Poll: If you were a superhero would you kill criminals?

[space_oddity]

Alot of people here use the word 'criminal' like committing a crime removes you from society at large. As if the moment you break any of a societies rules you suddenly are a lower form of being, subhuman. There is no Black and White, no Good and Evil, just a lot of people and their choices.

Personally i would kill indescribably because i think everyone deserves to die equally, criminal or otherwise, but then again i just watched Sweeny Todd so my respect for the human condition isnt that high right now.

I promise im usually a nice guy.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

How do you plan to stop an armed robber without violence? At what point do you stopping being a hero and a villain for you? Vigilantes are confronted with hypocrisy daily. A vigilante is illegal because of the acts they do (assault, breaking and entering, robbery etc.) Are you truly better than the people you attempting to stop only because you seek justice or do you deserve to go to prison when everything is finished?

If you have to be more violent than the criminal then that is too far. It's not something that can easily be lain in stone, it is a matter of sense. The exercise of Duty, Strength, Clemency and Wisdom. A true superhero's actions may be technically illegal but they are not immoral. In fact Batman and Superman have both been respectively deputised in various times.

The key thing is that a superhero is not jury. He may physically stop and incidence or put a person in custody but he must leave the sentencing up to the police, those legally entrusted with the right to collect legal evidence. It is a thin line but one that must be walked.

Because it is difficult does not make it not worth seeking.

A problem with mobs, a major source of crime in the US, is they are very careful with what they do, so evidence is hard to get. And their swanky lawyers will claim that all evidence the superhero gathers to be gained illegally and without a warrant and cannot be used in court. The same occurs for drug cartels, no one wants to touch them. How would you handle this problem?

Exactly, especially since Mobs are part of the establishment they are as much a part of government as a Senator they have infiltrated and dug themselves in better then an Alabama Tick. The only way is to wage an "illegal war" on organized crime and that means you have to resort to vigilantism because the system is broken in fact the US gov't has gotten itself implicated in drug smuggling before which became a big deal during the Contra Affair but they sacrificed Oliver North in order to distant the suits involved in it. Not only are you going to have to kill every wiseguy asshole with a gun but every politician who gets in the way.

 

[Zeromaxx]

What about, "Yes, indiscriminately?"

^ That would've been my vote.

 

[axia777]

I would kill repeat murders, rapists, child molesters, and other violent offenders. Drug dealers can be left off the list because I think all drugs should be legalized. I would just kick the crap out of robbers and other petty offenders to scare the crap out of them. Killing them is just over the top.

 

[ianuam]

Kill only in order to save a life. Would have to be the absolute last resort, with no other options available. In any case, although i'd do it, it would still be a terrible thing to do, that person could have reformed.

 

[Xvito]

If I was "super" I probably wouldn't be a hero...

 

[Theophenes]

I would have to argue that I would be neither the "tough guy" or the "paragon of virtue." I'm closer to Flash, Spidey and Plastic man.

I would not be prone to killing. However, I would be prone to destruction and disabling of major threats (organized crime groups, weapons dealers, etc.), however, I would also be severely interested in defamation. Organized crime, both politically motivated terrorism and financially motivated racketeering, is dependent on reputation. And when the police find them covered in silly string and cry like five-year-olds, they're out of the business.

Just remember, Dr. Doom's worst defeat was not at the hands of the Fantastic Four, or the Avengers. It was when Squirrel Girl told Jimmy to go for the nuts. All I'm saying is, these people want to be taken seriously. I would not give them that satisfaction.

 

[Easykill]

No. I'm not the type to protect society and hunt criminals anyway, I don't like to judge people and society is overrated, but I guess I might take some matters into my own hands. There's no way in hell I'm going to kill someone over it though.

 

[Mezrin]

I merely wouldn't end the life of anyone. Because if I take a life, I'm going to feel like I have the right to do anything. I'm going to become hardened to it after awhile, and start randomly slamming the head off of a pickpocket child trying to survive.

But more importantly, if I go around killing all willy-nilly, yes it will stop the crime or at least dramatically lower the crime-rate, but everyone will become dependent on me, and stop working hard because they just figure "Oh, Captain K will handle it."

That's my point of view.

 

[TheSear]

Yes, I most certainly would kill criminals, and a hell of a lot of them at that

 

[Clampdown79]

Only the lowest of the lows. Serial killers, rapists ect:. I wouldn't kill a regular dumb thug who tried to steal a TV or something stupid like that.

 

[RyantheLion]

I was watching a movie last night called "Running Scared" in it there was a scene where a woman discovered a couple who were torturing, raping, and then killing kids. I can't think of any reason to let someone like that keep on living but at the same time its not my place to decide who lives or dies I would have to say that I would kill the killers and rapists and drug dealers but I don't think it would be right.

 

[Silver]

No. No. I wouldn't kill anyone. I believe every criminal has a responsability to repay their debt to society. Killing them off might solve any further damage they might cause in the future, but it also means it's up to us, the innocent, to repair the damage they've already done.

So no, I wouldn't kill anyone, no matter how horrible their crime was, and NOT out of the goodness of my heart. They have a debt to pay.

Killing someone doesn't teach that person anything, and not much to other people. Breaking every single bone in someone's body, sticking a life-support system in them, and hanging them up from the Manhattan bridge, that's going to teach criminals what'll really happen to them. Of course, I wouldn't go that far, they're not doing much good up there, but if someone tried to hurt anyone I cared about (and I care about a lot of people) it would bloody hurt, and they'd know not to do it again. That also goes for repeat offenders, escaping multiple times.

