10 Superheroes With Sickeningly High Kill Counts

Australian Cinephile

The high-score a hero doesn't really want to have.

Transcript

00:00So on the whole, when you think of superheroes, you think of them as beings that don't necessarily

00:04kill. While famous figures like Batman and Superman aren't against beating a bad guy up,

00:09they are against murdering him in cold blood. But, as it turns out, plenty of morally upstanding

00:14superheroes have killed a surprisingly large amount of people, even folks with supposed

00:19rules against killing. So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,

00:23and these are 10 superheroes with sickeningly high kill counts.

00:2710. Wonder Woman It's almost funny that Wonder Woman is such

00:31close pals with Batman and Superman, when you remember that she's often incredibly

00:34game to snap necks and stomp faces whenever the urge arises. While a spot of murder isn't

00:40Diana's go-to option, she certainly doesn't shy away from it. She snapped Grendel's neck,

00:45beheaded Medusa, and just straight up stabbed people when she felt that it was the most

00:48appropriate thing to do. Although the Amazonian warriors' morals stop her from killing as often

00:53as they encourage her to, it's still undeniably weird that she's so often damn blasé about

00:58ending lives. Indeed, it is this propensity to kill that has caused tensions between her

01:03and other superheroes several times over in her crime-fighting career, the most notable of

01:07these being her stone-cold neck snap of Maxwell Lord.

01:109. Batman As a superhero who is rather famous for having a no-kill rule, it's more than a little

01:17surprising to have the realization that the Dark Knight has killed a fair few people over the years.

01:22Admittedly though, these occasions are usually in the more uncharacteristic Batman stories,

01:26such as when the Bat-boned Black Canary after burning a bunch of men alive in All-Star Batman

01:30and Robin. There's also a frankly unnerving amount of murders in the original Batman series as well,

01:35which is especially strange when you remember that this comic was once considered to be

01:39for kids, but maybe kids just love murder apparently. It's also worth mentioning that while

01:44it shouldn't go towards his own personal kill count, the fact that Batman actively saves

01:48supervillains from the jaws of death does make him somewhat responsible for the string of murders

01:53they inevitably carry out afterwards.

01:558. Black Widow Raised as a professional assassin since birth,

02:00Natasha's greatest struggle as a hero is likely trying to not kill every single person within

02:04a five-foot radius of her, because the urge to murder and maim has been ingrained in her from

02:08such a young age. Indeed, though Nat largely opts out of breaking skulls nowadays, that's not to say

02:14that she's totally forgotten her training. Provoke the ire of the Black Widow, and she's still going

02:18to rip out your spinal cord with one hand. It's just that now she might at least have some moment

02:23of guilt about it afterwards. In short, if you're going to find a superhero, maybe don't pick the

02:27one who has been taught to consider evisceration as an ordinary form of greeting.

02:317. Aquaman It's a real shame that Aquaman has the reputation of being the dorkiest member of the

02:37Justice League, because you know what, it conceals the fact that he's actually a hardcore killer.

02:41Because for all of its cute fish and sea life, Atlantis is a pretty brutal kingdom. Criminals

02:46are often executed, and wars can't be won by just knocking people unconscious with a manta ray.

02:51No, no, no, they require blood. So the next time you go to say that Aquaman is a nerd,

02:56remember that he has definitely gotten a shark to eat someone alive at least once in his superhero

03:00tenure, and that he likely won't hesitate to do so again.

03:046. Thor With all of his friendly grins and upstanding morals, it's easy to think that Thor

03:09would never hurt a fly. While his hammer is made for smashing faces, it is a well-established fact

03:14that the dude has a heart of gold, and thus he seems rather low on the list of potential

03:18murderers to take up membership with the Avengers. But said dude is both a Norse god and a medieval

03:23star warrior, so of course he's bashed more than a few heads in. It's often brushed to one side,

03:28but the fact that Thor has been a key part in so many of his family's battles and wars means that

03:33he's killed a whole lot of people in his time, and he's likely thought about murdering even more.

03:38Berserker rage is all fine and well in wars against bloodthirsty giants and demons,

03:42but you have to worry about how it translates to the more fragile human body when Thor dukes it out

03:46with them.

03:475. Deadpool

03:49Saying that Deadpool has killed a lot of people is likely as surprising as saying that his costume

03:53contains some red and some black. Though the merc with a mouth has gone through some considerable

03:58moral improvement since his first appearance in the comics, he's got no problem with killing anyone

04:03he stands in his way, well, unless it's a child. Crucially, while he's now more of an anti-hero,

04:07Wade is still a hired killer. Just a hired killer who takes out criminals instead of the enemies of

04:12whoever pays best. It's a slow improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.

04:164. Black Noir

04:18The Boys is a series quite literally filled to the brim with violence in every issue,

04:23if not on every page. While each character has a kill count higher than you'd feel comfortable

04:28counting two, the award for Most Unhinged Serial Killer goes to Black Noir, who remains a mysterious

04:34figure for most of the series. Then it's revealed that he's actually a clone of the Homelander,

04:38and a particularly unstable one at that. Created to take the golden boy down whenever he's given

04:42the signal, Noir gets out his urge to kill his twin by committing unspeakable atrocities on the

04:48rest of the population. Though we're not given the specific number in regards to how many men,

04:52women and children Black Noir has tortured and killed since his creation, it's made pretty clear

04:56that a buffet of people have been taken down by the creepy, air quotes, hero over the years.

05:023. Moon Knight

05:03Anyone who basically knows anything about Moon Knight knows that his one crucial defining trait

05:08is his propensity for murder. Moon Knight is not only willing to kill folks, he actively craves their

05:13demise to a legitimately worrying degree. Indeed, one of the biggest trends in a lot of Moon Knight comics

05:18is the continual question of whether the crime fighter wants to kill the criminals to try and make

05:23the world a better place, or if it's for his own selfish bloodthirst. Occasionally, this can make

05:27you question if Spectre can even be called a hero, because anyone who's torn the face of a person just

05:32because they wanted to maybe isn't the most moral.

05:352. The Punisher

05:36It's impossible to make a list about trigger-happy superheroes without giving a shout-out to The

05:42Punisher. A gun-toting, hardcore anti-hero, The Punisher has one precise rule about crime,

05:47and that's if you do it, you die. The interesting thing about this is that Frank has been equally

05:52lauded and villainised for this trait, leading him to being arguably one of the most polarising

05:57characters in Marvel's roster. Because depending on what comics you've read, Castle is either a

06:01well-meaning vigilante who takes out crooks that the flaws of the justice system possess,

06:05or a man who is just happy to murder countless scores of people without always finding out if

06:10they're innocent or guilty. Mercifully for us, he's usually killing the decidedly guilty,

06:15which means that we can consider The Punisher's actions badass instead of, well, entirely chilling.

06:191. Ozymandias

06:21Ozymandias is the poster child for heroes who have an insanely high kill count, having orchestrated a

06:27fake alien invasion that occurs at the end of Watchmen, which kills a whopping 3 million people.

06:32And the worst part is that these people's only crime was existing, as Ozymandias murders them

06:37in order to try and bring the world together to fight against this gross squid-like alien threat.

06:42Depressingly, this works, meaning that not only does Adrian kill countless people,

06:46he also never learns the error of his ways. However, if Doomsday Clock is to be considered

06:51the graphic novel's sequel, this piece isn't long-lived, which definitely has some downsides

06:55because now it means that those 3 million deaths, well, they were for nothing. Great.

06:59And there we go, my friends, those were 10 superheroes with sickeningly high kill counts.

07:03I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the

07:06comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter

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07:16come and check it out. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that,

07:21and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.

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