Should Spider-Man kill his enemies once in a while?

[Xenon]

I thought about this for a while, and I think I can't agree with the question because of the word "should".

I don't think (as other posters have mentioned), that killing shoudl be his modus operandi. I don't think he should try to do it. But if it happens over the course of a battle, then the bad guy got what he deserved, and I don't think that reflects badly on ol' Webs. Sometimes the people trying to kill you get killed. And that's fine.

And yet, superheroes almost always find a way of diffusing the danger without killing their enemies. Seems like most heroes are pretty capable of finding options.

That said, I generally am not bothered when, during the course of a fight the hero decides that they can't manage to avert the crisis while holding back. But I don't like books like X-Force where the team is walking out the door with the notion that they're going to kill there enemies because killing people solves problems. When killing is the first option then the heroes suddenly turn stupid and can't solve problems other ways.

This second paragraph...is pretty awesome.

The ones I find contrived are when the writers want to keep the hero's hands clean AND they want to kill the villain. Goblin impaling himself on his own glider after Spider-man opts not to kill him, that sort of thing.

On the other hand, characters like Venom who's powers make them practically un-killable, but they still have some weakness that disables them, that's just comicbooks and superheroes. Incredible powers and some exploitable weakness come hand in hand and the weakness is disabling not killing, it's as old as superheroes running around in spandex. It's no more contrived than having superpowers in the first place. But once Venom is disabled with sound, choosing to kill him is not killing him as part of the fight but killing in cold blood, which is territory I'd rather heroes steer clear of.

I find the whole "Spider-Man ops not to kill him, but he gets himself killed anyway" to be some of my favorite. The idea that the villain is the cause of his own demise because he just doesnt' know when to quit is an idea that resonates with me. OF course, with that said, you can't overdo it.

I thought Dan Slott raised some interesting questions in regards to the whole "no one dies" thing he did in the books a little while ago. Made some good points that allowing Carnage and others to live, he's indirectly responsible for the people they turn around and murder.

This is, of course, the big problem that comes up with no killing policies. Most of Spider-Man's rouge's gallery are redeemable in some way, but, say, in the case of Cletus, while I still have no problem with Spider-Man not setting out to kill him, I have issues with him preventing others from doing so a little bit.

[Songbird/Diamondback]

If Spider-Man killed them, they'd just come back.
Also, he'd probably kill the ones that really don't deserve it.

[Spidey_Legend]

Morlun had it coming, tore his eye out for Christ sakes. Plus he became "the spider" and ate him, which was strange. Shathra was attacked by spiders in that fight, which is what killed her. I've got no clue who Arrow is but he did kill Charlie in Spider-man vs Wolverine # 1, it was totally accidental in that Pete couldn't see what was going on and punched her thinking it was still Wolverine who he was fighting at the time. Did anyone mention the Finisher in Amazing Spider-Man annual # 5? He sends a missle right at him, I think that's the only time I'd say he killed someone intentionally.

Arrow was The Other. He fought and made birds killed her in Friendly Neighbourhood run during the Back in Black Part.

[Zevad]

Never. He's Spider-Man. But if he does it should never be in anger and only in self defense. He's not a murderer and shouldn't be.

[Rosebunse]

If Spider-Man killed them, they'd just come back.
Also, he'd probably kill the ones that really don't deserve it.

Dan Slott had him close to killing Morbius in "No Turning Back".

[Rosebunse]

And I looked about that Arrow chick! Her plan was to impregnate a Flash to make more killer spider-babies. I'm going to let Peter off on that one...

[USERNAME TAKEN]

The lesson here is: don't create villains that can only be incapacitated by contrivance if you're dead set on your hero not killing.

Quoted for truth.

