Badass Creed/Comic Books

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• The Green Lantern Corps oath is one of the most prominent examples. It's traditionally recited to keep time while charging the Power Rings, though Lanterns will also say it just to be Badass. Beyond that, several Lanterns have written their own custom oaths, and rival Corps have appeared with their own oaths, so we've filed them all away in their own folder:

Green Lantern

• The Green Lantern Corps Oath:

"In brightest day, in blackest night No evil shall escape my sight Let those who worship evil's might Beware my power--Green Lantern's light!"

• The Sinestro Corps Oath:

"In blackest day, in brightest night, Beware your fears made into light Let those who try to stop what's right Burn like his power--Sinestro's might!"

• The Red Lanterns' oath:

"With blood and rage of crimson red Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead Together with our hellish hate We'll burn you all--that is your fate!"

• • Green Lantern the Animated Series tweaks it:

With blood and rage of crimson red, We fill mens' souls with darkest dread, And twist your minds to pain and hate. We'll burn you all--that is your fate!

• • Aya later tries to modify it so Razer won't feel bad about having to use the oath to recharge his ring. It doesn't work, but it's a good try.

The power of the crimson red, Can lead your soul away from dread, And heal the deepest wounds of hate, Let no one else decide your fate.

• The Power of Love takes a Level in Badass with the Star Sapphire Corps:

"For hearts long lost and full of fright, For those alone in blackest night, Accept our ring and join our fight, Love Conquers All-- with violet light!"

• The Blue Lanterns:

"In fearful day, in raging night, With strong hearts full our souls ignite, When all seems lost in the War of Light, Look to the stars—for hope burns bright!"

• As the only member of The Orange Lantern Corps, Larfleeze's oath hasn't been revealed (Lex Luthor says it's ... interesting). A popular Fanon version is:

"This power is mine, this is my light. Be it in bright of day or black of night. I lay claim to all that falls within my sight, to take what I want, THAT IS MY RIGHT! "

• The Indigo Tribe's is in Fictionary but it still sounds poetically badass:

"Tor lorek san bor nakka mur. Natromo faan tornek wot ur. Ter Lantern ker lo Abin Sur Taan lek lek nok-- formorrow Sur!"

• And with the Blackest Night, we now have a creed for the Black Lanterns:

"The blackest night falls from the skies, The darkness grows, as all light dies, We crave your hearts and your demise, By my black hand-- the dead shall rise!"

• Predating even the Green Lantern Corps is the ever ominous creed of the Manhunters:

No man escapes the Manhunters!

• The Alpha Lanterns of the Green Lantern Corps:
  • Combining aspects of both the Corps and the Manhunters:

"No Lantern escapes The Alpha Lanterns!"

• • And their own oath:

"In days of peace, in nights of war, Obey the laws forever more, Misconduct must be answered for, Swear us the Chosen - the Alpha Corps!"

• Some Green Lanterns have their own version of the creed, such as
  • Plant Alien Medphyll:

"In forest dark or glade beferned, No blade of grass shall go unturned. Let those that have the daylight spurned, tread not where this green lamp has burned."

• • Jack T. Chance:

You who are wicked, evil, and mean - I'm the nastiest creep you've ever seen! Come one, come all; put up a fight; I'll pound your butts with Green Lantern's light. Yowza.

• • Rot Lop Fan, whose species is blind and have no concept of light:

"In loudest din or hush profound My ears catch evil's slightest sound. Let those who toll out evil's knell Beware my power-- the F-Sharp Bell!"

• • Kho, member of a genocidal race turned good and too Badass for a last name:

"Against dishonor and traitor's flight I stand beside my clan to fight. With dying breath I claw and bite Beware my power-- Green Lantern's Light!"

• • Sodam Yat, a Daxamite (Superman with a weakness to lead instead of kryptonite) combines the GL and Sinestro oaths as the last suviving GL (and from the sounds of it, the last surviving Lantern of any colour) in the 30th century:

In brightest day, through Blackest Night! No other Corps shall spread its light! Let those who try to stop what's right, Burn like my power-- Green Lantern's light!

• • Duck Dodgers (no, really):

In blackest day or brightest night Watermelon, cantaloupe, yadda yadda Erm...superstitious and cowardly lot With liberty and justice for all!

• • Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, whose oath was more poetic in its simplicity:

And I will shed my light over dark evil, For the dark things cannot stand the light, The light of the Green Lantern!

• • and many others.

• Wolverine's "I'm the best there is at what I do."
  • The full quote is, "I'm the best there is at what I do -- but what I do best isn't very nice."
  • Parodied in the 1980's Nightcrawler limited series, when a Wolverine-caricature started to say that what he does best is "Guzzle beer." (He actually cut himself off right after the "B" and substituted "Commit mayhem!")
  • Also parodied when Wolverine was reduced to a childlike, prim mentality and gave his catchphrase, "I'm the best at what I do, and what I do... is so terribly pretty!" while holding up a paper doll chain.
• Superman:

Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul, I swear -- until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice becomes the reality we all share -- I'll never stop fighting. Ever.

