Why doesn't Batman just incarcerate super villains himself?

[sgtmattbaker]

I know, I know, the best answer is: because they are comic books.

Seriously though, let's establish all the craziness of the comic book universe, specifically talking about the Joker, although this applies to the others as well:
1) the Joker successfully pleads insanity over and over again, but seems to clearly be coherent of what he is doing
2) no prison is secure enough for him, and he keeps getting sent back to the same place where he has broken out of 100 times over
3) The citizens of New York (where Gotham City is I believe) aren't clamoring for an exception to the rule that criminally insane people don't get the death penalty
4) Not a single person has killed the Joker yet. You would think out of all the victims, that at least one would have had a concealed carry permit and taken him out in self defense. If not that, at least one would be (rightfully so) pissed off enough to kill him, either by just going out on a manhunt, or through some scheme like getting a job as a security guard at Arkham Asylum and there being an "accident". I'm not even getting into other villains here.. for all the stunts he was pulled against other anti-heroes and villains, you would think that one of them, who doesn't care about the law or morality anyway would have just ended him.

Most of the time people are considering the option that Batman himself could kill off the super villains (the ones that are mass murderers), but a more common solution, and one that doesn't seem to conflict with Batman's sense of morality, would be if he expanded the Batcave by adding a maximum security prison for super villains and kept all the most dangerous rogue's gallery there. Nobody knows where the Batcave is except the Bat-family and Alfred, Batman is a genius who could design an effective prison (let's not even go into crossovers or the JLA where there are even more geniuses that could help him), he would never be careless enough to let them out and he would be be totally immune to threats and bribes that plague Arkham Asylum and Blackgate. He could spend most of his time down in the Batcave keeping an eye on prisoners instead of out chancing death fighting them all the time. But how would he know who is bad enough to deserve being in the bat prison and not being allowed to go through the normal legal system? Pretty simple really.. if a villain killed someone they would go through the normal process. They would get put into Arkham or Blackgate like normal, but once they break out and kill anyone else then the legal system/prison system would no longer be deemed effective.

[t hedge coke]

The small-timers probably do their time, move on. The big ones, though, mostly have serious mental or physical issues. They need serious medical care. Batman's not really up to that, or to hiring a staff to watch over them and take care of them. I mean, Afred's not going to cook for a hundred inmates every meal and still clean the wheels on the batmobile or whatever.

Plus, if you take all the villains to the batcave and one eventually does escape, well, there's that secret blown.

In terms just of story viability, it's not sustainable long term.

[sgtmattbaker]

Let's face it, in real-life New York would have a special exception for criminally insane mass murderers to get the death penalty, the people that run Arkham and Blackgate would all be arrested for extreme criminal negligence or the victims of these psychopaths would take it upon themselves to solve the issue.

[Bat007007]

Let's face it, in real-life New York would have a special exception for criminally insane mass murderers to get the death penalty, the people that run Arkham and Blackgate would all be arrested for extreme criminal negligence or the victims of these psychopaths would take it upon themselves to solve the issue.

The real problem is the fact that most Batman villains are lest face it … terrorists and mass murderers. In real life, the US justice system would have intervened in a long time and proceed to the execution of Batman rogues. Arkham Asylum and Blackgate prison would have been closed a long time ago for incompetence under US laws if I am correct. The US won't tolerate terrorists so it seems logical to me that the federal justice system would intervene to stop all these ridiculous break outs and end Batman rogues with lethal methods such as the death penalty.

[t hedge coke]

Let's face it, in real-life New York would have a special exception for criminally insane mass murderers to get the death penalty, the people that run Arkham and Blackgate would all be arrested for extreme criminal negligence or the victims of these psychopaths would take it upon themselves to solve the issue.

I liked in Odyssey when it's revealed as a R'as plot to distract Batman and mess with the social order of the city.

You can't do that in the ongoing continuity, because then you've got to address why Batman doesn't work on that, but for its own separate thing, that holds together pretty good.

[Alan2099]

I've actually seen a couple of Elseworld's where Brucey keeps the worst of his villains in lock down in the Batcave, usually it's just a minor detail they use, but I kinda liked the idea and woudln't mind a few issues or an arc or two where Batman decides that the best way to keep Joker or Two-Face or somebody underwraps is to lock them up himself.

