"Who's side are YOU on?" ;-)

[Joe Demko]

The Batman thing is interesting, because if you go back and check the original Batman comics in the 30's, he carried a 1911.

Yeah, he used it to off a couple of vampires in an early story. He loaded it with silver bullets for the purpose. In another early story, he had a machinegun mounted on the Batplane and used it to kill a giant BG in a scene similar to the death of King Kong. Batsy was all about lethal force until about the time Robin came on the scene. To be fair, though, the Boy Wonder ices a couple gangsters in his debut story, too.
All the early heroes were steely-eyed killers. They were deliberately made less violent to move them away from their pulp fiction roots and make them more "kid friendly." Comics as a marketed-towards-adults product is fairly new. Dates back to no earlier than maybe the 1980's.

As for me, I'm with the Crimson Chin.

 

[Biker]

Prophet...

Again, it's about Bushido, not disarming peasants.
Focus...

Biker

 

[Panthera Tigris]

Actually, the more I give it some thought, Batman aside, I think I'll side with the Phantom. I even liked the movie.

 

[ewb45acp]

As for me, I'm with the Crimson Chin.

By my mother's mandible, I SAY NAY!

Now there's a battle cry.

 

[.41Dave]

Again, it's about Bushido, not disarming peasants.
Focus...

Bushido, Chivalry, whetever. The main purpose of these codes was to ensure loyalty and maintain the feudal status quo. Samurai and Knights were very expensive, requiring years of intensive training and expensive arms and armor. If peasants or yeomen with relatively minimal training and much less expensive equipment could take out your expensive Samurai or Knights, this was bad for the Powers That Be. Hence, guns or bows were not "honorable". After all, look at what the English long bowmen did to the French Knights at Agincourt, or Oda Nobunaga's arquebusiers did to Takeda Katsuyori's Samurai cavalry at the The Battle of Nagashino.

Victories like these pretty much spelled the beginning of the end for Knights and Samurai. In any case, the supposed "dishonor" in firearms is simply due to the pique of an elite class at being (rather easily) defeated by social inferiors, and the handwriting on the wall that that fact entailed.

 

[wuluf]

Superman

now there's a hero. after letting bullets bounce off his chest, he DUCKS when the BG throws the gun at his head. Never could figger that out..