@BransonHuggins said:
Batman using a gun, seems to have pissed off a lot of people. Look, their are a lot of people that hold the Dark Knight Returns as one of the greatest batman stories ever told. This bothers me, because I have heard a lot of these same people state that Batman would never use a gun. Do you forget the point in the DKR where he picks up a machine gun and mows down some criminals? It happens. Also, Batman may not have used a gun before, but he is a killer plain and simple. Look, whether he wants to admit it or not, people have died due to Batman, "I don't have to kill you, but I don't have to save you either"...well through your inaction, you are killing them, sorry, that simple. Batman has lots of blood on his hands, he likes to think this isn't so, but it is.
That is true but what you need to understand is that Batman being anti-gun because of what happened to his parents is not that old actually. The idea that the death of Bruce's parents were not just an origin story but deeply defined the character, who never let go of them, only became central around 1987-1989 after Miller's TDKR and Year One, Moore's Killing Joke and Morrison's Arkham Asylum (although the 70's and 80's and other writers such as O'Neil for instance paved the way for them, ). From that new centrality, that is considered a given nowadays, other writers imagined that it was the reason why Batman had not been using guns for so long. It makes sense of course but the only real reason why Batman was not a killer and not using guns was because he was exactly like every other Golden and Silver Age super-hero.
What I mean is Frank Miller did not have a strict Batman rationale that would forbid him from writing Batman using a gun or killing people. It came after, as a result as what he himself wrote in his stories. Would he do it now (and he did in his All Star Goddam Batman), everybody would agree that this is out of character but it just was not at that time.
@BransonHuggins said:
Batman shooting Darkseid, was slightly out of character, but at the same time, it fit. He was pushed to his limits, he realized at that point, that there are things bigger then his morals and beliefs, that at that point, this had to be done. If it wasn't the world was doomed. Batman did what he has always done, made a calculated decision, and made the best decision possible given the circumstances. Batman did what he had to do, to ensure that he saved the world. At the end of the day, what he did, cemented him as a hero above all others. He saved not only his friends, but the world, and the entire universe at that point. Batman did what needed to be done, for the greater good. Sometimes you have to make the hard decisions, not because it's the easiest one, but because it's the right one, and that's what he did.
I disagree. I do not think you should be looking at it this way. A writer should not put Batman in a position where he HAS to just use a gun or Superman HAS to kill. I am pretty sure Morrison knows that and this is why I do not think what he meant by it was just : "well, you've gotta do what you've gotta do". This is just not the way you are supposed to look at it.
Log in to comment