Thou Shalt Not Kill...Unless You're a Superhero

One of the more distasteful recent trends in the DC Universe is heroes killing with impunity. Oh, sure, there's always some excuse: they were justified, they were controlled, yada yada yada.

First, we had Hal Jordan, as Green Lantern, go genocidal. He killed a lot of folks, murdered most of the Green Lantern Corps. Oh, but you see, he was really controlled by some parasitic entity, you see, so it's OK. Oh, and he later sacrificed himself to save the Earth, and became the Spectre, and served his penance...so he's all forgiven.

Then we had Wonder Woman. Maxwell Lord had gone rogue, and had the ability to control Superman. So what does Princess Diana do? She snaps his neck.

Now she does this despite the fact that:

a) there are multiple villains in the DC Universe who have the power to possess people, and apparently there are non-murderous ways to detain/capture/imprison them;

b) we had just finished the whole Identity Crisis storyline that hammered into us that Zatanna could brainwash criminals to forget secret identities and forget how to properly use their powers and even reform them into good guys;

and c) Maxwell Lord used to be seen as one of the good guys.

Does she even momentarily consider any of this? Nope. She summarily executes him. Snap.

Eventually, of course, because she's a "hero," the World Court and a US federal grand jury give her a pass. Scooter Libbey wishes he could find a grand jury that forgiving. Even the other heroes don't see fit to even mention it any more. Heck, Batman still distrusts Zatanna more than Wonder Woman, so apparently he's more forgiving of cold-blooded execution than of brain-washing. I hope he remembers that next time he has a choice of going after either the Mad Hatter or the Joker...

And then we have Jason Todd, the former Robin. He died. I remember, because we voted on it. (By the way, is anyone interested in joining my class action suit against DC, for violating their promise to abide by our 1-900 votes? I want my 50¢ back!). Then, in a series of events so non-sensical it defies description, he came back to life. Except now he's mean.

First as the Red Hood, then as faux-Nightwing, he killed criminals. Executed them. Murdered them. Slit their throats. Remember that, DC?

But now, after a silly adventure with the real Nightwing, he's all better. And somehow it was all the fault of a Lazarus Pit. Oh joy.

But despite the fact that he's a killer, Batman hasn't hunted him down, Superman is helping Jimmy Olsen get interviews with him, and now he's a prime player in the ridiculously poorly conceived and written Countdown. Donna Troy's hanging with him like everything's cool (well, I guess because she's SOME relation to Wonder Woman--who knows what these days--she's forgiving of executing criminals). The whole DC Universe will just pretend nothing ever happened.

Look, I've got nothing against Punisher/Death Wish type characters. There's plenty of room for them in any universe. But the Powers That Be at DC are trying to do it cheaply, and have it both ways. They want the grit and glamour from one of their heroes going rogue, but then wuss out worse than having Bobby Ewing turn up in the shower. There are no consequences, no lingering fallout, no serious stories resulting from having their Stars go bad. They haven't the balls to actually show one of their heroes going to jail, or turning permanently bad, so they rush out some lame rationale, and everyone forgives them. Families of people killed by rogue heroes need no justice, and once the heroes are "restored" it's like the murders are erased from the books.

You know, the wrong company had the Civil War: if any universe needs the government to register their out-of-control heroes, it's DC. At least that would keep their editors/authors from reaching for the same stale storyline one more time. But just watch: Hawkman will kill someone, but then it will turn out he was influenced by alien-toe-fungus, and two months later all will be forgiven. This is what passes for adult story-telling at DC these days.