Batman doesn't kill. It's sort of his "thing". Well, besides dressing up as a bat to strike fear into superstitious and cowardly criminals, anyway. What with his whole personality, character and modus operandi being the result of seeing his parents gunned down in front of him as a kid, it'd be a little hypocritical for the Caped Crusader's brand of justice to centre on totally murdering bad guys, too. Especially if he did it with firearms. Then he wouldn't be any better than the criminals he's trying to rid Gotham's streets of. Just stick 'em in Arkham, it'll probably be all right. The other half of DC's "Big Two" has a similar moral code that precludes him from ever taking a live. As we've seen, though, there have been times Superman had been forced to kill. Or sometimes, not-so-forced. The details are a little hazy. And if a moral paragon such as the Man Of Steel can be reduced to murder, surely it'd be no big thing for his "darker" opposite number to do the same? After all, the pulp anti-heroes Batman was initially inspired by were shooting down their enemies left and right. For the most part the Dark Knight has stayed firm to his self-imposed rules of engagement, choosing non-lethal ends to his especially expansive rogues gallery. Sometimes, however, that simply isn't an option. Here are ten of the times that Batman has been forced to kill.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
