Dc Comics

"The essence of anarchy is surprise... Spontaneity. Lao-Tse knew!""

"I always knew I'd get off on this part of it. There's something just feels so good about... destruction. But not destruction for its own sake. This is a cleansing... A ridding of the old... It's necessary."

""'The essence of anarchy is constant surprise.' Spontaneity... Lao-Tse knew, and all those other old Chinese guys. So how come we all forgot along the way? How come you can be wise once upon a time, and two thousand years later you're ignorant as a pig? Doesn't really matter. The dinosaurs are dead, only they don't know it yet. They need someone like Anarky to bring home the news. The Dark Ages are passing -- and their heroes will pass with them. The city needs a new breed of hero. The night needs a new kind of monster. Anarky."

"Greetings, Gotham City. My name is Anarky. (...) I believe in the absolute freedom of the individual. I believe that the present order must be abolished. I believe that the voice of the people must be heard... listened to... and obeyed! ...I would like to extend this warning to the whole city: you are either part of the solution, or part of the problem. Look into your own hearts. Decide which you are and choose well-- for if you are an enemy of the people -- Anarky will seek you out... and destroy you!"

"Imagine – you’re a child again. Filled with innocence, and wonder, and life. Remember how good it felt? That’s what the parasites stole from us. They bled us dry. And like sheep we lined up to give more blood. But we can have back all that they stole, and more. The information age provides a spotlight the parasites can’t squirm away from. Identify them. Negate their evil. Ostracize them. Step with me into a better world."

"Albert Einstein said that 'The only justifiable purpose of political institutions is to ensure the unhindered development of the individual.' But our institutions are the opposite. They enslave us -- Rule us by fear and deceit! They'd gladly bomb us back into the stone age! They don't want the common man to be anything but a slave! The world has gone wrong. But I swear by every breath in my body-- I will put it right again!"

"In 1995, the countries of southeast asia spent $435 billion on military expenditure-- Not because the people demanded it, you understand; how many peasants do you know who've started wars? Mao Tse-Tung spouted a lot of nonsense, but he sure got one thing right: 'all (political) power comes out the barrel of a gun.' You don't believe me, do you? You live in a democracy. You vote for your leaders-- So tell me -- what happens if you want to disobey them? Say you don't like the President. You object to paying taxes to support him, his family, his pets, his bodyguards and his friends he wangled jobs for. What do you do? Or say you don't like your taxes being used to subsidize foreign arms sales for slaughter in the third world. How can you stop it? Vote for somebody else, whose policy is the same? Don't vote? The government pretends to be there to serve you. In reality, it's there to tell you what to do-- If you refuse to obey, you'll be investigated--arrested--criminalized. Your assets will be seized and given to the state. You will be jailed. And that's the 'free' America -- -- Imagine what it's like in Iraq."

"Science is magic explained..."

"My pocket dictionary defines evil as 'bad, harmful.' But that's only half the story. Evil needs to be intentional."

""Quoting Einstein out of context, they say that good and evil are relative; that there are no moral absolutes. They lie. Only two laws are needed to change the entire universe: never use initiatory force, and never cheat. The people who run our world constantly break both."

"I don't believe in god. In the future, we will all be responsible for our own acts."

"This is Politics: 'Do what you're told or we'll punish you.' This is Religion: 'Suffer misery now so you can be happy after death.' This is Philosophy: 'The Universe came from nothing, and will one day return to it.' None of these doctrines stands up to rational analysis."

"Steve Darnall and Alex Ross find Uncle Sam out on the street, help him to his feet and send him off to confront those who believe that they alone speak for the founding fathers. A timely idea, brilliantly executed."

"This truly subversive graphic novel — more explicitly radical than anything else from DC Comics in recent memory ... a damning account of American political history that also affirms basic democratic ideals."

"If there’s a thrill here, it’s not that the United States can be junked, but that it can’t be. Everything you ever believed in may go up in smoke, and in Uncle Sam, that smoke is the air you breathe..."

"An old man lies crumpled on the sidewalk: he has thin white hair and a long white goatee. He's dressed in a black coat and red and white striped trousers. People pass on by. There's a fly on the old man's forehead. His left arm is stretched out, his fingers curled like a beggar's, but he looks you right in the face. His angry eyes says he lies on the pavement not to ask you for what you've got but to ask you how you got it. He might be a bum, he might be a judge; as you follow his story you keep changing your mind..."

"Uncle Sam is probably the most thoughtfully radical piece of truly popular culture I’ve seen in the last decade or two. Frighteningly intense and ... also sad in the most eloquent way, patriotic in all the ways that mattered, to all the things that one might justifiably be patriotic to."

"The most eloquent use of a superhuman archetype for a great many years, Darnall and Ross have with Uncle Sam produced a luminous and moving study of America's iconographic landscape, at once an indictment and a reclamation of the nation's oldest and most venerable symbol. As a portrait of a fond American dream at last waking to itself, Uncle Sam is genuinely inspiring and deserves to be read more than once. Highly recommended."

