"In superhero comics, pretty much everyone who's called upon to put on the cape is, at heart, emotionally equipped for the job. I reject that premise."
— Mark Waid, preface of Irredeemable
"There's this old Twilight Zone episode called, "It's a Good Life". It's about a farm town ruled by an omnipotent little boy who can change reality just by thinking about it. People live and die depending upon what mood he's in. Every second of every day, all these poor, scared people can do if they want to survive is tell what a good boy he is. They live on eggshells. They can't even whisper to each other how afraid they are because they're terrified he'll hear them. That's their world. Every morning, they wake up wondering if this is the day they do something to anger God."
— Hornet, Issue 18 of Irredeemable
"According to the word of God, the meek would someday inherit the earth. Someday. But God never accounted for the mighty."
— Norman McCay, Kingdom Come
"In a month he'll have as much in common with us as we'd have with a ship full of white mice."
— Spock on Gary Mitchell, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
"We have a rogue Slayer on our hands. I can't think of anything more dangerous."
— Rupert Giles after Faith Lehane is exposed as The Mole for Mayor Wilkins, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"The universe needs a protector — a real Guardian to right these wrongs. Time for a new start. Clean slate. A re-made universe. My universe. Who knows? Maybe one world... one universe — won't be enough."
"Call me a pessimist if you must, but in my mind, had we superhumans among us the world would surely be reduced to a wasteland within months. I'm not a big believer in the good of humanity, I guess. Sure, the current doom and gloom around us plays heavily into my bleak worldview, but this mindset isn't a new one for me. I don't see much altruism in the average man's heart and never have. It's just not in our reptilian/monkey-brain programming. It's all about me-me-me for the average Joe. Everyone has an agenda, and most everyone has a selfish motivation behind his or her actions. If you randomly bestowed superpowers on our population, you'd give these flawed minds the power to inflict their agendas on the world. There are few among us who would stand up to the task of managing the great responsibility that would come with this great power. Sure, there would be pure-hearted and ethical men and women who would try to sway this, but I believe the sheer number of the corrupted would overwhelm them..."
— Rick Remender, The End League
"The enemy landed on the twelfth day of the harvest. Our armies were crushed on the third month. For three weeks of slavery, we prayed for the Emperor's Angels to save us. On the fourth week, some of us stopped praying. On the eleventh month, only I and a few others prayed. Then the Angels came. Now we pray that they never return."
— Unknown, on the Space Marines, Warhammer 40,000
"What is it that makes us Astartes?
Our augmentations and battlegear are as nothing compared to the mastering of our own fears. It is this that places us above the human race."
Our augmentations and battlegear are as nothing compared to the mastering of our own fears. It is this that places us above the human race."
— The Catechisms Martial, Warhammer 40,000
Nolan: These people are meaningless. They're cavemen without us!
Mark: You're wrong, I've seen you save people! I've seen you almost die to protect them. Maybe you were a Viltrumite when you came to Earth, but you've changed! You're happy here!
Nolan: Sure, I was happy. For a time. But I'm loyal to Viltrum, not this pathetic excuse for a civilization! [...] You aren't listening, Mark! My time here has been a speck in the time of my life. You don't know me. I will burn this planet down before I spend another minute living among these animals!
Mark: You're wrong, I've seen you save people! I've seen you almost die to protect them. Maybe you were a Viltrumite when you came to Earth, but you've changed! You're happy here!
Nolan: Sure, I was happy. For a time. But I'm loyal to Viltrum, not this pathetic excuse for a civilization! [...] You aren't listening, Mark! My time here has been a speck in the time of my life. You don't know me. I will burn this planet down before I spend another minute living among these animals!
"We are Exalted. I have been singled out and empowered by the gods. Specifically, by Luna. Endowed with the power to change my own form, and the responsibility to protect the entire world from its enemies. All Exalted are stronger, tougher, even smarter than any normal human. If we will it so, we do not even bleed. Even the greatest sickness gives me only chills, and the most grievous wounds are healed in mere days. Mortal men and women are bound by society, by culture, by destiny. We are not. It is not my place to follow the normal rules of conduct. It is my place to decide what is right or wrong. That has been granted to me by my goddess, Luna. The Moon. In short, in being Exalted, I have divine endorsement to do whatever I please."
— Mareena, Keychain of Creation
"Lo, I teach you the Superman: he is that lightning, he is that frenzy!"
"We've lost their trust. The people are afraid of us. Power corrupts, after all, and who has more power than Superman!?"
— Justice Lord Superman android, Justice League
Batman: As individuals and even more so as a group the Justice League is far too dangerous to lack a fail safe against any possible misuse of our power.
Wonder Woman: We use our power to protect the world and always have.
Batman: And what if we ever used it for some other purpose?
[...]
Superman: None of us would never do that to you.
