Anonymous
asked:
People are blaming Batman for failing to stop the Joker, but that's a conceit of the story. The reason the Joker keeps escaping is because people want more Joker stories. In real life, Batman wouldn't need to kill the Joker, because he'd be executed or imprisoned for life. Conversely, in the world of comics, even if Batman DID kill the Joker, he'd just come back sooner or later anyway. Killing him wouldn't be any more of a solution than locking him up, because the problem is a metanarrative one.
More crucially, though, Batman is not responsible for the Joker’s crimes. Once you pull on that thread, and begin to punish somebody like the joker for things you’re worried that they’re going to do, outside of the Rule of Law, then that really takes you to the point where, ultimately, you have to kill everybody else as well, because any one of them might commit is similar transgression.
Batman sees himself as an agent of justice as much as a figure of vengeance. He doesn’t put himself above the laws of society, for all that he may bend or break them in his pursuit of justice.