John Bates

“And I remember being foolish enough to think... let's fall in love.”
― Jeph Loeb , Tim Sale, Spider-Man: Blue

“Find the loyal. Punish the wicked.

I had a standard way of approaching the topic. I'd tell a joke about the king, something a little bawdy.
Having to do with the rumors that the firstprince was sired by the king's sister and not the reverendmother.
Those who go along with the humor reveal themselves to be unknowingly awaiting eventual execution.

Your father actually didn't laugh, much to his credit. Instead he objected forcefully.
He screamed at me for my rudeness on his land.
He did not like the content or context and asked me to immediately apologize for the blasphemy and walk away from the home of his family.

And I stood there looking at this small man, this farmer of rocks.
Screaming at me about his service to the king and my betrayal of our sacred nation.
Him making demands of me. knowing nothing of my life! my sacrifices for my king, my duty served so often.

I wasn't on that field anymore. Instead I saw him in my mind's eye, years after this, bending down day after day, clearing the fields of their hard seeds.
And all the while imagining himself my better.
Because he didn't like a joke I told.
I was lost in this vision, and when I found my way out, my sword was in his gut.”
― Tom King, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #7

“If there’s any other message in this to readers, it’s in these two characters as icons of hope, that it doesn’t make any difference where you come from, or where you went to school, or who you are, there’s hope. That a kid from Jersey with Superman as the icon that kept him alive for years would one day end up writing the character is as absoutely unlikely as it is utterly inevitable. And if that’s true for me, it’s true for you, if you follow your dreams and your passions in full flight.

Don’t give up.

No Limits.

It’s never too late to learn to fly.”
― J. Michael Straczynski, Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 11: Back in Black

“Life was meant to be lived full measure, flat out, pedal to the metal. Don't live the rest of your life like a Porsche that never leaves the garage because somebody's afraid to scratch it.”
― J. Michael Straczynski, Superman: Earth One, Volume 1