I always thought Batman was someone who would never kill or maim anyone. How else, I wondered, is the homicidal maniac Joker still alive? After all, doesn't the Batman have a misplaced sense of self-righteousness!?
Turns out the Batman wasn't always like this. Recently came across the very first episode of the caped crusader's chronicles, The Case of the Chemical Syndicate, published in Detective Comics No. 27, May 1939.
A criminal by the name of Alfred Stryker attacks Batman, who in retaliation, punches him and the bald Stryker falls right into an acid tank. The Batman says "A fitting end for his kind" before disappearing into the darkness.
4 comments:
you actually of hold of the comic??? whoa! double-whoa!
as to Batman's ethics, in current continuity he has killed i think a couple of times. but very early - somewhere in the 60s (need to check my stock). anyways, he's always been a man of very ambiguous morals in that sense.
but if you count Batman Begins as Canon, then i remember he says as he leaves Ra's Al Ghul to die, " I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." And that's as ambiguous as it gets, one could argue both ways.
hey found a coupla links from the ye olde days of Batman:
http://www.asitecalledfred.com/comics101/images/2003/nov26/killing.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Ratso/batman_cossack.jpg
http://www.asitecalledfred.com/comics101/images/2004/jan21/strangling.jpg
Yep. Recently I too came across a couple of strips where he 'lets his victims die'.
Ambiguous morals indeed!
As for the comic, I got hold of one at a library near my place (Just Books). I also got the comic where the Joker makes his first appearance!
Hi, as you may already noticed I'm fresh here.
Hope to receive some help from you if I will have any quesitons.
Thanks in advance and good luck! :)
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