Batman working with killers

[LordUltimus]

Jason Todd, Harley Quinn, Ghost-Maker... it seems more and more like Bruce is getting a lot more comfortable working with killers and even considering them part of the family as long as they don't kill in Gotham. How do people feel about this?

[Frontier]

I think you need to be careful with it to a certain point because at the end of the day Batman is still probably going to be very anti-killing and his whole case against some characters or against villains (and basis around not killing The Joker) falls apart the more he gives characters a pass (or doesn't give them a pass).

[Robanker]

I think it undermines the character but I don't think the general audience cares about the actual character so much as seeing their favorite action figures high five.

"I like Batman and I like Red Hood. They should work together." And that's basically it.

Sucks. It's why I don't read those books.

[Jackalope89]

I think it undermines the character but I don't think the general audience cares about the actual character so much as seeing their favorite action figures high five.

"I like Batman and I like Red Hood. They should work together." And that's basically it.

Sucks. It's why I don't read those books.

To be fair to Jason, the only thing he's shanked lately, are abominations from Hell (Untitled). Otherwise, he's laid off on the killing for some time.

[bat39]

It is a morally grey area for sure.

Then again, in real life, you have the US Government or its agencies (the CIA in particular) willing to work with people who could objectively be considered killers, terrorists or human rights violators of some sort - all in pursuit of a larger mission against a deadlier threat, while still claiming to be the 'good guys'.

Apply that kind of strategic essentialism or pragmatism to Batman's mission to save Gotham and you can get away with a lot of things.

[Vordan]

I think it undermines the character but I don't think the general audience cares about the actual character so much as seeing their favorite action figures high five.

"I like Batman and I like Red Hood. They should work together." And that's basically it.

Sucks. It's why I don't read those books.

Was reminded of this lol. Yeah either Bruce is anal about no killing or he isn’t, and if he isn’t why not just let someone else kill off the more dangerous Arkham Rogues?

[PurpleGlovez]

Jason is an actual good character so whatever on that. Couldn't care less about Harley and Ghostmaker. Working with Clayface in Tynion's Detective was the most egregiously out-of-character instance of this and made no sense whatsoever. So yeah, I generally don't like it, but sometimes it works.

And to be fair Jason specifically went through a whole arc with this, and Batman beats the **** out of him whenever he crosses the line.

[Nite-Wing]

I think everyone on the justice league has killed people too
I guess Bruce should just quit working with everyone since his morality will be challenged at every corner of the DCU

[Zaresh]

I think everyone on the justice league has killed people too
I guess Bruce should just quit working with everyone since his morality will be challenged at every corner of the DCU

Bruce has let to die several of his villains, too.

[Restingvoice]

Most of the time isn't the justification there? Yea these people have killed but they've stopped now (Jason, Damian, Harley, Ivy, Catwoman) or the enemy of my enemy is my friend against a greater enemy (Joker, Harvey, Freeze, Penguin)

[LordUltimus]

Has Harley stopped killing people? I thought she was still working as a merc/Suicide Squad.

[Ascended]

Last I looked Harley was still killing plenty of people.

Anyway, this shouldn't be a tough question; Bruce holds to the no-kill rule more than anybody, and is far less forgiving or flexible about it.

But just about everyone on the League has taken a life, even Barry killed Zoom (not sure if that's in-continuity right now) and Bruce's "best friend" Clark has killed more people than you might think. Not to mention Diana.

If Bruce held to his rules as consistency as he "should" then he wouldn't be associating with very many people. Hence he gives a free pass to popular characters like Harley and Jason and doesn't say anything about his League peers' body counts, unless the story decides to make an issue of it (like Diana killing Max Lord).

[Jackalope89]

Last I looked Harley was still killing plenty of people.

Anyway, this shouldn't be a tough question; Bruce holds to the no-kill rule more than anybody, and is far less forgiving or flexible about it.

But just about everyone on the League has taken a life, even Barry killed Zoom (not sure if that's in-continuity right now) and Bruce's "best friend" Clark has killed more people than you might think. Not to mention Diana.

If Bruce held to his rules as consistency as he "should" then he wouldn't be associating with very many people. Hence he gives a free pass to popular characters like Harley and Jason and doesn't say anything about his League peers' body counts, unless the story decides to make an issue of it (like Diana killing Max Lord).

For the League, when not written for a certain moment (Maxwell Lord being the prime example), Supes and Barry normally hold pretty stringently to the "no kill" rule. The Green Lanterns often have this imposed on their rings, but only have removed in extreme examples, and the rest only kill in the most extreme of examples. From what I've seen, at least.

[Nite-Wing]

Green lanterns have a license to kill similar to police officers once the ring sees the criteria hit for killing the ring allows them to take life and they do


Barry and wally have killed reverse flash/zoom a few times now

Dianna is understood as a killer on the JL

Superman is closest to Batman but he does kill too

Bruce is literally the only hero in comics with such a stringent code and its because of how popular his villains are

[Tzigone]

Bruce is literally the only hero in comics with such a stringent code and its because of how popular his villains are

I feel like he's stringent when it suits him (or the plot, really). It's not like he hasn't killed or been willing to kill (maybe moreso the not-technically-human). He really only seems to have become super-duper fixated on no-killing after he became dark & gritty (which is, of course, a very long time ago, now, and correlated with increase in popularity that likely extended to villains).