"An immensely powerful piece of work: a demonstration of the artistic and political potential of the medium."

"As for some characters being dead and then alive again -- that happens to both genders in comics. Look at Wonder Man. The thing that, to my mind, separates the male and female characters are the sex crimes. Only the female characters are victims of sex crimes; male characters are never subjected to that. (There may be one or two exceptions when the male character was sexually abused as a child, but that's about it.) It is the number and frequency of THAT which troubles me. (...) A female soldier in battle may suffer wounds; that's different than a woman being stalked, kidnapped, and having violence done to her in civilian life. The former incurs the physical damage because of her occupation; the latter, strictly because of her gender. A female cop may be shot because she is a cop, not because she is a female. That, to me, is part of the difference."

"Sad list, isn't it? Further proof of what I have always said: too many (male) writers seem able to think of only two things to do with female characters -- rape 'em or knock 'em up. The dead ones might be the lucky ones. At least I made Wonder Woman MORE powerful. That's one ..."

"As regards the female characters thing, I'm afraid I think it's giving male creators a bum deal. The list does read pretty shocking at first until you think of everything the male heroes have gone through, too, in terms of deaths/mutilations/etc. Granted, the female stuff has more of a sexual violence theme and this is something people should probably watch out for, but rape is a rare thing in comics and is seldom done in an exploitative way."

"Having always created lots of female characters, and doing some good work on them, I think, by making them all individuals (whether someone liked the Titans or not, Starfire, Wonder Girl and Raven were not in any way the same person in different latex costumes), I find most female heroes that other writers do are simply cookie-cut outs. Since a very few of these are anything special, it's easy to knock them off. Acknowledging that does not condone it. It merely explains it."

"I think it generally means killing female heroes is supposed to elicit more emotions from readers than killing male readers. (...) I think the wholesale slaughter is because there's a lot of writers who think all major character motivation is made by killing folk and women characters are easier to kill than male characters since so few of them are major heroes on their own. (...) I fear, that most boys want to read stories about big muscled guy heroes showing off than gal heroes. They want the girl heroes there in the background, and even important to books, but they rarely if ever buy a book starring a female. Younger boys I think are frightened to some degree by the overly muscled women even while they may find a sexual delight in them."

"There's the famous--and true--anecdote of the Hellcat story that consists mostly of her being beaten to a pulp by a man, a story that BY THE *WILDEST* COINCIDENCE was written by a man in the middle of harsh divorce proceedings. (...) I'm responsible for the death of Ice. My call, my worst mistake in comics, my biggest regret. I remember hearing myself ask the editor, "Who's the JLAer whose death would evoke the most fierce gut reaction from readers?" What a dope. Mea culpa. But I've learned my lesson. In fact, one of the only reasons I still hang on to FLASH is because I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the moment I walk, the next guy's gonna drop a safe on Linda Park's head before my last voucher's been paid."

"I'd chalk most of what's on your list up to lame writing. In desperate search of drama, and unable to obtain it any other way, some writers will resort to obvious emotional triggers/easy pickin's. You can always get a bang by killing Aunt May, or for that matter, Superman. The biggest crime is that many of these stories are unfolded badly, baldly and pathetically, by writers who don't have a clue. People looking for Freudian motives, i.e., hatred of Mother, etc., are wasting their time. Most of these writers sweated cannonballs trying to think of something SO SHOCKING that it would evoke a response from readers, and violence to women was the most horrifying thing they could come up with. Usually, the response to these badly told tales is boredom. Sometimes, they succeed in mobilizing folks like you, who wonder if these writers are sick. Nah. They just suck."

"I think it's sad and terrible. I think that too many creators got on the "Bad Girl" bandwagon and did nothing but pander and exploit their own creations. To be honest, many creators that I've talked to solely created those characters to be exploited and exploitative. Now mind you I don't see this as a gender thing as much as I see it as a genre thing. Everybody is out for the quick buck and too many are too lazy to try to come up with something original. I know it's scary but if tomorrow's hot comics are about one-legged Mongolian dwarfs, than you can be sure that more than one respected creator will be jumping all over the concept but will claim to be giving it "their spin." (...) The worst news is that it's a million times worse in other parts of the entertainment field, mainly because there is more money involved and fewer morals."

"It's a pretty scary list, scary mostly for what it says about (male) comics creators. What I think about this is the guys have good intentions, to use more female characters, and they try consciously to make them strong and positive role models and all that good stuff, but unconsciously it's very hard for many men to see women as something other than victims. (...) And where it comes from in many men is that men are real and women are vehicles for men's needs. One of those needs is to feel strong emotions such as grief, anger, pain, maturity. There are any number of movies and books in which a weak man becomes a hero, or faces up to life, because a woman has been raped or murdered or has committed suicide. Did the writer realize he was (once more) victimizing women? (...) I just checked out the web site after all, to see the reactions of (some of) the other creators. It was interesting to see how many of the men felt called on to defend (or apologize for) their own murdered female characters. You know, I assume, of the point made by people like Trina Robbins that the powers of female characters in the '60s showed a good deal about the male creators-- a "girl" who turns invisible, another who makes herself tiny and buzzes around men annoyingly (when she's not shopping)..."

