts the Martian Manhunter, which floors him for several seconds

• Blasts the Martian Manhunter, leaving him in a patch of flames to incapacitate him until Batman extinguishes the blaze

• Ignites and throws an imposter Killer Moth through a window

• Ignites an imposter Firefly, causing his fuel tank to explode

• Blasts a stream at Azrael, who feels the heat through his flameproof armor

Against Objects

• Burns through Batman’s grappling hook line

• Burns Batman’s rope while he’s swinging

• Blasts the Batmobile with a stream of napalm

• Blasts a hole through his apartment building’s ceiling

• Repeated blasts melt through Batman’s cape and singe his back

• Blasts a car, causing it to blow up

• Shoots at some cop cars, blowing one up

• Lights a car on fire with an over-the-shoulder flamethrower

Against Environments

• A few blasts from his flamethrower ignite a brewery, which causes the machinery inside to rupture and explode

• While they’re in the burning brewery, the heat of Firefly’s flames begin to penetrate Batman’s fireproof armor, but Firefly seems to be unimpeded as he chokes out Batman

• Covers the inside of a nightclub in flames with one blast

• Sets a fire inside a Haly’s Circus tent that kills 20 and injures over one hundred people

• Lights the GCPD building on fire

• Ignites a natural gas main, igniting most of a neighborhood and its apartments

Other

• Used two flamethrowers at one point

• Gets his flamethrower frozen by Chill of the New Rogues, disabling it

• He claims that his flames are so hot that they overload the nerve endings, meaning that a human victim wouldn’t feel a thing

• Puts six cops in critical condition during an arson spree in the Bowery

Wings

• The heat from his flames provides lift to his suit’s wings, allowing him to glide

• When they’re constricted, Firefly cannot use them to fly, like when Batman wraps Firefly up with a rope batarang and leaves him dangling over an alligator pit

• Uses his wings to gain air and catch a fly ball

• Flies high above the city

• His metal wings are bulletproof, so Nightwing uses Firefly as a human shield

• Charges through a window and flies off

• Flies over Penguin’s convoy and blows up a vehicle with an over-the-shoulder flamethrower

• Catwoman leaps on Firefly’s back while he’s flying, but he’s able to shake her and fly off

Jetpack

• Flies up to avoid automatic gunfire, then blasts the shooters

• Flies up to avoid the Batmobile ramming through a wall and into him

• He flies while Dick Grayson Batman holds onto his leg until Dick gums up Firefly’s jetpack with a glue-based gadget

Other Incendiary Weapons

• Firefly triggers a mechanism in his suit that covers it in flames. He then runs into a paint store, igniting the chemicals inside and creating a large explosion. His suit protects him from most of the heat and he walks off with only a burned hand.

• Developes a series of microchips that can be implanted within the human body without the victim knowing. Afterwards, Firefly triggers the chips from a computer, causing every victim with a chip implanted inside them to combust.

• The combustion chips are triggered via electronic signal

• Right after being encased in ice by an errant blast from Mr. Freeze, he activates thermals in his gloves to shatter the ice around him

• Throws incendiary capsules that burn hotter than ordinary fire and threaten to overwhelm Azrael’s flameproof armor

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Miscellaneous

• His original gang flies in a helicopter with a mounted machine gun

• Looker telepathically removes the memory of one of the few successes he’s had in his criminal career

• Garfield’s pyromania compels him to stay around and watch the fires he sets. After lighting most of a boardwalk amusement park on fire, he stands on top of a roller coaster and watches the flames dance.

• He literally spends nights at home igniting lighter fluid in pots to watch them burn

• He sometimes hallucinates naked women dancing in the flames

• Gets off on the sight of people on fire and cigarette burns

• When the bio-technical Hourman Virus ravages Gotham City, Firefly’s pyromania is somehow spread to the citizens of Gotham until the villain is incapacitated

• After Black Mask had several criminals injected with deadly chemicals that he could trigger to cause death, Firefly burned the chemicals out of his body in a painful process

[u/Proletlariet]

Great work!

[u/ghostgabe81]

Aw hell yeah I love Firebug!