Batman’s no-kill rule has a shocking exception for a hero

Batman has a strict no-kill policy, but a group of DC characters were once fired out of respect for a fallen friend…

While Batman Known for his strict no-kill policy, the comics show he’s willing to make an exception when it comes to respecting a hero. This story was “Manhunter: The Final Chapter‘, a twenty-year-in-the-works sequel to one of the most famous comic book stories of the 1970s.

Manhunter Paul Kirk was a private investigator of the Golden Age and made his debut in adventure comics #58 in 1941. A year later, the character donned a red and blue outfit and joined the ranks of DC’s costumed superheroes. The character was brought back in the pages of 1973 by writer Archie Goodwin and artist Walt Simonson detective comicswhere it is revealed that Manhunter had been kidnapped by a sinister organization called the Council, who had cryogenically preserved his body in the years following World War II. Kirk cloned an army from his DNA and positioned the former hero to lead them and take over the world. Instead, Kirk rebelled against the Council, traveling the globe hunting his clones and fighting back against his former masters. Along the way, he gains allies in the form of Interpol agent Christine St. Clair, ninja master Asano Nitobe, and even Batman himself, who eventually help Manhunter defeat the Council. Unusually for the time, Paul Kirk sacrificed himself at the end of the story and is one of the few DC Comics characters never to be resurrected.

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Goodwin and Simonson resisted the idea of ​​making another sequel to their original Manhunter story for years, not wanting to belittle the legacy of a very well received, award-winning film. However, in the late 1990s, Goodwin had an idea for a new story and pitched it to Simonson. The two started working, but then sadly Goodwin passed away in 1998. As a tribute to Goodwin’s memory, Simonson completed the story with no captions or dialogue appearing in a collection of the original manhunter Series set in 1999. In Manhunter: The Final Chapter, a surviving clone of Paul Kirk wreaks havoc in Gotham City. The clone is pursued by Christine St. Clair and Asano Nitobe, who eventually manage to kill him. An enraged Batman then appears at the scene, but is calmed when Christine and Asano explain that they hunted down all of Kirk’s surviving clones. Commissioner Gordon arrives in time to see Batman let them escape, but the Dark Knight points to a “Gotham City Limits” sign and tells the story of Paul Kirk.

Batman’s respect for Manhunter Paul Kirk

It’s not often that Batman bends the rules for anyone, but this moment shows how much respect the Dark Knight had for the late Manhunter. When the two characters meet detective comics #443, Batman was initially wary of teaming up with a gun-wielding vigilante who wasn’t opposed to deadly force, but eventually agreed to help Manhunter and the others, saying, “They are professional colleagues. I respect your decision…even if I disagree with it.” Batman also ended up there to witness Manhunter’s ultimate sacrifice, further increasing his respect for the fallen hero.

This respect for Manhunter could also be read as a tribute to the late Goodwin, and a reverence many fans still have for this original series of stories back in the seventies. For a while Batman has a strict moral code, it allows other heroes to bend the rules depending on the circumstances.

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