Great comic book superheroes share one rule: never kill your opponent. Although Batman is also considered one of the darkest and most violent vigilantes Bruce Wayne is an ardent supporter of the no-killing rule. But did Batman ever kill? That’s when the Dark Knight broke the main rule of superheroes.
The fourth episode of James Gunn’s new HBO Max series (read the first Peacemaker reviews here) reignited a very popular discussion on the internet: In the series, the character played by John Cena claims so Batman would save many more lives by killing his villains Instead of letting them live and giving them the opportunity to do further potential damage. This theory finds many advocates on the Internet, but also many opponents.
In the 1940s, in Batman’s debut comics, Bruce Wayne had not yet adopted the rule preventing him from killing his opponents, and in those early numbers, It wasn’t uncommon for Batman to murder his enemies. Later, with the creation of the Comics Code Authority, an American body dedicated to censoring violent comics, The Batman stories took on decidedly more family-friendly tones and “camp” (tones also carried over into Batman’s first live-action series starring Adam West).
More recently, however, despite Bruce Wayne’s vote, there have been cases of “the dead man escaping” in the Batman stories: this is the case with Batman #57, a comic published in 2018 Bruce Wayne breaks the neck of KGBeast, let him die to his fate and refused to help him. KGBeast will eventually manage to survive the injuries, but the Dark Knight’s intentions were clear.
In any case, Bruce Wayne was less loyal to his rule when it came to fighting non-human opponents: In the storyline “Red Rain” published in 1991 Batman kills Dracula himself, impaling him; or again, in the crossover Final Crisis, released between 2008 and 2009, it really is the Dark Knight to kill Darkseid with a special radioactive bullet.
The comics have already shown that A Batman killing is a contingency to be feared: In the 2011 Flashpoint crossover, Barry Allen enters a universe where Thomas Wayne’s face is hidden under the mask of Batman. This Batman doesn’t have too many qualms about murdering and torturing his opponents, and his lack of restraint leads him to do so Actions like killing Alfredor team up with Bane to take control of Gotham City.
Bruce Wayne’s next interpreter recently wanted to have his say on the subject: This is how Robert Pattinson interprets Batman’s no-killing rule.
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