Spider-Man has one big thing in common with Batman. Neither hero takes lives, and both have a strong no-kill rule. In Batman’s case, this has been something many people have criticized him for. Many critics claim that Batman’s refusal to kill Joker has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent people who died because Joker kept coming back again and again. Batman refuses to kill his greatest villain, which leaves him at least partly responsible for all the deaths that Joker causes. Spider-Man doesn’t face the same criticism because his villains are mostly crooks and low-level criminals, usually nothing more than gangsters and thieves.
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That all changed in The Amazing Spider-Man #34 (2026) by Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness. In this issue, Spider-Man is still working with the Department of Damage Control (DODC), and here they are fighting Electro. Electro has just killed several people, and Spider-Man and DODC have to take him down. Before this fight, DODC’s Agent Griffyn gave Spider-Man some sobering news about how many people die when Electro shows up.
Electro Kills an Average of 2.4 People Every Time He Uses His Powers
Even if Electro is only robbing a bank or attacking someone else, Agent Griffyn said that every time the villain uses his electric powers, 2.4 people die on average. Spider-Man was once again trying to warn Griffyn that Electro was too powerful for the DODC team to take on, but Griffyn said that Electro was a “clear and present threat to the people of this city.” Spider-Man tried to say that people would die if they moved on Electro without a solid plan. That is when Griffyn told Spider-Man the numbers.
“How many will die if we don’t?” Griffyn asked. He then said the actual answer is “2.4.” He explained that the Department of Health sends him a report every Monday revealing how many people in the five boroughs died because of “extra-human activity,” including their names. This makes Electro very different from someone like Joker. While Joker kills people for fun, Electro is not a murderer. He is a bank robber. When he throws around his electricity, an average of 2.4 people die every time he shows up.
Comic books show Spider-Man battling villains to save the city all the time. What isn’t seen is the people in the background, the collateral damage who die during these attacks. This is always shown when there are mass casualties in giant alien attacks. When it is a small battle between Spider-Man and Electro, it seems minor. As Agent Griffyn said, there is always an average of 2.4 deaths when Spider-Man fights Electro, deaths that Spider-Man likely never realized happened. Griffyn said that is what DODC is trying to prevent.
Agent Griffyn Still Seems Too Good to Be True
Agent Griffyn was right, and Spider-Man realized here that Electro was more dangerous than he thought. In this issue, the dead people were shown up close and personal, and Electro mocked everyone he had killed. Electro first tried to claim they were dead when he got there, but then he joked that they would still be alive if they had just skipped work that day. There were 12 people who died in the bank during this fight. Spider-Man didn’t understand it and said this wasn’t what Electro was about. That is when Agent Griffyn showed up, wearing a suit that turned Electro’s powers back on him, defeating the villain.
Agent Griffyn seems like a great hero, and he and Spider-Man have developed a close friendship. However, Spider-Man and Bill Metzger were also close in Brand New Day. There is a chance that the Marvel creative teams are using that as a red herring, and DODC might really be good here. At the same time, it seems like they are maneuvering Spider-Man into becoming an asset for them, and there is a chance they could be setting these situations up to lure him in. DODC can’t be trusted in the MCU, and even if someone like Electro leaves as many dead bodies as DODC claims, these numbers might just be a way to pull Spider-Man in thanks to his feelings of guilt.
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