Consider we know most of the batman villains are serial killers/mass murderer like (Two-Face, Joker, Bane and Riddler). Do any villains have a history of killing as young as baby ages?
Consider we know most of the batman villains are serial killers/mass murderer like (Two-Face, Joker, Bane and Riddler). Do any villains have a history of killing as young as baby ages?
It's an integral part of Harley Quinn's character in most continuities.
Didn't Riddler slit a baby's neck in that proto-Barbatos story?
Pretty sure kids died when Joker, Bane and Scarecrow took over the city.
"Cable was right!"
Am I misremembering or wasn't Joker threatening to kill a bunch of kids, including babies, in NML and that lead to Sarah Essen's death?
Last edited by exile001; 09-23-2022 at 08:58 AM.
"Has Sariel summoned you here, Azrael? Have you come to witness the miracle of your brethren arriving on Earth?"
"I WILL MIX THE ASHES OF YOUR BONES WITH SALT AND USE THEM TO ENSURE THE EARTH THE TEMPLARS TILLED NEVER BEARS FRUIT AGAIN!"
"*sigh* I hoped it was for the miracle."
Dan Watters' Azrael was incredible, a constant delight and perhaps too good for this world (but not the Forth). For the love of St. Dumas, DC, give us more!!!
It’s been a while sense I read Dark Knight Dark City, which is the Riddler story you’re referring to. But the way I remember it, Riddler caused the baby to be choking, and it was Batman who was forced to slit the babies neck in order to perform a life-saving tracheotomy.
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I think a lot of Batman comics fall into the trap of being too dark for their own good. While a creepy, gothic tone works wonders for Batman, if you push the envelope too far the suspension of disbelief quickly falls apart. You tend to ask questions like, "if the Joker has killed hundreds of people, are Batman and the city of Gotham irresponsible for not killing him?" Or "is Batman a child abuser for putting his Robins in the line of danger?" No one wants to answer those questions, because it sucks the fun out of Batman. It's a very fine line between dark and grimdark.
Didn't Riddler poison and kill Kite-man's boy in the War of Jokes and Riddles?
And there was that horrible story where Harley Quinn blew up some kids or something (I don't know if it's still in continuity).
I've made this same point several times.
The only reason Batman's no-kill code worked in years past was that the villains weren't generally as "dark and deadly" as they are now.
Some of Batman's villains are so horrid now that it doesn't make sense that he doesn't find a permanent solution outside of punching their lights out and sending them to Arkham.
And people should avoid those questions (and their answers). Particularly the Robin question: No way you slice it, Batman's use of Robins (Robins being an absolutely core essential part of the mythos IMHO) is not legitimate (but instead abusive and exploitative). And yet I myself never much think of Batman as an exploiting abuser, and instead totally love comic Batman and his boy/teen Robins, because I know to avoid such questions about very fictional funny book superheroes. Suspension of disbelief requires more suspending than some are apparently comfortable with because they persist with questions that inevitably have unfavorable answers. Kane and Finger weren't crafting a mythos for adults to find realistic.
I'm fine with Joker's kill count and horrid actions because a) artistic and capitalistic freedom and b) I know it's best not to bother to think much about the real life implications that Joker's atrocities and Gotham's legal inadequacies would have upon a imagining some real life utilitarian or deontological kill-code. I know I (and Jim Gordon, etc) are supposed to not hold Batman responsible for Joker's murders and that's quite enough for me. I know Joker is too popular and moneymaking a fictional character to be killed off as just punishment for his told and untold crimes. It's like kayfabe in wrestling, believing the story even if isn't true.
Grant Morrison: “Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everyday life. Adults foolishly demand to know how Superman can possibly fly, or how Batman can possibly run a multibillion-dollar business empire during the day and fight crime at night, when the answer is obvious even to the smallest child: because it's not real.”
Last edited by JBatmanFan05; 09-30-2022 at 11:51 AM.
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Grant Morrison: “Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everyday life. Adults foolishly demand to know how Superman can possibly fly, or how Batman can possibly run a multibillion-dollar business empire during the day and fight crime at night, when the answer is obvious even to the smallest child: because it's not real.”
Joker would absolutely kill a baby/toddler unless it was his own maybe, but still then there is a high chance he would do that. The other villains I'm not so sure about. Maybe Scarecrow would. Penguin probably would. I'm not so sure about the others.