Burton's Batman didn't kill anyone.

[Fresh Prince]

He killed Joker, and Penguin's clown goon.

 

[Jokey]

He killed Joker, and Penguin's clown goon.

He also blew up Axis Chemicals. A lot of thugs would have bought it there. He shot dead goons with the Batwing miniguns. He threw that African thug plummeting down the bell shaft. He toasted the fire breather. He 'sploded the strongman.

These deceased fellows were not saints. They were bad. So, the moral of the story? Don't be bad.

When Bruce finds out The Joker is the killer of his parents, the gloves are well and truly off. That's the precise moment he changed his crime fighting method. We never see Batman intentionally take a life until after he realizes that the Joker is the killer of his parents. After that, all bets are off.

Yes, Batman did kill in Batman Returns, but you can't expect him to be instantly at peace the second The Joker died. He was locked into that vengeful mindset; switching it off was not an easy thing to do. It takes time. Pain like that doesn't go away overnight. Bruce wasn't entirely aware of his downward spiral and he slowly became more and more detached and reclusive than he already was. Batman landing in the Penguin's hideout and declaring that Shreck is going to prison is not hypocrisy, it's Batman at least attempting to reclaim his sense of law and order (rather than pure justice).

 

[Fresh Prince]

Bottom line is he killed...Two wrongs do not make a right.

 

[cryptic name]

He killed Joker, and Penguin's clown goon.

he definitely killed people, but he didn't kill the joker. gotham neglecting to maintain its cathedrals killed the joker.

 

[El Payaso]

Bottom line is he killed...Two wrongs do not make a right.

Yes they do. Kill a killer a he won't kill anymore.

he definitely killed people, but he didn't kill the joker. gotham neglecting to maintain its cathedrals killed the joker.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Tim Burton's Batman films have a surreal German expressionistic/Gothic/film noir look with dark, moody ominous shadows and strange looking buildings, as did the early Batman comics, but not surrealistic like Eraserhead with the Lady in the Radiator dream sequences and there is nothing supernatural in the Burton Batman films. Of course Batman killed people. That's not even disputable. The killings where not accidents. He blew up the circus strong man in the street with the bomb.
He shot the Joker's gang with rocket launcers.
He also killed many of Joker's gang when he blew up Axis Chemicals with the explosive from the Batmobile.
He dropped the man from the top of the Cathedral.
He also burned a man with the flames from the Batmobile's jet engine which might have killed him as well.
He is responsible for the Joker's death scene by attaching the gargoyle statue on top of the crumbling old Cathedral to Joker's leg. As Joker tries to climb the helicopter ladder the gargoyle statue comes off the Cathedral. Joker struggles to hold on to the helicopter ladder but looses his grip because of the weight of the statue and plummets. I'm certain that if Warners let Tim Burton continue making Batman movies Joker would have returned eventually. In an interview with E! in '01 Jack Nicholson said "Baby, I've promoted it endless times. I've got the title. I wrote the scene. I know how to bring him back to life. They're hung up on: I died in the first picture. Are they kidding?" And Tim Burton said in his commentary on the Batman DVD "The weird thing is with the Joker, not that he's Freddy Krueger or Jason from Friday the 13th, but there's always a way especially with a character like the Joker, you know, that it was all just some big joke."
He is also responsible for the Penguin's death scene by having his bats attack Penguin causing him to back up and crash inside the Arctic display down to the water and bleed profusely. As with the Joker, if Warners let Tim Burton continue making Batman movies Penguin might have returned eventually. The influence for Penguin's death scene was the classic monster movies and at the end of every classic Universal Frankenstein movie the monster had a death scene and then in the next film we learn how he somehow comes back. On the Batman Returns DVD commentary Tim Burton said "For me, I like the prolonged tragic death. And monsters deaths, in the history of monster movies the monsters death is one of the big points of the movie." And Danny Elfman said "My favorite Penguin scene is when he dies because that goes right back to day one with Frankenstein and all these classic monsters and there in the final moments your feeling sorry for this poor thing because he just is what he is. It goes right back to the '30s for me and I just loved it." Danny DeVito said "I always thought that we should take Oswald to Vegas. Big room, write some good material for him. Have him eat some raw fish. Bring people up from the audience. 'Bring 'em up! You!' It's a fun character."
Sam Hamm and Tim Burton stated that they were influenced by the original Batman comics. Bob Kane himself was even brought in as a film consultant.
Batman in the original comics by his creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane killed people.

The reason the killings stopped in the comics is because editor Whitney Ellsworth created a Editorial Advisory Board in 1941 to try to make Batman and the other superheroes and villains as wholesome and tame as possible to protect DC from the growing criticisms of comic books in the 1940s and 1950s by Sterling North, Fredric Wertham, Greshon Legman, and the U.S. Senate which lead to the 1954 Comics Code Authority forcing E.C., Gleason, Fox, Fiction House and Quality out of business. Links that talk about the Editorial Advisory Board:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/Hist2.html
http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/exhibit1/dc.shtml
These book excepts are from Comic Book Nation by Bradford W. Wright about the Editorial Advisory Board DC had:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4559/batman1249510740books00.png
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3098/batman1249510538books.png
And the effect on Batman:
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4046/batman1249510850books.png
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7711/batman1249510914books00.png

Bob Kane said in his autobiography Batman & Me, "The editors placed increasing limitations on what Bill and I could do. We had our first brush with censorship over Batman's use of a gun in Batman #1. In one story in this issue he had a machine gun mounted on his plane and used it. Bill wrote that story; not I. It was his idea. It was inspired by the Shadow pulps in which the hero used two blazing forty-fives. We didn't think anything was wrong with Batman carrying a gun because the Shadow used guns. Bill was called on the carpet by Whit Ellsworth. He said, 'Never let Batman carry a gun again.' The editors thought making Batman a 'murderer' would taint his character and mothers would object. The new editorial policy was to get away from Batman's vigilantism and to bring him over to the side of the law. The whole moral climate changed after the 1940-1941 period when Batman #1 appeared; you couldn't kill or shoot villains anymore. In fact, the story resulted in DC preparing it's own comics code which every artist and writer had to follow. It forbade any whippings, hangings, or sexual references. Even the word 'flick' was forbidden because the lettering (all in block capitals) might run together."

