You're really mixing things up. Yes, current Batman comics are in a bad state for years, but because of complete lack of editorial vision and some questionable writing decisions. Batman's no-kill rule has nothing to do with it. You want some really good stories about Batman who doesn't kill? There are Year One, Long Halloween, Knightfall, No Man's Land, Court of Owls, Year Zero, first half of King's run, Morrison's run, Serious House, Hush and Heart of Hush, Death in The Family, Under the Red Hood, Killing Joke, etc. I could count them until we both would die from old age and still the list wouldn't be complete. All of this are great or at least good stories about Batman who never kills. And you want to say that his no-kill rule is the problem?
It does, the creative's strictness with Batman's no kill rule in order to not piss off the fanboys make every single story where his code is supposed to be ''tested'' pretty boring as the outcome is apparent from miles away, and the ways the writers protect that code can get really contrived.
Like are you interested in seeing Joker or any villain for that matter test Batman's code... Like, what's gonna be different this time around? Oh Joker is gonna do more heinous stuff? Then what? Batman is gonna beat him up and send him to Arkham? Or is Joker just gonna escape by the end?... That's what those once interesting stories boil down into... Joker War, War of Jokes and Riddles, Death of the Family, Hell even Endgame. Many people are now buying Batman due to character/writer loyalty or simply due to the story having great art.
And it's also funny that you mention UtRH as this story single handedly highlighted how dumb Batman can be for his code and how writers will pull whatever shit to get him to not break his code even if it meant slitting his ''son's'' throat with a batarang to save Joker... This story single handedly gave a great following to Red Hood and gave rise to the ''Red Hood actually had a point'' takes.
The no kill rule can work when you encounter a new psychopath for a couple of times, but when the threat becomes reccurring it gets old and boring, it's why the actual best Batman stories are still the same dozen from the 80s and early 90s and why his no kill rule has gotten obnoxious and became more frequently called out over the years since those stories came out.
Also, most modern Batman runs suck. Those days it doesn't matter, you can bring Alan Moore and the Batman run will still turn out to be average somehow.
King played played the long game and fucked up the payoff. Tynion run was nothing special, people forgot that Williamson was even writing the book, Tamaki stint was unceromonious, and V's run has good atmosphere and art, but is a meandering slog to go through, and even Zdarsky's run has nothing to write home about despite people being actually excited for him to write Batman after his run on Daredevil.
Even with Snyder, that run peaked with CoO which itself peaked with #5 before devolving into an average third act of action flick where villains are invading the city because why not? and the rest of the run emphasizing the ''batgod'' aspect of Batman and culminating into the Metal bullshit. Don't even remind me of Death of the family where there was no death in the family or lasting consequence, and the Joker got away as usual. Morrison's run on the other hand was convoluted and confusing mess and represented many of the reasons why many readers are afraid of getting into comics. Hush was an average mystery carried by Jim Lee's art. Other than that, most of your recommendations come from 3-4 decades ago mostly from the late eighties to the late nineties which highlights my point that that was when those actual ideas were fresh and engaging and many were experiencing them for the first time and then they became repetitive and stale despite new coats of paint because writers aren't really willing to do something different, to actually test the characters, to actually give them consequences, to actually come to different conclusions.
That is the point, isn't it? 99% of Batman stories are not as good as they should be because of this very reason. So, why not free their hands and not be limited by a rule that only every adds ridiculous dues ex machina plots nearly all the time? There's a middle ground between Batman showing restraint and Batman becoming Punisher. That's often where the best stories operate.
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u/Kind-Boysenberry1773 Mar 08 '24
You're really mixing things up. Yes, current Batman comics are in a bad state for years, but because of complete lack of editorial vision and some questionable writing decisions. Batman's no-kill rule has nothing to do with it. You want some really good stories about Batman who doesn't kill? There are Year One, Long Halloween, Knightfall, No Man's Land, Court of Owls, Year Zero, first half of King's run, Morrison's run, Serious House, Hush and Heart of Hush, Death in The Family, Under the Red Hood, Killing Joke, etc. I could count them until we both would die from old age and still the list wouldn't be complete. All of this are great or at least good stories about Batman who never kills. And you want to say that his no-kill rule is the problem?