The question whether the Dark Knight should ever break his one rule and finally end the Joker’s wraith has been a debate ever since the 40’s.

Batman is the notorious crime-fighting vigilante who is also playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne. Bruce witnessed his parents’ deaths at the age of 8 because some mugger was sticking them up in an alley. He pledged to become Batman and fight crime. His one rule is to not kill, because he doesn’t want anyone to feel the same pain he did when he lost his parents. But everywhere the Joker goes he leaves death in his path; there’s no saving a man who doesn’t want to be saved.

So if Batman broke his one rule of not killing what would that make him? He doesn’t want to become the very thing that took his parents. But by killing the joker he’d be doing so many people a favor. He’d bring justice to so many people who have lost loved ones because of the Joker’s cruelty. Batman’s own son, Jason Todd, died at the hands of the Joker yet his life and the lives of many could’ve been saved. By not killing the Joker, Batman is involuntarily letting people die. It is one person for the lives of thousands. So what is the defense for Batman?

If Batman kills the Alabaster Jester it would stain not only the City of Gotham, but the whole world. If he does end him, the world would see that even Batman could break and take a life. This could spark new criminals to rise and maybe those who are even worse than the Joker. It’s a twisted dilemma mixed with morals and the betterment of society.