Okay, so to be a decent super-villain you have to be ruthless, amoral, scheming, and a general nogoodnik. Threatening puppies, children, and nuns is standard procedure. You might even stuff the hero’s girlfriend in a fridge if you get the chance. So when a villain goes on a rampage, we expect to see a little death and destruction.
But when a hero is responsible for a death…?
I was thinking tonight about instances when a superhero has snapped, been driven to the end of his rope, or turned from the side of angels. Which superheroes have taken a life. Putting aside Wolverine and Punisher, who have made many widows, I know of…
SPOILERS, I guess
Captain America killed a henchman of Flag-Smasher who was firing into a crowd.
The Thin Man has killed hordes of bad guys, including Agent Axis.
Phoenix annihilated an entire planet.
Captain Marvel (Genis), during his insane period, killed a bunch of Badoon and Kree, as well as Burstaar.
Superman killed Zod
Wonder Woman recently killed Max Lord
Katana’s killed quite a few people. Most recently Sabbac.
Green Arrow has killed a few times - the one that comes to mind immediately, if the man who tortured Black Canary.
Star Boy of the Legion of Superheroes (Pre-ZH) killed a man who was trying to kill him - and was expelled from the Legion for it.
Human Bomb recently killed Dr Polaris (just before he, himself, was killed by Bizarro).
The Question is…not reluctant to kill. Psychopomp and most of the Subterranians in his recent mini-series being recent examples.
The Fantastic Four was featured in an issue of What If split into four parts – in one, they all got the stretchy power, in one they all got the flame power, in one they all became monsters, and in one they gained separate aspects of Invisible Girl’s power. In the flame segment, they accidentally set a tenement on fire and killed a girl. Out of guilt, Sue became a nun.
The Golden Age Starman, Ted Knight, killed Ragdoll, a serial killer/contortionist/cult leader, after Ragdoll threatened his young sons and the families of other Justice Society members. Ragdoll returned to life decades later, but Starman wasn’t going to allow a guy to make threats like that and walk away from it to possibly carry them out.
Wolverine has offed so much people I can’t even count, ditto for the Punisher. But then again thats his whole thing.
Azbats left a guy to die, which led to an innocent getting killed. It was kinda the thing that got bruce off his ass to take the mantle back.
Hero killings seem to be much more common in marvel then DC however. I think its a product of Marvel’s earth being a lot more violent then DC’s (as pointed out in the JLA/Avengers crossover.)
The Question has been portrayed very differently by different writers. In the late '60s, his creator, Steve Ditko (a devoted objectivist, in the Ayn Rand tradition), wrote a story where the Question simply allowed a criminal to be swept away in water and drown, rather than try to save him. While he didn’t actually kill the man, he didn’t bother to help save him either. Back then, superheroes rarely ventured into such moral gray areas.
The Question of the late 1980s was more of a student of Zen philosophy than a superhero, despite his extensive martial arts training by Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva. He beat a lot of criminals within an inch of their lives, but was reluctant to kill for a long time, though. Despite several close calls (and what would have been justifiable homicides in every case), he never killed during the 36-issue series by Denny O’Neil. He finally broke down and killed a South American drug lord in Question Quarterly #1, after the drug lord threatened a child under the Question’s protection.
The most recent incarnation of the Question by writer Rick Veitch recast the faceless man as an “urban shaman” who could commune with cities themselves to learn their secrets and mysteries (aided by hallucinogens). Veitch’s Question left quite a bodycount in his wake in last year’s six-issue miniseries.
Judge Dredd nuked East-Meg One in order to win the Apocalypse War, and deliberately killed four hundred million people. Prior to that he launched a retaliatory nuclear strike which would have destroyed the Earth, but the Sov’s shields beamed the missiles into an alternate universe where an idyllic world had never known war: that utopian Earth was destroyed instead. Oh, and he accidentally ran over a deaf woman on his motorbike and killed her.
Ozymandias killed everyone - or had them killed - who knew anything about his master plan, culminating with personally poisoning his own servants. En route he killed The Comedian and eventually half of New York, including just about all the bit-part players we’d seen in the background in the preceding eleven issues.
Next to him, Rorschach’s body count is pathetic; a mere four or five: a child-kidnapper and murderer; a multiple rapist; a fellow prisoner he threw boiling oil over (reported dying, probably dead); one of the Big Figure’s henchmen; and the Big Figure himself.
The Comedian must’ve offed a good many in his career, including a pregnant Vietnamese woman and probably Hooded Justice.
Dr Manhattan personally killed Rorschach and presumably blew up quite a few people in Vietnam, as well as accidentally killing a few “Keene” rioters by teleporting everyone to their homes simultaneously (but fewer than would have been likely to die in the riots).
I think both incarnations of Nite Owl and Silk Spectre had clean hands, as well as the other Watchmen.
I remember Green Arrow killing an unnamed drug smuggler in a GL/GA/Batman crossover in the early 70s. It was very understated – GA shot a regular arrow and killed the guy, who had only minor importance to the story – but everyone reading it commented on how it was probably the first them they could remember a hero directly killing anyone.
The very early Batman comics had Batman using a pistol and shooting a few criminals with it.