Commissioner Gordon: So many are here [at Arkham Asylum]. Nearly double from when you first appeared. Not that there is a direct correlation, but... Do you give it any thought?
Batman: No.
Commissioner Gordon: Oh.
Batman: [internal monologue] I know what Gordon is implying. That my... presence... somehow attracts these men and women to my city...
Batman: No.
Commissioner Gordon: Oh.
Batman: [internal monologue] I know what Gordon is implying. That my... presence... somehow attracts these men and women to my city...
"I never much liked you, Batman. You and the rest of your "Bat Family". I always figured for every psycho you guys took down, another got inspired and popped up in their place. [...] You helped a lot of my friends, a lot of guys who wouldn't stop to spit on you if you were on fire. And it wasn't the first time you done that. I've been on the police force a lotta years. Sixteen of 'em. I remember the way things were before you. Back when Loeb was commissioner, not Gordon, and everybody was crooked and everything was ugly. This Wrath guy is on us. Not you. Because of the way things used to be. At least now we got somebody fighting to make it better. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry, Batman. Maybe having all these Bats around Gotham... maybe that ain't necessarily a bad thing."
— Officer Wallace, Batman: The Wrath
"I have a question for you. Before my arrival, this city was drowning under a tide of filth. Have you ever considered that all this is your fault? Your presence creates these animals; like germs, they spread. You created the environment that allowed the germ to mutate, to become stronger. Look at The Joker. Would he even exist if not for you? It must be depressing. All your sacrifices, and yet, you are the one to blame."
— Hugo Strange, Batman: Arkham City
"I used to believe Batman was responsible for you people. But now I see nearly everyone here would have ended up exactly the same, Batman or not. Oh, the gimmicks might be different, but you'd all be out there in some form or another bringing misery to Gotham. The truth is, you created him."
The Batman: You must learn that Gotham isn't your personal playground.
The Penguin: Oh it's true, I forgot that you believe it's yours!
The Penguin: Oh it's true, I forgot that you believe it's yours!
Sousuke Aizen: Kisuke... One rainy day, centuries ago, you wished for an equal that you could be matched against. Because you were lonely, oh so lonely, isolated by your power. And the Hogyoku heard your desire and created me.
Kisuke Urahara: No... No!
Sousuke Aizen: I was made for you, Kisuke. All of this was done for you. I am the manifestation of your loneliness and your will to power. I am a perfect avatar of the Hogyoku, and I always have been.
Kisuke Urahara: No... No!
Sousuke Aizen: I was made for you, Kisuke. All of this was done for you. I am the manifestation of your loneliness and your will to power. I am a perfect avatar of the Hogyoku, and I always have been.
This began a series of events which lasted for about a year and threw her into contact with Lawson and Captain Marvel over and over again. Cape Canaveral was targeted by aliens, monsters, rampaging androids, even the Sub-Mariner and Iron Man, with Captain Marvel the apparent reason they were there, and Carol just trying to help General Bridges keep the thing from falling apart.
Tombstone: Don't move. Just listen, and I'll teach you the facts of life. The Big Man, whomever he might be, has nothing against heroes. No hero can thwart enough crime to dent his income. But you... You frighten criminals off the street entirely. Except when you're off battling the likes of the Rhino. Then the Big Man's profitable army of petty thugs think themselves... beneath the Spider-Man's notice.
Spider-Man: So... as long as I keep fighting crime, you'll keep making bigger and badder-
Tombstone: Now you're learning.
Spider-Man: So... as long as I keep fighting crime, you'll keep making bigger and badder-
Tombstone: Now you're learning.
— The Spectacular Spider-Man, "The Invisible Hand"
The fact is, the impact of this damned arachnid
Can be tracked back to the day that he landed!
Donned a mask, so the bad guys adapted!
Menageries of madmen HE manufactured!
Can be tracked back to the day that he landed!
Donned a mask, so the bad guys adapted!
Menageries of madmen HE manufactured!
— The Stupendium as J. Jonah Jameson, Pictures of Spider-Man
J. Jonah Jameson: Unbelievable... I understand that we have another low-information caller who thinks we're better off thanks to Spider-Man. Let's see if we can set her straight. You're on, with J. Jonah Jameson.
Caller: I just wanna say that I've never seen Manhattan so safe and peaceful. Compare what it was like when Spider-Man first showed up to now.