 

[Mnemophage]

Well, first off, if I was invulnerable and could kill people with my eyes, then I definitely wouldn't be classed as a hero. It's hard enough to avoid going mad with what little power I already have, any more would just make me intolerable.

But, providing I suffered a blow to the head or something and decided to stop fucking with my fellow man, I would not discount killing as an option. When you are dealing very literally with the lives of other people, the details of the situation become terrifically important. If I don't have the time to make a cleaner decision or there is no other choice to be made, then I would kill, and likely I wouldn't hold myself in contempt for such an act. Of course, given what I know of myself, an inch would become a mile and it wouldn't be very long before I'd be beheading anyone who mildly inconvenienced me.

The tao of manslaughter. Which would be an awesome band name.

 

[Elim Garak]

I've read an opinion on Batman's thing in one book (sci-fi, separate from anything). Batman is in many ways a nutcase. What he should do is buy off all of the politicians in the city (and/or country), institute a bunch of 3-strikes laws, as well as invest many times over in security for the prisons.

I mean, how many times has Joker escaped from Arkham? 20? 50? 100? With mass murderers like him (insane or no) there are two options - you either lock him a way and make sure he stays locked away, or you execute him. Otherwise you are effectively saying that the life of Joker - the mass murdering psychopath that he is - is more important than all of his other victims, the society, and so on.

At some point you've got to draw the line - if you can't guarantee that a guy is going to stay in jail, then after the first 50 kills there should be a shoot on sight and/or execute order. "To be brought in dead or alive - preferably dead. Reward: 5 million." I mean one of the Gotham commissioners put out such a shoot-on-sight order against Batman after the War Games storyline - but not against Joker? Or Two-face? Or Dr. Freeze? (Don't ask - I've been reading the last 20 years of the bat-universe for the past month.)

The reward would also keep Dathstroke and Cayne out of trouble too. Plus it would make sure that every other super villain would either keep his head down or go after the bounty himself.

 

[Elim Garak]

Or the "Goddamn Batman"? How could you forget the "goddamn batman."

Have I mentioned how much I hate the Frank Millar take on Batman? I much prefer him as a hero, not a macho douchebag. That's what we have The Punisher for... and you're not exactly supposed to "like" The Punisher, you're just supposed to understand why he does what he does.

You kidding? The Goddamn Batman is the best Batman out there! I love both versions of him - young and old. He is a hero - its just that in a failed society he has no other choice. The old one is way less brutal than the young one, BTW - the old one didn't kill anybody - just hurt them, badly.

 

[Elim Garak]

A friend made an interesting comment about super man. He should join the police and put on disguises to make him look like an overweight, black, or possible female police officer. That way the criminals never realy know if they are facing a normal police officer or superman in a disguise. Crime would plumit as the criminals would have to assume that every beat cop could very well be a super powered jugernaut.

I don't think it would work - especially in the DC universe. Superman and/or fear doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent there.

 

[rossatdi]

Say you were your standard superman-lite superhero. Strong, resilient, able to fly and used it all to fight crime; how far would you take the law into your own hands?

Are you the Aristotelian morally excellent Guardian that can make the life and death choices to make a better world?

Many of the X-men are quite happy to slaughter generic mooks, Wolverine's tally in X-men 2 was certainly quite high. Is it right to kill people attacking you?

Iron Man is basically a one man lethal war against terrorists.

Batman won't kill because he doesn't believe he has the right.

Superman won't kill because its wrong.

EDIT: Or the mentalist Frank Castle/The Punisher approach. Although most other heroes won't work with him/can't stand him. If Captain America & The Batman hate the guy, you know he's a dick.

Where do you stand? (And maybe back it up!)

I personally would side with Batman, as soon as you take a life you become 'judge, jury and executioner', that is not a position I could morally hold without corruption. On the other hand, someone probably ought to put down The Joker, why not you?

Ah yes, one of the people I reported for failing to see the others valid points in AntiThoms: "Forget the Zombie Apocalypse" thread.

As for this thread, 1) You got this idea from Watchmen, specifically "Rorschach" didn't you? 2) To honor the loveable right-wing sociopath known as "Rorschach" I'd have to go with killing criminals indiscriminantly, ranging from your blue-collar purse-snatchers, to you crimelords/rapists.

P.S. I'd also do it because I'd absorb their bodies to gain their knowledge and understand why they thought doing terrible things was ok because I'd be "Alex Mercer" from "Prototype."

Just because you report people doesn't mean theres any validity in your accusations. So ease up there partner. No one said you were allowed to choose your powers, the brief says standard generic superman-lite style character.

Reassuring, also, that someone who "reported [me] for failing to see the others valid points" would kill criminals indiscriminately. Way to see the other side of the coin there punchy.

I'm not sure if your intention is to make everything you post sound like a personal attack but it certainly is the way it reads. Yes I have read Watchmen, yes I've read Kingdom Come (which deals with it far more specifically), yes I've also read a good deal of comics. No this is not specifically aimed at Rorschach (who for clarity's sake did not kill indiscriminately, he killed a handful of the worst offenders, not something I'm condoning). This thread is asking people how they would tackle criminals if they had superpowers (which of course Rorschach lacked).

The thread has also turned out far more depressing than I had thought seeing as apparently every and their mum would be ready to murder at the drop of a hat the moment they had the strength to get away from it. Woo, go society.