Summary
- Batman’s refusal to kill separates him from villains, says writer Grant Morrison.
- Morrison believes Batman’s no killing rule is essential to his psychology and character.
- Morrison argues that Zack Snyder’s idea of forcing Batman to kill would make him a villain, not a hero.
Acclaimed Batman writer Grant Morrison has fired back at the idea of Batman’s ‘no killing’ being something that holds the character back. In his recent newsletter, Morrison addresses the recent comments made by Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder, who believes that Batman should be forced into situations where he must kill. Morrison, whose best-known work for DC is his renowned seven-year Batman storyline, disagrees…
“I was reading how film director Zack Snyder thinks Batman should kill as part of the character’s self-imposed mission to stop crime…if Batman killed his enemies, he’d be the Joker, and Commissioner Gordon would have to lock him up!”
Feeling that killing would make The Dark Knight would simply make the superhero the same as the supervillains he fights, Morrison believes that not killing his enemies both separates Batman from the criminals and plays a crucial part in the character’s psychology.
“That Batman puts himself in danger every night but steadfastly refuses to murder is an essential element of the character’s magnificent, horrendous, childlike psychosis.”
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Morrison adds that not killing speaks to Batman’s code of honor, something that became a part of him from when he was a child and lost his parents in Crime Alley. According to the writer, Bruce Wayne never left this “childlike” state, explaining that this element is…
“[Not killing is] fundamental to (Batman’s) grandeur as a fictional adventure hero! Is this not obvious?”
Zack Snyder Thinks Batman’s ‘No Killing’ Rule Is Making Him Irrelevant
The “obvious” nature of this element of Batman is evidently something that Zack Snyder disputes. The divisive filmmaker recently explained his approach to the DC icon killing, believing that keeping the character’s ‘no killing’ rule threatens to make the DC icon “irrelevant.”
“People are always like Batman can’t kill, right? So Batman can’t kill is canon. And I’m like, ‘Okay, the first thing I want to do when you say that is I want to see what happens.’ And they go like, ‘Well, don’t put him in a situation where he has to kill someone.’ I’m like, ‘Well that’s just like you’re protecting your god in a weird way, right? You’re making your God irrelevant if he can’t be in that situation. He has to now deal with that. If he does do that what does that mean? What does it tell you? Does he stand up to it? Can he survive that, right, as a god, as your god. Can Batman survive that?”
While Snyder thinks that trapping Batman in scenarios in which he has to kill helps to explore the character and aligns with the director’s “deconstructivist point of view,” Morrison seemingly could not disagree more, believing that if Batman does cross the ultimate line, he ceases to become a heroic vigilante and is instead a villain.
So, who do you agree with when it comes to Batman’s ‘no killing’ rule?
