Well...if they did kill their enemies, there really wouldn't be stories to be told, no reason to have monthly issues if all the bad guys are dead and buried.

But, for the mythology...they're supposed to be aspirations. They're supposed to be these idealized fictional characters that are half steeped in a world similar to ours, but ones we can aspire to be like. It's kinda like Star Trek, but rather than an entire setting, it's condensed into the morality and idealized aspects of a character.

But, I mean...it's a complicated answer that mixed between tradition, mythology, what a superhero is supposed to symbolize, and good old business that keeps the wheels greased and rolling.

Plus you need some moral high ground as a superhero.

@golguin: Perfect guise to keep the same small cast of strong villains they rely on.
If batman was the punisher he would kill of all the interesting villains and what would we be left with!
I mean I would agree, but it is in the same vein that no superhero really dies and there is very little of real consequence that happens causse there needs to be another book next month, and the one after that and....

Ben Kuchera wrote a piece about this very topic last week (and cited a GamesRadar article that discussed the same subject), saying basically that Batman "doesn't kill" only in the sense that the people aren't dead as of when he leaves. Whatever happens to the henchmen left concussed and bleeding on the ground 15 minutes after Batman walks away is none of his concern.

Batman kills people left and right. The important thing is that they die out of frame.

[...] Batman has always killed people, the "camera" just never sticks around to see the aftermath.

As a registered ICU nurse--I can tell with you utmost confidence that if Batman existed and performed his duty of justice dealing with the same ferocity seen in the Arkham games and most of the comic cannon past the brightly light camp early periods--he most certainty has inadvertently taken a life. Especially considering that Batman often battles men--a gender much more likely to have blood coagulation disorders (i.e. hemophilia)

@mirado: I mean obviously for the mainline comic series it wouldn't be very wise to do that, but I would love to see a one-shot series where Batman does lock up every villain in his own maximum security prison and what would happen. When you have the Arkham games where you fight these characters multiple times and every time you see one of these villains kill an innocent person without any real consequence, it kinda makes you wonder why Batman should even be relied upon.

Yup, def kills

What do you mean, "accidentally"?

@hassun said:

What do you mean, "accidentally"?

hahaha! Holy fuck.. blam blam, blam! That guy must have done something seriously wrong (beyond what the other villains usually do) to piss off Batman like that. Or maybe the gun just went off by accident, um.. 3 times.. But being a hero aint easy I reckon, so who I am to judge?

He doesn't kill them, they just die of natural causes that are slightly accelerated by him (such as breaking ribs or ramming into people with a tank).

I think the right question to ask is how high are medical premiums in Gotham City, and how many people with medical disabilities have Batman to thank for that.

I'm basically coming at it from a manga perspective where long running series have characters that die and stay dead. Anime and manga in general seem to be more open to having main characters/villains die since they'e fine with creating new series/properties.