Then you could have some nice Silence of the Lambs style scenes where Batman goes to talk to and spend time with his own enemies without having to fight them.

[sgtmattbaker]

I've actually seen a couple of Elseworld's where Brucey keeps the worst of his villains in lock down in the Batcave, usually it's just a minor detail they use, but I kinda liked the idea and woudln't mind a few issues or an arc or two where Batman decides that the best way to keep Joker or Two-Face or somebody underwraps is to lock them up himself.

Then you could have some nice Silence of the Lambs style scenes where Batman goes to talk to and spend time with his own enemies without having to fight them.

Man that would be so weird for him to come by and be like "So Harvey, how are things?"

[Alan2099]

Man that would be so weird for him to come by and be like "So Harvey, how are things?"

Batman: If I'm not back by nine, feed and water the Joker for me.

Alfred: Not for all the money in the world, Master Bruce. I've told you before that if you want to keep pets, you;re going to have to take care of them yourself.

[saul_on_the_road_to_damascus]

This would make a really great else worlds mini series.

[sgtmattbaker]

Batman: If I'm not back by nine, feed and water the Joker for me.

Alfred: Not for all the money in the world, Master Bruce. I've told you before that if you want to keep pets, you;re going to have to take care of them yourself.

Hahaha, this would be an amazing comic book quote.

[Mgoldman14]

Because the stories would become too redundant. "Penny one I'm bringing clayface in for questioning" next issue, penny one I'm bringing joker in for questioning

[Kingcrimsonprog]

The answer is probably just "logistics."
I mean, don't Waynetech fund the prisons and asylums enough as it is? And still there's corruption and incompetence.
If Batman had his own prison, he'd still need employees to cook and clean and nurse and guard the villains. One of them will be blackmailed, stupid, greedy or whatever.

Would be a cool series though.

I'd also love a separate comic book series, where in the first issue Joker gets murdered, chopped up into bits, burned, and the ashes encased in 10,000 different concrete blocks, a quarter of which are shot into space, a quarter of which are sank to the bottom of the sea, and half of which are scattered all across the earth. And the writers given a strict mandate that the Joker is stone cold dead forever, no backsies. The title of the magazine can even be called Batman (After the Joker is DEAD, ((FOREVER!!!))) and see what cool stories people can come up with, without the Joker.

[sgtmattbaker]

Well, shoot, Batman could just have a series of robots to dispense food, guard prisoners, etc. Yes, it wouldn't make for good stories, I know. Like I said, in a "real-life" scenario the prison system, legal system, victims, heroic citizens, other heroes (like Wonder Woman or Aquaman that have no qualms about killing if necessary) would have taken care of the issue already. However, in the very limited circumstance where there are all these comic book reasons why they haven't are valid, then it would ultimately be on Batman. If he has the resources and know-how to stop these criminals in a non-violent way but just continues to drop them off at Arkham time and time knowing they will break out again, then really the only way to justify it would be for him to be just that dedicated to the legal system doing its job. Now this really isn't in Batman's character as I understand it, but in the Dark Knight movie he is "excited" about Harvey Dent because he might actually be able to do as much good as he can but officially through the legal system.

[bat39]

Well, the most obvious answer is, because Batman isn't judge, jury and executioner. He won't execute criminals, and he won't take it upon himself to incarcerate them either. Though he's a vigilante, Batman essentially serves as an unofficial 'cop'...he conducts investigations, tracks down criminals, and captures them and hands them over to the justice system. No more...no less.

As far as the wider issue of why exactly has the Joker not been designated a terrorist and executed, or why someone else hasn't taken it upon themselves to get rid of the Joker, or why doesn't Waynetech simply not invest more money in developing advanced tech to keep the Arkham inmates inside...well, that's pretty much the only way we can continue to have the rogue's gallery appear in stories! Its the most unrealistic aspect of the Batman mythos IMO (even more than teenagers dressing up in costumes to fight crime), but a necessary suspension of disbelief.

[nepenthes]

Bruce isn't stupid - deep down he's well aware that he needs them to keep escaping. Same reason he never just crippled the Joker.