And Batman stopped killing in the movies because Warners wouldn't let Sam Hamm, Daniel Waters and Tim Burton make anymore Batman movies. They wanted to try to make Batman and the villains wholesome and tame to appeal to kids and conservative parents and sell merchandise, Batman Happy Meals and cups from McDonald's, and protect the franchise from the growing criticisms that Batman and Batman Returns are unsuitable for children.

 

[theMan-Bat]

I think the Burton films intentially left some ambiguity about people dying at Batman's hand.

Whether Batman decided to drop Jack Napier into the chemicals or he lost his grip was left ambiguous but it's obvious that Batman killed people, they just didn't show it in extreme gory detail.

I certainly wouldn't use the term "murder" to describe what Batman did in any of the movies. Killing in self defense or the defense of others is not murder.

Exactly. Killing someone who's trying to kill you and/or other people is not murder.

 

[Rodrigo90]

There is the evidence. He accidentally killed Joker. He pulled that big dude down the hole with his legs (AWESOME THAT WAS). He blew up the fatman. He "killed" Catwoman.

ARREST HIM OFFICORS!!!

 

[Two-Face]

It was no accidental Batman killed Joker, he knew what would happen....

 

[El Payaso]

It was no accidental Batman killed Joker, he knew what would happen....

No. Joker could have jumped back to the cathedral. Or just let the rope ladder go and hit himself against the cathedral but saving the neck. But no one could have predicted that the garghoyle was going to crack.

Now, not only had Batman told the Joker he was going to kill him but he also punched him off the cathedral. Joker saved himself just by luck.

 

[Rodrigo90]

Also he killed several people in the Axis Chemical Factory when he blew it up.

 

[El Payaso]

Also he killed several people in the Axis Chemical Factory when he blew it up.

Several criminals you mean.

 

[The Joker]

Several criminals you mean.

Criminals aren't people?

 

[Infinity9999x]

Yes they do. Kill a killer a he won't kill anymore.

Well, now you're getting into a moral issue, and that's where the gray area begins to come in. If you believe in god, and salvation and all that jazz, then killing someone would be taking away their chance at saving themselves.

There's lots of other arguments, but personally, I've never thought it's quite that simple.

 

[El Payaso]

Criminals aren't people?

Not just people but "people who kill people." Saying they're just "people" distorts what they really care, as it make it sounds like they're just like any other person.

Well, now you're getting into a moral issue, and that's where the gray area begins to come in. If you believe in god, and salvation and all that jazz, then killing someone would be taking away their chance at saving themselves.

There's lots of other arguments, but personally, I've never thought it's quite that simple.

As far as I know, Batman never prays.

That said, it could be seen as a moral issue or simply as facts; a killer who's dead can't keep killing. If Batman is going to fight crime with tolerance then he will allow killers to keep taking innocent lives. In fact Joe Chill was benefitted with tolerance and released in BB. Maybe he was benefitted with tolerance even before killing Bruce's parents. Another tragedy which could have been avoided.

 

[Fresh Prince]

Batman did not even beleive in God I think and he did not pray.

 

[El Payaso]

I read some comic where he says he has never prayed since "that night."

 

[Jokey]

killing someone would be taking away their chance at saving themselves.

The bad guys in Gotham City are never going to change. They're bad to the bone. I find it funny that Batman wants his crusade to end, yet he keeps lettinng the culprits walk away alive. That isn't stopping his crusade, it's prolonging it.

 

[The Joker]

The bad guys in Gotham City are never going to change. They're bad to the bone. I find it funny that Batman wants his crusade to end, yet he keeps lettinng the culprits walk away alive. That isn't stopping his crusade, it's prolonging it.

So you believe all superheros should murder the criminals?

 

[lzzy]

Maybe the extreme ones. You see what the Joker's done throughout the series of the comics and wonder why Batman hasn't at least crippled him (TDKR's notwithstanding). Especially in the one-shot where he skinned a guy, raped a woman and murdered an old couple. Of course, killing Joker would take him out of the comics, which nobody would want, but should Batman even entertain the thought?

 

[returntovoid]

I find it funny that Batman wants his crusade to end, yet he keeps lettinng the culprits walk away alive.

The comics are not self-contained like movies, thus the writers never kill the villains. So, there can be recurring villains.

 

[TheBatman072]

Batman did not even beleive in God I think and he did not pray.

Batman believes in a being that may or may not be God.

He'd have to. What with guys like Blue Devil and Etrigan walking around.

 

[The Joker]

but should Batman even entertain the thought?

Yes, and he does every single day. He admitted that to Jason Todd when Jason confronted him over not avenging his death at the hands of the Joker.

But Batman will not kill anyone whether they deserve it or not.

 

[Fresh Prince]

The bad guys in Gotham City are never going to change. They're bad to the bone. I find it funny that Batman wants his crusade to end, yet he keeps lettinng the culprits walk away alive. That isn't stopping his crusade, it's prolonging it.

Well he does not wanna kill cause then he wil a killer himself.....Plus fighting crime gives him purpose in life.

 

[Jokey]

The comics are not self-contained like movies, thus the writers never kill the villains. So, there can be recurring villains.

Obviously. I said this a page back. I'm just saying that I find Keaton's Batman more realistic. The Batman persona would dominate your life and such.