I’m sure this happened a long time ago if it happened at all, but in the Batman comic did the Joker shoot and kill Batman after Batman had chased him down an alley?..That is what my friend said and I don’t know if it’s true because he tends to make stuff up just to sound smart but he is also the comic book prince because he and his dad read and collect more comics than anybody.
I should add that Batman dying of a gunshot wound seems to simple for the death of a major super hero…I would think he got dropped in acid or something.
Joker with a gun? Batman would be prepared for that, my young worried chum.
Batman’s been shot many times, going all the way back to his earliest decade.
As for your friend, he might be thinking of the third book/chapter of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, where there is a truly climactic battle between Batman and the Joker, in which the Joker dies and, IIRC, Batman gets shot. He doesn’t die, though. Unlike other heros, I don’t think Batman ever died and got revived.
I’m going to try to make it through this post without the p-word, but I thought I remembered that Batman’s standard suit is woven with patches of Kevlar or Wayne-lar or whatever the DC-universe high-tech, lightweight, bulletproof fiber is these days. Possibly also with thin ceramic plates or sintered armorgel underneath? I mean really – we’re talking about a superhero who makes a point of bringing a knife to a gunfight several times a week.
Sure, he knows where the guns are pointing, and sure he scouts for snipers[sup]1[/sup], but the man is going to get shot eventually! Given his penchant for interrupting drug deals and so on, where many of the participants are armed with automatic weapons, I just can’t really see him not wearing some kind of bulletproofing on a regular basis.
I’m sure there are some outfits he’s got (Prom Princess Batman, Roller Skate Batman, Executive Transvestite Batman…) that don’t have bulletproofing, but on the whole, he’s got to be expecting it. And knowing Batman, he’s, um… ready.
1 - now that I mention it, it sparks to mind something from No Man’s Land where he got clipped by a sniper, but luckily had anticipated an ambush and was wearing… something ridiculous, like 1/2" steel plating… on his torso. He deliberately takes the bullet, then “rises from the grave” before all the witnesses, turning their psychological warfare against them. And beats the crap out of them with his bare hands or maybe some rebar.
I seem to recall a storyline back in the late '70s or early '80s where several Batman imposters started showing up at the Gotham morgue. I think one was shot in the chest while chasing someone - maybe the Joker - down an alley. I don’t remember the resolution of the story but I do remember Commissioner Gordon being very upset, until he realized that the dead Batman he was standing over was too short or something.
As for Bats being shot - I’m not sure about the current costume, but the man’s been shot, stabbed, bludgeoned…he’s only bullet-proof and untouchable in the movies as a cop-out. I’ve seen specific mention of Tim Drake/Robin’s costume (at least the chest and back) being made of kevlar - in fact, I have an issue where he takes a bullet to protect the character who is apparently now Robin - and spends the rest of the page laying on his back saying “ow…ow…ouch…ow” and complaining about how much it still hurts to get hit with a bullet, even if the kevlar did stop it.
I could be wrong but I seem to remember that…
…Batman didn’t die. He faked his own death, allowed it to be revealed that Bruce Wayne was Batman, had a massive funeral, and went back underground to help a bunch of kids led by the new Robin to take back Gotham. Or something.
Just a couple of months ago, there was a “Batman gets gunned down” cliffhanger in JLA. It’s hardly a spoiler to reveal that he was only playing possum. (His cape had provided a false silhouette, so the bad guy’s bullet appeared to hit him but actually missed his body. Lame!)
It’s been explicitly stated that that’s the whole reason he wears a cape several times - did they really try to use that as a cliffhanger? Feh. That trick dates back to the 18th century. Didn’t Alexander Hamilton famously refuse to take his cloak off during a duel at some point with the same result?
In Miller’s Dark Knight Returns (the GOOD one), Bats takes a shot to the chest - right in the bat symbol:
(bolding Miller’s)
Neither Lawoot nor Ashtar is looking at the part of Batman The Dark Knight Returns I’m thinking of – it’s the end of the fight with the Joker, and I’m certain that Batman stumbles off, badly wounded (but not dead, by any means). But, now that I think of it, although the Joker was firing a gun pretty freely before this, I think that he wounds Batman with a knife.
In the final fight with the Joker, Bats gets shot and stabbed. When the Joker is spraying bullets around, one catches Batman in the ribs
“…glanced of a rib…took some meat with it…” right side high
then later the Joker stabs him
“…it happens so slowly…it happens…in five seconds…the blade is sharp…I barely felt it enter my stomach…” left side low
then Bats breaks the Joker’s spine and boobytraps the body.
Actually, it was Andrew Jackson who used that trick in a duel in 1803 against Charles Dickinson, a state champion marksman who had insulted Jackson’s wife. Jackson, who was tall and thin, chose to wear a voluminous black cloak on the morning of the duel. Dickinson shot first and wounded Jackson. Jackson remained on his feet, raised his pistol, and shot Dickinson dead.
I don’t know whether Alexander Hamilton also used that same strategy, but if he did, it wasn’t during his duel with Aaron Burr, which ended badly for the Secretary of the Treasury.
Hold up, silenus: Batman doesn’t kill. The Joker is the one who says “…and they’ll never know that you didn’t have the nerve…” before he breaks his own neck. The cops say it isn’t suicide, not realizing the “devil’s strength” the Joker employs.
Anyway, that’s how I’ve always read it, that Batman won’t even kill the Joker, given the chance.
Yep. You’re right. The Joker offs himself.
But Batman kills. Just a few pages previous to the end of the Joker, Bats machine-guns a freak threatening to shoot a child he is holding hostage. As a rule he doesn’t, but hey, if you go waaaaay back, he even carried a pistol! :eek:
Nekosoft is correct. Though Batman has been thinking things like ‘this ends tonight’ and ‘no more victims’ when he finally puts his hands around the Joker’s neck, he can’t kill him. The Joker manages to break his own neck, after saying that the police will think Batman has killed him.
There was a three issue story for the 40th anniversary, I don’t remember it very well, I think it was called ‘Blind as a bat’ IIRC Batman gets shot and breaks his back. He gets better within 3 issues, though.
Actually, Batman breaks the Joker’s neck, paralyzing him. Then…
"They’re gone?.. The witnesses, I mean… I’m really… very disappointed with you my sweet… the moment was perfect… and you didn’t have the nerve… paralysis… really…
Just an ounce or two more of pressure… and… do I hear sirens? yes… coming close… you won’t get far… but then… it doesn’t matter… if you do… they’ll kill you for this… and they’ll never know… that you didn’t have the nerve… I’ll see you… in ** hell"
With a devil’s strength… he twists… and twists… what’s left of his spine goes… whatever’s in him rustles as it leaves…
No he did not. He shot right at him to scare the punk, but did not kill him.
“Gosh, Batman, we’re REALLY mad at you for killing the scourge of Gotham. You must be punished for freeing us of this dangerous psychopath. You are hereby sentenced to, uh, probation or something … dammit, Batman, just get out of here. We’ll frame the Riddler.”