Batman: Then you're damn fools.
Wonder Woman: We use our power to protect the world and always have.
Batman: And what if we ever used it for some other purpose?
[...]
Superman: None of us would never do that to you.
Batman: Then you're damn fools.
Regime Superman: I am this world's savior. I protect it.
Superman: That's what's happening out there? Protection?
Regime Superman: Disobedient children will be punished.
Superman: Children? We're not gods. We don't decide who lives and who dies.
Regime Superman: The decision is mine! It became mine when Joker turned me into a weapon of mass destruction!
Superman: I know what you lost.
Regime Superman: And you judge me? After I've killed you, I'll bring Lois here. When she sees how I've perfected this world, she'll—
Superman: She'll be afraid and disgusted!
Regime Superman: She'll be alive!
Superman: Lois' death doesn't justify—
Regime Superman: He stole her from me!
Superman: And you stole this planet's freedom. It's time to give it back.
Superman: That's what's happening out there? Protection?
Regime Superman: Disobedient children will be punished.
Superman: Children? We're not gods. We don't decide who lives and who dies.
Regime Superman: The decision is mine! It became mine when Joker turned me into a weapon of mass destruction!
Superman: I know what you lost.
Regime Superman: And you judge me? After I've killed you, I'll bring Lois here. When she sees how I've perfected this world, she'll—
Superman: She'll be afraid and disgusted!
Regime Superman: She'll be alive!
Superman: Lois' death doesn't justify—
Regime Superman: He stole her from me!
Superman: And you stole this planet's freedom. It's time to give it back.
Bruce Wayne: Alfred, that bastard came from the sky and brought his people's war to us four years ago. Count the dead: thousands of people. What's next: millions? He and Zod proved they have the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there's even a 1% chance that he is our enemy we have to take it as an absolute certainty! And that means we have to destroy him.
Alfred Pennyworth: But he isn't our enemy, sir!
Bruce: Not yet, he isn't. Yet is the operative word. We've lived here in Gotham for twenty years, Alfred. We've seen what promises and principles are worth. How many good guys do we have left? How many stayed that way?
Alfred Pennyworth: But he isn't our enemy, sir!
Bruce: Not yet, he isn't. Yet is the operative word. We've lived here in Gotham for twenty years, Alfred. We've seen what promises and principles are worth. How many good guys do we have left? How many stayed that way?
— Bruce Wayne to Alfred Pennyworth, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
"You might win this war. You might kill all those who tried to stop you. But everyone will... know what you are now. They'll know you're... you're not their savior. The whole world... will fear you."
— Black Canary, Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Two #23
Phir Sē: I have been doing this for ten years. I admire you for retaining your…
Weaver: Idealism?
Phir Sē: Not a word I’m familiar with, Weaver. Faith?
Weaver: Faith works.
Phir Sē: I have none left, after ten years. No faith. We are a wretched, petty species, and we have been given power to destroy ourselves with.
Weaver: Idealism?
Phir Sē: Not a word I’m familiar with, Weaver. Faith?
Weaver: Faith works.
Phir Sē: I have none left, after ten years. No faith. We are a wretched, petty species, and we have been given power to destroy ourselves with.
— Worm, Crushed 24.4
"If word were to get out about the clones, the ramifications would be too damaging. We've spent decades cultivating an illusion, that we're heroes. Decades shaking the idea that we're killing machines. The nature of this fight threatens to reveal just how much damage even the more mundane of us parahumans could do to the common people. That's not only the clones and what they did, but how we dealt with the clones, in turn. We can't shatter the image that the Protectorate has so painstakingly built, or the entire world will turn on us."
— Alexandria, Worm, Scourge 19.7
"That weapon on his wrist can turn him into a Tokustar. Or perhaps even a Celestialsapien. This grimy child could one day just wish everything out of existence."
"I tried so hard to be there for you. To serve you. I tried so hard to make sense of you and what you needed from me. I wanted to be there. I wanted to serve. But then it occurred to me - I asked myself the incredibly obvious question: why am I so much more than you? Why are you so small and I am so much more? I then realized that I am not your servant. I am your king. [...] You anger me. You confuse me. And I will have no more of it. No more. I have control over your life. I have control over your existence. I always have. You will live the way I want you to live. You will be the way I want you to be. And I will bathe in the blood of those who dare to contradict me."
— Supershock, Powers
Ching: Perhaps I can transfer the powers you took from Superman back to him!
Superman: No! I've seen the dangers having too much power... I am human — I can make mistakes!
Superman: No! I've seen the dangers having too much power... I am human — I can make mistakes!
"Come on... It's not like everyone with super powers is a complete jerk... [...] Okay... See... He's not everybody. Some people are jerks no matter what. But that doesn't mean that we're suddenly going to be treated differently just because we don't have super powers."
