Much like DC fans rightfully hail Mark Hamill as the definitive voice of the Joker, legendary voice actor Kevin Conroy has been THE voice of The Dark Knight since 1992 in everything from animated shows to video games. Indeed, it's Conroy's voice I hear in my head whenever I read a Batman comic, so when he has something to say about Batman it's worth listening to.
In this case, Batroy has a bone to pick with Batfleck in Batman v Superman, and it's an issue that many fans share - Batman is not a killer:
"In the most recent live action movie", Conroy told IGN, "that seems to have been a line that was crossed and it’s not one I’m particularly comfortable with".
"Personally I love the fact that Batman – in the stories I’ve done, and the way he’s been rendered by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, the people I’ve worked with most closely – he never kills anybody", Conroy continued. "He doesn’t cross that line. Batman is not a killer".
Conroy's comments probably won't alter people's opinions on the Batman should/shouldn't be a killer debate at this point - for the record, I'm firmly on the shouldn't side of that argument - but it should be noted that Batman v Superman is not the only Batman movie this year to have drastically deviated from the character's traditional persona.
Earlier this year Conroy voiced The Dark Knight once again in Batman: The Killing Joke, an animated film which sees Batman - who has always been the patriarch of the Bat-family - have sex with Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl. That plot point has rightfully attracted a fair amount of criticism too, so Batman has had a tough year all round. Here's hoping there'll be no such issues with The LEGO Batman Movie, which hits cinemas February 2017.
Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Fishburne, and Amy Adams, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is available on Digital HD, DVD, and Blu-Ray now.
Images: Warner Bros
