We come here, to Gotham, because it’s transformative, this place. We come here with our dreams and the city, it looks at us with its unblinking stone eye—an eye that sees all our faults, everything we’re afraid is true about ourselves—and it says: “Try. I dare you.” And then Gotham stares you down, doesn’t it? More than any other city in the world, it fights you, challenges you to give up, to leave, to fall down and die. But you don’t. No. Because deep down you know—you know—that if you stand up to the challenge, if you walk through the fire, you will emerge changed. Burned down to that self you knew was there all along, the one you came here to be. The hero.
Batman Zero Year: Secret City
“I love you too, Cat. From the first kiss to the last.”
Batman Annual #2
Written by Tom King
Art by Lee Weeks and Michael Lark
Colors by June Chung and Elizabeth Breitweiser
“I love you too, Cat. From the first kiss to the last.”
Bruce and Selina in Batman Annual #2 by Tom King, Lee Weeks, Michael Lark, June Chung and Elizabeth Breitweiser.
People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol—as a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.
“It’s not a toy.”
The Long Halloween (1996–1997)
