Can the joker be killed without impunity?

Originally posted by Blair Wind
I've never understood the hero's defense against "no killing". I can most definitely understand no murder. Everyone should have the chance to be tried criminally (unless they are like Darksied and thus above human social constraints).

However, Law Enforcement officers can and do kill - not murder. There is a big difference between the two words. Murder implies there was a choice and that the person could have been taken in or that you did the death blow due to an emotional reason where another option was available.

Killing someone for the greater good is something that happens in the real world - and I think some of the heroes (I can see Wonder Woman being for this) need to realize this. In this case, there is no other option for Joker. If you take him in you realize this is only a temporary respite until he breaks free and kills again. Those lives are directly in your hands if he continues to live.

Batman might not want to kill Joker to keep his own hands relatively clean - but I don't see how he can get upset if someone else kills him. At this point, the Joker has been allowed so many chances that if Gotham were Texas, he'd be dead.

Several of the League are killers through and through. Aquaman has let sharks attack villains (defenceless ones too), and we all know that Barry and Diana have straight up murdered people.

The problem is twofold, imo: I'm not sure they'd believe Batman would stop at the Joker. Outside of Aquaman, most of the League have only killed when they were pushed that far. If Bruce gave in and finally killed Joker after years of holding back, they'd have to wonder what the hell changed.

Bruce himself said how easy it would be to just give in.

Second, those in the league that don't kill would want to bring him in.

I just can't see him killing Joker without there being a massive shift in the status quo.

Originally posted by Blight
I'm pretty sure that the point Deadline isn't quite grasping is that if Batman kills the Joker, he knows the Joker has won and Batman will never forgive himself.

Not sure you do. It may have been raised earlier but not when I was in discussion.

There have been several times in which Batman has struggled with the choice of killing the Joker, and almost every time, someone else has intervened (like Superman or Gordan or what have you). Batman is always enraged in these situations, usually due to Joker doing something extreme, so I have to wonder; if no one was there to stop him and batman did kill the Joker in a rage, would any of the other heroes really hold it against him? It was already mentioned that WW killed Lord to save Superman, and while people still looked down on her for doing it, they didn't take any action against her due to the situation. With Batman killing Darkseid, there really wasn't much else that could have been done there, if not Batman then someone else might have done the same thing (not to mention Batman "dies" right afterwards so no one can really complain). So given the right situation, wouldn't the league let it slide this one time? Sure, if he did again, like to Zsasz or Professor Pyg (he kills people right? I forget, he's crazy a shit though, that I know), then they would be like "ok, he kills now" and do what ever, but one Joker killing at the right time, I think they would let slide.