It Can't Be Ignored: The DCEU Is a "Mess"
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wheezklaw — 9 years ago(January 31, 2017 07:04 PM)
I don't have a problem with Batman killing. Bill Finger and Bob Kane had him shooting a gun in 1939. Ala The Shadow.
However, Batman uses Detective skills before making a decision like that. Snyder threw away any Detective skills and turned Batman into a Punisher -like Meathead.
I sincerely hope the thugs he branded and /or killed didn't have Marthas visiting their graves. -
Prissy-Priscilla — 9 years ago(February 01, 2017 11:26 AM)
Batman's had several revisions since the Golden Age of comics. The one I'm referencing is post-Crisis Batman.
Still, Batman is answerable only to himself (because he chose to operate outside of the law), and the moment he doesn't hold himself accountable for the irreversible and absolute exercise of authority over life and death, the line becomes blurred and, soon, vanishes.
A man accountable only to himself might excuse actions that can be amended if he's wrong, but also the lack of a defining line, the lack of any accountability even to himself, leads - irresistibly - to a presumption of moral certainty. Once the idea enters you head that a person should die, that moral certainty (and you must be absolutely certain or you can never trust yourself to begin killing based on who you believe should be killed), without any accountability, means you can find a reason to kill someone if you wish to do so.
Batman understands this, he watches it transpire every day in Gotham, he relives the murder of his parents in his darkest moments. Once Batman commits murder he's no better than the thing he was born to fight.
And something you point out: Batman was created because his parents were killed by a criminal. If death and revenge can create a Batman, they can (and did) create the opposite effect. Batman can not know whether this or that criminal has family or friends who might be scarred and set out on the path of vengeance if Batman kills the criminal, giving rise to new monsters.
And this is why I find a Batman who doesn't kill to be far more complex and interesting than a Batman who
chooses
to kill even one villain.