Joker has been the Dark Knight’s deadliest arch-nemesis since the debut of Batman issue #1. Throughout the years his crimes went beyond robberies, and into brutal murders. One of the most popular murders includes the death of Jason Todd aka Robin. So, why doesn’t Batman just kill the crazed Clown?
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Real reason is that the Joker is too popular. As for Bruce, he values his moral code more than the lives of the citizens he constantly fails to protect.
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Batman doesn’t kill people, period.
Don’t come at me with the first incarnation having a gun, BvS kills, etc… The Batman that has been around the longest and is the most iconic and beloved WILL NOT KILL.
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yeah he wont cross that line its why joker would not mess with red hood again or the greem arrow for example they both are willing to cross that line green arrow under extrame sercumstance but would still do cross it
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Batman fills guilty and responsible for who joker is and he honestly wants to help everyone including the joker. And he does what he does because someone taking lives and doesn’t want to become what he fights against
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I think Batman knows that he himself is crazy in his own right and is a few tragedies shy of being just like the Joker. Batman’s pride wont let him kill the Joker because he has been trying to convince himself and the citizens of Gotham that they are truly different. Once he crosses that line of killing him, he wont stop killing and he knows it. Just my personal opinion.
Read Batman Europa ! It’s a commentary on this exact question. Excellent artwork too. The general idea of the two characters is their give and take relationship ; the serious, strong / silent type who NEEDS to ‘fix’ and the polar opposite happy/ carefree type who LOVES to ‘break’ . Batman and Bruce Wayne live within a box of discipline, planning , training , and appearances. The joker is the cat walking on Batmans keyboard. He is the Acme dynamite in Wile E. Coyote’s trap. Joker is the slow dripping faucet that Batman desperately needs to fix before its sound drives Bruce Wayne into his own insanity . He is the reason for batman. Most other villains in the Batman universe represent psychological flaws, vices and evils of humanity, but the joker is the answer to the question ‘Why a Batman?’
All of these are interesting answers… But how would you Feel if the joker killed someone in your family knowing that Batman could’ve killed this maniacal clown years ago.
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I love this question. I agree with @NightWolf369.32751 that Batman feels like the only reason Joker exists is because Batman created a culture for him to. I also wonder if there’s a part of him that thinks if Joker dies, someone even worse will take his place. And, of course, Batman doesn’t kill. Nor does Superman, but I suppose that’s a topic for another thread 
In my opinion - If Affleck was still our Batman he may have killed the Joker lol - but in seriousness, he won’t kill the Joker cos then the Joker wins.
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Along the lines of what @GOON88 said, this is also the entire premise of Injustice. I have three reasons why he won’t kill him. 1) Once he crosses that line, it would be too hard for him to come back. Like @PorkchopChambers said, Bats is already close to that line as it is. He did used to kill, especially in the Golden Age. But the Bats we love doesn’t do that anymore. He does allow people to die though (see Batman Forever when he tosses a bunch of coins at Two Face, or the Long Halloween or various times he didn’t rescue Hugo Strange). One could argue that’s almost the same. 2) There is no Batman without the Joker. Sure, there are other awesome Bat-villains. But, Bats and Joker are opposites. They both exist because of the other. We all have those people in our lives that push us to be our very best. Sometimes those are friends; sometimes they are enemies. 3) Supes doesn’t kill. There’s this respected rivalry there. Batman needs to be respected by his peers; he needs to be better than Superman (possibly because Supes isn’t from Earth). How are you better than a boy scout, if your moral code is more lacking?
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Slow Clap What a response, Bravo 4GRANTed!
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He Needs him. He needs the joker to remind him He’s(Batman) the SANE one that there is someone(Joker) even more derranged and twisted than he is
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People always talk about batman killing joker and failing Gotham if he doesn’t but why cant Gotham judges give him the death penalty. Hes clearly not gonna change and Arkham asylum has always been part of the problem. If batman does it himself its still murder and batman will be a criminal. If the law does it its execution. And the whole justice league above all else upholds the law
To answer the question tho, hes teetering on the edge of sanity. He needs to be different from Gotham’s criminal element to just just fight crime but also cope with what happened to his parents. The bat is above all else simply a coping mechanism
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Because Batman needs to believe that even someone as far gone as the Joker can be helped. Batsy believes he’s just as far detached from humanity as Joker is, so he keeps trying to help this man whose life has been entirely consumed by his mental illness to prove that Bruce Wayne can be saved from the grips of the Batman. If there is no hope for the Clown Prince of Crime, then there is no hope for Bruce.
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The Real question is why hasn’t Jason Todd (The Red Hood) try an kill Joker🤔
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Yeah what bro said in addition to the bat feeling responsible for him being the Joker anyway with the whole og red hood disaster.
Because he’s weak.
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EntropyMst - Who is weak Bats or Jason Todd?
Real reason: It’s because the Joker’s too popular.
Batman’s reason: he thinks he be no better than a criminal (I disagree, of course).
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