What has happened to the morals of super-heroes?

When I was growing up, super-heroes wouldn’t kill.

In the mid 1980s, when super-heroes became somewhat darker, super-hero morals became a bit fuzzy. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, but do many super-heroes have to be so dark and troubled?)

A few examples from within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we see Captain America shooting German soldiers during World War Two, there’s the Falcon shooting Crossbones’ (Brock Rumlow) henchmen, and we have Wolverine slicing up William Stryker's men.

No one says boo about any of that. Are we more of a cynical audience today? Did the Comics Code Authority play more of a role in making comic book heroes more moral?

But, is any of this all that bad? (Like I mentioned… THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.)

Because, how many times has Batman arrested the Joker before that maniac (the Joker, not Batman) escaped Arkham Asylum to go and kill a dozen more innocent people? Why ain’t that nutcase dead? (In a business sense, creating more comics where the Joker is being the Joker sells books. So, why stop that money-maker?)

In the INVINCIBLE comic book series, Mark Grayson had struggled with the issue of permanently ending a villain to prevent them from killing again.

So, that brings me to Rebecca Stern, Crusader Girl, in THE SWORD OF EDEN: SHINOBI, a Christian graphic novel. The Bible is clear on not taking an innocent life (Exodus 20:13). God hates the loss of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:16-17). But, when a bunch of ninja come after you with the intention of killing you, how do you protect yourself? What does Crusader Girl do in that situation? I think that she does what she has to do.

I had decided not to have a dialogue-ridden exposition on how Crusader Girl killed her first villain. Visually, she takes a moment to reflect on what had just happened, and then she continues on in the fight.

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