Comics in which Batman kills

[The Laughing Fish]

Unlike the animated adaption of the story where it makes it obvious that Batman did not kill the mutant holding the toddler hostage, I always found what happened in Miller's original comic to be ambiguous. Maybe the ambiguity was done on purpose?

[The Laughing Fish]

I've found more examples of Batman killing villains in the comics.

In Batman #340 (1981), Batman seemingly killed a mutated madman called The Mole, who was seeking revenge at a woman who was part of a parole-board hearing that denied him release from jail.


In a short story titled Second Face: The Avenger - Innocent Blood during Batman Annual #9 (1985), Batman ingeniously killed off two criminal groups: a local militia and a gang of bank robbers who disguised themselves by stealing the militia's identity. As the two groups met to negotiate a deal to settle their dispute with each other, Batman lit up a firecracker, which tricked the two groups into thinking they were shooting at each other. As both gangs started firing, the bullets happen to hit a crate of explosives and blew up their hideout -instantly wiping each other out in the process. This example clearly shows that Batman wanted to avenge the deaths of all the innocent people who lost their lives because of these gangs.


Finally, I found an example where Robin killed too, although not in cold blood. In Ten Nights of the Beast (1988), Robin prevented a suicidal bomber from murdering an entire police escort protecting President Ronald Reagan (who was actually Commissioner Gordon in disguise). Robin knocked the bomber's parachute just in time before the crook fell to his fiery death.

[The Laughing Fish]

The Messiah of the Crimson Sun?Batman Annual #8 (1982): he kills Ra?s Al Ghul by drawing his spaceship into lethal sun rays

It turns out he didn't die for good after all. Batman finds Ra's al Ghul in the Batcave– alive and breathing in Batman #400 (1985).


In this issue, Ra's reveals to Batman that he helped the entire rogues gallery escape from Arkham Asylum and freed all the other convicts from the local state prison as well. His reason for doing this is to force Batman to make two choices to solve the crisis: either agree to join Ra's' al Ghul's crusade to take over the world in return for capturing the villains alive, or kill all of them instead. Neither were options that Batman was willing to take, and chooses to reject the ultimatum.

Having said that, Batman did end up killing Ra's in the end. As soon as Ra's al Ghul's plot was thwarted, Batman - along with Robin, Catwoman and Talia - track down Ra's hiding in a windmill, and use explosives to blow it up to begin an ambush. Batman finds Ra's, who has dipped himself alive in the Lazarus Pit in an attempt to beyond match Batman in combat; however, the Pit's unstable chemicals slowly killing him. As the two fight, the explosion unexpectedly sets off an earthquake in the area, and Batman outsmarts Ra's by flipping his slowly decaying body into the Pit, likely ending him for good this time.





A few more examples of Batman being responsible for the deaths of other criminals include:
-Batman throwing a torch to burn supernatural flowers that keep an evil Mexican couple alive for more than a century in Detective Comics #395 (1970)...


...as the flowers burn, the couple slowly disintegrate into decaying corpses...


...and once they die, Batman writes down the year of their deaths on their tombstones.


-Batman jumping above two armed thugs before they shoot him, and both of them end up murdering each other instead, in Batman #425 (1988). But it must be said that Batman regrets this happening.



While I'm at it, I found another example of Robin having some blood on his hands yet again. In Batman #424 (1988), Jason Todd was outraged that Felipe Garzonas was about to get with murder because he had diplomatic immunity, despite the fact the crook's violent abuse and harassment of a young woman drove her to commit suicide. It is implied, albeit ambiguously, that Robin had sent Garzonas falling to his death.





The ambiguity is left open to interpretation for the reader and Batman. *

*BTW: This was the beginning of the downfall for Jason Todd as Robin. As he was beginning to make some positive progress in his life by handing over Two-Face to the police instead of taking revenge for murdering his father, Jason's anger at losing his parents as well as the injustice of the legal system, not accepting defeat and his inability to save a victim from Garzonas were many factors that made him lose focus and he began to make rash decisions that ultimately got him killed by the Joker in A Death in the Family...until he was brought back to life again for Under the Hood decades later.

It should be noted that issues #424 and #425 are part of the Garzonas storyline, as the dead man's father comes to Gotham looking for revenge in the latter issue, only to be accidentally killed by Batman in the end. And one more thing I forgot to mention: it was Jason Todd as Robin who killed KGBeast's suicide bomber in Ten Nights of the Beast.

[The Laughing Fish]

Does anybody else think that Batman technically killed the Joker when he snapped his neck in The Dark Knight Returns?



I understand that the snap paralyzed the Joker, and the Joker committed suicide by tilting his neck further out of spite. But it still goes to show that Batman took a lethal course of action. Since there have been a few examples posted here where Batman caused deaths without meaning to, i.e. in self-defense (like in this example) or by accident, I believe that this can be considered as a kill too.

[The Dark Knight]

I think he really wanted to kill the Joker himself, but that was as far as he was willing to go.

Absolutely love that story.

[Edd Grayson]

As much as I like the 1989 Batman movie, one thing I didn't like in reflection is how Joker died. Although the "laughing bag" was a great, great touch.

[The Dark Knight]

What don't you like about it?

[Edd Grayson]

What don't you like about it?

I thought it should have been done in a way that gave us more of Batman's point of view, that's all. The way they did it wasn't bad at all, but it would've been more fitting for me if it was more of a direct final confrontation between Bruce and Jack.

[The Dark Knight]

Fair enough. Though for me, we get that with the whole "you killed my parents" back and forth.

[Edd Grayson]

Yes, we did... and it was a nice way for Joker to go down, pun intended, considering how arrogant he was about his apparent victory.

And despite that we don't get Batman's thoughts on Joker's demise, we do see that Batman won and the film ends in a triumphant way.

Anyway, great thread. I've read the Detective Comics Batman stories myself.