No need to frame Nygma. Cause, see, it was really… Hush. Yeah, Hush killed the Joker. That’s it.
That’s debatable. I mean, if it weren’t Batman, I’d swear that guy’s dead. There’s this big splash behind him, looks like a bloodstain, except the top half of the panel (at least in my copy) is all grey scale, so you can’t tell what color it is. Plus, the way it’s setup, with the guy holding a gun to a kid’s head, and the way Batman says, “I believe you,” right after, everything about it screams “He just capped that guy.” I’m not saying you’re wrong, but at the very least, it’s a very poorly executed sequence if that’s what they were trying to show.
I’m actually pretty sure it’s a chick. The Mutant was referred to as Grace by one of her cohorts at some point later in the story. The first few times I read TDKR, I thought Batman had killed her, but I’ve looked that panel over pretty closely, and though the stain on the wall looks like the fallout from an exit wound, Grace does not appear to have any bullet wounds.
I’m in the “Batman just fired a shot over the bow” camp.
Sorry, your right, Mango. It is, indeed, a she. You’re both probably right: I’d always thought that was a continuity error, but the whole book is so well plotted, I find it hard to believe that Miller ( 
) would make a mistake like that. Still, the art is really, really unclear on that. (It didn’t help that this was pretty much the first Batman book I’d ever read, and I didn’t even know he wasn’t supposed to kill.)
I agree that it looks like that (especially since I broke out my TPB for this), but I think that it was just a crappy job on the artists part. They would not have him so easily kill a man, then later have a mojor plot point about how he has never killed anyone. I even remember Batman thinking to himself later on “but that would mean crossing a line that I set for myself over thirty years ago” when considering whether he should kill the Joker.
No, he did not kill the punk.
Have you read The Dark Night Returns? I ask this seriously, not as an insult or rhetorical question. Commisioner Gordon has retired. The new commisioner wants Batman arrested. Upon seeing Robin she says ‘Add child endangerment to the list of charges.’ She is already willing to lock Batman away for life.
lawoot, that’s really wild – The Punisher has been using that same trick for a long time now. I think there might even be a mention of it in Punisher #1, but I’m not sure. Not to completely derail the thread (although we’ve pretty much established that Batman could build a small bust of Cmr. Gordon out of all the bullets he’s taken) but can you think of any other “human” superheroes who use this trick?
OK, since it’s been established that Batman was in fact shot… stabbed… pummeled… thrown off of buildings… had his freakin’ back broken…
The guy has to have access to some serious medical care, right? I mean, Alfred is a good medic, but there have to be times that Master Bruce comes straggling in with injuries that are beyond his scope of practice. So, does Batman have a surgeon on the payroll who can be available on short notice and won’t ask any questions that might lead to his secret identity being revealed?
In the last issue of “Pushback”, Hush makes a reference to having saved Batman’s life on the operating table. How did that come about?
Hush is
a childhood friend of Bruce’s who went on to become a surgeon
and after Bats took a nasty spill, Bruce was taken to conventional medical care, and
they called in ‘Hush’. In his surgical capacity.
Cover story was that Bruce had had a car accident.
With an ethical doctor, this would not be an issue. I’m pretty sure that something like a superhero’s alter ego would be covered under doctor-patient confidentiality. Of course, there is the possibility of an unethical doctor, and there are other hospital personnel who do not take the Hippocratic Oath and might find out.
Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler, has training in combat medicine and surgical methods. Which makes him that much more valuable than that layabout Jarvis.
The problem with this is that well over 90% of the medical profession will, at some point in their career, be exposed to some form of radiation or mutagen that will drive them insane and/or turn them into a hideous monster. So medical care is real tricky for superheroes.
Not necessarily. Many of the transformed doctors can still provide health services to their superhero brethern or on themselves… Dr. Reed Richards, Dr. Strange, Lex Luthor, Man-Bat, The Lizard, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Floronic Man, The Beast, Charles Xavier… etc. Kinda makes you wonder why some superheroes don’t pool their medical expertise and open up a hospital specializing in superhuman health care. (TOP TEN and PLANETARY have touched on this, briefly.)
That reminds me of one Amazing Spider-Man comic that made me laugh. Spidey was deep in debt and needed some money, so he agreed to build a car, called the Spidermobile, for a car company. The reps of the company said they needed a way to contact him, and they suggested he get a beeper. Cue Spidey’s imagination:
<Spidey fighting Doc Ock>
<beep beep, beep beep>
Spidey: Sorry, Ock, gotta go! That’s my beeper!
Dock Ock: Oh, perfectly understandable! Us doctors know all about that.
Of course, Spidey has none of this.
I still chuckle when I think of it.