• • "There is a right and a wrong in this universe. And that distinction is not hard to make."
  • The Iconic "I fight for Truth, Justice and The American Way"
  • The Pledge of a Superman, from at least World's Finest Comics #213:

I will use this power for all the good that can be done... To work for peace... To encourage virtue... And above all, to preserve life, in all its forms... Or failing in that, to give up this power...forever!

• Darkseid has officially reached this level of badass creed in the JLA book Rock of Ages.

Announcer On your knees for the Master! The hour has come! HE has come! Who is beyond good and evil? Who is the prophet of Anti-Life? Who is the Rock and the Chain and the Lightning? All powerful! All unforgiving! All conquering! WHO IS YOUR NEW GOD NOW AND FOREVER? Darkseid: Darkseid is.

• • Dan Turpin from the DCAU kinda took the wind out of his Badass Boast.

Turpin: In a pig's eye!

• Judge Dredd, I am the Law!
• "With great power Comes Great Responsibility" counts, right?
  • It should. Otherwise, Spider-Man's badass creed consists of shutting up. Which, if you actually think about it, is frightening in its own right.
• Matt Wagner's "Grendels" have this Oath of Obedience (taking at least one riff from one of the other Badass Creeds on this page):

"With Orion's sword the hunter arose and conquered the world with fury and grace In him was I born, in him shall I die, in him shall I lose name, station and face Death over weakness, death over despair, death over personal gain Death over dishonor, death over undeath, death over the fire with no flame All this I pledge thee O Grendel, Great Khan, to serve and protect over death's endless tide With your word in my heart, your eyes in my face and your tooth in my hand, by my side" Vivat Grendel!

• The Flash: "My name is Jay Garrick/Barry Allen/Wally West/Bart Allen. Who am I? I'm the Flash, the Fastest Man Alive."
  • Barry declares what it means to be The Flash as he runs himself to death saving the entire multiverse in JLA Incarnations #5:

"Light calling to me...drawing me forward...what is it? I hear it in my heart. The essence of what I am. The source and the end. Speed itself. It reminds me. What I stand for. What the League stands for. My life doesn’t matter. I can save them. If I just let go... and then I am in it and I am a part of it and I am everywhere. I am the lightning and I am reaching out. And there are no accidents!

• Beast Wars: No mercy! No limits! NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE!
• The Wreckers from Transformers: Wreck and Rule!.
  • "Lost cause? Of course it's a lost cause! That's why we're here!."
• Usagi Yojimbo: "A Ninja's duty in life is death!"
• Perhaps a trifle informal, but still: "Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never Compromise."
  • That one was more of a Badass Boast, though.
    • "Never compromise" was his creed, though; the Armageddon gets tacked on when... well, when it's Armageddon. For all intents and purposes.
• "I am the Iron Fist. I stand before the unstoppable hordes...and I hold them back. That's what I do. What I've always done. I am the Iron Fist. I hold back the storm...When nothing else can."
• Jesse Custer learned his from his father, cribbed from John Wayne;

John Custer: Don't take no shit off fools. Judge a person by what's in 'em, not how they look. An' you do the right thing. Be one of the good guys. 'Cause there's way too many of the bad.

• Frank Drake of the Nightstalkers distills the entirety of Silver Age Superhero philosophy into four words. Do good. Fight evil.
• The Golden Age Sandman, as revived in the 1990's Sandman Mystery Theatre series: "None can escape the Sandman's dark dream."
  • He also used to leave a poem on his defeated opponents: "There is no land beyond the law / Where tyrants rule with unshakable power! / 'Tis but a dream from which the evil wake / To face their fate, their terrifying hour!"
• In the Sonic series, but most commonly the Archie comics, theres always a badass creed used to summon upon the power of one of the emeralds, usually the Master Emerald, for a specific request, usually along the lines of "The servers are the seven chaos emerald, chaos is power, enriched by the heart" followed by the request. The badass-ness of this is shown in its full height at the end of the Enerjak arc, as Knuckles and Doctor Finitevus both channel the energy of the Master Emerald and prepare to strike the other down with one energy charged punch, in a way that seems to invoke the feeling of a battle between Hal Jordan and Sinestro.

Knuckles: The servers are the seven chaos... Finitevus: The servants are the seven chaos... Knuckles: Chaos is power, enriched by the heart... Finitevus: Chaos is power, controlled by my will.. Knuckles: The controller exists to unify the chaos! Finitevus: The controller exists to enslave the chaos!

• Krypto the Superdog was part of the Space Canine Patrol Agency, whose slogan is as follows: "Big Dog! Big Dog! Bow wow wow! We'll crush evil... Now, now, now!" If "big dog, big dog, bow wow wow" sounds anticlimactic, it's because it's a Shout-Out to the Yale chorus ("Bulldog, bulldog, bow wow wow...")
  • In the Animated Adaptation, they were called the Dog Star Patrol, and it was "Dog Stars, Dog Stars, bow wow wow! Bark for justice, now, now, now!"
• The third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes has a short one when he goes of to show what happens when you mess with his planet by shouting "Escarabajo vamonos!"
• In The Metabarons, Bushitaka, the Castaka family code. It allows victory, or death in pursuit of victory as the only possible choices for a warrior. At any cost.