A number of DC's most respected heroes have taken far more lives than their reputations suggest, starting with John Stewart.
DC's heroes are often treated as the genre's exemplars, the figures every other hero looks up to. That reputation can make them seem toothless, but it flattens a more complicated history in which many DC heroes were far more willing to kill, especially in the Golden Age.
As comics evolved and their audience skewed younger, killing became largely forbidden for the hero community. Yet that shift never fully erased the body counts, and some of DC's biggest names have been pushed into situations where the only way to win was to take a life.
John Stewart is the surprising standout. Beloved as the Green Lantern of the animated Justice League, he is also, in the comics, responsible for a planetary catastrophe.
In Cosmic Odyssey, Stewart raced ahead of the Martian Manhunter to defuse a bomb set to destroy the planet Xanshi. Because Lanterns were then weak to yellow and the bomb was painted that color, his solo attempt failed and billions died. It took him years to recover, though he later became one of the Corps' most important members.
