"Batman has always been a reactionary idea.
He was born in response to those gunshots in the alley.
And just as he is a reaction, so too are all the twisted batmen of the dark.
Even the most dominant is still a reaction to some fear that has shaped him, built him into a newer, crueler incarnation, perfectly designed to overcome it.
(...)
I must not be a reaction. I must be the thing that creates the reaction.
I will be the bullet.
The multiverse will be the dark alley.
And its worlds will fall like pearls before me."