Arkham Asylum: Patient Files

Firefly

FULL NAME
Garfield Lynns

OCCUPATION
Pyrotechnics Expert, Professional Criminal, Serial Arsonist.

BASE OF OPERATIONS
Mobile

AFFILIATIONS
Joker
Black Mask
Scarecrow

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

HAIR
None (formerly Brown)

EYES
Brown

HEIGHT
5' 11" (1.80 m)

WEIGHT
165 lbs (75 kg)

A pyromaniac, Garfield Lynns, also known as Firefly, began as a petty criminal, but he soon graduated to major crimes as a terrorist that centered around arson by torching huge parts of Gotham City in the process. But Lynn's fires soon raged out of his control, which 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.

There were no other known events in which Firefly made solo attacks on Gotham or against Batman. He was transferred to Arkham Asylum once it reopened, where both Dr. Young and Dr. Elliot were assigned to help treat his mind and body respectively. It's likely Lynns was biding his time until a chance to resume his pyromaniac crusade presented itself.

Garfield Lynns was a pyrotechnic who worked as an FX Artist at Panessa Studios. That career ended after the studios went bankrupt after a financial flop from making The Inferno. The owner of the studios, Tomaso Panessa, was forced to fire Lynns to save money (rather than be more frugal about his own living conditions), but was killed by Lynns immediately afterwards, as Lynns spit nitroglycerine into Panessa's burning cigar.

Afterwards, Lynns was employed by the military, until one of his own torching flames went out of control and caused his body to become scarred with burns, which turned him into a psychotic pyromaniac. He took the alias 'Firefly' and stole military grade weaponry and a jet pack. By that time, he also had 178 counts of arson, 52 of which resulted in death, 4 counts of murder of the first degree, and 10 counts of robbery. Firefly's profile at the GCPD also indicated that he had four counts of arson, two being on structural, and two being for other sources, and one count of theft from buildings, and that he was dangerous enough to actually require a federal update on dealing with him.

Personality

Firefly was first introduced as a mercenary driven by money, so much that he was prepared to destroy an entire bridge of innocent hostages as to force Batman out of hiding. Though pyromaniac, Firefly displayed more interest in money however he admits to Batman that he does "stare at flames for hours", normal obsessive personality traits of people who have pyromania. Firefly also has a habit of gloating and mocking his opponents, even during battles a trait which was shown upon Gotham's Pioneer Bridge.

Nearly 10 years after their encounter, when Gotham City was abandoned because of Scarecrow's terrorist threat, Firefly had no incentive as to burn down the buildings he did, unlike in Arkham Origins where he nearly destroyed a bridge for $50,000,000, he simply did it because he enjoyed it. Firefly is also obsessively vengeful and admits to Batman that him attacking him was "payback for leaving [him] on that bridge." He has also shown to hate anything that may underwhelm, silence or destroy fire and it was not coincidental that he had 30 firemen kidnapped and nearly killed.

As a mercenary for hire, Firefly displays no one-sided loyalties as long as he gets paid. The only thing he shows genuine respect towards is fire. While in Arkham Origins he used pyrotechnics as a weapon, in Arkham Knight his obsession became more intense, he has described it as "man's one and only triumph", claiming it to be purifying. It's implied he burns himself because he states "pain is purifying", a possible reference to Firefly's own third-degree burns which he has presumably begun to see as a rite of some kind. This makes it entirely possible that he doesn't simply burn buildings and people for entertain to his own sadistic pyromania but to make everyone else "pure" through flames the same way Firefly was. He has also become more prophetic and unstable, almost seeing it as the nature of all things to burn and once he even says while locked at GCPD that fire was nature's way of clearing the path, a further testament on how he's begun to see fire as purifying. He is a compulsive arsonist as revealed when being defeated he screams "Gotham must burn". Firefly sees fire as being something more powerful than himself which he admits in captivity.