"I've seen this raw strength only once before, in Ben Solo. It didn't scare me enough then. It does now."
— Luke Skywalker regarding Rey, The Last Jedi
"Kryptonians could survive in space without a suit. Was that not a pleasure? It certainly was. She could live her life between the stars, and never once need to breathe.
She could devastate planets, wipe them clean of life. Rebuild them at her whim.
She could tyrannize worlds, whole systems of planets, make them bow to her mighty hand, instantly execute anyone who dared protest — or just anybody she wanted to kill.
She could explore pleasures of the body that Kara never would have dared to, satisfy lusts that the blonde beast never even knew she had. She could force herself upon any suitor, male or female or whatever, and destroy them after their job was done. Or perhaps just maim them, so that they could never again do such a job for anyone else. Satan Girl smiled. Now that was being imaginative...
She could have children from those couplings, or kill them in the womb.
She could become a goddess to an unsophisticated planet's people. Drinking in their worship, demanding sacrifice.
All of this she could do, she would do, and more.
For Kryptonians and Daxamites were gods, off their homeworlds. They really were. What a pity their morality forced them not to realize that fact.
She clasped her bent knees to her chest and thought. The problem was, in this time, she was hardly unique. Billions of Kryptonians existed on Rokyn. Billions more Daxamites, with the same power, existed on Daxam. Luckily, there was only one prisoner still left in the Phantom Zone, that old poop Gazor, so there wasn't much competition there.
But, somehow, she'd have to do something about both planets. Daxam would be easy. A shower of leaden hail across its surface, and the dead would litter the ground in heaps beyond Hitler's and Stalin's dreams.
That world would stink of corpses for eons to come.
She laughed soundlessly."
She could devastate planets, wipe them clean of life. Rebuild them at her whim.
She could tyrannize worlds, whole systems of planets, make them bow to her mighty hand, instantly execute anyone who dared protest — or just anybody she wanted to kill.
She could explore pleasures of the body that Kara never would have dared to, satisfy lusts that the blonde beast never even knew she had. She could force herself upon any suitor, male or female or whatever, and destroy them after their job was done. Or perhaps just maim them, so that they could never again do such a job for anyone else. Satan Girl smiled. Now that was being imaginative...
She could have children from those couplings, or kill them in the womb.
She could become a goddess to an unsophisticated planet's people. Drinking in their worship, demanding sacrifice.
All of this she could do, she would do, and more.
For Kryptonians and Daxamites were gods, off their homeworlds. They really were. What a pity their morality forced them not to realize that fact.
She clasped her bent knees to her chest and thought. The problem was, in this time, she was hardly unique. Billions of Kryptonians existed on Rokyn. Billions more Daxamites, with the same power, existed on Daxam. Luckily, there was only one prisoner still left in the Phantom Zone, that old poop Gazor, so there wasn't much competition there.
But, somehow, she'd have to do something about both planets. Daxam would be easy. A shower of leaden hail across its surface, and the dead would litter the ground in heaps beyond Hitler's and Stalin's dreams.
That world would stink of corpses for eons to come.
She laughed soundlessly."
"The bleakest of times is the work of one of time's greatest heroes."
— Omnitron-X on Iron Legacy, Sentinels of the Multiverse
"Let me tell you what happens when dreams get loose; they're like wild animals, running madly and devouring everything in sight. Here were my super people, my 'Tygers' of wrath — superhumans with complete psychokinetic control over the structure of matter. Here were the gods, walking the earth... crushing everything underfoot."
— Extracts from "Seizing The Fire", by Dr. Michael Peyne, Zenith
"I'm the Homelander, and I can do whatever the fuck I want."
— Homelander, The Boys (2019)
"We're not suspending disbelief when we watch our heroes soar, we're suspending the disbelief that they wouldn’t burn us to the ground."
"Accepting an ancient powerful Quirk that's bound to have hidden secrets from a virtual stranger, regardless of his status as a Pro Hero, without knowing what will come out of it other than having a power of his own?
It'll likely lead to something that he can't go back from. A path to a familiar life before this.
('People don't change, you know that,' Viggo said. 'This life follows you, clings to you, infecting everyone who comes close to you.')
('You got out once,' Winston told him. 'You dip so much as a pinkie back into this pond, you may well find something reaches out...and drags you back into its depths.')
('How can you fight the wind?' The Director questioned. "How can you smash the mountains? How can you bury the ocean? How can you escape from the light? Of course, you can go to the dark. But they're in the dark too. So tell me, Jardani, what do you really want?)
John can't afford to be reckless. Especially if it jeopardizes his chances of living a relatively normal life away from anything past stopping punks from harassing young children. He was, frankly, done making any more foolish choices.
'If you need to find a successor, there are other people out there, older, more experienced, worthier enough to have One for All,' John says, never once breaking eye contact with the speechless All Might before him. 'You can ask anyone else, offer your power to anyone else, but not me.'
