I guess Batman's no killing rule only counts for humans

[iamrman]

3 pages from Detective Comics #484.

Batman is caught in a deathtrap by Maxie Zeus.

Comments

[cyberghostface]

I don’t think he had any other choice in this context and even here it’s clearly something he does not want to do.

[beeyo]

He still does it though. Oh no, it's cool to go out of your way to save a murder clown or a guy with a half-a-face after they kill countless people, that's fine. But a few innocent puppies? He had no choice. I'm sure he feels super bad about it too, probably has a butler or something he can go home to that will tell him it's alright and then the next night he's back out saving the lives of drug addicted Luchadors and vegetable enthusiasts and the like. Good thing none of his villians have pets OH WAIT when was the last time anyone saw Harley's hyenas?

#BatmanHatesAnimals

[cyberghostface]

I get that you’re being sarcastic but idg why people want to see Batman killing mentally ill people, one whom was a close friend of his. He’s not the Punisher.

[cainofdreaming]

Well, good thing that Maxie Zeus had conditioned his killer canines to start their agility run the moment they saw a tilted surface. Well, good for Bruce. Less for the dogs.

[lordultimus]

I seem to recall Bruce telling Grodd that he doesn't include gorillas in his code against killing.

[iamrman]

I remember various Ratcatcher stories where Batman has little problem with immolating/drowning/electrocuting all the rats.

[zachbeacon]

Oh, I really don’t like that.

Especially when those animals have human levels of intelligence, can speak, and are closely related to us.

At that point I feel like you can always get around the no killing rule by how you define “human”.

Killer Croc has long since gone from “guy with skin condition” to “lizard man”. Biologically speaking, I’m not sure Poison Ivy is human anymore. Heck, I’m not sure “biology” is a term that applies to Clayface anymore.

Cro-Magnons are humans but I’m sure someone with a “no killing humans” code could rationalize killing Vandal Savage (not that Its likely to stick).

(Also not a big fan of "its okay for Superman to kill aliens". What do those people think Clark is?)

[leahandillyana]

Batman has no problem with killing 100% biologically human characters when they are foreign enough.

[iamrman]

Agreed. For instance, take a previous post of mine where Batman caused a fireign diplomat to fall out of a window to his death. Later in the issue, Batman crashed a car into terrorists that the diplomat was financing and detonated the bomb they were carrying.

[cyberghostface]

If you mean this…

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/9727384.html

It’s clearly accidental as he’s trying to stop someone from cutting his throat. Even then he’s reaching out and trying to grab the guy from falling.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, that isn't even some Christopher Nolan "I won't kill you but I don't have to save you" nonsense*. He's responsible for the death but it was clearly an accident and he would have saved the guy if he could.

*See also: "I don't use guns except when I mount them on all my vehicles"

[cyberghostface]

Can you elaborate?

[leahandillyana]

There's a lot of Batman explicitly killing foreign opponents. Even discounting golden era comics where the creators didn't seem to consider Chinese/ Mongolian/ Japanese enemies human enough to count, in early post-Crisis years Batman killed a lot of people, most notable example that comes to mind in KGBeast in Ten Nights of the Beast storyline (the latter retcon that he survived is not supported by the story itself). In general, foreign characters were much more likely to die in this era of comics than American ones.

[cyberghostface]

Batman locking someone in a room is not killing them. And as you said it was later revealed be had called the police hours later. Even if it’s a retcon the original is still open ended.

[janegray]

Can't say I have a problem with this. Presumably, Batman eats pork, and pigs are smarter than dogs.

Killing animals for sport is unacceptable, but killing animals in self-defense is not really different than killing animals for food.

[nyadnar17]

This is pretty well established.

Aliens, demons, undead, etc.

If you aren't human Batman really doesn't have a problem offing you. Which if it were anyone would be problematic but Batman has admitted his unwillingness to kill Humans has more to do with mental instability than morals. If he could kill humans and stay sane he totally would.

[lego_joker]

I was just thinking about this scene yesterday!

Partly for the dog-killing, but mostly for that last panel. I made a guess-the-villain game of it back in the day by cropping out the top thought balloon, and to this day I still find it the silliest bit of villain-shilling DC ever did.

[timefire]

Now I'm wondering, what is Batman's relationship with other heroes in this period of DC comics like? Because it'd be extra hilarious if "He's as dangerous as the Joker! As Ra's al Ghul! I'll just ring up Wonder Woman on my League communicator after all Greek gods is her turf" is an option on the table here.

[zachbeacon]

I really don't think they should be giving "Zeus" that kind of validation.

Wonder Woman acknowledging this guy in any way just seems like a bad idea.

[shakalooloo]

Well, only in hindsight. Had Maxie gone on to be used more in stories with a bigger role after this issue, Batman would have been proven correct. Alas...

[windleopard2]

This seems to be the case quite often with the no killing rule. Superman has killed non-humans a number of times and the only time he felt bad about it was when he killed the Kryptonians, who look human.