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this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2026
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The logic is about a battle of ideologies. When the villain, or the hero sometimes, says they'd be just as bad as what they're fighting, what they mean is that they're succumbing to their baser instincts, allowing "might makes right" to win out against the spirit of democracy. "Democracy" in their view, the author's I mean, is mostly about letting people coexist, and using only official channels to punish the most obscene offenders. The hero is rejecting "an eye for an eye," essentially, in favor of the perceived fairness of The Law.
This framing kind of doesn't work because we all know who the villains are. We all know the world would be better off without The Joker in it. And worse, letting him go through the prison system to get the outcome we all want for him anyway isn't really different from just shooting him yourself. It's marginally different, maybe; probably better than enabling a bunch of vigilantes. But even so, it is an action that merely defers the pulling of the trigger to the state. Someone will be pulling it regardless, because as we all know, the world would be better off without The Joker.
This framing about due process works a lot better with villains who are not The Joker because it leaves open the possibility that the law might not actually punish them, and that the vigilante hero is a bad person for trying to kill someone who does not actually deserve death.
Sorry, but I really like your explanation and am hoping that we can perhaps discuss a little bit more. Would this therefore be setting up the contrast between the "vigilante justice" dispensed by Batman and the Punisher?
If I understand correctly, yes. The idea is that the "just hand of the law" is a better executor of justice, even if it's the same justice, than "some guy" with "some guy's opinions" on things.
And to be clear, I don't think that view is without it's merrits, of course, I just think a lot of goodguy / badguy media really under explores it. Certainly they often ignore the view that good outcomes may sometimes be worth more than the process.
Also, I don't actually watch / read much Batman. I think there are times when his refusal to use guns is more about his personal adjacency to the crime of his city, and how he feels that if he indulges too much in the call to violence, that he would just become another mafia kingpin. In a literal sense, like as if he were an addict refusing a drug.
So what I'd take from that is Batman knows what he can become and also knows that since he's teetering on the edge, he absolutely has to hold to that one line. Otherwise he can no longer rationalize his actions/existence as "good".
The Punisher, in contrast, is 100% A-OK with being a villain and embraces it. He doesn't even try to rationalize his actions or existence and more or less sees himself as an inevitable consequence to circumstances.
I'd guess too that the real world is somewhere on between the two. Your take as well?
Well, it does depend on which particular Batman comic run and author we're talking about, but I have heard that this is sometimes the reason.
I probably consume even less Punisher, but my understanding is that he's sort of like if Batman did kill people. They're operating under the same moral framework. One that views The Law as civilizing and a world of Punishers as barbaric. Animalistic. A world of selfish kings fighting over the same throne.
This is different from what's being expressed in the OP. The OP rejects the idea that this act is barbaric at all and instead focuses on the outcomes. They and the villain can't be the same because they and the villain never do anything for the same reasons.
The villain in the OP has made billions suffer, and probably for money. But the hero is stopping the suffering, and because they like joy. The fact that they both kill, maybe, is immaterial. It doesn't actually matter.