DC’s Batman and the Joker have been in a perpetual struggle for decades now, and it’s led some fans to question why Batman doesn’t simply kill the Joker. While this might seem like a reasonable response to a villain as unrepentent and chaotic as the Clown Prince of Crime, Marvel’s Daredevil of all actually has a perfect answer for why murdering criminals doesn’t help.
Daredevil #2 – by Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto – gave readers the exact reason why just murdering criminals, especially supervillains, on a whim wouldn’t play out well for anyone. In the issue Daredevil seemingly accidentally kills a man while preventing a robbery. After he comes to terms with it, he begins to question exactly how this will affect his villains.
He wonders whether they fear him more, now that he seems to be capable of murder – or, more disconcertingly, whether the villains might all begin working together, if that they feel it has become a life or death struggle. This question encapsulates why Batman shouldn’t just start killing off his rogues, especially with how dangerous his rogue’s gallery is in particular.
Vigilantes operate unsanctioned, and their fight against crime could, paradoxically, easily lead to them being arrested. James Gordon has stated multiple times that the only reason he doesn’t arrest Batman is that Batman has a no-kill rule. Other vigilantes who embrace killing, like Marvel’s Punisher, are not only hunted by the police, but also looked down by the superhero community. Characters like Captain America, Daredevil, and Spider-Man have all made their dislike of the Punisher known due to his methods, and while being shunned everywhere is a good reason not to go on a killing spree, it’s not the best reason.
Just as the Man Without Fear considered in Daredevil #2, if Batman killed the Joker, it would just spur the other villains to join together to stay alive. Scarecrow, Penguin, Bane, and Riddler are all already immensely dangerous on their own, but if they were given a reason to work together, they’d be nearly unstoppable. Villain teams have always been a massive threat to the world, with iconic ones, such as the Legion of Doom, or the Injustice League, being just two notable examples. So, specifically doing something that’d give them a reason to unite seems like a terrible option.
The Joker is a very serious threat and there’s no denying that the world would be better off without him, but it isn’t a vigilante’s place to kill the Joker. When people suspected Daredevil of killing a criminal, it immediately had the superhero community asking him to hang up his mask. The police were on orders to shoot him on sight, and his villains got more dangerous than ever. It was an accident, but it showed that killing someone is far from a magical solution that has no consequences. This is why, as tempting as it is, Batman can’t kill the Joker, and Daredevil proved it.