Wow, thanks for the info. I have read and seen the watchmen comic, I like them a lot. I am also a big fan of the Alan Moore Miracleman series. I think those are the only two Alan Moore works I am familiar with, should I look more into his stuff?
I didnt realize the current crop of superheroes was willing to kill. Like I said, I am not super familiar with this stuff, so that was interesting to learn
Does Deadpool count as a hero? 'Cuz if so he has killed one or two people.
During the Mike Grellperiod, Green Arrow sometimes killed the bad guys, starting with the guy who kidnapped and tortured Black Canary.
In the comic books? No way!
Would Judge Dredd count as a superhero? A lot of perps are sent to the cubes, but he’ll take them out if necessary.
Can’t totally hate the movie, but can’t recommend it either without feeling a bit guilty.
Captain America is amazingly vicious, but you have to understand the context. He would either be indirectly responsible for or lead an attack on thousands of “enemy forces.” He would often clear some obstacle to enable Allied bombing or some other attack. Whenever there’s a flashback scene, I try to keep a mental note of how many faceless soldiers he directly or indirectly kills. Of course, in splash panels, you never see him decapitate a soldier or fire a gun, but he tends to disable an amazing number of flying fortresses (e.g. a blimp or plane) and jump out with a parachute, leaving the entire crew to die.
This tends to hold true for any sort of soldier or army-related comic book character. Even the GI Joe comic was famous for showing “real” death.
Vicious? Not the word I would have selected. Ruthless perhaps.
I wouldn’t even say ruthless. It means “lacking compassion.”
The Steve Rogers Cap is professional. As a soldier, he would kill if he had to in the course of a mission, but not otherwise. (I don’t know about the Bucky Barnes Cap.)
Batman actually killed a few people in the first two Batman movies (the Burton-helmed ones).
Personally, that always made me respect him more—he wasn’t just wading in killing everybody all the time, but he wasn’t refusing to kill anybody for any reason.
Coming back around to Steve Rogers as Captain America, a rare instance outside wartime saw him reluctantly gun down a crook who was about to open fire on a crowd; Cap promptly turned himself over to the authorities to face a jury trial, because he doesn’t take killing lightly sure as he doesn’t have a code against it.
A few? In the first movie, he blows up a factory filled with Joker henchmen.
I began to write that it’s left ambiguous enough so that we don’t know they were killed, but on balance I just don’t believe it. We see the remote-controlled-or-robot Batmobile go deep into the plant and drop the bomb, and we see it emerge WITHOUT henchmen around it before the whole thing blows to hell, as I recall it. It’s believable that it sped out of the plant faster than the henchmen could run, and not believable that most (if any) of them escaped.
And he unequivocably kills at least one of the henchmen the belltower, as well as the Joker himself.
Or even Power Man and Iron Fist… Luke Cage… which I think is still the nominal nominary for Mortal Combat’s Johnny Cage.
Hell, one time he killed the same two people dozens of times in one sitting!
The early comics Batman killed people. Some with a machine gun and some by hanging.
The Authority kills people like it’s going out of style
Miracle Man killed Dr. Gargunza.
Hyperion in the “Supreme Power” series kills lots of enemy solders. The other “heros” in the Squadron Supremen also kill people.
Black Adam, even when working with heros against cosmic menaces, kills people like files.
The “Secret Six” which are DC heros or villains depending on context kill tons of people.
“Invincible” kills people if he has to.
Heck, Superman killed a guy way back when, like in Superman #1. Picked him up and hurled him like a javelin to certain doom.
More recently, and in current canon (or at least where it was in October of 1989) he killed three other-dimensional versions of General Zod, Faora Hu-El and Quex-Ul, but this set off on a spiral of guilt and depression and regret and such (Superman Volume 2, #22).
The comic strip is a satire. At least it used to be.
I seriously doubt the Phantom Zone villains execution is still in continuity. Editorial was never comfortable with Kal killing people, and the various Supergirl, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Kandor revamps have pretty much washed it away.
The Shadow has had numerous comics series in the 70s and 80s, and a 90s movie starring Alec Baldwin. He kills plenty.
Most of the Brit Pack writers (I include Garth Ennis, even though he’s Irish) rack up a big body count in their comics: Punisher, Fury, The Boys, Marshal Law, Astonishing X-Men, Doom Patrol… These guys keep reminding us how much they hate superheroes, but seem to keep writing them.
Starman Jack Knight killed Kyle, son of the Mist, in his debut battle, and killed a number of aliens, including the former Green Lantern Medphyl, in a fight on “Throneworld” (the home planet of another Starman, Prince Gavyn).