Would you kill the Joker?

[Klumpfot]

What if you don't kill him, but break him? Destroy his arms, legs and mouth and make him dependent on regular medical treatment. It'd be incredibly cruel, sure, but he'd live and he'd be almost entirely neutralized.

 

[clippen05]

Presented with the opportunity to potentially saves hundreds of lives by stopping his crimes for good, definitely. I wouldn't feel bad at all, its completely justified... I can't feel sympathy for a mass-murderer.

 

[RJ 17]

I'd say Batman's speech at the end of Arkham City pretty much sums up why he deserves to die. Granted, he apparently hasn't done anything to me personally, but "every decision (he) has ever made ends in suffering. People die, (Batman) catches him, and (he) just breaks out to do it again."

Mass bombings, mass poisonings, basically just mass terrorizing in general...I'd do Gotham (the city I'd clearly be living in) a favor and blow his fuckin' head off.

 

[White Lightning]

No, the Joker is funny, killing him would deprive the world of his hilarious shenanigans.

 

[Angelous Wang]

(On a related ish note, why do the police never kill the Joker? Not execute, but shoot him during a crime to save people in immediate danger, the way police carry firearms for? Of course, in reality it's because of DCs "killing is always wrong" thing, which is absurd)

I don't even think this is it, really. After all, Batman shot (and killed) Darkseid in Final Crisis.

I think it's simply because he's such an immensely popular character; I don't think it's a moral stance they're taking.

DC is very "killing is always wrong". Pretty much the only exceptions are Darkseid, Doomsday and Zod, and that just because they aliens that are far too powerful to stop any other way than killing.

If any "Hero" kills anyone in DC it's always a big thing, that has some deep impact on their personalty for some time.

Marvel on the other hand main characters like the Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine and Ironman killing humans (and aliens) all over the place. The only real non-killer is Spiderman.

 

[RJ 17]

There has never been an escape from a super-max prison.

Yeah, because Arkham Asylum is just a white-collar prison with a revolving door...

We're talking about a comic-book world here, my friend. There might not be any escapes from super-max prisons in reality, but the Joker doesn't exist in reality. He exists in a world where breaking out of a super-max prison is just something on his to-do list for Thursday.

Even if that meant risking Batman discovering my crime and throwing me in jail.

Batman can't send you to jail, he can only apprehend you and deliver you to the police. For that matter, if you surrender peacefully, he wouldn't even kick your ass before taking you in.

Besides that is the fact that I doubt there's a jury in the world that would convict you for killing Joker, considering almost every crime he commits equates to a 9/11-scale terrorist attack.

I know you said that ultimately you'd likely do it, I just wanted an excuse to make my point about no jury being willing to convict you for taking him out.

 

[Rylingo]

I'd kill him but I wouldn't enjoy it. Id just feel sad that someone would have gone so far that this was needed.

 

[hazabaza1]

Other than the reason Batman talks about in Under the Red Hood there's basically no point to not kill the fucker, if we're talking from a morality thing here and not a "let's keep him alive 'cos he's a crazy fucker and makes me laugh" thing.

 

[babinro]

Would I? Never.

I can't imagine any situation where I'd take a life.
Not to save my own...not even to save a child's.

That said, I'd be totally in favor or anyone else killing the Joker. He's had far to many chances for redemption and only lives to create misery and suffering in the world. People deserve a second chance to make things right...heck even a third or a fourth.

The Joker has had what? A thousand? Kill him already.

 

[Nurb]

There has never been an escape from a super-max prison.

Yeah, because Arkham Asylum is just a white-collar prison with a revolving door...

We're talking about a comic-book world here, my friend. There might not be any escapes from super-max prisons in reality, but the Joker doesn't exist in reality. He exists in a world where breaking out of a super-max prison is just something on his to-do list for Thursday.

If we're talking comic-book world here, then no one would be able to kill him.

Anyone like us normal shmucks pointing a gun at an essential character's head like the Joker always die in the comic book world. Usually being surprised by a trick up the joker's sleeve that ends up being a horrible death for the one with a gun. He wouldn't have himself in that situation to begin with.

Normal unknown people can't stand up to villians or heroes in the comic book world, so the hypothetical is impossible I'm afraid XD

 

[Flunk]

I'm not a DC comics character, so I would. It's the obvious solution to the problem and the Joker has killed thousands of people (both indirectly and occasionally directly).

The only problem is that since the Joker is a very popular DC comics character they would resurrect him shortly anyway.

 

[VonKlaw]

Considering I lack the physical and financial capability to become a tyrant if I killed him (whereas heroes like Superman and Batman could easily become that), I can safely say I would happily shoot him right in the face without a second thought.

 

[DefunctTheory]

What if you don't kill him, but break him? Destroy his arms, legs and mouth and make him dependent on regular medical treatment. It'd be incredibly cruel, sure, but he'd live and he'd be almost entirely neutralized.

Batman does this every. Single. Time. It's now canon (Or it was last time I checked. Hell if I know if its still valid) that Batman beats the Joker half to death most of the time, just to keep him in jail a little bit longer.

As for killing the joker...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JokerImmunity

 

[Atomic Spy Crab]

Yes I would so he cant cause anymore pain to citizens

 

[crimson sickle2]

If he was conscious, then I'd probably have to. If he's unconscious with no one around him, then I'm taking him alive (unless this takes place after/during one of his brain-jacking schemes, then he's dead). I don't really know what I'd do with him at that point, probably go outside of Gotham and turn him in, but I'm undecided how I'd stop more killing.

 

[bat32391]

If I had him in my sights, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot him. Monsters like him don't deserve to live. And since we are talking comic book world I'd make sure I found his body, then I'd burn that body to ashes, and then toss those ashes in a volcano, then I'd implode the volcano so no one can get to the lava where I dropped the ashes.

 

[Vegosiux]

Kill Joker? That's so quaint. I would be more devious. Much, much more devious. I would sic the man that even a crazy psycho like him fears at him.

Spoiler: The tax man!

Well, if his taxes checked out clean though, then I suppose I'd just make him wash and sentence him to a life of visiting a tailor every day to get an approved bland business suit to wear for the day, and use Bat-spray to make his face allergic to paint to the point when he'll look like Two-face if he tries it.

 

[frizzlebyte]

I don't think I would. Because to me, the Joker has always represented the failure of Gotham, not the failure of Batman. He's clearly insane, and clearly dangerous, but he's just a guy. He doesn't shoot lasers from his biceps or fart the Power Cosmic, he's a skinny dude in facepaint.

So, in a way to me, he's a test. If Gotham can deal with the Joker, then they deserve the safety that comes from it. If they can't, then it's pretty clear that he's just emblematic of a larger problem that Gotham can't deal with and needs to.

I'm tempted to agree with this. However, I wonder if the failure of Gotham's government to pass a symbolic test should be allowed to cause that much suffering for the citizens who have done nothing to truly deserve such endless, mindless suffering, other than perhaps not throwing their laughably ineffectual government into the sewer.

Ultimately, I'd pull the trigger. I'd feel bad about killing someone in cold blood, but not as bad as letting a whole bunch of innocent people die from not killing him.