Superman V.S The Elite

[Mecha82]

I think it's because they are afraid of him. Joker is that unpredictable that his own henchmen are afraid of him.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Actually the real question is why hasn't one of his henchmen killed him already? I mean he casually murders his henchmen all the time and not once has any of them just up and shot him because they had enough.

They usually tend to be pretty low-brow and take to his antics in defiance of stuff like rationality. Big dunning kruger effect.

All the villains henchmen are tinted by the rogue in question.

[TGLS]

They could try but I doubt he'd do it.

The point of this movie is them trying to say that he should, I mean are we even trying here?

Isn't there a difference between telling Superman he should kill people according to his whims and society saying, "Superman, you're the only guy who can kill this guy and we've sentenced him to death?" I mean sure that second one's a contrivance but isn't that half the point?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

They could try but I doubt he'd do it.

The point of this movie is them trying to say that he should, I mean are we even trying here?

Isn't there a difference between telling Superman he should kill people according to his whims and society saying, "Superman, you're the only guy who can kill this guy and we've sentenced him to death?" I mean sure that second one's a contrivance but isn't that half the point?

Superman wouldn't do it if they told him to like that.

The difference is night and day as far as democracy works.

They weren't actually trying to press regulation for him to do it in the movie, just have a debate about it, and it was a bit of a mock debate at that. The framing of the debate there is Superman opposite the people so to speak as represented by a congressman. In it Superman's principles are broken down as we know them pretty much.

The second option just truncates the debate aspect, in which case they ask Superman to do it and he stops Atomic Skull and takes extra effort to expel him from the system or he turns him over to the state to be tried and killed by the public.

The public in this movie are not going to order Superman to do anything because the premise is that they have looked up to his virtue and have only begun to question it at this point. Instead they appeal, which is a technical term for circumventing standard procedure, which is in this case being Superman's virtue.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I mean I'm not 100% on where the irony was with the initial question, I apologize.

[Mecha82]

We all know that main universe Superman doesn't kill so idea that he would just because he is told to is not realistic even within comic book logic. That's how he was raised by Kents. To be good man. That's how he is also in Superman Vs. The Elite as well as in story that movie is based on. This isn't Soviet Superman from Superman Red Son or Dictator Superman from Injustice.

It's same with most other DC heroes as well with Wonder Woman being only one from JL without no killing rule and even then she tends to avoid killing humans and tends to kill monsters like Gorgon or gods like Ares.

[Dragon Ball Fan]

Police can murder a man on camera for selling loosies. I think the PR flack for the beat cop who shot the Joker would not be too high.

The argument that the police in Gotham are not being as corrupt as the ones in real life is not as winning as you think it is. We should be striving to remove that corruption in real life, not demanding even fictional characters sink to it. I congratulate the Gotham PD for obeying at least some of the law, in contrast to real police who think it is all optional. What was it Mark Twain said about the difference between fiction and reality?

Or it doesn't even need to be the police. Any random person with a gun could manage it. Somebody whose boyfriend was killed in one of the Joker's schemes. The Joker is a leading figure in Batman's rogue's gallery because, theoretically, you don't need millions of dollars and expert training and bat-gadgets to kill him, but you do need to be a great detective to unravel or foil whatever scheme he has set in motion. He's not a super-strong freak with crocodile DNA or the Ten Eyed Man or a hulking shapeshifter; he's just some guy with a sick sense of humor.

Murdering someone, even someone who murdered a loved one, is harder than most people think. We're hardwired to try and avoid murder, it takes a lot to get over that basic bit of biology. That is part of the reason the Joker is so ill, that he finds it so easy. Also, unless you have a tiger park then it is a devil of a time getting rid of a body.

what about self defense? killing someone is both legally and morally justified in that context.

[Robovski]

Superman has options other than death to deal with villains who cannot be controlled by society or normal means such as imprisonment. Banishing someone to a world without sentient life or to the Phantom Zone are options; Superman could take a petition from a legal authority to remove public menaces at this level without killing anyone.

[Mecha82]

He doesn't do that either because he doesn't think that he is above the human laws. And he shouldn't think that. What lot of people don't know about him is that his role is to help people and bring hope. He is not savior who is supposed to fix every problem in the world. With power that he has it would be easy for him to take over like Soviet Superman and Dictator Superman did. But again that's not who he is in main universe thanks to being raised by Kents.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I think Superman's main point with the charade was to expose the tendency to lead people to fear when you serve fatal justice. The same fear that started to make people unsettled when they thought that he died, he put upon them when they thought he was going to kill them. It both demonstrates to the people why it's important not to do that while revealing The Elite as hypocrites for giving him just cause to decimate them with them begging for noble treatment.