The subject of comic book superheroes killing supervillains is hotly debated, in some circles.
But the other day, I couldn’t help wondering…are there any cases of comic villains being lawfully executed? (Never mind if they stayed dead permenantly.)
The closest things I can remember are a thug getting the gas chamber in the Superman animated series (which barely counts, in my book, since it was a cartoon, and he wasn’t anywhere near a “major” villain), and I think the Joker was going to be sent to the chair, once, until Batman managed to prove his innocence in that particular murder. (No comment.)
But over 60-odd years of comic history, there’s got to be at least a couple more, right?
We can think of a bunch of superpowered villians who were cold-bloodedly executed. Lawfully executed is a whole 'nother thing.
Even my Superman example was a case of “self-appointed representative of justice” because the Phantom Zone villains completely killed off everyone on Earth. There was no formal legal system left to try, pass judgment and execute them. Hence, I’m nickpicking my earlier nitpick.
Would you consider Nexus to be a vigilante or an executuioner? He had a mandate from a higher authority, it just wasn’t a government. Ditto the Spectre.
Sinestro was executed by the Green Lantern Corps, the closest thing to a governing body with jurisdiction. It didn’t take, though.
Even not counting the perps that Judge Dredd has blown away in the line of duty, and despite Mega City One apparently not possessing the death penalty, except in extreme circumstances - when the Security Of The City Act is invoked, for instance - he’s executed quite a few people in cold blood in his time.
Marshal Kazan, whom he shot out of hand for triggering the Apocalypse War, springs to mind, as do the Mega City One citizens who collaborated with the invading Sovs and were executed en masse in the same storyline. Oh, and he also executed Kraken, the clone trained as his replacement who assumed Dredd’s name and mantle after Dredd’s exile but then allied himself with the Dark Judges. And former Chief Judge Silver, who failed in his duty. And Chief Judge Griffin, who turned traitor and Sov propagandist after capture and brain surgery.
Actually, can I just give you a list of villains Dredd hasn’t executed?
The Incredible Hulk #380 featured Crazy Eight, a vigilante with above-human strength and agility, was electrocuted by the state for the murder of Senator Ray Hartwell.
The story is most interesting IMO for its “on-camera” depiction of the electrocution. No super-hero death rays, no off-panel moans, just one realistic look at how a person dies in Ol’ Sparky…
Damn you with the fire of a thousand suns - though I couldn’t have told you the comic or the issue, I did read that one. Trivia point, the superhero in that story was Doc Samson. I remember the rather moving moment when he had to force C8 into the chair. She apologised for the inconvenience once she was strapped down.
And it was a set-up. Crazy Eight didn’t kill the Senator, his abused wife did, and C8 covered for her. Doc Samson found this out when it was too late.
In one of the 1960s “Silver age” “Imaginary” stories Lex Luthor kills Superman. He gets put on trial. The trial itself was amazing, and a real learning experience. If you ever doubted that Kryptonians were interstellar Jews (the “-el” surnames ought to be a tip-off), this issue would eliminate the doubts. Luthor is brought to trial in a glass booth, like the extradited or snatched Nazi war criminals brought to Israel. Luthor is unrepentent, like the character in Robert Shaw’s “The Man in the Glass Booth”, and it surprised to be found guilty. The judge pronounces him “the worst criminal since Adolph Eichmann” (Who I’d never heard of, and sent me running off to the encyclopedia – who says comics aren’t educational?)
But IIRC, they wimped out at the end – Luthor isn’t executed, despite being convicted of the killing of the most famous and influential Kryptonian on Earth – he gets Zoned.
I didn’t realize quite how close to the contemporary cases of Nazi war criminals that issue was until I was much older. It’s still pretty strange, modelling the Kryptonian response like that. Even the Joker’s turn as Khomeini’s ambassador in “A Death in the Family” didn’t come as close to uncomfortable realities.
Wasn’t the Joker actually killed by the state for his crimes? He came back, of course, and Batman couldn’t touch him since he’d been punished, but he did die.
I’m sure someone will be along in a second to argue that Jeckie’s killing of Nemesis Kid was self-defense, or a battle, rather than murder. I’ll agree with you, though. Jeckie was, at that time, actually QUEEN Projectra, monarch of the planet Orando, and she consider killing Nemesis Kid, a clear enemy of her subjects, to be a royal act, i.e., execution.