New Avengers #58: Yeah, here's the thing: not killing bad guys doesn't make you better than them, it makes you a fucking pussy. It makes you responsible for everything negative they do after that point. No grey areas, no moral questions, no debates about what's heroic and what's not. You see a person who will make the world a worse place by simply existing, someone who will actively prevent you from making it better, and you've got the chance to take them out, you do it. This coming from a pacifist. I hate superhero comics for pretending that letting villains live is somehow the morally superior thing to do, because it's not. You know what the morally superior thing is? Knowing when killing is the moral thing to do. In their lifestyle, just killing is immoral and never killing is immoral. They're both extremes, neither of which actually attempt to fit into the reality of the situation. Should they kill every mugger ala the Punisher? No. Should they kill Norman Osborn when the chance arises? Um, yeah. Even it means Peter Parker whines like an infant for two weeks.
I don't blame Bendis, but that's how things are. Fighting against the slippery slope, making tough, nuanced decisions, and sticking to them... that's heroism. Giving a guy a fucking spanking and then acting like that will stop him from hurting hundreds of people in six months again and again... that's the definition of insanity.
Exceptional X-Men #3 annotations
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