Why do (most) superheroes not kill?

Question

How can Batman justify not killing the Joker when given the chance. Excuses. Excuses.

Answer 1

I defer to Stan Lee, with one of the most potent bits of wisdom ever put on paper, in a quote told to Peter Parker (Spider-Man) by his late Uncle Ben: "with great power comes great responsibility". Killing the supervillains would be easy. To turn him over to the authorities when you know you have the power to kill him, & that no one would truly fault you if you did; listening to your conscience over your base desires, is truly heroic.

On a more practical side note, if every supervillain got killed, that would make for some pretty poor writing. Ever seen the movie "Unbreakable"? The superhero needs the supervillain, as was pointed out to Bruce Willis by Samuel L. Jackson in this movie. In truth, what would Batman be without the Joker? Superman without Lex Luthor? Spider-Man without his stable of villains? Captain America without the Red Skull? The list goes on & on, & without the nemesis, the hero is left with very little to do. Sure, Spider-Man often tackles typical thugs, but would he be as interesting if every single comic had him killing nameless thugs all the time instead of facing menaces you get to know as well as the hero, like Dr. Octopus, the Green Goblin, & the Kingpin? Of course not. So, ultimately, this is the real reason most superheroes don't kill: sales! And often, when they do kill, it's a character who hasn't gotten used much lately, & a lot of the time, the character will return later on, back from the dead in some grand fashion, producing more sales than the character generated pre-death.

Answer 2

The whole point of Superheroes is to give a sort of Moral high ground. The idea that if you think something is wrong on a moral, ethical, or legal level that you just don't do it. Period. IF you believe that it is wrong to kill...then YOU DO NOT KILL. Batman has always walked a fine line. He uses many of the same tactics and psychological weapons as the adversaries he fights, but he refuses to kill. That is what really separates the heroes from the villains in comic books, villains kill, heroes don't (although there have been occasions where accidental deaths have taken place, such as when the Flash (Barry Allen version) accidentally killed his nemesis Professor Adrian Zoom, the Reverse Flash in an effort to prevent him from Killing the woman he was seeing (Fiona Webb) back in the mid-80's.) But those instances are rare and usually happen in circumstances where it was unavoidable.

Of course then you have characters like Vigilante (Adrian Chase) who was not above killing those he fought when he deemed it necessary. Or Wolverine, who has killed, and probably will again, when circumstances warrent it.

MOST however, simply consider killing to be too much like what they are fighting agains to even contemplate. Like when Spiderman had the Symbiotic black costume and nearly beat the RHINO to death. When he realized what he was doing he was appalled that he COULD do that.

That's the long answer.

Answer 3

Because (most) superhero comics etc. are targeted toward kids, and they don't need killing in their cartoons. Also, how lame would comics like Batman be if there was no main villain? If Batman just killed of the Joker the series would be kind of lame!

Answer 4

Batman lets the Joker go because Batman likes his funny jokes and want to hear his freak enemy make something new joke again so that is prevent he get boring and do nothing at home. Batman said the Joker is very funny if compare with America Funniest Video.

Answer 5

This goes back to the comics code authority which was a self cencorring group set up by the comic companies to keep government regulation out of comics. The CCA had a rule that you could not have killing in comics. They way that this was showen in the heroes was that they had a morall code against killing. In the 80's a lot of new compaines as well as some DC and Marvell books did not use the CCA and now you have heroes who will kill. Wolverine was never shown to kill inn CCA approved books but kills every now and then now that CCA is history.

Answer 6

Batman can't kill Joker because he knows that's what Joker wants.

Joker wants Batman to kill him so that Batman will be just like him. For him to throw away his honor and morals and kill Joker would be Joker's ultimate victory.

Answer 7

Because he's not a criminal.An individual citizen can't make the decision to end another's life for any reason.The only reason Batman would have for killing the Joker is in self defense or defense of another.But since he can always physically subdue the Joker or any of his enemies, he has no reason to kill them.

Answer 8

When Police Officers catch mass murders do they kill them?

Like in real life, Batman leaves the criminals to the justice system.

Personally I think the Joker deserves to be killed.

Answer 9

oh yeah, you're right! I think it's because of their reputation as a strong supernatural heroes that have the capable of protecting the world and yet their side that they should not kill because the killings is for their villains,he,he!When we were just so young then it's just okay that's why we keep on wathcing them but when we get older, it's an excuse anymore, so much so we lose the interest to watch them religiously and we call them foolish!

Answer 10

Hulk is quite resistant as shown in "hulk: the best" and "international conflict hulk. so some distance he has been overwhelmed with the aid of infinite human beings in accordance with how indignant/effective he's. on an identical time as he develop into angriest he quite sustained an entire race of parasites ingesting off him, and then later (minus the parasites) defeated a superhero whose whispers factor mountains. on an identical time as at his incredible Hulk develop into easily defeated with the aid of sentry (superman rip off with the possibility of "a million million exploding suns") He additionally can regenerate.