"I reserve the right to refuse to like a comic just because there is a girl/woman in it, or someone's decided to take a limp stab at marketing it to girls/women. (...) Push past those posters of giant titties and that one of the impossible pose where some gal is displaying her butt, crotch AND breasts, and that one where the girl looks like she's been oiled up and spanked. Push past all that, my sisters! (...) There, my sisters, under all those eye lemons and tree-killers are comics you will like. Don't hold it against your retailer if he or she is keeping the store going with chromium multi-variant oops-my-tittie-fell-out 1-to-4 short-packed speculator specials — get in there and grab that Previews and you will find something for you, and by God order it and get all your girlfriends to do the same and your store will still be in business after the superhero readers turn 18 and start reading the Mangerotica books and the speculators have left to sell their Beanie Babies to pay the rent! (...) Of course, always give your business to the store that makes it easy to get what you want, and doesn't offended your eyeballs with faux-core (as opposed to soft core) porn. Thank you."

"Before being able to comment on the tragedies which have befallen only female comic characters as any kind of a trend, I would need to see a similar list of the kinds of tragedies which have befallen MALE characters in direct proportion to the number of female characters vs. male which exist throughout the entire industry. (...) As a writer with at least over 500 story credits (I stopped counting. Math isn't my strong suit), I will say that professionally speaking, I believe in treating ALL my characters, male, female, black, white or Kryptonian with equal measure respect and abuse. Basically, you have to respect them enough to abuse them in order to see how they will handle the adversity. Remember, monthly comics publishing is akin to a soap opera with more punches thrown. Characters HAVE to be made to endure both physical and emotional adversity in order for the lifeblood of the genre -- i.e. MONTHLY serial stories -- to work. When you've done more work on the subject, I'd be glad to discuss your results."

"Captain Marvel [Standing over a beaten cultist]: Brother, you are messing with the wrong god-power-wielding dude."

"Captain Marvel: I could get used to this. The world of magic becomes unbalanced, and Ol' Captain Marvel sets it right. I can do this. I can protect this world.Captain Marvel: Shazam.[A huge bolt of lightning strikes at Captain Marvel]Captain Marvel: Whu--? Why am I still...? Oh God .[Captain Marvel looks at his hands; his skin and hair has turned white as has his costume]Captain Marvel: What's happening...?"

"Cultist: You-- Boy! How old are you? Answer me! How old are you? Tell me now! SPEAK!Billy Batson: Shazam."

"Billy Batson: I bring it down hard. I can do that now. I can summon the lightning and make it tangible. I can make them feel it. And I wanted these guys to feel it...To feel the power of the Gods."

"Denat: What in God's name are you doing?!Rimeen: I do nothing in God's name."

"Zatanna: For weeks I've been up to my armpits in demonic creatures and empowered evil beings, and they're all--Captain Marvel: Completely new to you. And I assume as a student, a scholar and a warrior of magic--Zatanna: Yeah! I find it all a bit...Well...Captain Marvel: Screwed up."

"Captain Marvel: The books of magic have been...rewritten.Zatanna: Marvel...What does that mean?Captain Marvel: It's a new world. And I have a new place in it."

"But one thing’s clear, beyond the mask he wears… is his passion. A palpable thing, that’s almost greater then the man himself. And if there’s passion… there’s desire. And desire means there’s a hole in the man. (About Bruce Wayne/Batman)"

"A life, some would argue, is a series of problems. There’s no denying the truth in that – but why get lost in it? Why not rise above the truth… and lead a good life? Shouldn’t we all look at problems as a chance for us to find… solutions?"

"What gives measure to a man's choices is what he has to give up to make them."

"I believe there’s something inherently dangerous when something real becomes mythic. Because when faced with a myth? We can’t win. So the mythic must be exposed for what it is. So we can believe in ourselves. Because it’s only what’s in us…the drive to be mythic…that matters."

"[looking at an old picture of the paper announcing his death] Bruce is right, Lois. He's always right."

"[to Superboy-Prime] You'll never be Superman. Because you have no idea what it means to be Superman. It's not about where you were born. Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest. It's about what you do... it's about action."

"A perfect Earth doesn't need a Superman."

"They're scared of us because of you. They've been broadcasting those images non-stop, Diana. Don't you understand? They all watched you. They all watched you murder a man. -- to Wonder Woman, Infinite Crisis #1"

"I thought their Superboy was unworthy of the symbol I built. But I picked the wrong one to condone. And the wrong one to condemn."

"A perfect world doesn’t need a Superman… Alex."

"[to Kal-El] You. You killed my wife!"

"Superman always saves Lois Lane."

"[to Lois] We did it. We saved you."