Thinking Out Loud: Murder Hobos

Should Superheroes kill? It's a question about as old as the genre, and one that has no simple answer. In the Golden Age, heroes killed bad guys all the time, often deliberately, with only popular recurring villains escaping to fight another day. The introduction of the Comics Code Authority changed this, with heroes now more likely to round up evildoers and drop them off to the police than drop them off buildings. Now that comics have a rating system, and not to mention multimedia productions that are way more popular than the comics themselves, superheroes are free to do just about anything in terms of violence and murder, and some certainly do. I'm never sure how much I like the idea of a superhero killing a villain, as murder just really is never heroic; however, I do recognise that the ideas that can be explored here are deeper than a first year Ethics class. First up, I'd like to say that characters who utterly refuse to kill, like Batman and Spider-man are hugely important to the genre, despite some limitations that we'll discuss below, because they are intended to be aspirational, and not hurting other human beings is very aspirational in my eyes. 

Of course, Batman is a bit of problem in that regard, as he's ethically pretty terrible aside from the unwillingness to murder, but that's an issue for another time and article. Let's look at Spider-man instead, as his morals are a little more realistic. Although Spider-man doesn't kill, there has been a couple of notable times where he has caused a death through his own actions (not just Gwen Stacy), I'm thinking Norman Osborn and Morlun, both of which left him pretty wracked with guilt for a while, even if those deaths were the only way for Peter to save his own life at the time. What I'm saying is I'm ok with a superhero killing someone if they have to, so long as there's consequences, be they legal, social or psychological. This is something the better Captain America comics and Invincible do well, having a character who can kill, and has in the past, but will only do so when there is no way to get a better outcome, or save more lives. Cap killed Nazis in the war, but that was then and this is now, and now he can knock out a room of AIM guys without killing them, so why take that step? The journey of killing and coming back is portrayed brilliantly in Invincible as well, with Invincible eventually no longer wanting to kill anyone, but knowing that only he has the power to finally end the threat of Thragg. 

The MCU is a bit disappointing on this score in a few places, with Iron Man blasting away indiscriminately and Hawkeye being an accomplished murderer even before the opening credits roll on The Avengers. Again, when Thanos is attacking Wakanda, I don't mind so much that Cap beating down Outriders with no concern for their wellbeing, but at lot of Hydra goons get arrows and repulsor blasts to the face in the opening of Age of Ultron. The MCU Spider-man is managing pretty well, getting hurt in his first solo outing saving the Vulture's life and only killing Mysterio by accident in Far From Home. Let's not even talk about the DCEU, except to mention that Wonder Woman killing during a war is fine by me, she is an Amazon warrior after all, and I'm also in the camp that thinks it wasn't out of character when she snapped Maxwell Lord's neck to prevent more deaths either. When I run superhero games, I try to engender an idea that the heroes aren't killing everything in their paths, just to make things easier; they're the heroes after all. What about characters like The Punisher, I hear you ask? Well, he's not really a superhero though, is he? Frank Castle is a vigilante and only separate from the killers he hunts through his intent and level of competency. Also, in a Supers RPG, I'd be loath to let a player create a character like The Punisher, as he really belongs in a different game.