So, here’s a question: why doesn’t Batman kill the Joker? Sure, there are lots of in-universe reasons, like how Batman believes that killing an opponent is a line he can’t step over, that killing is the thing that makes a wannabe hero as bad as the villain he’s fighting, and so forth. Some creators have even challenged Batman on that front in regards to the Joker, a guy whose body count is high enough to make a really good case for putting the guy down.
One of those ways of questioning Batman’s “no kill” rule in more recent comics would be the new juvenile vigilante Clownhunter.
Clownhunter is one Bao Pham. First appearing in Batman #95 by writer James Tynion IV and artist Jorge Jimenez, Bao swung into action during the Joker War storyline in his neighborhood the Narrows. “Joker War” showed the Joker had, using various methods that don’t matter here, gained the entire Wayne fortune, knew Batman’s secret identity, and was going to do what he could to ruin a city Batman was trying to rebuild after a previous bad attack by Bane. Sending out an army of clown-masked and made-up minions, he was making the city a living hell while the police were being shackled by Wayne Enterprises’s lawyers and the other Bat-foes were doing what they always did when Joker went on a rampage by finding a place to hide out until Batman saved the day.
Except, Batman was caught off guard and blocked from his usual resources, so this was going to take some time. Enter the Clownhunter, a 17 year old kid who, at the age of 12, saw the Joker murder his parents and had a hatred of all things Joker-related. But unlike the various members of the Bat-family, with the possible exception of Damien “Robin” Wayne, Clownhunter used lethal force against whatever Joker minions wandered into his area, often to the general approval of the residents.
Oh, and for weapons, the Clownhunter had a lot of guns (that he was pretty talented with) and the “bat-bat,” a baseball bat with a batarang attached for stabbin’ and poundin’. And he was genuinely good at killing clowns. Batman tried to talk him out of it, and that didn’t work, but Clownhunter did find a target that actually had something to do with his parents’ death next: Harley Quinn.
But oddly enough, he didn’t kill Harley. Possibly because she’s a popular character that can support her own solo series, but he didn’t kill her despite Batman’s best efforts because Harley actually apologized for her role in his parents’ deaths, and later he was recruited by another vigilante that I should probably look up at some point called Ghost-Maker. What’s Ghost-Maker’s deal? I don’t know. I should probably cover him here at some point. But if a guy named “Ghost-Maker” is basically another country’s Batman…well gee, Clownhunter sounds like he’d make a good Robin.
You know, because he makes clowns into ghosts.
Eh. I should really look into Ghost-Maker for next time.
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