Indefensible Ink

In part two of an examination of superheroes and the so-called "code against killing," Justin and Jim discuss how Hawkeye typifies a change of attitudes about lethal force in the genre, how Wolverine's natural tendency towards bezerker rage has made him the unlikely moral center of the X-Men, how the Punisher might break the Marvel Universe from a couple different angles, and how antiheroes entertain us despite being reprehensible people. All of this leads into the titular question of why Batman will never kill the Joker...and why the escalating stakes of superhero comics have forced us to consider this question in the first place. ALSO DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: Justin's reservations about a certain element of his beloved Steve Englehart West Coast Avengers run, Jim's favorite issue of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, how to better allocate Wonder Man and Tigra as Avengers resources, and those wonderful giant props in old Gotham City.