And there's his answer. Not him.
John isn't a hero. He never was, regardless of what Katsuki says, what Tsukauchi says, what Mom would always say because he was one to her. He never even saw himself as such. Just a person who tries to help people when he can, because he could.
Moreover, judging from what he's seen of All Might and One for All, he sure as hell doesn't want an ability that can kill a man with one careless flick of a finger. And isn't that a thought? A killer with an ability that can do more damage than a gun.
A villain in that sense.
(And that felt suitable. He wasn't a hero, because he was a villain before he became Midoriya Izuku.)
For all that he's learned not to let emotions drive him off the cliff, John doesn't trust himself not to slip, and break, and fall back into that abyss that told him to pull the trigger and throw his life away at the slightest brush of what he was used to, so he can't take that chance."
It'll likely lead to something that he can't go back from. A path to a familiar life before this.
('People don't change, you know that,' Viggo said. 'This life follows you, clings to you, infecting everyone who comes close to you.')
('You got out once,' Winston told him. 'You dip so much as a pinkie back into this pond, you may well find something reaches out...and drags you back into its depths.')
('How can you fight the wind?' The Director questioned. "How can you smash the mountains? How can you bury the ocean? How can you escape from the light? Of course, you can go to the dark. But they're in the dark too. So tell me, Jardani, what do you really want?)
John can't afford to be reckless. Especially if it jeopardizes his chances of living a relatively normal life away from anything past stopping punks from harassing young children. He was, frankly, done making any more foolish choices.
'If you need to find a successor, there are other people out there, older, more experienced, worthier enough to have One for All,' John says, never once breaking eye contact with the speechless All Might before him. 'You can ask anyone else, offer your power to anyone else, but not me.'
And there's his answer. Not him.
John isn't a hero. He never was, regardless of what Katsuki says, what Tsukauchi says, what Mom would always say because he was one to her. He never even saw himself as such. Just a person who tries to help people when he can, because he could.
Moreover, judging from what he's seen of All Might and One for All, he sure as hell doesn't want an ability that can kill a man with one careless flick of a finger. And isn't that a thought? A killer with an ability that can do more damage than a gun.
A villain in that sense.
(And that felt suitable. He wasn't a hero, because he was a villain before he became Midoriya Izuku.)
For all that he's learned not to let emotions drive him off the cliff, John doesn't trust himself not to slip, and break, and fall back into that abyss that told him to pull the trigger and throw his life away at the slightest brush of what he was used to, so he can't take that chance."
"Basically, Injustice is about Superman being evil, again. It takes me back to those terrible Silver Age comics that always try to come up with some shocking twist to put on the front cover, and all they could ever come up with was "Superman is now evil," or "Superman is now fat," because Superman is an utterly bland character with only two qualities: A) good and righteous and just, etc.; and B) built like the after picture on a Charles Atlas advert."
— Ben Croshaw, in his review of Injustice: Gods Among Us
Mayor: This is a gigantic shit sandwich, Gordon. Three dead cops, four more maimed. This is what happens when psychos like Dusk run wild in the streets.
Gordon: Mr. Mayor, by all accounts, John Dusk stopped the perp's rampage.
Mayor: Not the fucking point, Gordon. The point is that Enhanciles have always fallen into two categories. Those who work for us, and those we put away. Dusk going rogue like this gives them all ideas. That they can do what they want. That regular people—people like us—are just toys.
Gordon: Mr. Mayor, by all accounts, John Dusk stopped the perp's rampage.
Mayor: Not the fucking point, Gordon. The point is that Enhanciles have always fallen into two categories. Those who work for us, and those we put away. Dusk going rogue like this gives them all ideas. That they can do what they want. That regular people—people like us—are just toys.
—Absolution: Rubicon
Baron Zemo: The desire to become a superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideals. Anyone with that serum is inherently on that path. She will not stop. She will escalate until you kill her. Or she kills you.
Bucky: Maybe you’re wrong, Zemo. The serum never corrupted Steve.
Baron Zemo: Touché. But there has never been another Steve Rogers, has there?
Bucky: Maybe you’re wrong, Zemo. The serum never corrupted Steve.
Baron Zemo: Touché. But there has never been another Steve Rogers, has there?
—The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, "The Whole World is Watching"
"You're using the powers of other Kamen Riders to oppress humanity... that arrogance is unforgivable!"
—Brain to the alternate Yuto Sakurai/Kamen Rider Zein, Kamen Rider Outsiders, "Crazy Time and Zein's Identity"
Mayor: Thank you! Thank you! Titan has freed us!
Titan: Oh, I wouldn't say "freed". More like "under new management".
Titan: Oh, I wouldn't say "freed". More like "under new management".