[The Observer]

As someone who hasn't read a new comic for years, but who grew up with the character of Spider-Man via TV cartoons, what few comics I did get to read and so on, I strongly agree that Spider-Man should never be someone who sets out to kill his enemies. It's so far from the core of who the character was, or is: sure, in some stories in the 80s, such as 'The Death of Jean DeWoolf', Spidey lost it a bit, and had to be reined in, but even in these, he did not kill, and, once he had calmed down, he always realised that he had gone too far. The guy's a poster boy for responsibility, he should never willingly seek to take a life.
Admittedly that's all as long as Peter Parker is the man behind the mask, and I appreciate he may not remain so. If people want a Spidey who was willing to kill at times, isn't that what the whole 'Lethal Protector' Venom thing was about?

[The Angry Comic Book Critic]

The day spider-man kills someone is the day that I burn every spider-man related thing I own...

Well guess you better grab some matches and and gasoline....
ASM Annual #5 Deliberately killed the Finisher by returning a fired missile back to his tank.

Amazing Spider-Man #121 Accidentally killed Gwen Stacy, snapping her neck while she fell towards her death, thrown by Norman Osborn. It was a lose-lose scenario, so Norman gets the credit for the kill.

Marvel Team-Up #12 Accidentally kills Moondark the magician by knocking him through a mystic portal which teleports him to a point high above the Golden Gate bridge, from where he fatally drops to the water below. Spider-Man shrugs it off, saying "Even I can't hang around cryin' over spilt magicians!"

Marvel Team-Up #31 Killed Drom the Backwards Man. Spidey and Iron fist take on Drom, and smash his mirror on him. This causes Drom to rapidly reverse-age into nothing, effectively killing him. In the narration, Spidey regrets doing this.

Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 Accidentally killed Charlemagne (Charlie). She committed suicide by attacking Spider-Man during his fight with Wolverine.

Web of Spider-Man #91 Kills Whisper-3, member of the Foreigner's Death Squad. Uses Whisper-3 to block Pulse-2's energy attack. Pulse-2 then aborted the mission and commited suicide. Note that the Death Squad was founded on the assumption that the agents were expendable, and would be replaced, e.g. by Whisper-3 and Pulse-3. Even so, Spidey could have simply dodged the energy blast, and showed no remorse for the death.

Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #1 Spidey plasters webbing all over the face of an bystander who makes an anti-mutant comment. The webbing is clearly sufficient to suffocate them. To be fair, I suspect that this is simply a scripting mistake, or else that Spidey deliberately created not-very-sticky webbing, or some other reason why this one shouldn't really be counted.

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #42 Apparently killed Shade while in the Astral Plane, by tossing him against his own energy-storage cocoon, hoping to cause a loophole.

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #50 Accidentally killed two members of the Latverian Liberation Front. Diverted a missile shot by one of their partners to the only place it wouldn't cause any casualties, a hole in the ceiling. Unbeknownst to him, the two guys were arriving to join the fray, and decided to use the hole to enter. Lose-lose scenario, not his fault.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3 Peter Parker becomes "The Spider" and eats Morlun.

Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #20 Spider-Man apparently kills "The Queen" when he defuses a bomb. She evaporates, as an unexpected side-effect. She is subsequently revealed to have survived, in Spider-Island: Deadly Foes. All things considered, it is perhaps a bit of a stretch to say that he "killed" her.

[The Angry Comic Book Critic]

Well this is kinda a moot point but Spider-man already does kill. Are they mostly characters that only the most hardcore of fans will have heard of? Yes but people he's killed all the same. Would I like to him kill Norman osborn in in the most drawn out beatdown brawl of the century? Hell yeah

[Majinoaw]

Well guess you better grab some matches and and gasoline....
ASM Annual #5 Deliberately killed the Finisher by returning a fired missile back to his tank.

Amazing Spider-Man #121 Accidentally killed Gwen Stacy, snapping her neck while she fell towards her death, thrown by Norman Osborn. It was a lose-lose scenario, so Norman gets the credit for the kill.

