Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: grant morrison, killing joke

Grant Morrison On Why Batman Doesn't Kill, Even When He Does

Grant Morrison reminds us all why Batman doesn't kill... even though he always seems to, somehow.

Last week, Grant Morrison took to a Reddit AMA to promote the Batman/Deadpool crossover from DC Comics, which they are writing. And they just kept doing it, what was planned to be a three-hour session, rapidly became everything Grant Morrison would be doing for the next three days, and they are still going in dribs and drabs. A select few of which Bleeding Cool has collated, cross-referenced and compiled with this handy tag. Including why Batman doesn't – or rather shouldn't kill. And what sets him apart… Grant wrote;

"If Batman kills he becomes a crazy criminal in a weird costume and Jim Gordon would have to hunt him down and bring him to justice. The glory of Bruce Wayne is that he refuses to be a killer. He has trained in every martial arts discipline in order to not have to kill and that's what makes him mad and magnificent, and a superhero. He's fine with intimidation and injury, of course, but killing his enemies would destroy him. He catches bad guys and leaves them trussed up outside the nearest precinct, so that the legal system can take care of them… if the legal system lets them loose, he catches them all over again…"

It is a bit tricky because, over eighty-six years of publication, Batman has killed a lot. Someone's in self-defence, sometimes by accident, sometimes deliberately. Right from Detective Comics #27, he is knocking people off roofs and into vats of acid. Two to three issues later, he is breaking their necks. A little after that, he is blowing them up.

But a year or so in, this panoplay of murder turns from a gush to a trickle. The publisher decided that with the success of Batman #1 in 1940, the character's pulp crime origins would be sanitised going forward, be less of a vigilante, work more with the police, which, for some reason, meant killing fewer criminals.

And by Batman #4  in 1941, Bob Kane and Bill Finger saw that Batman explicitly no longer carried a gun and no longer killed people… Americans, at least. He was still allowed to kill German or Japanese soldiers during wartime. And then he would throw Nazis into vats of molten metal and the like. The 1943 film serial Batman saw him kill dozens of Axis agents.

And there was still a little wiggle room in the comics, as villains meet sticky ends as a result of their battles with Batman, even if he doesn't actually pull the trigger. Much later, he was also allowed to kill immortal beings who had extended their lifespan beyond, as if Batman was restoring the natural state of things, such as the Muertos, Ubu, Catman and many times with the resurrecting Ra's al Ghul. Oh, and vampires, lots of vampires. And every now and then people would just kind of forget. When writing Batman, Grant Morrison had Batman psychologically persuade Joe Chill to commit suicide.

And on the screen, Batman even killed in the TV series, let along the Tim Burton films, the Dark Knight trilogy, Batman vs Superman and Justice League, and it was only recently in Matt Reeves' The Batman that we had one who didn't specifically kill anyone, though there was plenty of violence which could have led to death as a result…

Of course, Grant Morrison has run wild and free with his take on The Killing Joke, that Batman kills The Joker at the very end… and I still think that holds up. The beam of light that the two are walking across, that disappears for the final panel, as the Joker's laughter is replaced by sirens… however you colour it.

• DC MARVEL BATMAN DEADPOOL #1
  (W) Various (A) Various (CA) Dan Mora
  THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! Written by Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Tom Taylor, Mariko Tamaki and G. Willow Wilson Art by Dan Mora, Hayden Sherman, Bruno Redondo, Amanda Conner and Denys Cowan The Dark Knight and the Merc with a Mouth team up for an adventure so mind-bending you'll think you're in a dream! Brought to you by legendary creators Grant Morrison and Dan Mora! And be sure not to miss these incredible extra stories: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Joshua Williamson team up with Hayden Sherman for a magical Constantine/Doctor Strange tale! Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo bring you an epic Nightwing/Dick Grayson and Laura Kinney/Wolverine story! Mariko Tamaki and Amanda Conner smash Harley Quinn and the Hulk together! G. Willow Wilson and Denys Cowan tell an electrifying Static and Ms. Marvel yarn! $7.99 11/19/2025

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