Hi all. First i want to say i really enjoy the comic book threads on the dope. I have never been a comic book guy, but i really enjoy the genre in a detached sorta way. I would like some info about any superheroes who have no qualms about killing.
I know about the punisher, but that level of brutality is not exactly what im looking for. Im more looking for someone who’s ideal is prison and justice but when it comes to an opponent like the Joker knows when its a good idea to end a life.
i am particularly looking for movie (animated in particular though live action is ok) suggestions, but I am also open to graphic novel suggestions. (hate using the same word so close together in a sentence, but im kinda drunk and cant think of another one.)
Thanks.
ps, any animated superhero movie suggestions would be welcome. particularly if they’re available on netflix instant streaming. Live action too but I think I’ve seen pretty much all of them.
Wolverine has killed many times when the situation warranted it, in the mainstream Marvel universe.
In the Ultimate universe, just about everyone except Spider-Man has no qualms about killing.
Batman did shoot people in his very early years. He gave that up quickly.
Basically, 1940s reticence* and the 1950s comics code made it rare for any superhero to kill anyone. I remember reading Brave and the Bold #100 with Green Arrow when he shot two arrows – with arrowheads – into a couple of drug dealers. It was the first I could see a hero actually killing someone. Of course, they were drug dealers, which made them lower than pond scum, and it wasn’t specifically stated they were dead (though they were shown slumped over some equipment), so there was deniability.
*Villains could die, but only due to their own mistakes – falling off a tall building, or getting caught in their own trap. The hero couldn’t take any active part (other than chasing him).
Wonder Woman killed a villain reasonably recently; the issue was less the severity of the villain’s evil, but the (reasonable) belief that nothing less than killing said villain would stop him from getting his way.
I remember seeing a documentary or something that was talking about early superheroes and TV or movies. One had a Superman type hero on a building being shot at by two bad guys. The hero picks up one of the baddies and tosses him off the roof of the building to his presumed death.
I’ve not been able to find where I saw it, but that scene stuck with me because it was so unexpected.
I suspect Spider-Man & Batman are unique among current heroes in having never killed in current continuity. (I’m not sure if Superman’s execution of the Phantom Zone villains is still in his history.)
I’ll second the nomination. Be warned in advance–the movie features ridiculously over the top graphic violence.
And I say again, the Punisher is nothing but a Mack Bolan wannabe.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths features a couple surprising hero-induced deaths. I won’t say more than that.
And the entire Wonder family is more willing than average to end an enemy - Diana and Hippolyta may be the only ones to deliberately kill a sapient mortal, though (I can’t say for sure about Donna - though my instinct is she has - and I’m 99% sure Cassie’s never done so). It helps that they deal with gods and monsters and have been dragged into actual wars - gods and monsters can be ‘killed’ with impunity, since if they’re sapient, they’ll likely be back (…well, even more likely than the average), and war…well, it’s war.
Killing Max actually meant Diana was, for a time anyway, more reluctant to kill - but, on the other hand, it meant more people knew she was willing, and weren’t willing to push her as far. (Felix Faust and TO Morrow had a great scene concerning that in the Genocide arc - they’d pissed off Wondie to a spectacular degree - to the point that even Superman probably would barely hesitate to smear them across the pavement if they so much as twitched wrong - and Faust buggers off, leaving Morrow to piss himself, and spill everything they’d done - although, to be fair, it helped that Morrow was already regretting the whole thing for personal reasons.)
The Flash (Barry Allen) killed Professor Zoom - and was convicted for the murder - after the latter apparently killed his wife, Iris (long story on how it turned out she was alive) and made an attempt on his second fiancée. The current arc in his book deals with him being arrested for doing essentially the same thing again…by future time-cops.
Superman kills Mr Myxyzptlk (sp?) in the classic Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. And Krypto kills the Kryptonite Man. Of course, that was an imaginary story, and also pre-crisis so it didn’t really happen.
Nitpick: technically, it was a story of “what would have happened to Superman if the Earth-1 reality had continued to exist past the Crisis?” It was IMHO, a great sendoff to the old continuity.
Didn’t Daredevil just kill Bullseye not too long ago?