J. Jonah Jameson: Okay, fair enough, I will. Then, we had police and firefighters doing a wonderful job. There was crime, sure, but nothing they couldn't handle. Of course, we do have things we didn't then. Maniacs who shoot electricity out of their eyes, walking piles of sand, NAZIS MADE OF BEES!
Caller: Didn't Spider-Man put all those guys in jail?
J. Jonah Jameson: You're missing the POINT! They didn't exist before he came along! At best, he attracts them. But I've often wondered if they're in cahoots!
Caller: Wow. I've never actually heard anyone say "cahoots" before. Look, all I'm saying is, I'd hate to imagine what would've happened if all those guys showed up and Spider-Man wasn't here.
J. Jonah Jameson: Another lost cause. GOODBYE!
Caller: I just wanna say that I've never seen Manhattan so safe and peaceful. Compare what it was like when Spider-Man first showed up to now.
J. Jonah Jameson: Okay, fair enough, I will. Then, we had police and firefighters doing a wonderful job. There was crime, sure, but nothing they couldn't handle. Of course, we do have things we didn't then. Maniacs who shoot electricity out of their eyes, walking piles of sand, NAZIS MADE OF BEES!
Caller: Didn't Spider-Man put all those guys in jail?
J. Jonah Jameson: You're missing the POINT! They didn't exist before he came along! At best, he attracts them. But I've often wondered if they're in cahoots!
Caller: Wow. I've never actually heard anyone say "cahoots" before. Look, all I'm saying is, I'd hate to imagine what would've happened if all those guys showed up and Spider-Man wasn't here.
J. Jonah Jameson: Another lost cause. GOODBYE!
Do you not see the role Fate has assigned to us? When each of us was gone, slumbering away for two decades, our parts were not unfilled. Understudies took your costume, your identity, and a substitute shield. And was it long before a new Red Skull arose, this time created by the Russians, who learned the advantage of having such a symbol of their own? Then the ersatz Captains fell, and with him, the ersatz Skull, for which he may be grateful. If I had located him, the death I would have given him even Hell would shudder to imagine. With no Captain America, there was no need of a Red Skull.
And then, you returned, thawed from a block of ice. You resumed your crusade against the enemies of a new era. But what of myself? Less than two years after your resurrection, I rose as well. We resumed business, Captain. And what a business it was.
And then, you returned, thawed from a block of ice. You resumed your crusade against the enemies of a new era. But what of myself? Less than two years after your resurrection, I rose as well. We resumed business, Captain. And what a business it was.
— Red Skull, FIRE! (DarkMark)
Jim Gordon: What about escalation?
Batman: Escalation?
Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor-piercing rounds.
Batman: And?
Gordon: And you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy. Armed robbery, double homicide, has a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card.
Batman: Escalation?
Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor-piercing rounds.
Batman: And?
Gordon: And you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy. Armed robbery, double homicide, has a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card.
Bruce Wayne: Targeting me won't get their money back. I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They crossed the line.
Alfred Pennyworth: You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.
Alfred Pennyworth: You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.
"You spat in the faces of Gotham's worse criminals. Didn't you think there might be some casualties? Things were always going to get worse before they got better."
—Alfred Pennyworth to Bruce Wayne, The Dark Knight
"Picture the public psyche as a vast, moist membrane. Batman has struck this membrane a vicious blow and it has recoiled. Hence, the short-term misleading statistics, but, in the long term, a whole generation of young people will be bent to the matrix of Batman's pathological self-delusion. In this context, Batman could be considered a social disease."
—Dr. Bartholomew Wolper, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1
"Supervillains existing is actually superheroes fault" is stupid on the same level as "when a wife gets beaten it's her own fault for provoking the husband"
—Anonymous, /co/ (4chan)
Ethan Bennett: In some ways, man, I'm glad freaks like this Penguin bring out the Batman.
Bruce Wayne: Hopefully it's not the Batman bringing out the freaks.
Bruce Wayne: Hopefully it's not the Batman bringing out the freaks.
Chief Cruz: Ever since they became fugitives, they've been off the grid. No superheroes makes my life easier.
Hiro: What makes you say that?
Chief Cruz: Simple: superheroes attract supervillains. No heroes, no villains.
Hiro: What makes you say that?
Chief Cruz: Simple: superheroes attract supervillains. No heroes, no villains.
