BATMAN: Working late?
FIREFLY: The night shift.
Like you, Batman.
Don't try catching this guy in a jar!
Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we will explore the comic book origins of the Firefly.
Who are you?
As with most comic book characters, there are often reimaginings and different versions to a character's past.
We've chosen to primarily follow the storyline which unfolded in 1952's Detective Comics #184,
which was expanded upon in 1959's Batman #126,
1993's Detective Comics #661 and 662,
and 2003's Batgirl: Year One #5.
The villain known as the Firefly has been seen in several incarnations.
The first, debuting in 1952, was Garfield Lynns, a lighting effects expert.
♪ Fire! ♪
♪ Play with me, and you're playin' with fire! ♪
Lynns used his brilliant lighting techniques to create the illusion of fire at a theatrical event.
Lynns!
What are you doing?!
Are you crazy?!
In the ensuing panic, he robbed the patrons and escaped, with Batman and Robin in hot pursuit.
They almost caught him, but the World's Greatest Detective was misled by an actual firefly,
which he and Robin mistakenly thought was a cigarette that Lynns was smoking.
Lynns took inspiration from the mistake and named himself "the Firefly."
Fashioning a costume, he used his manipulation of light to go on a crime spree.
Eventually, Lynns was captured when the Dynamic Duo used his own lighting tricks against him.
Batman!
Color me unimpressed.
In 1959, the Firefly showed up in Gotham City again.
This time, however, he wore a different costume and was indeed a different person.
Rather than Garfield Lynns, this was Ted Carson, a playboy from one of Gotham's most prestigious families.
Carson led Batman, Robin, and Batwoman on a merry chase before they caught him.
It turned out that Carson's fortune had been frittered away
and that the former millionaire had turned to crime in order to pay his gambling debts.
When the Firefly was reintroduced in 1993,
he was a much darker character.
Again, he was Garfield Lynns, this time a pyrotechnics expert who used to be the
biggest special effects wizard in Hollywood.
Unfortunately, his love of fire had unhinged him, turning him into a dangerous arsonist
who was burning up selected targets in Gotham.
Yes, you were wrong, Cass.
And I'll show you how wrong you were.
I'll show them all.
Robin learned that Lynns was an orphan and that he had a sister named Amanda.
She revealed that when they were children,
potential parents would talk about all the places they would go when they had adopted Garfield and Amanda.
Unfortunately, they all backed out of the adoption after they got to know Garfield.
Now, he was getting his revenge by burning down the amusement park, the zoo, and all the other places
they promised they would go as a family.
With that information, Batman was able to track him down and capture him.
Another revision came about in 2003.
In this retelling, Lynns was again a Hollywood special effects expert.
However, he intentionally caused an explosion that caused serious damage to an actress.
It became clear that Lynns had a sick fascination and an obsession with fire,
and his career was over.
He quickly joined forces with Killer Moth,
a villain who had a unique gimmick:
forcing other gangsters to pay him protection money.
Unfortunately for Killer Moth,
Firefly proved that he was more interested in creating massive fires than in shaking down other crooks.
A more recent iteration of Firefly came along in 2013.
Cindy Cooke, an enormously wealthy and famous film star,
was being stalked by Garfield Lynns,
a--yes, you guessed it--pyrotechnics specialist for the film industry.
Let me get you out of here.
Lynns!
Let me get you help.
She also revealed that, until recently, she had been seeing a man named Ted Carson,
whose charred body had just been discovered,
clearly a victim of the Firefly.
Kids. Tough break.
Hope you like it hot.
Batgirl and Nightwing hunted for Lynns and found leads indicating where he would strike next.
However, this was a ruse.
His actual target was Cindy, whose penthouse he torched.
But this, in turn, was also a diversion.
The body inside wasn't really Cindy Cooke.
She had been kidnapped by the Firefly.
It turned out that this Firefly was actually Ted Carson and not Lynns.
He had faked his death, killing Lynns instead, and then had switched the bodies.
His whole campaign was an elaborate trick to make Cindy run away with him.
Fortunately, Batgirl and Nightwing brought him to justice instead.
The Firefly makes for a formidable opponent,
especially after he switched to his fire-based weaponry.
When he's around, it's guaranteed that audiences are in for a hot-ass time.
'Cause I got the hottest show in town!
You said it!
Are you a fan of the villainous Firefly?
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Next time.