Marvel Team-Up #12 Accidentally kills Moondark the magician by knocking him through a mystic portal which teleports him to a point high above the Golden Gate bridge, from where he fatally drops to the water below. Spider-Man shrugs it off, saying "Even I can't hang around cryin' over spilt magicians!"

Marvel Team-Up #31 Killed Drom the Backwards Man. Spidey and Iron fist take on Drom, and smash his mirror on him. This causes Drom to rapidly reverse-age into nothing, effectively killing him. In the narration, Spidey regrets doing this.

Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 Accidentally killed Charlemagne (Charlie). She committed suicide by attacking Spider-Man during his fight with Wolverine.

Web of Spider-Man #91 Kills Whisper-3, member of the Foreigner's Death Squad. Uses Whisper-3 to block Pulse-2's energy attack. Pulse-2 then aborted the mission and commited suicide. Note that the Death Squad was founded on the assumption that the agents were expendable, and would be replaced, e.g. by Whisper-3 and Pulse-3. Even so, Spidey could have simply dodged the energy blast, and showed no remorse for the death.

Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #1 Spidey plasters webbing all over the face of an bystander who makes an anti-mutant comment. The webbing is clearly sufficient to suffocate them. To be fair, I suspect that this is simply a scripting mistake, or else that Spidey deliberately created not-very-sticky webbing, or some other reason why this one shouldn't really be counted.

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #42 Apparently killed Shade while in the Astral Plane, by tossing him against his own energy-storage cocoon, hoping to cause a loophole.

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #50 Accidentally killed two members of the Latverian Liberation Front. Diverted a missile shot by one of their partners to the only place it wouldn't cause any casualties, a hole in the ceiling. Unbeknownst to him, the two guys were arriving to join the fray, and decided to use the hole to enter. Lose-lose scenario, not his fault.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3 Peter Parker becomes "The Spider" and eats Morlun.

Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #20 Spider-Man apparently kills "The Queen" when he defuses a bomb. She evaporates, as an unexpected side-effect. She is subsequently revealed to have survived, in Spider-Island: Deadly Foes. All things considered, it is perhaps a bit of a stretch to say that he "killed" her.

He's killed more people than Cardiac!!!! And Cardiac's main shtick is lethal force.

[Rosebunse]

To be fair, Slott could easily say that this guilt is coming from his promise not to let anyone die since he made the promise...just saying.

[Superleo]

Not realated towards the Superior Spider-Man based on the controversial new edge Marvel promotes for the character, but I'm pretty skeptical about Peter Parker actually striking down his foes permanently, it would show some integerity for one thing on concrete heroism, and it would stop making Peter into a self doubting messiah that the Marvel U would need to emphasize in order to make him feel special. Well Captain Amaerica is the ultimate good, and he's basically a trainered killer. If Peter would take the lives of evil people beyond redemption, would that make him as good as Steve in the eyes of everyone.

On the other hand, Peter would no longer be innocent pureness in the Marvel U. But on the other hand they made Spidey deal with the Devil though.

Absolutely. It makes for boring stories after a few years. Look at a book like invincible by kirkman. Much more Interesting when there are new characters.

[Rosebunse]

Absolutely. It makes for boring stories after a few years. Look at a book like invincible by kirkman. Much more Interesting when there are new characters.

Ever rewatch a show at the beginning just to see how bright and fresh the characters are?

Damn, I wish we could warn them! Especially Peter Parker Oh, if he only knew...if he only knew...

[Aziz Abbasi]

Much like Batman, Spider-Man should seriously consider amputating the fiingers from several of his villains. It would actually be pretty reasonable.

Osborn. Carnage? Yes

Thers a time when its acceptable

I'm with those

That'd just lead to an even more deadly cyborged-up Joker.

I hate it when comic writers do that

Heroes do not kill people. Captain America certainly doesn't, at least not since the end of WWII.

Punisher is a hero
The "someone else replaces the villain" should be only comics excuse for them to keep going