I think the thing that bugs me about this whole "Batman/Superman shouldn't kill" thing is how limited and naïve that thinking can be.
I go into this in a lot of detail on
my blog (cheap plug) but just thought I'd throw my two cents in here; if you disagree with me then that's fine, I respect that, and I'm not saying my views should be the be-all and end-all but my Twitter explodes every other week with people debating (well...raging) that these guys, as
superheroes, would always find "another way".
But...life isn't perfect like that! Sometimes there
is no other way. Or, more likely/specifically as others have mentioned, collateral damage is inevitable. You read about it all the time in the media how one errant, drunken punch kills a man but Batman is able to kick the crap out of guys and magically not have them die from trauma or shock?
I believe that superheroes like Batman and Superman should absolutely hold themselves to a certain ideal of not killing for the sake of it and not running around being murderers but, at the same time, I
want to read or see a story where the taking of a life has a profound affect on Batman. How
does Bruce Wayne react when he finds his actions, as Batman, led to the loss of someone's father? Blindly saying "no, Batman never kills!" robs us of that story, that character progression and growth.
Plus, like...Red Hood kills all the damn time! Daiman has quite a body count, too, and yet Bruce is perfectly happy for them to wear his symbol or work alongside him (but, quite hypocritically, used to chew Huntress out all the time for being "too violent").
At the point, I would think movie audiences are used to Batman killing as he has taken a life in almost every live-action incarnation; even Christian Bale, who openly went around growling to everyone he met that he had "one rule" to the point where criminals knew they could exploit this weakness (something I really didn't like, to be honest), killed people (people surely died when he blew up the League of Shadows, he left Ra's to die (which
is the same thing), and, oh yeah,
tackled Harvey Dent to his death).
Personally, I'm a massive, life-long Batman who totally "gets" the nuances of his character but I really don't care if Batman kills; it opens a lot of questions when you ask why he hasn't killed the Joker, to be sure, but they could have explored that in a movie (like when Joker killed Jason in the comics, Batman did set out to kill him in retaliation).
Obviously, different people like different things and some people want Superman to be this pure example of "the right way" but...c'mon, how likely is it that his actions haven't caused harm or death over the years? The speeding train example someone said earlier is a perfect example of that. Plus, he
can be this pure paragon of truth and justice and still be shown to be deeply affected by the consequences of his actions; that, to me, would be an interesting story that showed a character many perceive as "overpowered" to be just as vulnerable as the rest of us.
But no, let's just take the easy route and find "another way"