Who's This? A lighting technician.
The facts: Created by France Herron and Dick Sprang for Detective Comics #184 (June 1952), Firefly was a fire-based villain, but a light-based villain, as per the insect he named himself after. He appeared the once (which is early enough to say this was Earth-2), then against the Creeper in 1st Issue Special (see below) before essentially being turned into Firebug - a pyromaniac/arsonist - post-Crisis (see Knightfall, for example). He actually bumps Firebug off in Detective #690 (October 1995) to cement himself as Gotham's one true arsonist. In the 90s and beyond, he became an entrenched part of Batman's rogues' gallery. The New52 introduced a different Firefly who killed the first, but Rebirth undid this death.
How you could have heard of him: The arsonist version of Firefly would go on to appear in the New Batman Adventures and The Batman (among other shows), while the sillier original would appear on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Firefly's later look bears this out. There have been arsonists called Firefly in live action as well, notably on Gotham and Arrow.
Example story: 1st Issue Special # 7 (October 1975) by Michael Fleisher, Steve Ditko and Mike Royer
The pre-Crisis Earth-1 Firefly (if we can call him that) has an even worse look than the original - a ski mask?! And the Creeper? Well, remember, he was also based in Gotham (sometimes anyway), and our story starts with Firefly in Gotham Penitentiary where he's been for 23 years our time. Jack Ryder is doing a documentary on prison reform and wants to film every part of the island facility, including the isolation cells for Gotham's most dangerous. You might question why Scarecrow and Two-Face are in there rather than Arkham Asylum, but the bigger question is... Firefly? Gotham's most dangerous?
Nice to see the warden is up on his inmates' files. After the camera crew leaves, Lynns does offer a correction, reminding the readers (in his thoughts) that he was actually a lighting and effects genius who could do wonderful things with light. Like finally escape from his cell, as it turns out, turning the moonlight from his window into a heat beam that melts his door thanks to equipment stolen from the prison yard play. Ryder is still on site when the alarm starts to blare and thus, so is the Creeper! Our madcap hero gets moon-lasered, however, and Lynns escapes to his lighthouse hideout (nice touch). AND HE WILL BAFFLE THE WORLD THE SAME WAY FIREFLY BUTTS BAFFLE US STILL TODAY! Or something to that effect. I don't know about you, but I feel intimidated. His hideout, his stash of equipment, and his unfortunate costume.
Now to get some henchmen. If they don't laugh him out of the pool hall!
Well, it certainly seems like Firefly has a light for every occasion. It doesn't have to make sense. Meanwhile, Ryder is splashing Firefly's face all over the news and WHAM-TV will pay up 10,000 bucks for information leading to an arrest. But none of us get to collect because Firefly has already made a very public move - the Skytop Diamond Exchange is in flames, thirty stories up. I think we might need a flying hero, but an acrobatic one will have to do. After all, there's no real fire. It's just a light show!
Clever clogs, but how is he in a fight? His belt's revolving lenses provides! First, a painful electric flash and then...
Blindness and kinetic energy... Creeper! Are you ready to call Batman yet?! Creeper miraculously survives the fall, is handcuffed to a hospital bed, engineers and escape (look, it's HIS name on the cover, okay?) and he's soon on Firefly's doorstep... if there were such a thing on top of a lighthouse. And after taking care of the goons, Creeper swings the last one at Firefly's midsection.
Oof, that's some shoddy bedazzling. Thankfully, Firefly has some laser lipsticks he can use. But you know what they say about light...
...it bounces off glass and doesn't go through it. Is he dead? If the Crisis was the big reset button, then yes, I guess he is. As much as any villain whose body was never recovered from the angry sea, anyway.
Firefly had clever tricks, but a terrible costume. When they rebooted him, they did away with both, throwing the baby away with the bath water. Fair, or no?
Who's Next? A red-headed Blackfoot.
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