Zack Snyder has found himself in the hot seat over his recent comments about Batman killing which sees comic greats such as Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Dan Slott, and Graham Nolan respond.
Snyder recently appeared on the Jogan Rogan Experience and talked about how if Batman doesn’t kill that makes Batman irrelevant.
Snyder defended himself by using Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns as an example of Batman killing.
The comic shows a bad guy holding a gun to a little girl’s head where Snyder says Batman was forced to kill the bad guy to save the girl; however, the comic never shows Batman killing the bad guy, which arguably leaves it up to interpretation, which is what Miller probably intended.
Worth a mention is that Snyder also came under fire when he had Superman snap Zod’s neck in Man of Steel, with many fans arguing that Snyder doesn’t get superheroes.
Grant Morrison: “If Batman killed his enemies, he’d be the Joker”
Grant Morrison agrees with those fans and says, “If Batman killed his enemies, he’d be the Joker, and Commissioner Gordon would have to lock him up!”
“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,” wrote Morrison in his latest newsletter. “The line Bruce Wayne draws is a clear delineation between himself and his villains, and if Batman were to ever cross it, there would be no difference between them.”
Dan Slott: “He shot him. He didn’t kill him.”
Dan Slott goes so far as to say Batman never killed in Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and that Zack Snyder got it wrong.
Slott posted at length about the topic on Threads in separate posts:
He shot him. He didn’t kill him. The shock of that scene is that Batman finally used a gun, NOT that Batman killed someone. It’s confirmed later in the issue, on the news, that Batman has never taken a life. If he HAD killed the mutant/kidnapper, the entire plot with Commissioner Yindel near the end of the story would not work at all.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion/interpretation of any story they read. Totally cool.I’m just saying that, on a story level, the story falls apart and doesn’t make sense if the police believe Batman’s killed someone (ANYONE) before they believe he’s killed the Joker.
I think he’s excellent at recreating the surface visuals and looks of comics. And when stories have surfaces that line up with their subtext, he nails it (like the movie 300). But sometimes his personal take is at odds with the subtext, and you wind up with a movie that LOOKS like the comic but actually goes AGAINST the spirit of the comic.
He’s fictional and, to some, aspirational. Think of “finding a way without using guns and/or killing” as his super power.
Kids like Batman. It’s nice to have Batman be someone who never kills or uses a gun. Could that kind of character function in the “real world”? When you reach THAT point of examining the character, things like “Where would he park the Batmobile?” and “How can he still be pretty boy, Bruce Wayne, while getting a million stitches everywhere?”– all of that falls apart too. It’s okay to have the character be “unrealistic” and have that never-kills/never-uses-guns part of his character locked in.
Sticking to a code where he doesn’t kill makes him a stronger character, not a weaker one. Especially when killing is the easier choice.
Heroes can kill. Superheroes don’t.
Graham Nolan, the co-creator of Batman villain Bane, and comic heavyweight Mark Millar blasted Snyder on Twitter:
Batman debate:
— Millarworld (@mrmarkmillar) March 14, 2024
Heroes can kill.
Superheroes DON'T.
That's the difference between Bond/ Captain Kirk and Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, etc. It's not just the costumes.
One of the most ignorant quotes about Batman I’ve ever heard. It also explains the stupid death of Pa Kent and Superman having to kill Zod in MOS.
— Graham Nolan 🇺🇸 (@gnolan12) March 8, 2024
Dude doesn’t understand the core of the characters. https://t.co/LnrnLnAAps
