241 - What principles are sacrosanct in your opinion?
Barbara had always played by Batman’s rules. She had believed in them. You had to protect all life. Nobody was supposed to die. No matter what. That included the villains.
Barbara had sometimes had trouble reconciling herself to those rules - she had worked hard when it came to the suicide squad, but she had managed to make it work.
But lately… lately she had been reconsidering. She looked at the newest photo - Andrea Martin, age sixteen. Murdered by the Joker. Just the latest victim. Barbara put the photo in the pile with the others, the reminder of all the people that the clown had killed. All the lives that had been taken before their time. All of the crimes that the Joker needed to pay for.
The list just grew longer every year. Barbara’s own photo was in that pile, and so was Jason’s. The staff at the Pretzel Kingdom. The Gotham Skywheel. Michael and Elizabeth Harris. The list just went on and on.
And she started to wonder if Batman’s rule, the one that she had believed in for so many years, really the right one? She was protecting life, true, but people were still dying. And the Joker was still living.
When had the Joker’s life become more valuable than that of the innocents that they were supposedly protecting? Cops were allowed to kill.
And maybe next time she came face to face with him, so would she. The Joker would pay. And no more innocents would die.
Protect the lives of innocents. That was a principle worth defending.
Barbara had sometimes had trouble reconciling herself to those rules - she had worked hard when it came to the suicide squad, but she had managed to make it work.
But lately… lately she had been reconsidering. She looked at the newest photo - Andrea Martin, age sixteen. Murdered by the Joker. Just the latest victim. Barbara put the photo in the pile with the others, the reminder of all the people that the clown had killed. All the lives that had been taken before their time. All of the crimes that the Joker needed to pay for.
The list just grew longer every year. Barbara’s own photo was in that pile, and so was Jason’s. The staff at the Pretzel Kingdom. The Gotham Skywheel. Michael and Elizabeth Harris. The list just went on and on.
And she started to wonder if Batman’s rule, the one that she had believed in for so many years, really the right one? She was protecting life, true, but people were still dying. And the Joker was still living.
When had the Joker’s life become more valuable than that of the innocents that they were supposedly protecting? Cops were allowed to kill.
And maybe next time she came face to face with him, so would she. The Joker would pay. And no more innocents would die.
Protect the lives of innocents. That was a principle worth defending.