Should superman kill? Should he intefere in politics?

[Duplicate Man]

I disagree!  The PZ villians had lost their powers.  Yes, they swore they'd regain them, but so what.  Villians always swear such things!  What Superman did was an execution, AND HE SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT!  Superman also killed Doomsday, but I had no problem with that.  SM was in the heat of battle with the brute, and he was injured and weakening fast.  There was only one way to stop him, and SM did it.

[TriSaber]

I disagree!  The PZ villians had lost their powers.  Yes, they swore they'd regain them, but so what.  Villians always swear such things!  What Superman did was an execution, AND HE SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT!  Superman also killed Doomsday, but I had no problem with that.  SM was in the heat of battle with the brute, and he was injured and weakening fast.  There was only one way to stop him, and SM did it.

You certainly have a right to express your opinion, and I respect that. However, I think what you're failing to see is the fact that the incident involving the Phantom Zone villains was an extreme case. And Superman was, no matter how you slice it, the last living representative of law and order on Superboy's "pocket universe" Earth. That means there was no one else to refer to, or to defer to. Superman was backed into a corner and had to act alone because there was literally nobody else to back him up or to advise him. We're taking about the murder of an entire planet's biosphere (people, animals, plants, insects, sea life, the whole ball of wax). Zod and his two flunkies rendered an entire planet completely lifeless without any thought of remorse whatsoever. How could Superman, as a law enforcement officer, allow these three to live given the scope of their crime (their power level is pretty much irrelivent in this case)? The case of Superman killing Doomsday was much the same as the case of the Phantom Zone villains when one looks at it. In both cases, Superman had no choice but to do what he did. Doomsday represented a threat to life and limb of such magnetude that he had to be stopped ... by any means necessary. The case of the Phantom Zone villains is identical (it doesn't matter if they were on a murderous rampage at the time or not). The deed had already been done. The mass-murder of Superboy's adopted home had already been committed. And I say again, Superman had absolutely no other recourse than to execute his duty as the last representative of the law on that world.

[Defender]

Tri, I must respectfully and humbly disagree with your assessment.

 Superman embodies ideals about human potential and moral character that we all seek to emulate in our lives. Once upon a time I read the story you refer to and could definitely see your point. But now I believe that Superman could've found a way. He could've dumped the three super-criminals on a world with a red sun, he could've simply dumped them on some isolated planet. He could have, but he chose to kill. To commit the one act that he should never have chosen. I hate Byrne for what he did in that issue, it's the only comic I've ever done violence upon (I shredded it). Superman is about preserving life, upholding the good. If he kills, he becomes no better than those idiot goons in the Authority. Now the magnitude, the enormity of the crime committed was staggering, I'll admit. But does sinking to their level, and killing three beings that had permanently lost their powers (and the last I checked, gold K's power strippage was permanent, save in the Generations Elseworlds) really any kind of justice? He should have carted them off to jail, or if you prefer a more realistic punishment, left them on that desolate husk to fend for themselves. But should he himself have comitted the act of killing? No.

 Now mind you, when Superman first burst onto the scene in the late '30s he was a two-fisted social activist who wasn't shy about roughing up or even letting an enemy meet his end. But that was a reflection of a time when people wanted that kind of swift justice. But as the character grew the justice he represented became less of what we wanted, but what we ourselves hoped we could administer. We want to be fair and compassionate, and things like the death penalty aren't compassion, they aren't true justice. If we sink to the level of our enemy, we become him.

 My point is that Superman should always find a way. If you ask me, Byrne knew his tenure on the title was up and decided to perform one last grand showboating stunt to make Superman edgy. But Superman is not Wolverine. Superman doesn't kill. He's better than that.

 -Def.